Printing 101

Basic knowledge about Printing and DTP

Color

What is RBG Color?

RGB is called "the three primary colors of additive color mixing of light" and is a method of emitting and displaying light on displays and other devices.
It is composed of three light sources, Red, Green, and Blue, and when these three lights are superimposed, the color becomes white.
The more colors are mixed, the whiter the color becomes (the brighter the color), and this is also called the "additive method.

What is CMYK Color?

CMYK is mainly used for printing and color printers.
Basically, it is composed of three colors, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow, and when mixed, the color becomes black.
In reality, however, black is not a true black, so K (Black) is added.
The more colors are mixed, the darker the color becomes (lower brightness), which is called "color reduction.
The more colors are layered, the darker (blacker) the color becomes.

RGB / CMYK Difference in reproducibility

The major difference between RGB and CMYK is that the color gamuts that can be expressed are different because the methods of expression are fundamentally different.
RGB has a wider color gamut, while CMYK cannot reproduce some of the colors that RGB can.
Therefore, RGB colors cannot be used as they are in printing.
It is the same meaning as fluorescent colors cannot be reproduced with paints.
A photo image taken with a digital camera can express vivid colors on a display, but when converted to CMYK for printing, the colors in the RGB color gamut are replaced by the closest color that CMYK can express, and as a result, the vivid colors that can only be expressed in RGB may become dull.

Resolution

What is Resolution?

Resolution is a numerical value that indicates the fineness of image quality.
The higher the number, the better the image quality.
Images used on the Internet look fine on a monitor, but are very rough when printed.

Color and grayscale resolution of 350 dpi recommended

350dpi

The best resolution for printing is 300-350 dpi. It is a good target for image correction.

150dpi

For posters and other items that can be viewed from a distance, 150 dpi will be acceptable, but for business cards and other data, it will seem coarse.

72dpi

This is the image quality for web content. This resolution is fine for a sample, but will result in a very rough image quality for a printed piece.

1200 dpi resolution is recommended for 2-tone mode

Resolution is a numerical value that indicates the fineness of image quality.
The higher the number, the better the image quality.
Images used on the Internet look fine on a monitor, but are very rough when printed.

Save as 1200dpi

Save as 350dpi

Basically, we do not check the image quality, assuming that the customer has checked the image quality, etc. in advance.
However, if the image quality is too poor that the necessary text cannot be read, we may ask the customer to confirm the quality once.

Trim mark and Bleed

What is Trim mark?

This mark is used to specify the finished position.
As shown in the figure below, the finished position will be the position cut by the inner dragonfly.

What is Bleed?

Printing is done in batches on a large sheet of paper and then cut to size.
If a design includes colors and photos right up to the edge of the paper, even the slightest misalignment during cutting may cause the paper color (white background) to show through if the data is created right up to the edge of the paper. (*1) Figure below)
In order to avoid this, it is necessary to slightly extend the width of the color or photo to the outside of the finished size (about 3mm).
This is called "Bleed".

Notes on exporting PDFs from Illustrator and InDesign

When exporting PDF files from Illustrator or InDesign, you need to set the trim mark and bleed settings in Document Setting.
If you do not set up the trim mark and bleed settings, the PDF will be exported at the finished size (art board size) and the bleed will not be reflected.

Objects that should not be cut (e.g. letters) should be placed 0.125 inch (3 mm) inside the finished product!

As with the bleed, it is not only on the outside that misalignment can occur during cutting.
It is possible that a few millimeters of misalignment may occur inward.
If there is an object designed at the very edge of the finished position that should not be cut off, such as text, it may be cut off during the cutting process.
To prevent this, be sure to place the design within 0.125 inch (3 mm) inside.

Finished Line

What is Finished Line?

Finished lines are lines that are pre-drawn at the finished position to make it easier to visualize the finished printed material at the time of design.
Normally, these lines must be erased when the data is submitted for printing.

Finished lines do not constitute incomplete data

Finished lines are regarded as design and the printing process proceeds.

If the finished lines are left as they are, they will be printed together with the design.
Therefore, the finished line will remain on the printed piece.
In addition, due to slight deviations that occur during the cutting process, the degree of remaining finish lines will not be consistent.
*Instead of using solid lines as a guide for the finished design, you can use the artboard frame (Illustrator) to create the image. We recommend using guide lines.

Cutting of lines near the finished size

Depending on the misalignment during cutting, the finished line may remain or be cut off.
The width of the misalignment is not constant depending on the humidity and paper quality.
As shown in the figure below, care should be taken when designing a design that leaves a line near the finished size.
When creating a design that looks as if it has a border, be sure to create a solid bleed to 0.125inch (3mm) outside of the fill.

Font

PLEASE DO NOT ATTACH FONT FILE

Unlike grayscale, monochrome bi-tonal means that the image is represented in only two colors, black and white.
Since only black and white is used, the image is sharply rendered. It is suitable for scanning handwritten illustrations or text, line drawings, etc.
However, the jagged edges (outlines) of an image in black-and-white 2-tone mode are more noticeable than in color photos.
For this reason, we recommend a high resolution of 1200 dpi when saving B&W 2-shade images.

Coloring

Confirm that similar colors have equal CMYK numbers to prevent this issue.

When there is a difference between the color density of the image used in the designing process and the image used in the application, it may still appear similarly on screen, but may still appear different after printing. Please be careful when you design an object that matches the color of the background image.

Example: When there are two different shade of blacks, such as rich black and solid black (K=100%), they may appear more similar on screen than their CMYK numbers are.

SERVICE FOR SPOT SPECIAL COLOR · SPOT COLOR · CUSTOM COLOR

We do not support Spot Special color, Spot Color, or Custom Color.
Please set your data for submission in Process Color (CMYK).
Any Special color, Spot Color, or Custom Color options are unavailable.
Only Process Color (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) is available.

Attention
Do not use other than Process Color (CYMK).
We process printing in Process Color (CYMK). Any specified Special Colored objects in submitted data will be converted to CYMK as its option.
*Any Special Color is not applicable for data checking.Special color may cause trouble due to the conversion to CYMK which produces color within limited color range. Also the result of conversion may not be consistent since the CYMK conversion depends on the application and RIP. (the color may not match when printing multiple units.)
We will not be responsible for any issue caused by the use of Special Color, Spot Color, or Custom Color.