TERRA INCOGNITA FOR DESIGNERS

If you want to prepare a good design to be dry offset printed on packaging, you have to consider many limitations. Our expertise allows us to avoid the limitations and create superb packaging.

The first type of limitations results from the use of convex printing plates.

It is especially difficult to obtain tonal transitions (vignette) to 0% of the color. Tonal transitions can step down in the design to about 10% (for cups). Such high minimal percentage is necessary due to the strong effect of the dot-gain. On the plate we reduce the minimal grid to 1%, however, in the printing process only to about 10%. That is why such limitation appears during the designing stage.
In practice, vignette look best on a very short length in the ready packaging.

The second type of limitations results from the way inks are transferred.

Dry offset is an indirect printing technique. First, inks are transferred onto a rubber blanket, and then from the blanket onto the packaging’s substrate. There can be a slip between the blanket and the object to be printed on, especially on packaging which is not cylindrical (tubes or cans), but conical (cups). The slip may result in the edges being blurred. The limitations concern the size of letters and bar codes.

The third – most vital – type of limitations results from the way inks are mixed.

Final colors obtained by laying two (rarely three) paints may only be achieved on packaging in a very restricted way, that is on small surfaces.

This limitation is difficult to define because it depends on numerous factors, such as colors to be mixed, grids’ intensity, and other elements to be printed with the use of the same inks.

During the pre-press stage each artwork is separated into colors specially DEDICATED to it. The process of color selection starts with the most crucial elements, whose colors cannot be changed.