What questions can we help you answer about printing? Here are a few when it comes to knowing the lingo.

When it comes to printing, there’s a lot of technical information and detail that can be confusing to understand. For this Printing 101 blog series, we’ve partnered with a few local printers to address common questions and concerns that come up during the printing process. We hope you enjoy!

PART 1: KNOW THE LINGO

The printing world involves a lot of specialized knowledge and technical details. Here are some important terms to make sure you know:

  1. CMYK, PMS and RGB – Huh?
    CMYK, PMS and RGB are all acronyms that refer to color in some form or another. CMYK and RGB are both color models – systems in which you use a small set of designated “primary colors” to create a full color spectrum.

    CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. But wait – black starts with a “B,” not a “K.” The “K” in CMYK refers to the word “key” which comes from the actual process of printing color. When a printer prints in CMYK, they produce the colors in your image through a series of four layers – a Cyan layer, a Magenta layer, a Yellow layer and a Black layer. The Black layer is considered the “key” because it’s the layer that is used as a guide for making sure all four layers line up correctly together. If you look super closely at a print piece (for instance, a magazine), you’ll also notice that these layers are made up of a bunch of tiny dots. The mixture of four different colored dots creates the illusion of continuous tones of many different colors. Crazy, huh? But that’s how it’s done. If you ever hear a printer or a designer say “four color process” or if you ever see “4/c” written on a printer’s invoice, they’re referring to the literal printing process of printing the four CMYK colors.

    PMS stands for Pantone Matching System. It’s a color classification system used in multiple industries all around the world. Pantones are used for their precision and consistency in reproducing color. Instead of a design being printed in the four layers of CMYK, an image is printed in one solid layer of color with Pantone. Pantones are also sometimes referred to as spot colors.

    RGB stands for Red, Green and Blue. You add these three colors together to produce a full, complete image on screen. RGB does not belong in the (professional) print world. When you send your file to print, double-check to make sure your files are all in CMYK and/or PMS – this includes photographs which are native to the RGB world and usually have to be converted to CMYK for print projects.

  2. Offset vs. Digital – What's the difference?
    Tom Brinkman of Brinkman Press says, "Offset is ink on paper; it needs time to dry or touch. Digital is toner baked onto a sheet; you can touch or cut it immediately. Usually, time and quantity are the deciding factors when using digital. For example, 5,000 brochures should be printed offset. To print that many digital would NOT be cost-effective. In times where you need large quantities but need a small quantity immediately for an event (say 200), we would offer to do the 200 right away and print the other 4,800 later."

    Here’s a pros and cons list to understand the advantages of both methods (according to all three printers we talked to – Brinkman Press, Andrew Dove of Dove Printing and Jeremy Schultz of UN Communications Group):

    Offset Printing Pros
    –Better quality
    –More color accurate, especially if trying to match to specific Pantone colors
    –More cost-effective for large quantities (1,000 or 2,000 and up)
    –Works well for both smooth and textured papers

    Digital Printing Pros
    –Faster turnaround time
    –More cost-effective for smaller quantities (in the 100s) and smaller sizes (12”x18” or less)
    –Does better with smooth papers

  3. Coated or Uncoated – Paper matters
    There are many, many different kinds of paper available for printing, and sometimes it can be difficult to determine what is best. One aspect of paper that is helpful to understand is whether the paper you choose will be coated or uncoated. As you may have guessed, coated paper is paper that literally has a coating applied to it. Uncoated paper, on the other hand, has no coating. We like to illustrate these differences with doughnuts – yum! Click below to download a chart that breaks down the more tangible differences.
New Call-to-action