Master These 8 Key Elements! Unlock the Secret to High-Quality Digital Printing

Original processing
Although digital printing gets rid of the plate-making restrictions of traditional offset printing, it has more refined requirements for the pre-processing of the original. The core advantage of digital printing design lies in its efficient and accurate original processing capabilities, which can maximize the restoration and optimization of original design files. During the preparation stage of the manuscript, special attention should be paid to the following key points.
01
Manuscript quality benchmark
It is recommended to give priority to high-precision originals as the basis for digital printing, and their resolution should reach the standard of 300dpi or above. When the quality of the original document is not good, it is necessary to use professional scanning equipment for digital conversion, it is recommended to use a scanner with an optical resolution of 600dpi or more, with the actual output resolution setting of 300dpi, to obtain the ideal printing effect.
02
Color reproduction characteristics
When dealing with special colors in digital printing, it is recommended to retain at least 3% of the dot area in the bright area (highlight part) to avoid disconnection; The dark area (shadow part) should ensure that the maximum dot does not exceed 95% to prevent ink accumulation; For gradient effects, a gradation transition interval of not less than 10% should be set.
03
Special element treatment
For highlighted text, small lines (recommended to be no less than 0.15mm), and small graphic elements, optimization is required. When a design includes spot colors, it should be simulated through the extended color gamut capabilities of digital presses. The manuscript design color filling setting should always be filled in the color of CMYK mode, and do not use special color or RGB color, otherwise it will cause serious color difference.
Select the printing materials
Digital printing has high requirements for the adaptability of printing materials, and it is necessary to comprehensively select paper according to equipment type, printing content and post-processing needs, and pay attention to environmental temperature and humidity control to ensure printing quality and finished product effect.
01
Paper performance requirements
Choose paper with a smooth surface to help the ink adhere evenly, reduce ink spot diffusion and streaks, and improve the quality of digital printing. The digitally printed paper needs to be able to quickly absorb ink, control the diffusion of ink droplets, and ensure bright colors and continuous gradation. Changes in the moisture content of the paper will affect the printing effect, so it is recommended to store and use it in a 30% relative humidity environment.
02
Color and material influence
The whiteness and surface characteristics of the paper will affect the color performance, so it is recommended to choose paper with high whiteness and matching color gamut. Thick paper or special materials should pay attention to the location of the graphics and creases to avoid exceeding the scope of the paper post.
03
Post-processing adaptability
If single-sided lamination is easy to lead to curling during lamination, double-sided lamination is recommended; Before binding, the direction of the paper strands should be considered to avoid cracking at the fold; The polish is prone to cracking at the crease, and the design should avoid complex creases or use high gloss treatment.
Be careful to remove stains (blemishes)
In the practice of digital printing design, due to the imaging principle of digital printing based on droplet deposition technology (inkjet) or electrostatic imaging technology (laser), its color reproduction mechanism is fundamentally different from that of traditional offset printing, and standard four-color digital printing (CMYK) cannot directly present the spot color effect superimposed by percentage dots (except for the indigo 6-color version). Therefore, designers need to use the PANTONE Spot-to-CMYK conversion tool to find theoretical matches for spot colors by comparing the color card database.
Observe the field and overprint
On equipment based on tone reproduction, large areas of field printing are the most prevalent problem. They may be due to changes in the charge on the surface of the paper and the charge itself. To some extent, the electrostatic charge on the surface of the sheet also changes, resulting in streaks and uneven colors on the solid block, which is not the case with the updated system. By using Photoshop or other software to create noise in the field, new presses rarely have this problem compared to older presses.
On the contrary, if you want to get a large area of black field, use a thick black ink composed of yellow, pin, blue and blue ink in different proportions. It is recommended to work with the equipment supplier to find and find the best ink number ratio. Try grading at 60C, 40M, 40Y, 100K or 40C, 20M, 20Y, 100K and use all four colors.
Digital printing can be operated at 400~600dot/in, mimicking tonal dots by generating a grid. Because starting with fewer dots in the original, the grid is limited in size by the chosen shade line and the amount of dots available. If only a limited amount of shadows are obtainable, smooth transitions throughout gradations and blends are difficult.
Observe the display
The image displayed in the display has a wider color gamut than digital printing, and proofing equipment, such as inkjet proofing, has a high resolution of up to 1200dpi. It is best to proofed on the machine, then replicate the production, and make color blocks for use in the printing press as a way to correct the color. Of course, an advanced, advanced color management system is also a good solution, and there are currently some vendors that can provide an advanced color management system.
Choose the right software
If the same color generates images in Illustrater, FreeHand, and Photoshop, and then imports them into Pagemaker or Quark Xpress, If you convert all files to the CMYK color space, the colors of the three software will not match, and you need to adjust the colors to the corresponding color balance.
Collect products
To ensure that all fonts, connected graphic files are included in the product (do not embed graphics by cutting and pasting), save files in the appropriate format, and it is often recommended to use PDF/X-4 or TIFF format as the final output file format for printing and provide it to the service provider for printing to reduce printing color difference.
Post-processing is carried out immediately
Digital printing machine products will have some problems during the binding stage, such as paper curling, paper grain roughness, etc. Glazing agents are different from inks in that they appear on the surface of the paper and cannot be absorbed. When folding, the varnish is easy to crack at the crease, so it is necessary to avoid the printing design of the crease, or use high gloss tone or reduce the paper granularity in the crease area to reduce the degree of cracking, if the print is a book, when printing a single sheet of paper, registration positioning is a problem, the graphic part can not exceed the post code, special attention should be paid to avoid the graphic part crossing the post code, avoid too tight registration positioning, and allow up to 1/8in of the range of change.
If it is thick paper, make sure that the graphics and creases are within the paper post, not over the postcode, to reduce cracking of the paper and polish, and better performance presses can handle these potential failures. If your product requirements are very delicate, be sure to carefully select the digital press and carefully inspect the product samples printed by the digital press.