RGB & CMYK

RGB Stands for Red, Green and Blue and they are know as 'additive colours'. Additive colours are used for light projection or for displaying images on a screen and are primarily used in web design. If you combine the three colours of RGB, in the middle, white will appear. RCG is the principal behind TV screens and computer monitors and uses light to produce its images.

CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and 'Keyplate' Black. They are mainly used in printing and graphic design. They are different from RGB because if you combine Cyan, Magenta and Yellow it will form Black, however this black is not always acceptable during the print process hence the reason why Keyplate Black is used. Printers prefer files in CMYK because the majority of their print machinery is geared for this process.

The Offset Litho Process

Offset Litho printing works on the principle that oil and water do not mix. A photographic image is transferred onto a thin metal plate which is treated so that the image area attracts oil based inks while the wet no-image areas resist them. This plate is then passed over rollers of a clean solution or water and then passed over inked rollers so the oil based inks “sticks” to the image area. The image is then transferred onto a rubber blanker which is then transferred onto the papers surface. Each plate prints a separate colour and dependant on the press size they can work in any combination of colours including pantone and metallic inks but mainly work in four colour process (CMYK).

Because of the upfront set up costs of the plates and the presses this makes Off-set Litho printing more beneficial to longer run print projects.

There are many types of Offset Litho printing presses available for example single colour, two colour, four, five, eight and ten colour with different presses being able to print on various sizes of paper from Oversized A3, A2, A1 and upwards.

The Digital Print Process

Similar to your office printer or photocopier. Is very cost effective and is usually used for quick turnaround or short run jobs because the process is very similar to sending a job from your PC to your printer. The quality of digital print has improved dramatically over the last few years and should soon be comparable to litho printing. They are limited to printing in four colour process (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black - CMYK) and therefore cannot use single Pantones or metallic inks.
Other uses are poster printing and large format vinyl printing.

Do you know which printer is the right one for your project?

Do you have time to go through the yellow pages to look for a printer? There are so many different types of printer out there that you could probably call every single one in your area and not necessarily get the right one for your print requirement.

I have worked for many years in various print companies and each is geared up to produce a limited range of products cost effectively and if they couldn’t produce it cost effectively they would broker the job to one that could, put a mark up on that job, and sit back and let someone else do the work.

There are many types of print processes and I will go through these with you over the next few weeks.

Print Management is not Dead!

Print management has had a bad reputation over the past few years.

There have been too many individuals taking back handers to place clients print and people jumping on the print management band wagon using cheap overseas suppliers without really understanding the print process or their clients needs.

A print management company should always add value, its not just buying and selling print, done properly it encompasses every aspect of a clients business.

For a print management company to be effective they must do all of the following:

They must build strong ongoing relationships with their clients

Keep abreast of new print and production technologies

Respond quickly and efficiently to their client’s changing requirements

Be proactive and take responsibility

Be flexible and accountable

Save clients time and money

Meet tight deadlines

Research claims outdoor extends effectiveness for financial service advertising
Matt Whipp, printweek.com, 20 October 2009

Print and online are the most effective forms of advertising for financial services companies, new research has revealed.

According to figures from Brand Science, radio generates just 87p for every pound spent on advertising, while the figure for TV is £1.57/Direct mail achieved £1.43, while print offered £1.80, bettered only by online at £1.89.When production costs were taken into account, the revenue return on investment worked out as £1.75 for online, £1.67 for print, £1.47 for outdoor, £1.34 for TV, £1.33 for DM and £0.99 for radio. However, coupled with outdoor advertising these rates rise, with printed boosted some 14% and TV by 30%, while online is improved even further by 82%.Brand Science global director Sally Dickerson said: "Outdoor helps the response media, including print and online, to work harder. Outdoor also delivers high returns on investment in itself, and deserves a much higher share of investment.

"The study was carried out for Clear Channel Outdoor

Business Card Printing Scam

The Federation of Small businesses reports the following:

Just a quick message about a scam that a Swansea Bay Branch member has just been the victim of:

"We have recently purchased business cards on-line from Vista Print - the cards are quite good and reasonably priced.

We recently noticed a monthly subscription of £9.95 being taken from our credit card account that we had not sanctioned.

This charge was shown on our statementas "vprewards.com 0845 260 110" needless to say the phone number is not genuine.

A Google search under vprewards scam has provided lots of evidence of others being conned. It would appear that Vista Print are associated with vprewards.com and pass on payment details to extort this money.

Please be very wary of Vista Print - we most surely will never deal with them again.

http://www.fsb.org.uk/default.aspx?id=29&loc=080