In our lives, the role of books is very important, because reading a good book is equivalent to talking with a noble person.

Printing is a complex technology. As a designer, in addition to having deep design skills, he must also understand the printing process and some related knowledge in order to design a manuscript that meets the requirements of the printing process with half the effort.

If the designer does not understand the printing process and the paper material, the rendering is far from the actual product. In fact, printing is a very interesting thing. It is like experimenting in a laboratory to understand the characteristics of different materials and keep trying to experiment to find the material process that best suits your design. Whether you are a publisher studying book printing or a book writer, here are some things you need to know when designing and printing books.

1. Print file format

At present, PDF is the most convenient file format for communication between customers, printing houses and colleagues. The formats of advertisements and media files submitted to newspaper and magazine publishers are also based on PDF, and the final output files of the printer are also high resolution PDF file.

2. Printing paper

The choice of paper is definitely a part of the design process that needs to be considered. The thickness, texture, and color of the paper will affect the feeling of design image transmission. In the process of making a sample, you can choose several more papers to ensure the effect.

Paper is calculated in grams (g) or grams per square meter (g/m²). The thickness of the paper is measured in calipers or millimeters, but it is not that the thicker the paper, the better the quality.

The opacity of paper refers to the degree to which text or images can pass through, which depends on the density and thickness of the paper.

– Matt paper, glossy paper, wax paper:

Different paper surfaces affect the brightness of printing inks. Matte paper will absorb the ink on the surface, and there is basically no reflective gloss. Matte paper is used to print text, such as newspapers, books, etc., for easy reading. However, the ink will stay on the surface after being printed on glossy paper, so more light shines on the paper under the font, the light is reflected and reflected, and the color will be deeper and stronger. This paper is suitable for book covers, magazines, brochures and outer packaging. and many more. Glossy paper is a paper between rough and glossy. The color of ink on glossy paper is not as strong as glossy paper, and the surface is not shiny.

-Paint and polish:

The role of paint and polishing agent is to protect the ink and enhance the effect of the ink area.

3. Printing color

Printing or printing color cast is the biggest headache for designers when outputting. The printed materials we see are composed of three elements: light, paper and ink. When the budget is tight or when specific colors are used, monochromatic printing is used. For example, many brands or companies use a specific Pantone color in their printed works, which can effectively maintain the color uniformity to ensure the color recognition of the brand. Two and three-color printing allows Pantone colors to be mixed, overprinting two transparent inks can produce a third color, and printing black and white images with two-color and three-color printing can enhance the color effect.

Pantone colors are also commonly known as spot colors, and there are many colors to choose from, but we know that the colors will vary with different paper effects. In order to get the color closer to the design, there are many versions of PMS color samples for different papers, such as matte paper, copper plate, etc.

Four-color printing is known as CMYK, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, and countless colors can be created according to the ink ratio.

4. Printing process

Hot stamping / hot silver: hot press transfer printing, referred to as hot transfer printing, commonly known as hot stamping and hot silver. It is a method of hot stamping the metal foil on the printed matter with the help of a certain pressure and temperature, and there is also a cold pad printing. It will be better if it can be matched with the embossing or embossing process; besides gold and silver, the colors that can be used include color gold, laser light, spot color, etc.

UV: UV coating means that the ink can be dried and cured by UV radiation. UV is usually a silk screen printing process, and now there is also offset printing UV. If you use the film to pass UV, you need to use a special UV film, otherwise the UV is easy to fall off, blistering and other phenomena, and it is better to cooperate with special processes such as bumping and bronzing.

Embossing: embossing, the process of forming a pattern by pressure to cause local changes to the printed object. After the metal plate is corroded, it becomes the embossing plate and the base plate for pressing.

Laminating: Laminate a layer of transparent plastic film on the printed paper, including crystal film, light film and matte film.

Screen printing: It can be operated on flat objects, spherical objects, curved objects, and even concave and convex surfaces, with great flexibility. The ink layer after printing is thick and has a strong three-dimensional effect. The screen printing process equipment is simple, easy to operate, simple printing and plate making, low cost, and strong adaptability.

It’s always said that the quality of a book is known when you hold it in your hand. In fact, this is a more subjective impression, but it is this kind of subjective feeling that makes customers actively purchase. Therefore, for book printing, choose the appropriate printing. Crafts and paper make it easier to attract customers.

Want to learn more about book printing? Contact at Bookprintingchina with free consultation, we will try our best to help you design and print an exclusive and high-quality book.