How to determine the quality of printed products.

WHAT IS CUSTOMER?
A customer is an individual, group of individuals or organization who receives or may
receive goods, services, products or ideas from another individual or company in
return for a value that may be in the form of money or anything of equivalent value.
Customers are important because they drive revenues. Without customers,
businesses cannot continue to exist.
Who are the customer?
A customer is an individual or company that purchases goods or services.
Internal customer
Internal customers are stakeholders who work in your company (employees) and
need help from other individuals or departments to complete their tasks. An internal
customer is anyone who works in a company or with whom employees or staff
interact within the organization as part of their regular duties or responsibilities. Less
clear but certainly still significant, stakeholders and shareholders are also internal
customers. All of these may or may not buy your product or service.
Basically internal customer consists of:
-Employers
-Owners
-Representatives
External customer
External customers are the people that pay for and use the products or services your
company offers. To be clear, external customers are people who are not in direct
contact with your organization other than by purchasing your product or service.
They could be a one-time purchaser or a person who’ve you worked with long-term
and to whom you’ve provided add-ons or customization options. External customers
are also known as “clients” or “accounts.”
External customer consists of:
-Suppliers
-Customers
-Society
-Governments
-Creditors
-Shareholders
PRINT QUALITY FACTOR

There are three features in print quality factor:

1. Product quality
- Area of expertise for external customers
2. Process quality
- Area of expertise for internal customers
3. Material quality
- Area of expertise of the supplier

What is Quality?
Quality refers to the sum of a product's or service's traits and characteristics that
influence its ability to meet certain needs. Quality is essential for satisfying your
customers and retaining their loyalty so that they will continue to buy from you in the
future. Quality products contribute significantly to long-term revenue and profitability.

1) Product Quality
Product quality is the sum of all the features and characteristics of a product that
contribute to its ability to meet the needs and requirements of the customer. The
product can fulfill what the end-user desires and perceives as valuable. Size,
Appearance, Tone, reproduction, and Color Match are the parameters that print
buyers can experience and care about the most. A high-quality product fosters
unwavering customer loyalty, which leads to an increase in leads. When customers
find a product they like, they return, make repeat purchases, and recommend it to
others. Creating high-quality products will remain the most important priority for
customers.

2) Process Quality
The degree to which an acceptable process, including measurements and quality
criteria, has been implemented and adhered to produce the product is referred to as
process quality. Density, Dot gain, and Drying are three parameters that printers
must learn how to manage to achieve process consistency and accuracy. The
process approach is an important component of any quality management strategy.
An important goal of any organization is to develop and implement strategies that
improve the ability to deliver a high-quality product or service consistently.

3) Material Quality
The material from which something is made is an excellent place to begin looking for
signs of good or poor quality. Simply put, high-quality products are made with high-
quality materials. Paper, Ink, and Fountain Solutions are descriptive parameters that
describe raw material characteristics and define product grades.

Quality Challenge
The grade is determined by the material quality. Coated / uncoated / newsprint paper
defines the printing grade. Product quality is driven by process quality. Observance
of product specifications SWOP / SNAP / GRACoL.
GRACoL
GRACoL stands for General Requirements for Commercial Offset Lithography
Applications. GRACoL is a standard for colour reproduction. GRACoL is a set of
guidelines and recommendations designed to assist print buyers, designers, and
specifiers in working more effectively with their print suppliers.
SWOP
Specification for Web Offset Publications (SWOP)
SWOP stands for Specifications for Web Offset Publications and is the name of a set
of specifications developed by the organization with the goal of increasing the
uniformity and quality of professionally printed material. These established industry
standards for the preparation of print-ready materials, ink selection, proofreading
methods, and printing conditions.

Paper Grades- Material quality

 Uncoated

Uncoated paper is exactly what it sounds like – paper that has no extra coating or
paper finishing. Since there is no coating, there is no glare on the surface. This
makes it ideal for prints that have a lot of text or reading materials. Since there is no
coating, this is the most porous paper, which is the best for smudge-less writing with
the widest range of pens and pencils when compared to the other finishes. All bond
stock paper is uncoated. Lastly, It also prints effectively, has good opacity at a low
cost, and has a wide range of applications for printing type and line copy.

Coated

Coated papers are those that have a glossy, semi-gloss, or matte coating on them.
Except for our Mohawk Superfine Eggshell picture book paper, all Blurb photo books
and both magazine papers are coated (formerly called Proline Uncoated). To be
deemed coated, a paper does not have to be "glossy."

A coating agent is applied to the surface of coated paper to increase brightness,

smoothness, or other printing attributes. Rollers are used to "polish" the paper after
the coating has been applied. It fills up the microscopic holes and gaps between the
threads, creating a smooth, flat surface.

What effect does this coating have on the printed book? For starters, it makes
printed materials more shiny and dazzling, which is why it is commonly used for
brochures, glossy pictures, pamphlets, and other similar items. Second, the coating
limits how much ink the paper absorbs, which helps to keep the ink from bleeding.
This is an advantageous characteristic for intricate patterns or graphics that must be
crisp. It also smoothes the printable surface with good opacity and color and the
major uses for magazine and all types of printing where good halftones are required,
Finally, coated paper is more resistant to dirt, moisture, and damage, extending its
lifespan.

Newspaper

Newsprint has been virtually the only use for groundwood pulp for many years, but
more recently, a wide variety of printing papers has been established due to changes
in the pulping process and the implementation of a bleaching process for this pulp.
Significant amounts of these papers are consumed by magazines, paperbound
books, catalogs, directories, and general commercial printing.

For an even, uniform formation and a high degree of opacity, groundwood papers
are noted. These papers are receptive to a printing ink and appear to be bulky. They
may not have high whiteness and when subjected to light and after long aging,
appear to turn yellow and they print well and at low cost. lastly, it is used mainly for
newspapers.

Paperground 

Paperboard is a general term that is descriptive of products that are 0.30 millimeters
(0.012 inches) or more in thickness, made of fibrous materials on paper machines.
Paperboard is commonly made from wood pulp, straw, wastepaper, or a combination
of these materials.

There are three main types of paperboard such as boxboards, container boards, and
paperboard specialties. Firstly, boxboards are used for such products as food
boards, food trays, plates, and paper boxes. Secondly, container boards for the
manufacture of corrugated and solid fiber shipping containers. Thirdly, paperboard
specialties include such items as binders board, electrical pressboard, and building
boards and the important properties are whiteness, rigidity, and printability.

Optical properties

Brightness, colour, opacity, and gloss are the most significant optical properties of
paper. The word brightness has come to denote the degree to which the light of the
blue end of the spectrum reflects white or near-white papers and paperboard. This
reflectance is determined by an instrument that illuminates paper at an average
angle of incidence of 45° and a wavelength of 457μ (microns). It is observed that the
brightness measured in this way corresponds closely with arbitrary assessments of
the paper's relative whiteness.
One of the most desired properties for printing and writing papers is opacity.
Satisfactory performance of such documents requires that from one side of the sheet
to the other there be little to no "show-through" of images. In printing papers,
adequate opacity allows white mineral pigments to be incorporated with or added as
a coating to the paper stock. The qualities of color include lightness, hue, and
saturation, and the papermaking factor is dyes on fibers, colored pigments in
coatings, and between fibers, which give the absorption responsible for color.

In defining the surface characteristics of paper, the terms gloss, glare, finish, and
smoothness are used. The broad term finish refers to the sheet's general surface
features. Under either visual or use conditions, smoothness refers to the lack of
surface irregularities. Gloss refers to the luster of the surface and connotes a
generally pleasing feature. A more vivid reflection and a more unpleasant effect are
used through the glare. Significant paper-treating techniques that affect gloss are
calendering and coating. Paper gloss is measured by calculating percent reflectance
at a low incidence angle of 15 degrees (75 degrees from the perpendicular)

Print Quality Factors

Subjective

‘Pleasingness’
Described here are some of the features that make electro photographic printing
aesthetically pleasing, and the use of recently developed computer-controlled
scanners to measure those features. New print quality measurements are described
(e.g., modulation measurements, image grayscale fidelity and tangential edge
roughness) that allow monitoring of advanced printing functionality made possible by
the addressability of all points. The requirements and implementation of the scanner
are discussed. Also discussed are the effects and limits on print quality
measurement resolution imposed by the algorithms used and the scanners; the
effect of light scattering by paper; and the use of print quality measurements as an
aid in design replacement decisions and in manufacturing control.

Tone reproduction
A tone reproduction is applied to the electronic image prior to printing, so that the
reflectance of the print closely approximates a proportionality to the luminance intent
implied by the electronic image. If the correct TRC was chosen, the area will have an
average 50% reflectance after the ink has bled.
Edge Sharpness
The sharpness of a print image, whether it has been printed in the graphic arts
industry or it is a photographic image, can be described as the rate of transition from
the printed area to the non -printed area. Ultimately, this will determine the clarity
and quality of the printed image. A new method for measuring the edge sharpness of
a printed image is called the peak area method. This technique offers increased
accuracy and reliability in a wide range of applications when compared to existing
techniques. The peak area method, which uses the gradient of the image gray level
profile, is described in detail.

Objective
Gray Balance
Gray balance refers to the ability of a process ink set to absorb the same amount of
three primary colors of light across the light to dark range when it is produced on the
press. Ideally, this means that a 5% dot value in each process color will produce a
very bright gray. A value of 50% of the dots in each one will produce a gray medium
value. In fact, the ink screen of the same process does not absorb the same amount
of primary color and therefore, without correction, does not produce a range of
neutral gray values.

Resolution
Resolution, in terms of print, is a measure of the number of dots that a device can
put in one square inch of page space. Resolution is referred to by a horizontal and
vertical measurement often portrayed in this fashion – 600 x 600dpi.
Color Matching
Colour matching is the process in which you make efforts to ensure that the color
you see on your screen are accurately recreated when your design is printed.

Press-related Factors
Subjective / visual

Print defects
Defects that occur during a printing operation are called printing defects. Printing
defects may occur due to many of the following reasons:
i) The printing procedure did not happen correctly
ii) The paper was not prepared properly before printing
iii) The paper has defects before printing

Dot distortion
During the process of ink transfer from the printing master to paper, ink spreads,
causing an increase in the size of halftone dots. This effect, called physical dot gain,
is a major cause of image quality degeneration. In this work the dot-shape distortion
during dot gain in the case of lithography is studied as a function of the value of dot
area gain.
Objective / quantitative

Solid ink density

The density of a solid ink is a measure of a solid printed patch on paper, including
the density of the paper. It is usually related to the thickness of the ink film however,
higher pigment load inks will measure the same density at thinner ink film
thicknesses and this helps in controlling the point acquisition while meeting the
density requirements. As discussed above Point gain is a measure of the increase in
tone value from the original file to the printed sheet.
Trapping
In printing, trap expresses the degree to which ink already printed on a substrate
accepts another layer printed on top of it compared to how well the substrate (e.g.,
paper) accepts that ink.
Print gloss
This makes the color in your image "explode" on the sheet. Extra glitter works well
on print files with thick color coverage, especially photos and large graphics. This
effect also makes the color on the print look like it has a higher contrast.
Uniformity of ink coverage
The basic print quality requirement is that all characters must be readable out of
context. In the most challenging applications, the printed page must have all
characters printed accurately and complete with uniform density and high contrast,
and no visible defects. Print quality close to this is known as letter quality (or
correspondence); it aims to match the achievable quality with a good typewriter. In
general, slower impact printers produce high quality prints but the highest quality is
available from laser printers and inkjet printers.

Finishing related
Print-to-cut registration
The print plates are aligned with the cutting die. When the alignment is wrong, the
design won’t cut correctly. Because perfect alignment is rare, slight alignment
variations are compensated for through bleeding and traps.
When using print and cut, make sure to have the right paper size selected. Always
choose "Show Print Border" to see what your printer will actually print. Registation
marks is use to know where to cut.
Crack at fold
When paper fibres, ink, or varnish break at the fold or in any engineered part of the
paper, cracking occurs. The use of proper grooving, scoring, and folding techniques
can help to prevent and lessen the danger of cracking. It's also crucial to choose the
right grain direction.
Squareness
This paper proposes a calibration procedure for the squareness error of small-sized
coordinate measuring machines like those used for ophthalmic lenses quality control.
The proposed procedure only requires a spherical lens as a reference surface and it
only needs to be measured once making this calibration method faster and cheaper
than the existing ones.
Flatness
Flatness is very straight forward. It ishow flat a surface is. Condition the paper after it
has passed through the fusing or drying process. It receives its original running and
stacking properties as well as optimal flatness and is dimensionally stable.
Production processes and print quality are optimised through the precision-metered
liquid supply and the application of microscopically small droplets onto the web;
paper waste is reduced as well.
Creeping
Creeping is a step in the folding process that makes it easier. The paperboard is
weakened during creasing along well-defined folding lines, which then serve as
hinges for folding packaging and graphical items. It is quite difficult to fold
paperboard without creeping it. The surface plies will break, and/or the folding line
will become ambiguous. The folding procedure is frequently conducted without any
surface preparation when converting paper (less than 180 g/m2). Paperboard with a
grammage greater than 600 g/m2 requires many creases or scoring before folding.
The link between the breadth and depth of a creep is critical for achieving a flawless
crease. Creeping is done with a thin strip of steel that has a round smooth edge and
is precisely cut.
The die is fitted with the creeping rules. The die reciprocates up and down towards
the paperboard, which is put on the make-ready, during performing the creasing
process. The wrinkled paperboard sheet is removed after one cycle and a new one
is placed into the machine.
The creeping rule thickness, the groove width, the make-ready thickness, and the
paperboard thickness must all be consistent. Different tool geometries are required
for different kinds of paperboard.
The paperboard is crumpled by being forced into a make-ready channel or groove.
The stresses exerted cause the paperboard to distort in a predictable and permanent
manner. The crease's bending resistance is reduced as a result of this. As a result,
the paperboard is weaker at the crease than it is elsewhere. The paperboard sheet is
bent in four narrow zones during the creasing procedure, each of which must
withstand strong tensile or compression stresses.

Creeping operation.
 During creasing and subsequent folding the
paperboard is subjected to severe stresses
and deformation.

When converting extremely thick material the

use of double creases is normal procedure.
Click to enlarge images.

Customers expectation 
What are customer expectations?
Generally, customer expectations are a set of ideas about a product, service or a
brand that a customer holds in their mind. There is a lot aspect of customer
expectations to fulfil such as:
Functionality and Usablity
The functionality of something is its usefulness, or how well it does the job it's meant
to do. The customers want their product to be function as they expected. For
example, they want to print packaging for their product. Therefore, the packaging
should reach their expectations which is to protect the product inside.
Reliability performance
Reliability is the consistency of a measure. If the same task is assigned the same
value in repeated trials, the measurement is reliable. For example, if there is a
customer who always print for 500 units per montj they will trust the company to print
for 500 units every month.
Supportability
Industries in the Printing and Related Support Activities subsector print products,
such as newspapers, books, labels, business cards, stationery, business forms, and
other materials, and perform support activities, such as data imaging, platemaking
services, and bookbinding. The support activities included here are an integral part
of the printing industry, and a product (a printing plate, a bound book, or a computer
disk or file) that is an integral part of the printing industry is almost always provided
by these operations.
Availability
The company should be available for the customers because if the company always
closed or troubling with the machines their customers will go find another company
to print their products.
Fair price.
This is the most important things because the customers doesn’t want to lose their
money for something not worth it. Giving the fair price to the customer will gain their
loyalty.
The customers expectations is based on:
 Needs
 Past experience
It can also change overtime due to technology changes and advertising claims such
as
 Higher quality
 Less tolerance for poor quality
 Shorter time between order and shipment
THE EXTENDED PROCESS

Work with your vendors on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust

It is really important for every business organization to have vendor. Especially the
organization that deals in providing goods and services to costumers. Vendor have
become one of family members of a business organization to satisfy the costumers
requirements on certain things.
A quick look of what is different between vendors and supplier. A vendor is an
individual or corporation who offers goods and services to clients for a fee
meanwhile a supplier are the one who provide the good or service required by the
business.
How do you go about establishing vendor relationships? :
Building a strong and strong vendor connection is crucial for a business's success,
especially if your vendor provides you with high-quality services that please your
clients. Trust is essential for establishing a solid link in any relationship. Build a
foundation of trust with your vendors if you want to form a strong connection with
them. Throughout your company journey, you will gradually acquire positive
outcomes and benefits from your vendors. Lastly, good communication between
each other are also important. We have seen numerous businesses that are not able
to flourish due to a lack of communication. Communicate together with your vendor,
convey and get imperative data to set up and keep up a solid merchant relationship.
Attempt to keep your vendor within the circle by examining your future commerce
plans, what’s working right now and what’s not

The customer is the most important part of the production line

One of the important things that needed to pay attention to in production line are the
customer. The one who receive the products or even services. Your customer is the
most crucial component of your business, no matter what industry you're in or what
sorts of items and services you provide. You won't notice any sales unless you have
a customer. As a consequence, they play an important role in designing your
marketing strategy and approach. If you refuse to include your customer'
perspectives in your marketing, your efforts are unlikely to be successful.

MANAGING THE EXTENDED PROCESS

Most companies are looking for solutions for business process management in a
time when the traditional boundaries of their organizations are increasingly porous to
include suppliers, partners and even customers as an integrated part of their
operations.
At the same time, web -based software continues to grow in its capabilities and
reach, and companies are increasingly adopting cloud -based services located
outside the corporate firewall.
There are recognizable advantages from extending business process the executives
capacities beyond the organization, and obviously quantifiable worth is a lot simpler
to measure when partners are outside the customary dividers of the business.

In this case, started as from the research by the customers for certain printing
product such as magazine, brochure, poster and so on. Continuing on with the work
on the design and getting the supply that needed including paper, ink, film, plate and
chemistry.
Attention on detail are crucial on the printing process from the beginning if we
expected a good outcome. From planning, in the terms of knowing your audience
and budget, the process or even picking the right material. On prepress side, the
method of making a print layout and performing all the steps that lead to the final
print project including proofing, proofreading, platemaking, screening and computer
to plate. Moving on to press, where to printing process begun. During printing,
accuracy is significant to both quality and convenient conveyance, so projects as it
were go to press after they’ve passed the pre-press and plate making stages, cutting
out any require for costly reprints. The suppliers then shipped out the printing for
bindery process and lastly to customers.
We need to make sure we’re going through each production line to get a successful
result fulfilling the customer’s desire.
Reference

https://heritageprintingcharlotte.com/blog/print-quality-does-it-matter/
https://discover.hubpages.com/art/Types-of-Printing-Defects-in-Textiles
https://www.printivity.com/insights/2019/06/21/what-is-the-difference-between-matte-
and-glossy-paper/
https://www.abstractops.com/how-to-build-a-successful-relationship-with-your-vendors

https://deming.org/the-consumer-is-the-most-important-point-on-the-production-line/

https://soloprinting.com/blog/paper-industry-news/

https://www.thepinningmama.com/how-to-use-use-registration-marks-for-print-and-cut-in-
silhouette-studio-silhouette-bootcamp-lesson-21/
https://www.iggesund.com/services/knowledge/reference-manual/printing-and-converting-
performance/die-cutting-and-creasing/
https://www.weko.net/en/paper-conditioning.html