Prepress

Prepress Part of the printing process where all design elements - the words and pictures are assembled into a unified whole. Digital prepress can roughly be divided into what you, the designer, can do in your studio with a computer, desktop scanner, and color printer and what still has to be done at the repo service bureau or printers with their high-end drum scanners, RIPs, imagesetters and digital proofers.

Layout

Layout In design rules are made to be broken but you need to know the rules before breaking them. However there are some rules that endure and for a majority of jobs, the desire will not to be to shock, but to communicate ideas clearly.

Layout

Layout

Constraints Technical Constraints in planning layout Paper and printing plates come in stock sizes Folding machines have limitations Packaging designers may be restricted by current technology Magazines and book work, have certain conventions that need to be observed. Most pages are the shape of an upright rectangle and this orientation is sometimes called portrait. A page with width greater than height is called Landscape

Paper Sizes Us Letter 8.5” x 11 “ European A4 210 x 297 mm = 81/4 x 11 11/16

The white areas that frame the printed portion of the page Margins The white areas that frame the printed portion of the page Top = head Bottom = foot Outer edge = fore edge Space b/t the printed material and the spine or fold = back edge The combined back edges are the gutter Also the term used for any vertical space between two columns

Golden Sections https://designschool.canva.com/blog/what-is-the-golden-ratio/

Golden Sections German designer Jan Tschichold discovered that the margins of medieval manuscipts followed certain rules of proportion, which are still thought pleasing The RATIO of text area to page size was 2:3, the depth of the printed area was the same as the width of the page; and the back edge:head:fore edge:foot margins were of the ratio 2:3:4:6. The famous GOLDEN SECTION format of the Renaissance has proportions of 34:21 or 8.1.5. Superimposed on to a sheet of US letter paper the golden section is just over 1 ¾ inches narrower. See image in book

Golden Sections The golden section is a proportion that people through the ages and in different cultures have found pleasing. It has many parallels in nature – the way a snail’s shell grows, for instance. Here, a sheet of paper to the golden-sections proportions is compared with the US letter and A4 sizes. Golden ratio video

Grids The layout of columns, margins and area for text and images are usually marked out as a grid. Before computers a grid was drawn out on to a board or sheet of heavy paper in non-reproducing blue pencil for one-off publication. On regular publications or books, the grid would be preprinted on layout sheets.

Grid- Newspapers In newspapers and most popular magazines, white space means wasted space and space is at a premium. So there will typically be many narrow columns to the page.   Design elements such as cross-headings (subheadings within a block of text), boxed copy, captions, rules, borders, and tint blocks are all devised for adding “color” to an otherwise gray layout. They assist the reader’s eye helping them to follow the flow of text.

Bleeds Having an image, text, or block of color go right up to the edge of the page requires a bleed. The object to bleed must overlap the print areas of the page by at 1/8in, so that when the page is trimmed the ink will truly reach the edge.

Imposition Term for planning of pagination in folders, magazines or books in a pattern such that when the printed sheet of paper is folded and trimmed, the resulting pages back up correctly and run consecutively.

Bookwork Vocab Right is called recto Left or back is called verso   A 16 page section of a book is called a signature Each signature is usually marked with a backstep mark- a letter, number, or black strip to help the binder collate the signature in the correct order. Flatplan – a drawing or mock up to help you find your way around an imposition scheme Dummy - a miniature version of your publication marked with page numbers and position of any color.

Flatplan There are many ways of drawing up a flatplan and it is a good idea to consult the printers first. Also a good idea to make a folded Dummy out of scrap paper.

Feeding paper through printing presses 2 Distinct Ways of feeding paper into printer with pre-cut sheets of paper (streetwise) roll of paper (for web printing) Streetwise method uses one plate to print the front sheet and another for the back. Both sides share a common gripper edge. The gripper edge is the leading end of the sheet and is held in place on the press by finger like grippers. Opposite the gripper edge is the leave edge and the left side of the sheet as it passes through the press is called the lay edge

Feeding paper through printing presses The way a sheet of paper goes into the printing press has a bearing on the layout. The gripper edge, for example, must contain an area that is free of all text or graphic material

Feeding paper through printing presses Work and Turn – paper goes through the machine first one way, then the paper is turned over sideways and printed once more so that page two prints on the back of page one.   Work and Tumble – similar but the page is flipped head over heels and the gripper edge changes edge

Other Keywords PAPER CREEP-Allowance Page Layout Digital Make-up Page Layout Programs Preflight-