MEDHA MALHOTRA7th Semester

Graphic designG.D.P.D

Project 1 QUICK REFERENCE TO PRINTING

Guide/Dr.Tridha Gajjar

Duration/8 Weeks

Project Brief

After making the perfect artwork, one usually tends to mess up while giving the file for print or during production i.e. paper, printing, folding, binding etc. Customers who do not grasp the fundamentals of printing give printers too much responsibility. Too many customers prepare materials incorrectly and set unreasonable deadlines; too many printers salvage their jobs without telling the customers how to do it better next time. Better communication between the customers and printers would lead to more satisfactory results, on time deliveries and lower costs. Having had printing experiences in the past one year, I think we faced a lot of problems, as we weren’t aware enough about what all to keep in mind before going to a printer. Because of this, we made a lot of mistakes and wasted a lot of time. I have realized it is very important to know the essentials of printing to save time, money and avoid disasters. As designers, our contribution can be of great value since we have the power to communicate and make an impact to a larger audience. Therefore, I sense the need to make this essential information available in an easy and interesting format to people when required.

ObjectiveTo make only essential information about print production available in an easy format.

Target AudienceEveryone who plans, designs, or pays for printing. Mostly people not belonging to communication design and not exposed to printing technology. But by and large anyone getting a printing job done.

ScopeUnderstanding the bare essential information needed before getting •something printed.Compiling it all in an easy format (taking basic decisions of typeface, •color palette & layout) by developing a visual language and system of navigation.

Before I began with the project, there were a lot of discussions, rather heated discussions with friends and faculty. Certain discussions got me clearer in my approach and made me more focussed as to what I was trying to achieve. I find it important to mention one such discussion through mail with my faculty I. Suresh.

“......... regarding the project there are umpteen number of books as references for graphic design . Do you want to add one more I still remember one superb graphic design manual got lost from the library many years ago just after I went through it and the then librarian almost suspected me for this. I have not seen any manual with so much of calculations for enlargement of photographs and types etc. So I would request you to re look at the problem and build a scenario in which the present reference manuals are and what are you going to add to this. Or else this might turn into another publication with lots of mate-rial from different books so just look into it.......” - Immanuel Suresh

As a reply...

“.... I completely agree that there are n x 1000 number of books available on printing, even in the KMC, most of which I have gone through during my publication course, even though content building was not my job. Coming to your issues against my project, I would like to defend my self with certain points.

1)a) I am making something which is not going to be in the KMC. b) It’s not a DESIGN manual where I want to explain or teach what font to use for what purpose and how to resize pictures but what to do after you done with your artwork. It’s more like a checklist! There is a lot of printing that happens at the press which is not designed.

2) None of these reference books are books which I would recommend my fa-ther or aunt or brother to go through right before they go for a print job. Most of them look like text books and have a lot of technical knowledge and details like the working of the machines and constituents of the inks which is not required by a person not wanting to indulge in that much detail. And no one

has the time to really hunt for important information. Even if the informa-tion is highlighted enough, they would think twice before because of the size of that book.

3) I did not really want to make a publication I was rather thinking of cards, or a flip kind of thing like the pantone shade cards, or may be a small info leaflet with normal playing cards having printing tips on them.

4) I would want to remind you my target audience is beyond NID and designers! People who don’t know much about the technology or process, who know nothing about printing apart from it’s spelling and don’t wish to know more either!

5) In the end what I feel is that this book/info I’m trying to get through to peo-ple is more for the benefit of the printer’s who get bugged by people who give them files in RGB format and crib the colours aren’t right! Which includes most of the GRAPHIC design students of NID who go through a printing course and have a KMC at their service!

Suresh, I “do want to add one more” to the existing info on this topic but with a difference. Giving all the information is easy, but figuring out the bare minimum essential information isn’t too easy! ..... ” - Me

After this I was a bit more clearer as to what the purpose of my project was. Though I was still not sure what the end product would be.

Why I chose this topic?

Why I really wanted to do this project came from a problem at home. My father had to get his greeting cards printed he asked me to design it. I sent him a low res jpeg to check, which he thought was the final file and gave for print. And as expected it was disastrous. Similar was the situation with my cousins for whom I did the branding. Living in our little world of NID we just assume everyone we know knows as much as we do.

What to do?

I had various options in mind as to what my final product would be. Thought of a proper publication, small booklet, a foldable pamphlet, loose cards, postcards, etc.

Then I thought of PLAYING CARDS and built a scenario.

Scenario

6 people playing cards, out of which one is a from design background. These cards have informative text on them. For the rest of the people this is unusual. While holding the cards, out of 5 atleast 3 people actu-ally bother to give the cards one read. But don’t really bother about it. A week later one of them needs to print a presentation to send abroad, and remembers that the file he is going to give for print needs to be in CMYK and he should include all the fonts he has used. Though they did not pay much attention to what was written on the cards, it was still somewhere in the back of their minds. The cards coud be used just for reading as well. Though it is not possible to have everything explained on the cards, it was an optipn to provide a little handout along with it, explaining the process of printing and certain terms ike CMYK, RGB etc.

History Of Playing Cards

No one is very sure how and where exactly playing cards were invented, though there have been a lot of stories about it. A cluster of early literary references refer to the game being in-troduced by ‘a Saracen’, ‘the Moorish Game’ etc. Etymological evidence also suggests that the Arabs introduced playing cards into Europe in the second half of the fourteenth century and that European cards evolved from the suit system and composition of these cards.

How were they introduced?Scenario 1: playing cards might have been introduced into Europe by a fourteenth century traveller returning from afar, who said ‘Hey chaps, guess what I saw in ....’ and then proceed to manufacture a set of cards out of scraps of cardboard according to his recollections of seeing a similar game being played elsewhere. The symbols and courts might have been what he thought that he had seen, and also the game played with them.

Scenario 2: a number of travellers to Asia or Africa learned some card game, individually or as a group, and having played it with local inhabit-ants and perhaps each other during their travels, they decided to bring a pack or a few packs back with them, so that they could continue playing at home in Europe. When the original cards wore out they had copies made locally in Europe.

But there have been evidences that in China, playing cards were found as early as the 9th century during the Tang Dynasty (618–907), when rela-tives of a princess played a “leaf game”. The Song Dynasty (960–1279) scholar Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) asserted that card games existed since the mid Tang Dynasty and associated their invention with the simulta-neous development of using sheets or pages instead of paper rolls as a writing medium. Ancient Chinese “money cards” have four “suits”: coins (or cash), strings of coins (which may have been misinterpreted as sticks from crude drawings), myriads of strings, and tens of myriads. These were represented by ideograms, with numerals of 2–9 in the first three suits and numerals 1–9 in the “tens of myriads”. Wilkinson suggests that the

first cards may have been actual paper currency which were both the tools of gaming and the stakes being played for. The designs on modern Mahjong tiles likely evolved from those earliest playing cards. However, it may be that the first deck of cards ever printed was a Chinese domino deck, in whose cards we can see all the 21 combinations of a pair of dice.

An Indian origin for playing cards has been suggested by the resemblance of symbols on some early European decks (traditional Sicilian cards, for example) to the ring, sword, cup, and baton classically depicted in the four hands of Indian statues.

The time and manner of the introduction of cards into Europe are matters of dispute. The 38th canon of the council of Worcester is often quoted as evidence of cards having been known in England in the middle of the 13th century, but the games de rege et regina (on the king and the queen) there mentioned are now thought to more likely have been chess.If cards were generally known in Europe as early as 1278 , it is very remarkable that most of the famous writers never once mentioned them. Boccaccio, Chaucer and other writers of that time specifically refer to various games, but there is not a single passage in their works that can be fairly construed to refer to cards.

It is likely that the precursor of modern cards arrived in Europe from the Mamelukes of Egypt in the late 1300s, by which time they had already assumed a form very close to that in use today. In particular, the Mameluke deck contained 52 cards compris-ing four “suits”: polo sticks, coins, swords, and cups. Each suit contained ten spot cards (cards identified by the number of suit symbols or “pips” they show) and three “court” cards named malik (King), nā’ib malik (Viceroy or Deputy King), and thānī nā’ib (Second or Under-Deputy). The Mameluke court cards showed abstract designs not depicting persons though they did bear the names of military officers.

A complete pack of Mameluke playing cards was discovered by Leo Mayer in the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, in 1939; this particular complete

pack was not made before 1400, but the complete deck allowed match-ing to a private fragment dated to the twelfth or thirteenth century. In effect it’s not a complete deck, but there are cards of three different packs of the same style.There is some evidence to suggest that this deck may have evolved from an earlier 48-card deck that had only two court cards per suit, and some further evidence to suggest that earlier Chinese cards brought to Europe may have travelled to Persia. It is not known whether these cards influenced the design of the Indian cards used for the game of Ganjifa, or whether the Indian cards may have influenced these. Regardless, the Indian cards have many distinctive features: they are round, generally hand painted with intricate designs, and comprise more than four suits (often as many as thirty two, like a deck in the Deutsches Spielkarten-Museum, painted in the Mewar, a city in Rajasthan, between the 18th and 19th century. Decks used to play have from eight up to twenty different suits).

1000 C. E. A type of thin playing card, much like dominoes, appear in China. Suits are variations of coins.

1200 C. E. Playing cards now established in the Middle West. The Islamic suits were Coins, Swords, Cups and Polosticks. There were also three court cards, called the Com-mander, Lt. Commander and Second Lt.

1350 C. E. Islamic cards introduced to southern Europe. The suit of Polosticks was changed to Scepters, Batons or Cudgels, and Europeans experimented with the court cards, sometimes having as many as six (King, Queen, Knight, Lady, Valet and Maid). Germans changed the suits to Leaves, Hearts, Acorns and Hawk Bells; they also dis-posed of the Queen card.

1420 C. E. The Italian game Tarocco appears, using four court cards (King, Queen, Knight and Valet) and introducing a wild card (the Fool). The deck expanded from 52 to 97 cards, and the name changed to Tarot. (It was not until the 1780s that these playing cards began being used for divination.)

1470 C. E. The French create our current suits of Hearts, Spades, Clubs and Diamonds (though the French called them Hearts, Spearheads, Trefoils and Squares). These cards were originally handmade and hand painted, and were owned by the wealthy only. Soon, woodblocks were used to mass-produce them on cardboard.

In Europe and early design changes

In the late 14th century, the use of playing cards spread rapidly throughout Europe. Documents mentioning cards date from 1371 in Spain, 1377 in Switzerland, and 1380 in many locations including Florence and Paris. A 1369 Paris ordinance [on gaming?] does not mention cards, but its 1377 update does. The earliest cards were made by hand, this was expensive. Printed woodcut decks appeared in the 15th century. The technique of printing woodcuts to decorate fabric was transferred to printing on paper around 1400 in Christian Europe, very shortly after the first recorded manufacture of paper there, while in Islamic Spain it was much older. The earliest dated European woodcut is 1418. No examples of printed cards from before 1423 survive. But from about 1418 to 1450 professional card makers in Ulm, Nuremberg, and Augsburg created printed decks. Playing cards even competed with devotional images as the most common uses for woodcut in this period. Most early woodcuts of all types were coloured after printing, either by hand or, from about 1450 onwards, stencils. These 15th century playing cards were probably painted.The Master of the Playing Cards worked in Germany from the 1430s with the newly invented printmaking technique of engraving. Engraving was much more expensive than woodcut, and engraved cards must have been relatively unusual. In the 15th century in Europe, the suits of playing cards varied; typically a deck had four suits, although five suits were common and other structures are also known. In Germany, hearts, bells, leaves, and acorns became the standard suits and are still used in Eastern and Southeastern German decks today for Skat, Schafkopf, and other games. Italian and Spanish cards of the 15th century used swords, batons (or wands), cups, and coins (or rings). The four suits now used in most of the world — spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs — originated in France in approximately 1480. The trèfle (club) was probably copied from the acorn and the pique (spade) from the leaf of the German suits. The names “pique” and “spade”, however, may have derived from the sword of the Italian suits. Also in

the 15th century, Europeans changed the court cards to represent European royalty and attendants, originally “king”, “chevalier” (knight), and “knave” (or “servant”). In a German pack from the 1440s, Queens replace Kings in two of the suits as the highest card. Fifty-six-card decks containing a King, Queen, Knight, and Valet (from the French tarot court) were common.Court cards designed in the 16th century in the manufacturing centre of Rouen became the standard design in England, while a Parisian design became standard in France. Both the Parisian and Rouennais court cards were named after historical and mythological heroes and heroines.

Italian playing cards most commonly consist of a deck of 40 cards (4 suits going 1 to 7 + 3 face cards),

Set o

f 56

Fren

ch st

yle ta

rot p

layi

ng ca

rds w

ith tw

enty

two

trum

ps

Set of 32 Hungarian playing cards in German suits for Skat; a related 36-card deck would also include the VI suite.

Set o

f 56

Fren

ch st

yle ta

rot p

layi

ng ca

rds w

ith tw

enty

two

trum

ps

SymbolismPopular legend holds that the composition of a deck of cards has religious, metaphysical, or astronomical significance. The context for these stories is sometimes given to suggest that the interpretation is a joke, generally being the purported explanation given by someone caught with a deck of cards in order to suggest that their intended purpose was not gambling

Playing cards have been used as vehicles for political statements. Here, a playing card of the French Revolution symbolising freedom of cult and brotherhood.

Process I followed for the research

Since this subject involved a lot of people, I decided to go speak to the various groups : Printers, students, design students, non-design people.This gave me an insight to what kind of problems these people are facing. According to which I could figure what kind of information I need to dis-seminate through my project.I had read a lot of books from the KMC and had researched on the in-ternet for my publication project which was a primer on printing. I went through all of it, and chunked out the information required.

Then I conducted surveys on these various groups. The inferences were as follows.When spoken to the people in general (Students, non-designers, etc)

The problems they faced were predominantly

Wrong file formats•Missing or incorrect fonts•Files defined with incorrect colour mode: RGB instead of CMYK•Colour differences•Problems with bleeds•Paper thickness and kind of paper•Missing graphics•Pixelation of images- due to wrong format.•

The problems that printers faced with the files brought to them by clients

Missing or incorrect fonts•Files defined with incorrect colour mode: RGB instead of CMYK•Scans supplied in wrong format - Jpegs•Graphics not linked•Incorrectly defined or not defined bleeds•Wrong paper size•Resolution too high or too low•

Content

There were a lot of books read, websites scanned, notes re-read, informa-tion from printers and faculty. With so much information of all sorts, casual, formal, technical, graphical etc, I was to chunk out the bare necessary information needed for a simple print job. I decided to orga-nize the information in a hierarchy of importance, i.e. The aces have the most essential information , then the Kings have the next most important information. Also the chunking was done so as to use the image cards as illustration . The initial concept was as below.

There were a lot of controversies about having text on cards. A little exper-iment was done amongst a sample of 50 people. When given cards with text on them and asked to play, 46 of them re-arranged the cards so as to have the text in the right orientation, and 38 of them actually read what was written on them. So it gave me an assurance that the text on the cards will be read even though a person is not interested in the topic. I saw samples of promotional playing cards of corporate companies, giving out details and advantages of their company. So if there could be cards like those, I wanted to experiment with such information as well. I wanted to communicate boring information in a little informal and interesting man-ner.

Final Hierarchy

After changing the hierarchy order many times finalized after consultation with the guide. After this started with first explorations of the look of the card and layout.

A - 4 most important thumb rulesK - Layout/SizeQ - ResolutionJ - Elements( Black, Registration, Strokes etc.)10-Scanning/ Saving Files 9 - Paper 8 - Fonts 7 - Image editing/Manipulation 6 - Image Formats 5 - Printing Techniques 4 - How to submit for print 3 - Cost 2 - Finishing options

Size of the card

The most common sizes for playing cards are poker size (2½in × 3½in; 63 mm × 88 mm, or B8 size according to ISO 216) and bridge size (2¼in × 3½in, approx. 56 mm × 88 mm), the latter being narrower, and thus more suitable for games such as bridge in which a large number of cards must be held concealed in a player’s hand. Other sizes are also available, such as a smaller size (usually 1¾in × 2⅝in, approx. 44 mm × 66 mm) for solitaire, tall narrow designs (usually 1¼in × 3in) for travel and larger ones for card tricks.

For my purpose I chose the normal bridge size (2¼in × 3½in)

Guide Feedback........simple ones with lesser elements look better. Kindly check whether it should be dpi or ppi. On coated paper ink absorption is less so ink stays on top giving it more richer and brighter look while on non coated paper it gets absorbed a bit by paper, so less richness is there in images after printing....

I decided the one with dashed lines. The font decided was scala sans and started fitting all the points onto the cards. After the first draft, the set was proof read over and over again by different people. There were lot of cor-rections and editing. For the picture cards I decided to use regular images of kings and queens to illustrate my points.

Guide Feedback......While using images of king, queen and jack, you have to be careful not to loose readability of the text. (May be outlined vector graphics with some lighter colour).....

10

10Most of the pictures on

the internet are at 72 dpi, downloading and

using them in print jobs will result in very poor

quality images.

Do not scale images in layout application more

than 20% - 30%. Reducing/enlarging the images more than that

may result in loss of detail.

7

7

q q

q q

q

q

J

J K

K

K

K

K

K

K K

11"14"

8.5"

12"

J

J

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

9

9

9

9

8

8

reverse type.

reverse

8

8

9

9

9

9

8

8

8

8

6

6

6

6

7

7

7

7

7

7

7

7 5

5

5

5 6

6

6

6 5

5

5

5

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

3

3

3

3

2

2

2

2

3

3

3

3

2

2

2

2

A

A

A

A

A

A

A

A

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

10

9

9

9

9

8

8

reverse type.

reverse

8

8

9

9

9

9

8

8

8

8

6

6

6

6

7

7

7

7

7

7

7

7 5

5

5

5 6

6

6

6 5

5

5

5

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

4

3

3

3

3

2

2

2

2

3

3

3

3

2

2

2

2

A

A

A

A

A

A

A

A

The back of the Cards

The back of each card is identi-cal for all cards in any particular deck, and usually of a single color or formalized design. The back of playing cards is sometimes used for advertising. Over here since each of the front has information the back requires to be the same also to show the unity and connection between the information.

Guide Feedback.........These cards are not only cards but you are giving information about printing as well, so if you can bring in some imression or visual feel of four colur printing in your back pattern will definitly make diffrence.

Wherever you are defining processes or of importance, make that particu-lar word bold for more clarity........

Ready To

PrintIn

Ready To

PrintIn

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

Ready To

PrintIn

Ready To

PrintIn

Ready To

PrintIn

CMYKCMYKCMYK

Ready To

PrintIn

CMYKCM Y KCM Y KCM Y KCM Y K

The Handout

Since these cards are for people who haven’t undergone printing technolo-gy or who do not have enough knowledge about printing, this set of cards is complemented with a handout that explains certain terminology as well as the basic of PRINTING i.e. CMYK.

The main information that needed to be conveyed was what RGB and CMYK is and how do they differ. Also very importantly what is 4-colour printing. Therefore the process of separation needed to be explained.

The same language had to be followed so as to make it seem as a part of the set. Since this handout was to be fitted in the box of the cards, the handout should fold into 2.25 x 3.5 . Also what needed to be decided is te grammage of the paper. SInce it had to be folded manytimes, i decided on 90 gsm.

Guide Feedback after the first draft.

......In the handout backside I suggest if possible dont let your text cut on the folds..means plan your column size in such a way so that folds will come on margins.. Regarding paper I suggest you go to printing department, see samples by your self with help of shirish bhai..it will give you better understanding..If you want to explore more go to some printer..they will show you different papers available..and then decide..because whichever paper you will choose, you have to see the thichkness of the handout after folds..and also how much flexibility that paper and gsm allows you to fold..(Iam giving this suggestion because if I understood properly..you will put this hand out with cards in the box?)......

Changes MadeChanged the grid and layout. Re-edited the text.

In the picture you can see where the cards are going to be stuck and the pattern on the cards.The handout back file is without these cards which would be printed on 100gsm paper. The size is 8.3 x 10.5 in

SEPARATIONS

a

The illustration used in the handout1) Raster vs Vector2) Separations3) Registration Black

A

Perfect registrationi.e. When all

4 platesprint at the right place.

Misregistrationwhen plates shiftwhen printing.

CMYKCMYKCMYK

The success of printing jobs depends as much on the customer as it does on the printer. Decisions must be made about everything from inks to paper to �le formats and press speci�cations. You as the client must assume an active role in production and work with the printer throughout the process. These cards along with giving the joy of playing also provide su�cient information for you to have a trouble free printing experience.

8.25 in x 10.5 inchesFolded twice horizontally and vertically.Revised final handout

Packaging

I made a sample packaging to give the look of the box. Though the pack-aging was not finalised.

Thanks

Dr. Tridha GajjarImmanuel Suresh

Bharat SutarSanjay Basvaraju

Mridu MehtaPranav BagaiRakesh NegiRushik PatelBharat Patel

Khagesh PatelShirish Bhai

All the people surveyedAll my friends for their inputs

Bibwebliography

Title: Getting It Printed EditionAuthor: Mark Beach, etc.

Title: Getting it Right in Print: Digital Prepress for Graphic DesignersAuthor: Mark Gatter

Title: The All New Print Production HandbookAuthor: David Bann

Websiteshttp://www.wikipedia.org

http://www.allgraphicdesign.com/graphicsblog/http://www.ideabook.com

http://ucprinting.berkeley.eduhttp://www.centurypublishing.com/

http://www..printingtips.com