Do you know how many printing errors are prone to causing disputes with customers?

Printing disputes are the least desirable but most common issue that printing factories encounter in their interactions with customers. One of the reasons for the emergence of printing disputes may be the poor quality of printed materials, and another important reason is the objective existence of printing errors.
In this article, the author lists several common printing errors to help customers and printing companies further understand these objective and inevitable factors.
01
Layout error
Layout is an important process before printing. More precisely, typesetting is a text arrangement work carried out by design and production personnel using corresponding software under the instruction and requirements of customers. Therefore, from the perspective of printing companies, customers are generally required to sign and confirm before plate making and printing. But sometimes due to tight deadlines and mutual trust between both parties, customers may completely delegate the power of typesetting confirmation to the printing company. In this situation, once a problem arises, the client may blame the design and production personnel for being irresponsible, such as making typographical or other layout errors.
The occurrence of such errors is not caused by mechanical problems, but entirely due to process control issues. Therefore, we generally require the customer's signature confirmation before producing the sample. By comparing both parties together, these errors can be greatly reduced or eliminated.
02
Sampling error
After the typesetting is completed, it enters the process of producing samples. The most direct manifestation of printing errors in this process is that if a certain film has problems during the film production process and needs to be patched, it may cause differences in resolution, resulting in changes in dot patterns and inaccurate overprinting. Therefore, when producing the film, efforts should be made to form it in one go and minimize the need for patching. Of course, the occurrence of garbled characters or font changes due to font replacement during film release can be avoided if the relevant personnel take responsibility seriously.
After the film production is completed, traditional simulation sampling requires the use of a set of four films for sampling. When making samples, in order to achieve accurate and stable color of four-color ink samples, it is necessary to control and standardize three aspects, namely equipment, materials, and quality standards. On the equipment, it is necessary to adjust the pressure, plate temperature, and air cushion rubber blanket of the sampling equipment to ensure that the sampling machine is in the best working condition; In terms of materials, the use of ink from the same brand and series should be standardized, and the paper should also be standardized. In principle, the same type of paper should be used for sampling and printing; In terms of quality standards, attention should be paid to the actual density value and the relative contrast value of printing. If these factors are not taken into account during sampling, it will lead to errors in the printed product compared to the sample.

03

Color error
There are three common color errors: first, there is a deviation in color between the printed material and the sample; Secondly, there is a certain degree of color deviation within the same batch of printed materials; The third issue is that there is a deviation between the color of the printed product and the actual color of the product.
The first difference, which we usually refer to as the inability to catch up with the sample during printing, has been discussed above, such as issues with ink, paper, and dot reproduction. For such differences, printing personnel should try their best to follow up with samples. If the differences are significant, they should promptly notify the customer and have them personally sign the sample.
The second difference is also an objective problem that printing machinery itself has always been difficult to solve. We know that in the printing process of a printing press, ink on the ink is a dynamic balancing process. When the ink on the ink roller decreases to a certain extent during printing, the printing machine will automatically ink on to compensate. And the 'certain degree' here will directly lead to color deviation between the finished product printed at the front and the finished product printed at the back of a batch of printed live parts. The third difference is actually a psychological expectation issue.
We once encountered a customer who claimed that the color of the printed product was not completely consistent with the actual product itself, which was detrimental to the company's image and even affected the company's ordering. However, we believed that the color deviation was acceptable. For this situation, it should be said that this deviation objectively exists and cannot be solely attributed to the quality control of the printing factory. As mentioned earlier, it is impossible for the color of the printed product to be completely consistent with the sample, let alone ink color deviation within the same batch of printed products. Sampling is only used as a reference standard because it comes out first, and customers may have preconceptions that sampling is good and right.
For this situation, we usually consider the color of the product image first during printing, followed by the color of other images, and finally decorative color bars or blocks. For printed samples for ordering purposes, we recommend that customers add a note below the printed product stating: "The colors in this printed product are for reference only, and the colors are based on the actual product" to avoid unnecessary disputes.
04
Paper error

Due to different papermaking processes, the brightness, thickness, and texture of the same label produced by different manufacturers may also vary. In addition, paper of the same weight produced by the same manufacturer may have slight variations in production processes due to different factory times, as well as acceptable errors, resulting in differences in brightness, thickness, and texture. In fact, in the labels of each batch of paper purchased by the printing factory, the paper mill has made such a declaration in advance, requiring that they cannot be mixed with previous ones to avoid deviation when compared by users. For printing companies, they should provide customers with the paper samples of the printing products to be used before each printing, which will be confirmed by the customers before being put into printing to avoid such disputes.
05
mechanical error
During the printing process, mechanical errors are mainly reflected in two aspects: overlay accuracy and ink color. According to the standards of China's printing machinery industry, the registration accuracy of printing machines, that is, the stacking accuracy of dots, is required to be 0.033mm. The actual mechanical accuracy is generally higher than this standard, mostly 0.01mm, although some printing machines have an accuracy of 0.1mm (mostly monochrome machines). However, even so, if a 40x magnifying glass is used to observe the printed product, it can still be seen that there is a deviation in the dot stacking. Therefore, in the process of handing over printed products, we can only reach the point where there are no problems observed with the naked eye, and printing companies cannot accept customers using magnifying glasses to pick problems.
For the issue of ink color, due to the compensation of ink volume in the ink filling device, there is also a certain deviation, which has been discussed above and will not be repeated.
During the die-cutting process, due to the inherent error of the die-cutting blade, the error after die-cutting is objectively present. As long as the error must fall within a certain range, it is sufficient.
06
Psychological expectation error
Normally, psychological expectation errors do not fall within the scope of printing errors. The reason for mentioning this issue is that Indian companies often encounter and find it difficult to solve in their interactions with customers. For customers who have been in contact with printed materials for a long time, after accumulating long-term experience, they have already made correct judgments on which errors are acceptable and which are not, making it easier for printing companies to communicate. And some customers may have very high psychological expectations when making printed materials, hoping to make them magnificent. For this group of customers, printing companies need to communicate more with them, after all, printed materials are not works of art, and errors are inevitable.