Customized gift box packaging requires basic knowledge of printing specifications. If these basic norms are not understood properly, it is easy to cause the printed effect to be different from what the designer wants. The gift box packaging itself is a very high-end packaging box. If the printing basic specifications are not done properly, the cost of customized gift box packaging will vary greatly, and even be scrapped, which will greatly result in cost and time waste. Here is a summary of our over 20 years of experience as an auxiliary designer. From the beginning of the design process, we can design customized gift box packaging according to basic printing knowledge in a standardized manner.
It is a printing effect in which the original manuscript is color separated and plate made, and then the graphics and text on each color palette are overlapped and overlaid in color order, without overlapping between the colors.
Unlike overprinting, overprinting is a printing effect produced by stacking and mixing ink of different colors together.
Overprinting is a printing technique that involves using different colored plates to print in batches on the same page. This technology can be traced back to the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, the technique of printing with two colors of red and ink had already emerged, which became widely popular in the Ming Dynasty and further developed in the Qing Dynasty. Overprinting is not only a printing technique, but also involves layout technology
In the late Ming Dynasty, "Shi Zhu Zhai Hua Xie" was one of the representative works of this technique. In addition, overprinting, also known as "Zi Mu Yin", originated in the Eastern Han Dynasty and was popular during the Fei, Jin, and Six Dynasties periods. Zi Mu Yin is a seal made by combining several large and small seals into a set, which was considered a reflection of the level of craftsmanship in ancient times.
During the process of white printing or cardboard printing, when multiple colors are overprinted, the position is not standardized, resulting in white edges being exposed between adjacent colors. Trapping, also known as fill in white or expansion, is mainly used to compensate for the white gaps between two adjacent different colors caused by inaccurate printing overprinting.
There are three common methods for trapping treatment:
(1) Single color line overlay method: Add light colored lines on the edge of the color barrier and select the line attribute as overlay.
(2) Composite line method: Add composite lines on the edges of color blocks The line attribute is not selected as overprint.
(3) Layered method: trapping is achieved by shrinking or expanding elements on different layers.
When people face printed materials, they always feel that dark colors are closer to the human eye and light colors are farther away. Therefore, when performing trapping processing on the original manuscript, they always try to prevent the light colors under the dark colors from being exposed, while keeping the dark colors on top unchanged to ensure that the visual effect is not affected.
Field printing: The area of color blocks without dots, usually referring to a full page.
Printing screen hanging: refers to the resolution and frequency of the network cable used for output. The function and importance of hanging nets lies in their ability to reflect the actual color depth of an image through the size and density of the dots, thereby obtaining continuous color tones during printing. The accuracy of hanging nets directly affects the quality of printed materials. The denser the dots, the richer the layers of printed materials, and the more delicate the details are.
Hanging screen refers to the resolution and frequency of the network cable used for output. Generally, newspaper printing can use 75-85lpi, ordinary color printing can use 100-150lpi, high-end printing can use 150-175lpi, and some high-end picture books may also use a resolution of 200lpi. The relationship between LPI and DPI is 1LPI-2dPI. Half tone refers to images displayed using dots, such as various printed materials, which are all half tone images because the dots can be seen when enlarged. However, ordinary film processed photos have continuous tone patterns, and no matter how the image is enlarged, the dots cannot be seen but are continuous.
Hanging screen, suitable for printing, refers to the resolution and frequency of the network cable used for output.
Spot color refers to a pre mixed specific colored ink (or special pre mixed ink). Used to replace or supplement CMYK printing ink. It is not a mixture of CMYK four colors, and each spot color requires a dedicated printing plate during printing (which can be simply understood as a set of spot color film, printed separately for the spot color). Spot color means accurate color.
Monochrome printing refers to the method of printing with only one color of ink. This printing method is commonly used on equipment such as offset printing machines, plate printing machines, and gravure printing machines. Monochrome printing is suitable for situations where printing content is relatively simple and color requirements are not high, such as text, black and white images, etc. Its advantages include low cost, fast printing speed, and relatively simple maintenance and upkeep of printing equipment. However, due to the use of only one color, monochrome printing has limited effectiveness in depicting complex patterns and images, making it less suitable for occasions where rich colors need to be displayed.
Monochrome printing can include flexographic printing, color plate printing, and spot color printing.
Misprinting refers to the error of overlapping imprints during the process of color printing. This error may result in inaccurate placement of patterns or text in printed materials, affecting overall aesthetics and functionality.
The bite position refers to the position where the paper is clamped by the paper feeding device of the printing machine when it is being conveyed.
Reasons for inaccurate overprinting
Uneven printing pressure: Local printing pressure is too high or too low, causing the paper to slip or deform during the printing process.
Paper issues: Paper shrinkage, skewed paper feeding, and inaccurate positioning can all affect the accuracy of overprinting.
Mechanical issues: Wear of the embossing grinding shaft or sleeve, deformation of the rubber blanket, and other mechanical issues can also lead to inaccurate overprinting. Plate making issues: Inaccurate typesetting, inaccurate plate exposure, and deformation of the plate material during the plate making process can also affect the overlay effect.
The method to solve inaccurate overprinting is to adjust the printing pressure: ensure uniform printing pressure and avoid excessive or insufficient local pressure.
Dealing with paper issues: Ensure that the paper is stable during transportation, avoiding stretching and tilting.
The edge position of the gauge on the printed sheet. Paper has different lengths, and printing, color matching, and cutting require needle alignment.
Feida refers to the conveying device for feeding paper in printing machines.
Due to ink overflow in the graphic and textual parts of the printing plate, the imprint on the substrate is unclear, which is a fault of offset printing.
Paste printing, also known as dirty printing, clogging, or dyeing, is a common malfunction phenomenon in the printing process, manifested as unclear or blurry text or patterns on printed materials. There are various reasons for pasting, mainly including the following aspects:
The ink properties of printing ink: Printing oil reduces ink properties, which is an important factor leading to paste printing. Different printing methods have different requirements for ink. For example, offset printing paste printing is often caused by the imbalance of ink and water (the difference in pH value between the solution and ink), while gravure printing paste printing is mostly caused by the inability of the scraper to clean, especially in high temperature summer.
The above knowledge is an important knowledge point that we convey to our clients' designers, and it is also a knowledge point that all ITIS packaging factory employees, especially salespeople, must master. This way, when communicating with customers, they can timely correct some non-standard situations, greatly reducing time waste and providing more suitable suggestions for customizing gift box packaging for customers.
