newspaper printing, first ad. help appreciated.

[hollyolly84]

Hi,
I'm working on my first ad that's going to be printed in a newspaper...and just printed for that matter. I'm learning about all the specs as I go along and I'd like some help with the background that I chose. It's similar to this.

http://www.bigstockphoto.com/photo/view/1374360?

The ad is for a dreamy type of radio show. So I think that fits. Anyway, This is for a newspaper and I read about dot gain so I'm worried that lines that are that thin and white will end up looking like blobs once it's printed. I'm worried because I read about all these warning for reverse type and having white lines seems like a similiar concept to me. Most likely the ad will be in black and white. Will my lines look like total crap once they're printed in a newspaper? I'd really appreciate your help because I like my background but if it will be bad in print I'll change it. Thank you so much for your help ahead of time:-)

Holly

[SpugNothuson]

You are right to be concerned about Dot Gain for newspaper print and this background may indeed cause some issues.

But what you really need to know only the printers of the newspaper will be able to assist you with.

You'll need to know how much dot gain the stock its being printed on has. Whats the minimum tint percent and the maximum. Also find out the lpi that greyscale images are printed at.


Once you're armed with this information you'll be able to assertain if your background will be a success as is or will need to be rebuilt to compensate for the printing issues.

[hollyolly84]

Thank you. I appreciate it. I'll call them monday morning. :-)

[SpugNothuson]

No problem at all. I spent 4 years in Newspapers and worked from the ground floor moving stacks of paper through 8 different departments, ended up in Graphic Design (not sure if that was a promotion ;) ). There's not a great deal I don't know about News print.

You're more than welcome to ask any other questions you may have.

[hollyolly84]

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. The thing is that I'm supposed to have this done monday and I have to wait until monday to call. I'm looking at the guidelines and it says this:

4/C photos should be adjusted to limit maximum ink
density to 230%. More ink will only increase offset
and smearing. The lower your total ink coverage,
the sharper and more accurate your images will
reproduce. Shadow areas in particular need special
attention to minimize the amount of ink.

So maybe if I keep my ink to 230% I'll be ok...something I don't totally understand either. I get that you use an eye dropper for the c the m the y and the k but I don't know where to drop my dropper :-P on the page and how to adjust it. Is there a way to explain that that you can help me with?

Holly

[brisA]

hey, i work in a newspaper as well, and ive learned from the guys at the printer, that the best way is to check your files in RGB, cos your controling really the primiries...if you have B/W pics check your Levels, first with your darker spots, and regulate them...paly with curves also but you have to keep in mind that youre not printing your screen.
230% is ok, but sometimes you may try 220%, just in case..

[SpugNothuson]

230% ink coverage is more in relation to full colour pictures, but the rule also applies to any colour on the page. It works like thus;

You've got yourself an image that you've scanned in or taken from a digital camera. It's in RGB. Obviously this little beauty wants to be in CMYK but you need to have the correct colour conversion profile selected, or in the case of newspapers created. In your colour profiles you'll find windows to adjust the maximum ink coverage and whether or not NCR or GCR is applied. What all this means is that when you do hit that Mode> CMYK button that the darkest possible area on the entire image is only made up of a maximum of 230% ink. (Good God I can waffle).
This also applies to any colour you also create in your swatch pallette, but you need to actually have a concious effort to keep below 230%. This means that you all the percentages added together do not exceed 230.
e.g. C=0, M=100, Y=100, K=50 (Horrible dark red) Big NO NO! This is 250% ink coverage.

Another thing to bare in mind, especially with the background you're looking into using is the print being out of register. If your background is made up of more than one colur (i.e. C=80, M=40. Light blue) then it is quite likely that for some time as the press is tweaked and adjusted to flow perfectly that these two colours are out of step. This can create an obvious problem when the amount of registration is out by more than 1pt (0.35mm) but if it is out by less than that you get more of a blurred edge effect that can play havok with your eyes.

This all sounds like doom-mongering but its not, I promise you. More of a worse case scenario.

To be more exacting to what you are doing I would suggest that the background be made up of no more than 2 colours and that the width of the white lines do not go below 1pt. Also if you're using white out text on the piece that you use San Serif and keep it above 10pt for body copy. Serif fonts can be used, but don't use them in a small type size. (If your text is to be black on top of the background then by all means go-for-broke (but type under 6pt can be a problem).

If your brains aren't slowly seeping from your ears after reading all that then you've done well. :D

[hollyolly84]

I think I understand the ink coverage. I was doing it from the info window. I was placing the dropper on the darkest part of the image and then seeing what the cmyk add up to. I guess I just adjust the levels if it's too high.
I'm not sure what you mean by register problems though. I googled it and found that it's white space that occurs around letters or when colors overlap?? I'm using a gradient background with pinks and purples. But just one of the colors in that gradient are made up of c 100, m 99.6, y 20, k 7.5. Your example of light blue only uses two colors. It's confusing because you say to use two colors but other colors (cmyk) make up those colors). I think I'm officially confused. Will I have register problems with a gradient? How do I fix that? When you say two colors do you mean two colors like light blue being made of two colors (CM) or two colors like purple and pink and that's it? I changed the lines to come together and just blur. It looks more smokey, so I don't have to worry about thin lines then. Now I'm worrying about my colors. I'm sorry if I sound completely stupid. I over analyze everything, so much that sometimes I confuse myself. Thanks for helping me so much. :-)

Holly

[hollyolly84]

OK. My text color is a lighter gray. Will that take out my register worries. I'm reading more and I think register is just something with fonts...mostly. Am I right on that? Could I email you directly about this and just show you what I have? I really want to know what I'm doing in case I have to do this later and it will really help.

Holly

[budafist]

The best thing for small text in newsprint is to design it so that the text uses just 1 plate. That could be black, magenta or cyan.

[hollyolly84]

ok my font is gray. It's just K at like 52% or something, but I've been trying to learn about registration on google and illustrator and it happens when colors overlap as you guys know, but I didn't. So I get it now, but don't know how to avoid it. What can I do to avoid getting ugly white space? I don't get the two color thing. I'm only limited in the colors I can use for my background then?

[budafist]

One way to avoid white space is to work with overprints, but this can be dangerous if you don't know what you are doing.

Example. If you have a yellow background, you could set cyan text on top of it set to overprint. This would mean that the blue text would become green text and there would be no white "knockout" areas.

[hollyolly84]

ok I figured out overprint in illustrator but that wont work for what I need because my font is gray and in overprint on purple thats almost invisible. What about trapping? I found trapping in illustrator. The defaults are 0.25 thickness and height 100%. I don't know how I can tell if it's working though.Are there any other options?

[hollyolly84]

Ok read that trapping can mess with the printer and not to do that. I found a list of two process color colors that I can use for the background but are there any options for me to have a good gray font without registration problems?

[hollyolly84]

ok now I'm using black. Any suggestion for black. I'm sorry I've written a billion times. This is my last one..for a bit. I'm going up to the store for some hummus. I know I've said it but I really do appreciate the help.

Holly

[budafist]

If you bg colour is purple (say cyan 10 and magenta 10) you could do an over print of grey text at 50%.

Here's what it might look like (done in Indy)
The top line of text is set to overprint. Since it is set to overprint, there will not be white knocked back from the background so no registration issues. The bottom line of text is not set to overprint - this is just so you can compare the colour difference between overprint and non overprint.

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/6104/greycc5.jpg

[hollyolly84]

My purple is darker than that. Now I'm using black on the dark purple though. Maybe I just need to call the print place tomorrow. I'm not sure what else to do.

[budafist]

Black text on dark purple? Sounds hard to read.

Call the print place and be done with it! (in the nicest possible way ;))

[hollyolly84]

hehe thanks. It sounds bad but doesn't look bad.