Printing FAQ
How does printing work?
The type of printing done at Fricke-Parks Press is generally known as offset lithography. The image to be printed is carried on a specially prepared aluminum plate. The ink image is transfered to an intermediate rubber blanket, and finally to the paper itself.
What other methods are used today?
Flexography (called ‘flexo' in the trade) is sometimes used for daily newspapers. It is essentially a high speed rubber stamp.
Rotogravure is a very high quality process used, for example, for National Geographic.
Letterpress equipment is often used for business cards and letterhead.
Traditional Lithography is an art printing process in which the image is carried by an actual stone (‘lith' means stone). The stone and paper are sent through a hand operated litho press one at a time. High quality, limited lithographs are objects of art, and sell from hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars each.
There are several different digital printing technologies, both inkjet and toner based. These tend to be expensive for anything other than very short runs.
There are also many specialized printing processes, like silkscreening, used in the packaging industry.
However, most commercial printing done today is offset printing.
What about sheetfed and web?
Both web and sheetfed refer not to the printing process itself, but the form of paper used. Sheetfed presses use individual sheets of paper, and web presses use giant rolls of paper.
Fricke-Parks Press uses both sheetfed and web presses.
What is heatset/UV?
Offset printing is a very high speed process. Because of this, it is an advantage to ‘dry' the ink after it has been applied to the paper, and this is commonly done with heat.
The problem with heatset printing is the amount of VOCs released into the air is high. In UV (ultraviolet) printing, the ink is actually a photosensitive polymer. A UV press contains banks of lights that cause a chemical reaction in the ink, which dries instantly. This is a low-VOC process.
Presses can also have no dryers at all. It is not uncommon for newspapers, tabloids, and books to be printed on ‘open' web presses. Not all high quality printing is heatset or UV. Non-set printed material benefits from a short rest before bindery, which allows the ink to set.
Fricke-Parks Press uses both UV and open web presses.
Why can't I add just one more page to my publication?
Large printing presses do not print only one page at a time, they print multiple pages on large pieces of paper. The paper is slit, folded, and maybe bound, depending on your format.
Tabloids, for example, are commonly printed eight pages at a time. Four pages fit on one side of the web of paper, and the back side of this paper is printed with the corresponding four pages:
The pagination diagram above illustrates the layout of pages on press for an 8 page tabloid. All eight pages will print on one web of paper. You can see this for yourself, because not all the pages are separated even in the final product. Unfold a sample... see how the front and back cover pages are really one piece of paper? Before the pages are slit apart, the center spread (here pages 4 and 5) are also part of this piece of paper.
It is also possible to print a small (‘dinky') web of paper, half the normal width. This will fit four tabloid pages, of course. This means a tabloid must increase or decrease by four pages at a time.
Broadsheets increase two pages at a time, due to the larger page size. Flexi booklets increase eight pages at a time, because of the smaller page size.
How does adding pages affect pricing?
For an example we will consider tabloids, which as we saw previously, must increase or decrease in four page increments. For our example, we will compare 96, 100 and 104 page tabloids.
All page counts that are evenly divisible by eight will have less of a price increase than ones with a .5 result (requiring half a web, or dinky).
In our example, 96 divided by 8 equals 12: 12 webs, 12 units, 24 plates.
In the other, 100 divided by 8 equals 12.5: 12.5 webs, 13 units, 26 plates.
And last, 104 divided by 8 equals 13: 13 webs, 13 units, 26 plates.
(Even when printing a half-width dinky web, two full size plates are required in an entire press unit.)
When we jump from 96 to 100 pages it not only adds additional paper, it adds additional plates and printing units to the job. If we were to add 4 more pages, to 104 pages, it would add additional paper only, because we would merely substitute a full web for the dinky. The job would go from 12.5 to 13 webs, but would still only require the 13 units and 26 plates.
Another factor is at certain intervals in page count, more press operators are required to do the job, because it becomes more complex. It takes more operators to print a 64 page product than it does to print a 16 page product.
So, the pricing depends on the costs, not on an arbitrary per-page price.
Why does it cost so much more to print color photos?
Color in offset printing is usually done by the CMYK four color process. To render a color picture requires the picture to be printed four times, one on top of the other, in four different colors of ink.
The cost of this ink is a significant factor, as it is more expensive than standard black. When printing four images on top of one another, we have also introduced a new problem: registration. The four images must print exactly on top of one another. The only way to ‘register' the color is to start printing, and make adjustments. These ‘start up' copies are no good, and add to waste (and cost).
Four color printing can be done with even a small sheetfed press that only prints one color at a time; the paper must be sent through four times, each time with a different color ink in the press. This is actually done, though it is more common to use a 2-color press and make 2 passes. In either case, the amount of work required adds a great deal to the price.
Of course, large commercial printers have invested millions of dollars in special press equipment to print four colors more efficiently. Large web presses print multiple banks of process color on the fly. The expense of this equipment also affects printing costs.
Fricke-Parks Press uses 5 stacked ‘4-highs', an 8 color Didde UV press, and multiple sheetfed presses to deliver color at a fair price.
For a less acurate color guide, check out this color file. Please note, you cannot just print this file on your color printer and use it to pick colors, that would not be accurate. But it will give you an on-screen guide for roughly what color mixes equal what color.