About Printing knowledge
1. Printing files:
Creating a bleed in Publisher or Word:
You must select page or document set-up and type in the values of your custom sized project, plus 1/8” if you have a bleed. Be sure to keep in mind that the outer 1/8” will be trimmed off. Also keep in mind that you want to keep important graphics and text within the safety zone of 1/8” inside the trim line.
The final size of your PDF, TIF or JPG has to be the actual trim size of your project, plus 1/8” if you have a bleed.
a. Many programs default at the 8 ½ x 11 page sizes when creating the PDF, TIF or JPG – even when your document is custom sized. If you are ‘printing to Adobe PDF’ you must go to – Properties – Layout – Advanced – Paper Size – Post Script Custom Page Size – there you will enter your custom page size values. Also, if the Graphic Resolution does not default to 1200 DPI, change it to 1200 DPI. When making a JPG or TIF, you must be sure the resolution is 300 dpi, as some programs default to 150 dpi. b. Printing files must be submitted in a single page format all in one file. Please do not submit a separate file for each page. Please note that all pages in your file must be in the proper sequence required: outside front cover is page one, inside front cover is page two, etc.
c. Color – RGB vs CMYK
Many desktop publishing software programs provide for creating your print communication piece in a choice of color spaces — RGB or CMYK. Your computer monitor uses RGB (Red, Green and Blue), which are the primary colors of light, to display color images. When offset printing presses produce a full color image, they use a four color ink process called CMYK – – Cyan (blue), Magenta (red), Yellow and Black. As a result we recommend you create all full color documents in CMYK rather than RGB. CMYK is the format required for a print ready file. If we do a conversion for you from RGB to CMYK, we do a standard value conversion which may or may not yield the result you are looking for. RGB color may look good on your computer screen or desk top printer but may not produce the results you desire in an offset press printed piece. We offer low prices and quick turnaround by printing to a pleasing color standard through the use of standard ink densities. As a result, we make no guarantee that the color you see on your computer monitor or your ink jet or laser color printer will approximate your finished piece printed via the CMYK process on an offset printing press. This is due to the wide variations in color spaces, technologies and calibrations of different display and printing devices.
d. Keep the black text words are BLACK
Before sending catalog printing files, book printing files and magazine printing files, don’t forget to transform to PDF format file. And also remember to keep the black text words are BLACK, that means it hasn’t cyan, magenta and yellow. Otherwise the printing result will be not very good on the text words for magazine printing.
What is the best resolution for my images to be printed at?
LPI (Lines per Inch) is what your work will be printed at. The printer must first convert the files you provide to into LPI from PPI (Pixels per Inch).
Printers tend to print in different LPI depending on what the material is. Lower quality printed materials like newspapers are printed with a lower LPI. However printed materials such as magazines or art books are printed at the highest LPI.
It is often misunderstood to many people that the DPI (Dots per Inch) is what determines the resolutions of the image to be printed. DPI is only used when you print from a digital printer, like the ones we have home.
When you are looking on your screen, the image you see is in PPI and that is what’s important in determining how well your final image will be printed. It is also not true that the more PPI that you have the better.
The ratio that the LPI is printed should be about 1.5X to see what PPI your images should be. For instance if you are printing at 150 LPI, your images should be at 225 PPI. You can go as far as 2x the LPI which would result in a 300 PPI image. Although, standard way is what most people are used to using. It is also important to not overdo it. Using an image more than 300 PPI can result in a poor quality output. The image can become oversaturated and in some cases not as crisp.
Warning! Low-Resolution Images Don’t Print Well!
Make sure your images have the correct PPI. What does that mean? It means DON’T take your images off the Internet. Use the original images, example of this are images taken from your digital camera, or you can scan color prints at the highest resolution you can get from your scanner.
Images taken off the Internet particularly 72 dpi jpegs look jagged and blurry when printed on paper, especially on a glossy stock. This is because the image resolution have already been reduced so can they load faster on the Internet, because of this you cannot make a low resolution image or file into high resolution one. It is best to start with higher resolution images.
For best results, we recommend that your images be at least 300 ppi (pixels per inch). However it is best to send us the original images. To get high resolution images, like on your digital camera, use the highest quality setting available.
2. Binding Choices: catalog printing, book printing, magazine printing etc.
There are generally (4) four binding methods used in color printing.
a. Saddle stitched: A saddle stitched printing project is folded in half and has a least 2 staples in it. Generally lower page count printing projects will be saddle stitched.
b. Perfect Bound – When your printing page count gets higher than 60 pages it’s time to consider perfect binding. A perfect bound printing project has a square spine and the pages are glued in place. c. Hard Cover Bound – The printing page count gets higher than 32 pages it’s time to consider hard cover binding. The thickness of case board has 2mm, 2.5mm and 3mm for choice.
d. Wire-o-binding- This form of binding is great for any page count catalog printing. The continuous wire-o binding is available in a wide range of colors and sizes. The finished products will open up and lay flat and the wire-o binding is very durable.
chinaprintingfactory.com offers not only saddle stitching in printing options. But, we can do any of the above binding options. If you have any questions about binding any catalog printing, book printing and magazine printing project, please email us to discuss the options.
3. Printing Size Choices:
Our half size catalog is 5.5×8.5 and for full size catalogs it is 8.5×11. These sizes are all printed with consistent and vibrant colors together with sharp images.
4. Paper Choices:
Cover paper: 200gsm, 250gsm, 300gsm, 350gsm C1S paper; 105gsm, 128gsm, 157gsm, 200gsm, 250gsm, 300gsm, 350gsm glossy art paper and matte art paper
Text paper: 80gsm, 105gsm, 128gsm, 157gsm, 200gsm glossy art paper and matte art
Check which paper style is good for you!
Paper style list
80gsm/105gsm/128gsm/157gsm/200gsm/250gsm/300gsm – Art Paper
105gsm/128gsm/157gsm/200gsm/250gsm/300gsm – Matte Paper
64gsm – C2S paper
250gsm/300gsm/350gsm – C1S paper
60gsm/70gsm/80gsm/100gsm/140gsm – Offset Paper
If you need any paper sample, email us right now.
Bond | Offset Text |
Cover | Tag | Index | Points | Caliper (inches) |
Millimeters | Metric (grams/sq meter) |
16 | 40 | 22 | 37 | 33 | 3.2 | .0032 | 0.081 | 60.2 gsm |
18 | 45 | 24 | 41 | 37 | 3.6 | .0036 | 0.092 | 67.72 gsm |
20 | 50 | 28 | 46 | 42 | 3.8 | .0038 | 0.097 | 75.2 gsm |
24 | 60 | 33 | 56 | 50 | 4.8 | .0048 | 0.12 | 90.3 gsm |
28 | 70 | 39 | 64 | 58 | 5.8 | .0058 | 0.147 | 105.35 gsm |
29 | 73 | 40 | 62 | 60 | 6 | .0060 | 0.152 | 109.11 gsm |
31 | 81 | 45 | 73 | 66 | 6.1 | .0061 | 0.155 | 116.63 gsm |
35 | 90 | 48 | 80 | 74 | 6.2 | .0062 | 0.157 | 131.68 gsm |
36 | 90 | 50 | 82 | 75 | 6.8 | .0068 | 0.173 | 135.45 gsm |
39 | 100 | 54 | 90 | 81 | 7.2 | .0072 | 0.183 | 146.73 gsm |
40 | 100 | 56 | 93 | 83 | 7.3 | .0073 | 0.185 | 150.5 gsm |
43 | 110 | 60 | 100 | 90 | 7.4 | .0074 | 0.188 | 161.78 gsm |
44 | 110 | 61 | 102 | 92 | 7.6 | .0076 | 0.193 | 165.55 gsm |
47 | 120 | 65 | 108 | 97 | 8 | .0078 | 0.198 | 176.83 gsm |
53 | 135 | 74 | 122 | 110 | 9 | .0085 | 0.216 | 199.41 gsm |
54 | 137 | 75 | 125 | 113 | 9 | .009 | 0.229 | 203.17 gsm |
58 | 146 | 80 | 134 | 120 | 9.5 | .0092 | 0.234 | 218.22 gsm |
65 | 165 | 90 | 150 | 135 | 10 | .0095 | 0.241 | 244.56 gsm |
67 | 170 | 93 | 156 | 140 | 10.5 | .010 | 0.25 | 252.08 gsm |
72 | 183 | 100 | 166 | 150 | 11 | .011 | 0.289 | 270.9 gsm |
76 | 192 | 105 | 175 | 158 | 13 | .013 | 0.33 | 285.95 gsm |
82 | 208 | 114 | 189 | 170 | 14 | .014 | 0.356 | 308.52 gsm |
87 | 220 | 120 | 200 | 180 | 15 | .015 | 0.38 | 312 gsm |
105 | 267 | 146 | 244 | 220 | 18 | .0175 | 0.445 | 385.06 gsm |
Tips in catalogs printing, books printing and magazines printing:
Chinaprintingfactory.com seeks nothing but to provide you with great quality prints at a great price and service. We aim to assist you in all your paper printing needs. A satisfying print job does not end with just the product, but involves a full printing experience for the client. To this, we assist our clients achieve their target dates for their catalog printing projects.
How to reduce the cost of full color printing in China
Printing Cost Saving Tips for your Printing Products
Use our local paper – We buy large quantities of a good grade paper to keep on hand for print jobs.
This paper is a good balance of quality and cost. If you don’t need a unique or special paper effect then using local paper will result in a lower cost printing.
Keep printing page counts to even signatures
A signature is a group of pages printed in one pass through the press. This is an increment of 8 pages. Your greatest economy in page count is to print in increments of even signatures; 16, 32, 64 etc.
Keep page size to standard catalog printing dimensions
Standard sizes are 8.5 x 11, 6 x 9 and 5.5 x 8.5.
Mini quantity
Normally the mini quantity is 1000pcs-3000pcs according to different products size and pages.
Keep Bleed
Please keep 3mm bleeds on the top, bottom, left and right when you are designing your artwork. Please click here for more information on bleeds.
Fonts
All fonts used in your document must be included in your file upload. Do not use the type style menu in your application to stylize your fonts as this may cause problems when ripping your files.
We are offset printing factory in China, with over 60 years experience in offset printing service, such as catalog printing service, book printing service, magazine printing service, booklet printing service, brochure printing service, folder printing service, calendar printing service and so on. Cost advantages and proficient skills help our products maintain competitive in the market. If you need printing quote, please contact now!