let me start by introducing myself, am Mr.Cortix chuks the C.E.O of cliquez media.

In this medium i will be explaining the process involved in printing work ranging from paper printing, flex banner, heat impression, costing for jobs, graphics idea.

Printing process has been one of the aspect designers struggle with especially those that never had the opportunity of learning printing process.

Printing simply means the impression of words, graphic materials, images on paper, wood, flex or any printable materials and these can be done with a lot of machines and on different materials which we will be discussing in stages.

stage one

The first thought before printing is the design, i don't want to waste much time on design issues, the nature of your printed work has a lot to do with the quality and look of your print, i advice you to always look out for professional graphic designers. Yes it has a lot of profit which include color management, paper management, economic profits too. Been in the field of design and printing for years, i have always noticed how poor graphic designers put extra cost on jobs, a GOOD DESIGNER will do a work done on A6 paper better with clearity of information and better work arrangement than a work done on an A4 by an amature designer So always seek attention of a good designer

Let's look at printing materials

one of the most printable material is paper, it comes in different sizes and textures.

Categories of papers when it comes to textures include uncoated and coated stocked.

Uncoated stock is paper that has no coated pigment applied to reduce the absorbency or increase the smoothness. The uncoated finishes can be described as vellum, antique, wove, or smooth.

coated stock has a surface coating that has been applied to make the surface more receptive for the reproduction of text and images in order to achieve sharper detail and improved color density. By adding a coated clay pigment, the objective of coating the stock is to improve the smoothness and reduce the absorbency. Coated paper finishes can be categorized as matte, dull, cast, gloss, and high gloss. The coating can be on both sides of the stock (coated two sides) or on one side only (coated one side). From these subcategories, paper stocks are then separated into types such as offset, bond, cover, index, and vellum bristol.

While when it comes to paper thickness we have two categories which is art card and art paper which the both of them comes in different sizes

Stage two

choosing paper for printing
your chose of paper for printing depends on the nature of your work, it might be a business card, church flyers, posters or magazine.

Let's kick off with the art paper, this is the most used paper, it covers a wide range in printing work, it can be used to print flyers, posters and magazine.

The card paper as it names implies normally comes in a card form, thick and comes in different weight 150grams to 300grams etc. It is an ideal for books cover page, magazine cover pages, business cards, invitation cards etc

paper sizes

paper can comes in different sizes which include A1, A4, A2 etc while it can also be cut to different sizes to suit your desired size.

The art paper comes in A1 size usually called reams while the card usually comes in packet.

For those that has know papers by it standard sizes
A6 is half of A5
A5 is half of A4
A4 is half of A3
A3 is half of A2
A2 is half of A1

I love the topic u 're discussing....it is really educative nd will love to get more from you

please continue with the lecture, this is a great insight, also if u do hv a E-book on it, i will greatly appreciate if i can get it, God bless you indeed.

Spread Matt am with you boss [img][/img]

bros am back to nairaland because of u no dull me pls

printing

Most people get confused at this point, as there are many machines for paper printing most especially the kORD and the latest technology with is the DI (direct image)printer which has made printing work much easier and reduce the much steps in Kord printing, even tho the DI Has it own limitations in printing

few of this limitations include paper sizes, the Di machine commonly found within are limited to A3 paper sizes. That means works with the size of A2 or A1 can't be printed with the DI Machine.

Other limitations includes, high cost of printing, and margin issues which i will be discussing on later topics.


Some major things to consider before choosing printer to be used for a project

1. What's the client chose of printing(i have met a lot of clients who will only wants to have their jobs printed with DI Machines)

2. How much you charged for the project

3. The size of the work to be printed

4. Time factor for job delivery

once this factors have been considered..it is time to drive to printing

let's now move on

i will start the DI AND HOW TO MAXIMIZE PROFIT IN DI PRINTING

Di has been the newest machine for printing since few year now despite it few limitations many printers have found pleasure in DI.

Cost of printing DI
MOST DI PRINTING PRESS CHARGES AS BELOW
A4 (250gm Art card) = (45-50)
A4(400-300gm Art card)=(80-100)
A4 (250gm Art paper) =(45-50)

A3(Art paper) =(40 -45)
A3(Art care 250gm) = (40-45)
A3(Art care 300-400gm) = (50-60)

NOTE: the prices are in Naira and are liable to be increased or decreased at anytime..the price above are as of price during the time of this post

now that we now have a clue on the prices of this paper sizes let's look at how much we can charge our client and how to maximaze profit.

Let's take for instant you have a project of flyer of about 1000 copies A6 size. now having in mind that a sheet of A6 can be cut into 4 to get four A6 sheets while a sheet of A3 will give 8 sheets of A6 and one sheet of A3 cost around N40 for art paper now let's see how many sheets you will need to print to have 1000 copies of A6 sheets

total required sheets = 1000
paper to print on = A3
how many sheet in a sheet of A3 =8
8 divide by 1000 =125 sheet
125 sheets * N40 = N5000
that means your cost of printing is
N5000
Then go for cutting, which might cost around N200 or N500
at this point you should add your transportation and other expenses for the job

At the end of the day, you might have spent around N6000 for everything is now left for you to add your own money as your profit for the work

printing with Kord

unlike DI where you just pint your design directly from the printer like the traditional laser jet and desk jet printer.

Here a lot of steps are involved
1. Separation and film production
2. Plating
3. Impression

let's kick off, after your design must have been ready (please this advice is strictly for designers, please always give space at each sides of your design for cutting or brushing so that you won't lose part of your work during cutting and please remember to save your design as CMYK) you take your design for film and separation, the number of films produced depends on the colour of your work
single colour work
Two colour or more
full color.
And the cost of this depends on the size and the colour

A3 full colour is about (N4, 500)
A4 Full colour is about(N2, 500)

After this process the next step is plating a process which involves transfer of the film into an aluminum sheet..whic cost around (350 - 400)
per plate

Afte this step the next step is taking your plate to a printing machine where the image on the plate is transferred to a paper sheet.

Ok let's look at how it feels carry out a project on a KORD Printer
specimen a calendar of A2 size 100 copies

more loading....

Thanks for your honest information... Pls can you share the new price on cost of printing with DI machine

cortix:
printing with Kord

unlike DI where you just pint your design directly from the printer like the traditional laser jet and desk jet printer.

Here a lot of steps are involved
1. Separation and film production
2. Plating
3. Impression

let's kick off, after your design must have been ready (please this advice is strictly for designers, please always give space at each sides of your design for cutting or brushing so that you won't lose part of your work during cutting ) you take your design for film and separation, the number of films produced depends on the colour of your work
single colour work
Two colour or more
full color.
And the cost of this depends on the size and the colour

A3 full colour is about (N4, 500)
A4 Full colour is about(N2, 500)

After this process the next step is plating a process which involves transfer of the film into an aluminum sheet..whic cost around (350 - 400)
per plate

Afte this step the next step is taking your plate to a printing machine where the image on the plate is transferred to a paper sheet.

Ok let's look at how it feels carry out a project on a KORD Printer
specimen a calendar of A2 size 100 copies

more loading....

Thanks for your honest information... Pls can you share the new price on cost of printing with DI machine

Following

wow, these is really educative, thumbs up bro, we are following ,keep updating us.

Okada! Stop! I don reach where I dey go.

I think it's better to use A2 because most separation and impression outfit charge A3 plates for the cost of A2.

I'm here to learn, unlearn and relearn. Hope contributions are welcomed?

yahyamay:
Thanks for your honest information... Pls can you share the new price on cost of printing with DI machine

Anyone with info

I love this thread, who is behind it let him continue because he is enriching us with great info

Great info here on printing.

OP, please continue.

Please, continue Ooooo...

cortix:
paper sizes

paper can comes in different sizes which include A1, A4, A2 etc while it can also be cut to different sizes to suit your desired size.

The art paper comes in A1 size usually called reams while the card usually comes in packet.

For those that has know papers by it standard sizes
A6 is half of A5
A5 is half of A4
A4 is half of A3
A3 is half of A2
A2 is half of A1

I'm always trying to master the sizes of paper