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Monday, March 28, 2011

Let It Rip!

Your desktop publication usually contains two kinds of files, Raster images that use many pixels, like photographs, and Vector Art which uses a mathematical formula to create the lines, points and colors of type and illustrations.

A Raster Image Processor (RIP) takes the information about the photos, fonts and illustrations in your document and translates it into an image composed of dots that the imaging device (like our iGen, DI or large format printer) can output.

A RIP is like your printer driver, only super-sized. They are used in the graphic arts industry for batch processing, color separations and halftone screening. They can also check for missing fonts and graphics.

With the additional control of a RIP, a printer can increase productivity and produce higher quality results than non-RIP files.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

A Printing Press for Every Job

There are many factors that play into how your job will be printed at Print Tech. These include: the size of the run; the size of the paper; whether will it be one color, spot color or 4-color printing; and whether the printed piece will be personalized.

Once the scope of your job is determined, we will then print on the type of press that will be the most economical with the highest quality results. Print Tech currently uses the following three types of presses:

Traditional Offset

The Heidelberg Printmaster is an example of a traditional offset printing press. It is used to print one/two-color jobs (up to 10,000 pieces per hour), on sheets up to 12” x 18”. It is used primarily for envelopes, letterhead, newsletters, and business cards.

Traditional Offset Meets Digital

The Heidelberg Printmaster DI is a hybrid printing press. Although the actual printing is ink on paper, the plates are made on press by sending a digital file from the art department. This greatly speeds the process up, allowing the press to be running your job within 10 minutes of the files being received.

The "DI" can print up to 10,000 13" x 18" 4-color sheets per hour. It is used for large runs, four-color printing, newsletters, postcards and posters.

Digital Printing

The Xerox iGen 3 is a toner-based printing press that does not use printing plates. Instead, electronic files (Postscript, PDF, EPS) are sent to the printing cue for scheduling. The IGen 3 prints up to 6600 14.33" x 20" sheets per hour.

The digital art file can be combined with a database containing text, graphics and photos in a process called Variable Data Printing (VDP). With VDP you can change each message on one continuous print run. (More about VDP)

Digital printing and Variable Data are most often used in shorter runs of direct mail, postcards, sell sheets and any other marketing materials where personalization can help sell your product or service.