Computer

Computer Literacy
Literacy

for
for MEDIA
Using Technology to revolutionize
print production processes
 Traditional v/s DTP
Traditional Publishing Desktop Publishing
Writer Writer
Typesetter Wordprocessor
Compositor Layout Artist Page layout Computer
Graphics Artist Photo Editing

Press Press

Simplifying complex,
time-consuming and tedious
print production process
 Print Production

Pre-press Process Press Process Post Process

DTP, Design & Layout Processing & Printing Binding
Pre-press

Publication Design & Layout

• An Editorial Decision
– Formula of the publication
• Purpose of the publication
• Target Audience
• Kind of stories
– Format of publication
• Size, (A4, Letter Half, Tabloid, etc.)
• Quality (kind of paper, printing process)
• Arrangement of copy & pictures
– Text orientation
– Picture orientation
– Or Both
The
The Print
Print Business
Business
Deriving budgets
Pre-press

Deriving Budgets
Description of the Publication
Printer’s Estimate

Cost of Processing &

Cost of Paper
Printing
Pre-press

Cost of Processing
Continuous-tone art

• An original photograph
• Drawings or paintings
• Scanned images that
contain a range of color
tones

It consists of shades of gray or color

that blend smoothly
Halftone Screens
The Grayscale image is broken into a series of black dots of
various sizes, called a halftone screen to re-create black-
and –white images in print.
Halftone screen with
black ink

Small halftone dots make up Larger halftone dots make up

lighter areas of an image darker areas of an image
Halftone Screens
The image is broken into a series of 4 colour dots: Cyan,
magenta, yellow & black of various sizes and printed at
different screen angles to re-create color images

Halftone screens with process

inks at different screen angles;
correctly registered dots form
rosettes
Screen Ruling and Paper
Newsprint /plain paper 85 lpi—110 lpi

Super sunshine/Coated paper 133 lpi—165 lpi

Pix need to be scanned at

one-and-a-half to two times
the lpi used in commercial
printing
Printing Details w.r.t. Colour
Colour Models

Additive Colour Model Subtractive Colour Model

Red-Green-Blue (RGB) Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-
Black CMYK)
Spot Colors v/s Process Colors
• Spot Colors & Tints
– Printed with premixed ink on
the single printing plate of the
spot color
• Process Colours
– Reproduced by printing
overlapping dots of cyan,
magenta, yellow and black
Use Spot Colours when:
• You need 3 or fewer colours
• You will not be reproducing
process-colour photographs
• You want print varnishes or special
inks
• You want to print logos or other
precise color graphic elements

Avoid using tints of spot colors for small type or hairlines

Use Process Colours when:
• You need more than three colours
– Printing process inks is cheaper than
printing with three or more spot inks
• You want to reproduce scanned
colour photographs or artworks
Use of Colour
Options for Colour jobs include:
• Monochrome (Black & White)
• 2-Colour (Black, White + One Spot Colour)
• 3- Colour (Black, White + Two Spot Colours
• 4- Colour (Black, White and Process Colours)
• 4-Colour + Gold / or + Silver Coat

Depends
Dependsupon
uponbudget
budgetallowed
allowedfor
forprinting
printing
Separations
Film separations for
each ink—cyan,
magenta, yellow, black
and any spot colors
These separations are
used to create the
printing plates used on
the press
 Cost of Paper
Paper to be used

Plain Coated

•Cream-wove
•Maplitho Matte Glossy
•Sunshine (super printing) •Chromo Art & Indian Art
•German, Japanese,
Yugo Art, Sinarmas
 The Paper

–Thickness of paper
(Grammage square metre—gsm)
•Cover (170 gsm – 400 gsm)
•Inside pages (43 gsm – 150 gsm)
 the number of pages
Signatures: series of bound paper printed in multiples of
4,8,16,32 then folded down to size and trimmed

Work Out the Signatures

– Based on the size of the flat/sheet
• Conventional sizing—
• 23” x 36”
• 30” x 40”
• 25”x 36”
Determines the number of pages
for the publication
of different formats: e.g.
8.5” x 11”, 11” x 17”, 10.5” x 13”
 36”

1 2 3 4
23”

5 6 7 8

8.5” x 11” format

36”
23”

1 2 4

3 4

11” x 17” Format

 Print Estimates
• Desktop Publishing
• Processing Positives and Plates
– Black & White – Colour – Two colour,…
• Printing Cost
– Black & White – Colour – Two colour,…
• Paper Cost
• Scanning photographs
• Binding
Budgets are derived
accordingly
for the Publication
Pre-Press—Desktop Jobs
Writers
•Stories &articles
•Graphics & Photographs
•Headlines, Sub-heads, Captions
Editing
• 1st, 2nd & Final Drafts

Word-processing
•Typing the text using
MS-Word

Design & Dummy

Pre-press Process

Design, Dummy/Mock-ups
Typography
Fonts, Font Size, Style
Colour
Colour schemes
schemes
Black
Grids
Grids && Guides
Guides
Black && White
White
1,2
1,2 Colour-Spot
Colour-Spot Master
Master elements
elements
4-
4- Colour-Process
Colour-Process
Margins
Margins && columns
columns
Styles
Bleeds
Bleeds
Titles, Headlines
Subheads, kickers labels
Captions
Body Text Decide the Overall House-style
for the publication
Pre-press Process- DTP

Desktop Publishing
• Layout for Text & Graphics
– Setting text within pre-defined grids
and page-setups
– Format according to styles and
typography decided earlier.
– Placing graphics
– Fine-tuning, Proofing (1st, 2nd and Final)

Applications: Adobe PageMaker

QuarkXpress, Adobe InDesign
Pre-press Process

Digitising Photographs
• Resolution
– 300-600-…dpi (for print)
– 72 dpi (for online display)
• File Formats Application:
Adobe Photoshop
– TIFF (for print)
– JPEG (for online display)
• Formats for Digital photographs
Digital photo Scanned at
Kodak Prints
Files 600 dpi
Pre-press Process

Desktop Publishing
• Creating Artworks for Ads
– Design, Drawing and Placing images
– Arranging text
– Applying Colours, Fills Application:
CorelDraw
– Applying Effects Adobe Illustrator
Printing Activity

At the Printers
• File downloaded at the printers
– With Fonts, pictures and artwork files
Printing

Photo offset Xerox offset Screen Digital offset

•Photo jobs •Text only + •Smaller nos •Short runs
•Longer runs line drawings (visiting cards) •Digital imaging
•Artwork/layout
Positives to Plate

CTP Computer to Plate

Printing Process

Press Tasks
Conventional Offset printing

•Pages composed onto special acetate sheets

and arranged on larger sheet/flat
•The flats are used to produce Plates for
printing process
 Press Task
Printing Process

Plate comes
into contact Color Prints—
with water File artwork
rollers separated into
first, which its component
wets the Tracing Sheets Film Separation colours by
entire producing film
printing Reversed image from film
separation for
plates Plate making separation exposed
each ink onto
except plate (CMYK)
image areas Wetting Image area coated with
chemical that attracts ink
Plate comes
Inking and repels water
into contact
Non-image area
with ink rollers
which coats Offsetting coated so that it
attracts water and
image area
Printingrepels ink.
The rubber blanket is
pressed againstFinally
the the paper passes between the rubber
blanket
printing plate and and an impression cylinder. The inked
carries
away a reversedblanket
image. cylinder with its reversed image pressed
against the paper, printing the positive image.
Plate
Plateand
andRubber
RubberBlanket
Blanket
Roller for Plate
Wetting & Inking
Rollers

Rubber
Blanket
Fitting
Fittingof
ofthe
thePlate
Plate
Colour
ColourInks
Inks

CYAN MAGENTA
Colour
ColourInks
Inks
YELLOW BLACK
Impression
Impressionon
onRubber
RubberBlanket
Blanket
Sheets
Sheetsof
ofpaper
paperrolled
rolledinto
intothe
thePress
Press
 Folded
Foldedand
andTrimmed
Trimmed
to
toSize
Size
Registration
marks for
cutting

Cutter

Stacks of paper
One
One8-page
8-pagesignature
signature

Pg 5 Pg 12 Pg 9 Pg 8

Pg 4 Pg 13 Pg 16 Pg 1
One
One8-page
8-pagesignature
signature

Pg 7 Pg 10 Pg 11 Pg 6

Pg 2 Pg 15 Pg 14 Pg 3

After
Afterprinting
printingthe
thesheet
sheetisisfolded
foldeddown
downto
topage
pagesize
sizeand
andtrimmed
trimmed
 Post-Press Tasks
• Binding
– Centre Stapling
– Perfect Binding
– Stitching & Perfect Binding
• Pages set in multiples of 16 / 32