Blue Cautionary Tales

Last year I had two annual reports at press at the same time. One book had heavy black coverage, but dried just fine. The other had heavy blue coverage and took two extra days to dry!

On another project, the blue ink appeared to be dry, so the printer proceeded to die cut and trim the sheets. The result? The ink offset or rubbed off from one page to another on the finished product. All of the pieces had to be reprinted—at the printer’s expense.

When I worked at Nordstrom, the primary brand color was a very dark blue. Over those two years, I spent a lot of time waiting for ink to dry!

The culprit in every case? Blue. Reflex blue.

It’s in the Ink formula

So why do some blue inks dry so slowly? The answer lies in the ink formula. Every spot color is mixed from some of the 14 mixing colors: yellow, yellow 012, orange 021, warm red, red 032, rubine red, rhodamine red, purple, violet, blue 072,  reflex blue, process blue, green and black.

These mixing colors consist of pigment mixed with binders such as vegetable oil. If you’re an artist, you may recognize several of the pigment names. Many of these pigments are minerals which react in characteristic ways. Rubine red is known for shifting in hue as it dries; reflex blue is infamous for impeding drying.

Take a look at the mixing colors located on the first few pages of a Pantone Color Formula Guide. Then look at the formulas shown at the bottom of every blue chip in the guide. Blues that contain the largest percentage of reflex blue, such as Pantone 288 (12 parts reflex blue + 4 parts process blue + 1 part black) will be the most slow to dry.

Disaster Avoidance Tips

What to do about reflex blue? These tricks have worked for me, and some do not cost extra:

• Specify synthetic reflex blue in the ink mix. It may be charged as a special mix, adding $35–$50.
• Ask the printer whether reconfiguring the ink mix is advisable. Drying agents can be added to speed drying, but other considerations, such as holding detail in fine tints, should be weighed. You may be charged for some press downtime and an ink unit wash-up.
• Have the printer print small lifts. These shorter stacks of paper allow more air to circulate and gasses to escape, to facilitate drying. Adds to run time on press, but I’ve never been charged extra for it.
• Print on Friday and allow the sheets to dry over the weekend before printing side B or starting binding processes. (Here’s another case for adequate turn times!)
• Print with UV inks. The UV drier units dry the inks immediately. UV-ink- printed jobs can cost up to 20% more than conventional inks, but the quality is fabulous.
• Select a PMS blue that has less reflex blue in its formula. Designers won’t like this idea very much, but when the deadline will not budge, it’s an option worthy of consideration—and it’s free.

Tip #3: ask for series pricing

Photo by Darren Hester

Customers who share with their printer their plans to print a project again within a few months’ time usually save money on that entire printing series.

Why? Because every company appreciates repeat business, and printers are no exception. Most businesses know that it costs less to retain an existing customer than to land a new one.

So, for example, if you print 10,000 magazines each quarter in 2010 and award the printing for the entire series to one printer, that printer is likely to give you a great price.

Disaster avoidance tips for series pricing

• You may be tempted to have your printer purchase all of the paper for the entire series at once to save more money. However, this is not always wise, given how quickly a company’s quantity needs can change. Once you buy that paper, you own it whether you use it or not. Owning cartons of unused paper is a big pain! (Where will you store it? Under your bed?)
• Re-bid your print series once a year. Getting bids from more than one printer will give you a negotiating advantage, even if you hope to stick with the same printer.
• Ask the printer to alert you you when a paper price increase is on the horizon so that you can lock in the lower paper price for the next issue.
• Remember, th most expensive jobs are one-off, hair-on-fire ones handed to the printer at the last minute. This is especially true for printing that needs to be completed in three days flat. It never fails that these are the jobs that contain errors that require a re-do scramble for which you have allowed no time!

Planning ahead saves both money and aggravation, while increasing the odds that your printed products will be error-free.

Tip 2: Ask the paper mill for a discount

To calculate paper costs for a print job, a print estimator either looks up the book price or calls the their paper merchant to get deviated, or discounted, pricing. Book prices are the standard, published prices a paper merchant has set for the papers they carry.

Talk with the paper mill rep

There ’s another way to get deviated paper pricing: If you have a specific paper stock in mind for a large project, take the time to get in touch with that paper company’s mill rep. For example, if you specified Environment, you would contact a Neenah Paper mill rep.

If your print project involves a large paper purchase, the mill rep may offer you a promotional price deviation. Why is this? Like every other business, paper mills really want your business. I don’t advise asking mill reps for paper deals on every little print job, but if you’re printing 10,000 48-page booklets, the mill may be quite willing to sweeten the deal to win your order.

Refer to the mill’s web site, or call a paper merchant (such as Unisource or West Coast Paper) for the regional mill rep’s contact information.

DISASTER AVOIDANCE TIPS

At the time that you request print estimates, be sure to alert the bidding printers that the mill has offered a price deviation, and ask them to instruct their paper merchant to contact the mill for the special pricing.

If a printer skips this step, you will not get the paper discount the mill rep offered you. Also, if one bidding printer’s prices reflect the discount but another’s do not, you won’t be comparing apples to apples and may not get the lowest possible price.

Some printers buy a big volume of paper from one merchant, so they also get a volume discount from that merchant. A paper mill’s promotional price deviation may or may not be a better deal than your printer’s volume discount, but it’s definitely worth asking!

Tip 1: Choose an efficient flat size

With paper costs accounting for 25% or more of a print job’s cost, it pays to be smart about paper.

You will always get a better deal on printing when your piece fits on the printing paper with little off-cut, the part of the sheet trimmed away and tossed directly into the recycling bin.

Right relationship of press sheet size to flat size

The size of paper a printer runs through his press depends on the press size and other factors. Here are some of the common sizes:

• 17 x 22 inches
• 19 x 25 inches
• 20 x 26 inches
• 23 x 35 inches
• 25 x 38 inches
• 28 x 34 inches
• 26 x 40 inches

When you consider format sizes to fit these press sheets, think in terms of the flat size, the dimensions of the entire unfolded piece.

Regardless of the press sheet size to be used, keep in mind that your design can’t fill every square inch of it. Room must be left for grip, the edge of the sheet that the equipment grabs to pull it through the press. Room must be left for color bars, too.

If your design has solid ink areas running right up to the edge, the printer will also need  at least 1/8-inch of extra room around each page to accommodate these bleeds.

Infamous and Famous Flat Sizes

Legal size (8-1/2 x 14 inches) is infamously wasteful. That’s because it leaves behind a lot of waste when the unused paper is off-cut from common-sized press sheets. See the diagram at left. It’s not to scale, but it illustrates my point.

As the second diagram illustrates, 6 x 9- inch pages (a 12 x 9-inch flat size) fit very well, leaving very little waste on the press sheet.

This layout is a money-saver for small 16-page, self-cover booklets printed on a 28-inch press.

Similarly, eight 8 x 10-inch pages (a 10 x 16-inch flat size) fit very efficiently on the size of press sheet used on a 40-inch press.

This efficient format for a 16-page, self-cover book will yield savings, especially when compared to an oddly sized one.

Disaster Avoidance Tip

Once you have a specific design format or size in mind, show a quick sketch or PDF to the printer you’re thinking of using.

If you follow his or her suggestions and adjust one or both page dimensions—sometimes by as little as half an inch—you are likely to enjoy significant savings.

The Disappearing Task Force Model

The college I attended liked to create ad hoc committees they called Disappearing Task Forces, or DTFs for short. DTFs came together to complete set tasks, then disbanded. In effect, they disappeared.

I always liked that model: Get together, get it done, go away. Come to think of it, that’s how I work as a by-project print production manager. My solo designer clients and those with small studios tell me they value my fast, thorough work and technical advice. They like shipping all that running around and being freed up to focus on their billable design projects.

How this looks in practice

Earlier this week, I was a DTF print manager for a solo designer who is immersed in designing a complex book with inclusions. When we met, she outlined the challenges and parameters involved in creating the inclusions. We explored possible approaches and structures, making dummies as we went along to see what worked and didn’t. Then we discussed printing options.

This arm-waving-stage conversation helped me understand her design intentions. She said that talking the project through with me reassured her that she had covered all of the project considerations. By the end of our session, we were both confident that we’d identified the most suitable and cost-effective way to achieve the results she wanted.

After our meeting, I prepared detailed print specifications for the inclusions and sent them out for bids. A couple of days later, I delivered to the designer a spreadsheet that showed the the real print costs—bidding printers’ base prices, plus sales tax and an alterations allowance. I recommended the bidding vendor I felt was the best fit for the job. I also passed along to her paper samples for her consideration.

Fewer surprises, greater peace of mind

As I firmed up the print details with the selected printer, he and I reviewed everything to catch any glitches that might arise. For example, some of the paper colors the designer liked were available only in full cartons. The print rep and I pinned down the locally available stock colors, avoiding having this paper issue come at the untimely moment when job headed toward the press.

“Thank you Nani. You really are my design hero!” says my happy designer client. She will pass my charges along to her client. The print job is staged to go smoothly, without surprises. Everybody wins.

I’ve conducted more press checks than I can count—small press, large press, digital and conventional, sheet-fed, web, letterpress.

Each has its distinctive peculiarities, but they all have several things in common.

Surprisingly, the secrets to successful press checks are not so much technical as they are cultural.

Over the years I’ve learned that a printing plant is a different world than the one I inhabit the rest of the time, with its own customs and language.

Try these practices at your next press check and see for yourself the difference they will make:

Know these press check basics

• Arrive at the press at the appointed time and wait to be escorted to the press.
• If there’s a delay, ask for a press sheet “reader” so you or your client can proofread the type while you wait.
• At the press, introduce yourself and your client/team to the rep and press operator.
• Step forward as lead consensus-gatherer and diplomat for your team, especially when it’s a large one.
• Look to your rep for input and guidance. In most cases, she or he knows a lot more about printing than you do.
• Be focused and efficient—don’t rush, but don’t dally.
• Know your job’s hierarchy: What’s most important on the sheet? Next?
• Know when you should and shouldn’t sign off. Wait to see the result of a series of major moves and corrections before you do, but don’t hang around until the sheet is absolutely perfect. Just mark it as “OK with the changes noted.” It’s going to look better as the press gets up to full speed anyway.

Follow this paramount press check rule

• Never tell the press operator what to do, because he will then do exactly that, even if he knows a better solution (and he’ll rightly think you an idiot).
• Instead, describe clearly what you are seeing on the sheet and describe just as clearly what you want to see. (This is similar to what to say when reviewing image proofs.)

The console area is the pressman's country. You may visit—if invited.

Adopt winning ways at press-side

• Step back and let the pressman determine the best way to achieve what you’ve requested.
• Think of the floor mat in front of the press as the press operator’s personal boundary. Don’t cross it unless you’re invited.
• Don’t just grab the his loupe—bring your own, or ask before using his.
• Believe it when you’re told, “This is as close as I can get.” The pressman will say it, but it’s the rep’s call whether to try anything else.
• Trust that most press operators are very proud of their craftsmanship and will try very hard to achieve what you’re looking for—unless you’re a jerk.

Be the best kind of memorable

• Be sure to thank the rep, the lead pressman (or presswoman!), the feeder, and anyone else who’s been working on your job while you’re there. I can tell you from experience that they won’t forget.

As I reflect on the year that was and the year just beginning, please join me in honing a few old-timey courtesies that I believe enhance any relationship and make human interactions a lot more pleasant.

Acknowledge communication

Nobody likes to be left hanging. Promptly acknowledge the receipt of a query, proposal, price, introduction, or job application. All it takes is a quick reply—whether by e-mail, voice mail, DM or postcard—saying, “I received your message; thank you for your interest in our company,” and a few words on what to expect next.

There’s no harm in being direct, either. Hearing, “Sorry, we don’t have need for what you’re selling,”  or, “Our priorities have changed and we won’t be working on that project until 2011,” or “My life is crazy for the next two weeks, but I’ll get back to you after that,” is vastly preferable to hearing nothing at all.

Don’t play hard-to-get

In 2009, one woman I was referred to told me (with some pride, I thought), “It always takes several tries to get my attention.” Now I understand that persistence can be a virtue, but this self-important attitude struck me as just plain rude.

Contrast this with Nordstrom. When I worked in corporate advertising there, we followed the policy that every phone call must be picked up; every message responded to. Yes, it took time, but these practices contributed to Nordstrom’s reputation for excellent, responsive service, from the sales floor to the corporate level.

Say thank you

Has a vendor, coworker, or networking friend been responsive? Thoughtful? Thorough? Creative? Conscientious? Delivered a beautiful product? Put in extra time and energy? Made an introduction or referral? If so, make a point of thanking them sincerely. Everybody likes their efforts to be noticed and appreciated.

Address conflicts directly

Don’t go away mad, hold a grudge, or badmouth a person to others. When I have a problem with somebody, I try my best to take the time to discuss it with them privately and directly. These can be hard discussions to have, but I’ve found that they both clear the air and build mutual respect.

Apologize and move on

We all blow it now and then. Saying, “I’m sorry. What can I do now to help fix the problem?” is refreshingly direct. I don’t expect perfection, but I always appreciate willingness to find a good solution.

Remember, Relationships still rule

We hustle to add another column to the spreadsheet, send another PDF, do business by e-mail or mobile device, or tweet several times a day. But do these tools drive us toward creating rewarding interpersonal connections? Yield better products? When they do, I’m all for them. For instance, I love the way Twitter and this blog have introduced me to some cool folks I’d never have met otherwise.

But I’ve realized that when I let these tools buffer me from the human connection and encapsulate me into a separate electronic hermitage, it’s time to make a point of picking up the phone, arranging a lunch or coffee, or hand-delivering a small token of appreciation. Not only does business—and life—work better that way, but it’s a lot more enjoyable, too.

In 2010, it’s still all about relationships—and the thoughtful words that help preserve and build them.

The Winter Solstice is upon us at last. Now the days begin to grow longer again and spring slowly heads our way. From a dark and fallow time, new opportunities and possibilities come.

Check back for new posts in the New Year!

~Nani

]]> http://naniprints.com/2009/12/20/1951/feed/ 6 naniprints Nani Sends Holiday Wishes http://naniprints.com/2009/12/15/gang-to-save-on-printing/ http://naniprints.com/2009/12/15/gang-to-save-on-printing/#comments Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:55:59 +0000 naniprints http://naniprints.wordpress.com/?p=1960 ]]>

Get to know ganging

Are you familiar with ganging? That’s the term for grouping two or more print projects together onto the same printing form. It’s a great way to save money on print jobs.

Ganging is used to good effect for business cards when several of them are printed onto one press form. For the example illustrated above, Sue and Mary needed 500 cards each, but Joe needed 1,000 cards. So Joe’s card appears twice on the form, while Sue and Mary’s cards appear once. In this example, 500 sheets would be printed.

This approach is much more cost-effective than running each name separately, which would require 2 printing plates for each name, or 6 total instead of 2 total.

Ganging not only saves you money on the cost of plates themselves, but also the labor cost to prepare more plates and the labor cost to set up and clean up the press several more times.

Here’s another example. Let’s say you’re printing an invitation package. Each piece will be printed in 2 colors on 2 sides except the envelopes, which will be printed in the same 2 colors on 1 side.

If you select 100 lb. cover for the invitation, save-the-date card and RSVP card, all three items might be able to be ganged onto one sheet.

In this example, ganging eliminates 8 printing plates! Then, if you select an 80 lb. text for both the invitation envelope and the RSVP return envelope, 2 more plates can be eliminated. When you can eliminate 10 plates, the savings really add up, both in materials and labor.

NOT ALL JOBS CAN GANG

Your print rep or his/her job engineer can determine how and whether the pieces in your print project can be ganged. Factors they will consider are the quantity of each item to be printed, the shape and size of the pieces, paper grain (important!), ink coverage, bindery requirements, and the appropriate press and paper size.

Trimming is one factor that can limit the number of items that it would be wise to gang onto one sheet. Look at a business card example above again and imagine that the stack of cards was 10 cards tall. With each successive cut between cards, the trim may be just a little off, so by the time you get to the 7th or 8th horizontal cut, the inaccuracy can be quite be noticeable, especially on a butt-fit stack like the one in this example.

Preserve the ganging option

When you’re selecting stock and inks for a project, it’s tempting to specify a different weight or type of stock for each element or to use ink colors that are not common to all pieces. But if you select paper and inks with ganging in mind, you preserve this opportunity.

Ganging is definitely a good trick to have in your back pocket if saving money is one of your job goals.

Two Cautionary Tales

One designer told me about a brochure project he’d designed that included metallic silver ink. Of course the client was in a big hurry to get the printed brochures, he said. The printer did not think to protect the ink with a coating, did not allow enough drying time, and crammed the brochures tightly into a carton for delivery. Each brochure offset or transferred silver ink from one brochure onto the next. Yikes!

Another designer friend described trying to print black 8 pt. Helvetica Light type on a silver map that included several screen tint values. He commented that it was impossible to tell from the digital proof whether the black type was overprinting or knocking out of the silver, but it looked fine on the proof.

It turned out that the black was set to overprint, so on press it showed up in several values of silverish-black. The designer reported solving the problem by switching the map art from metallic silver to PMS 429 gray.

Metallic ink characteristics

Most offset printing inks are translucent. But metallic inks are opaque, or nearly so. That’s because metallic inks contain itty bitty flecks of genuine metal. This opacity can work in your favor when you want to lay down a large metallic solid—you can often get good results with one hit. Opaque metallic inks can also be printed on dark papers. (More about that later.)

As metallic ink dries/cures, the metal flakes rise to the surface of the ink layer, making it look more shiny. If you don’t like the way the ink looks at press, refer to the drawdown as a more accurate guide than the wet ink. Then be patient, it’s going to look more shiny tomorrow!

To trap or overprint, that is the question

Black type overprinting 100% metallic platinum

Trapping metallics with non-metalic inks is tricky because the metallic ink trap sometimes looks “haloed” against the regular ink or forms a slight ridge. Experienced printers get around this by setting a skinnier width of trap line. This approach is not feasible on small or thin type.

As noted in the Cautionary Tale above, overprinting on a field of metallic ink can also be problematic (though I’ve seen it done well), because you can see the opaque metallic through the overprinted translucent ink. Even black can look muddy.

When type is small and fine, overprinting is the only option. One printer I work with suggests using a lighter screen of the metallic instead of 100%, then overprinting the flat color. This has worked well for me.

Another solution is to use Pantone Black 7 for a more opaque black. It has PMS 877 silver in the mix. Black 7 tends to read as a dark charcoal rather than black.

Reflectance and Screen Tints

The metal flakes also change how the light reflects off the printed sheet, causing enough interference that screen tints often read differently than expected, usually darker, but not always. Many designers really like 90% screen tints, but a 90% metallic may read very close to 100%!

Sometimes the right adjustment to the screen tint is counterintuitive. In general, though, avoid the extremes of a 10% or 90% tint or the subtlety of 5- and 10% steps. 15- to 20% steps (like 15%, 30% and 50%) are more likely to give reliable, perceptible contrast between tints. In short, subtlety can be difficult to achieve with metallic inks.

Metallic ink projects are good candidates for stochastic screening, in my experience, especially if you want to overprint tints of silver. This sidesteps moiré issues.

Paper Choice Matters

Annual report printed on coated dull stock

But designers like subtlety! I’ve seen them disappointed with how non-metallic the metallic inks turned out on uncoated papers. If you use metallic ink + uncoated paper, be prepared for subtle results. Maybe too subtle. I feel that using metallic on uncoated is a bit of a waste. Silver is likely to look gray. Gold or copper may look blah brown.

The reason the metallic looks so flat has to do with the way light strikes and bounces off the rougher surface of uncoated paper—that shine is diffused rather than bounced directly back toward your eyes.

If you are aiming for maximum shine, print on a coated stock—the glossier the better. Coated stocks have more ink holdout, which means that less of the ink is absorbed into the paper fibers. It sits atop the paper instead, where it can work up some serious shine. Gloss coated stocks are highly reflective to begin with, so they’ll add the “light bounce” back to the eye that will enhance a shiny read.

Dull stock yields softer shine

Next best is dull stock. Matte stock is closest to the diffuse surface of uncoated stock, so it will have the least shiny read of the coated stocks.

Metallic Inks on Dark Backgrounds

The best approach to printing metallic inks on dark paper will depend on how dark the background is. For the highest contrast and the most pop on very dark paper (such as chocolate brown, dark blue, or black), the printer may suggest laying down a first hit of opaque white under the metallic ink. This solution requires the printer to hold very accurate registration of the metallic to the white ink, because if the white is choked in very much, that undesirable halo effect may occur.

Speaking of Body Copy

Blocks of type printed in metallic ink, especially silver, can be very hard to read. When a designer insists on silver type, I recommend adding a tiny bit of black to the ink formula to improve readability. Otherwise, the reader will have to tilt the page to various angles in order to read the type!

Coatings are a Must

Remember those itty bitty metal flakes? Well, they won’t all stay stuck to the paper, so some kind of sealer or coating a must. Unfortunately, any coating will dull back the metallic sheen to some degree. You’ll need a varnish or aqueous coating for envelope flaps or any medium to large solid. Gloss varnish is best. Satin and dull will subdue more shine. Just about the only time you can get away with not varnishing is for light-coverage body copy.

For uncoated paper, use varnish. For coated paper, use varnish or aqueous coating. Be aware that varnish tends to yellow more over time, so it’s more suitable for pieces with a shelf life of less than a year.

In writing this article, I learned something new. Take a look at this metallic page from my oldest Pantone fan. Boy, was I surprised to see that every color except silver had tarnished so severely! I don’t know whether this fan page was varnished or not, but I’ll bet that varnishing also guards against tarnish.

Disaster Avoidance Tips

• Not every printer has experience with metallic inks. Before you award a metallic job to a printer, ask to see samples of metallic ink projects his shop has produced. Look for trapping halos, clean screens that are not plugged, and clean-looking solids and screens. Discuss how they handled traps and ask about any other challenges the jobs presented.
• If you have a specific look in mind, provide examples. Duotones with metallic + black can be gorgeous. Give the printer a visual guide.
• Digital proofs do not simulate the look of metallic inks well at all, so always order ink drawdowns, one half of the paper covered with the selected coating and one half without any coating, so you can see the effect of the coating on the shine level. The drawdowns will be your most reliable visual gauge.
• Show your design to the printer early in the process. If either of you are concerned about how the metallic colors will read, it may be worth negotiating a small press test—the gold standard (ahem!) insurance policy for getting the look you want.

What’s your experience with metallic inks? If you have more tips for printing with them successfully, please share them in the comments.