Advertising - MCM501 VU

LESSON 25
PRINT AD PRODUCTION PROCESS

_________________________________________________________________________________
Print ad production process
Print ad production process comprises of following phases:
• The pre-production phase
• The production phase
• The prepares phase
• The duplication and distribution phase

The preproduction phase:

• Planning the project
The first step, preproduction, begins when the creative department submits the approved creative
concepts- rough or comprehensive layout and copy-to the production department. The production
manager’s first task is to log the project into the departments traffic system and open a job jacket for
storing the various pieces of artwork and ideas that will be generated throughout the process. The next
task is to examine the general nature of the job and consider several questions pertinent to manage it
effectively.

• What equipment will be needed?

• How will we get it?
• What materials are necessary
• What human resources are needed?
• How many production artists will be needed?
• Working backward from publication closing dates (deadlines), the production manager decides when
each step of the work must be completed.
• The manager tries to build extra time into each step because every word, art element and aesthetic
choice need some last minute change.

Typography and copy casting

Planning the job

A) typography and copy casting

• Art directors select type styles to enhance the desired personality of the product and complement the
tone of the ad. Typefaces affect an ad’s appearance, design and readability. It is imperative that
production managers as well as graphic artists understand typography, the art of selecting and setting
type. Advertising artists have to know the five major type groups, the artistic variations within a type
family, and the structure of type.
• They should consider four important concepts
• Readability,
• Appropriateness,
• Harmony or appearance, and Emphasis.
• Artists who plan to buy type outside must copy cast (or copy fit) to forecast the total block of space
the type will occupy in relation to typeface’s letter size and proportions.

• This is an important task because type is expensive to buy and costly to change.
• There are two ways to fit copy: the word count method and the character count method.

_________________________________________________________________
© Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan
Advertising - MCM501 VU

• With word count method the words in the copy are counted and divided by the number of words per
square inch that can be set in a particular type, style and size as given in a standard table.

• The character count method is more accurate.

• Someone counts the number of characters (letters, word spaces, and punctuation marks) in the copy,
find the average number of characters per pica for each typeface and size, and determines how much
space the copy will fill.

B) planning the job

• The overall purpose of preproduction is to plan the job thoroughly, which usually entails making a
number of strategic choices before launching into full production.
• The art director and production manager will also consult on the paper to be used.
• Advertisers use three categories of paper: writing, text and cover stock.
• Letters and fliers commonly use writing paper.
• Bond writing paper is the most durable and most frequently used.
• There are many types of text papers such as news stock, antique finish, machine finish, English finish
and coated.

• Finally the production manager must decide early which is most important for a particular project:
speed, quality or economy. Typically the manager must sacrifice one in favor of the other two. The
answer determines the production methods used and the personnel employed. Once all these
decisions are made the manager can begin the production phase.

The production phase:

Creating the art work
• The production phase involves setting up the artwork and typesetting, completing ancillary functions
such as illustration or photography and then melding all these components into a final tangible form
for the printer or publisher.

• To create the art for an ad, brochure, or package, the production artist normally begins by marking
out a grid on which to lay the type and art. In traditional handcrafted paste-up, the artist draws the
grid on the piece of art board in light blue pencil. The grid provides an underlying consistency to the
spacing and design of the piece.

• The production artist then specifies the style and size of typefaces for the texts and inputs this
information, along with the copy, into the computer.
• Whenever an additional color is to be printed, a art board marked to the same dimension is used for
the second image.
• The second image may be glued onto a clear plastic overlay that lies on top of the first image (called
base art).
• The art elements must be properly positioned in the art work-whether mechanical or computer
generated because the printer needs to have layers of art that can be reproduced individually.
• The total image is then constructed as each layer is printed over the other.
• Since the printer must photograph each layer to make separate plates, this kind of artwork is called
camera ready art. This procedure is easily performed in the computer.

B) Camera-ready art and halftones

_________________________________________________________________
© Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan
Advertising - MCM501 VU

• Production art for the printing process is like an off switch: where the art is black, ink will stick,
where the art is white, ink wont stick.
• The production artist adheres to this printing principal by using black and white artwork that is called
line art and by converting grey images to a form of line art called halftones.
• line art
• Normal photographic paper (like snapshots made with a camera) produces images in continues
tones-black and white with shades of gray in between. But printing press cannot print gray.
• So printers use special orthographic film, a high contrast film yielding only black and white images
with no gray tones. The art work is simply photographed as is, and the result is called a line film.
From that a line plate is produced for printing.
• A continuous tone photograph or other illustration requiring gradations in tone cannot be
reproduced on orthographic film or plate without an additional process the halftone screen. Halftone
screens
• While line plates print lines and solid areas (like type) halftone plates print dots. The many element is
the halftone screen, which breaks up continuous tone artwork into tiny dots. The combination of
dots when printed, produces an optical illusion of shading, as in a photograph.

• In dark areas of image the dots bump into each other and make the paper appear nearly black. In the
gray areas the size of the black dots equals the amount of white paper showing through and in white
areas, the black dots are surrounded by a lot of white or are almost completely missing the human
eye perceives the dots are traditions of tone.
• The fineness of the halftone screen determines the quality of illusion.
• The artist’s final step is to mark any half tones and line art for size and indicate where they should be
placed. The artist simply sticks a photocopy of the visual to the art board in its exact location with
the letter “fpo” (for position only) written across the image.
• That way the printer does not think the copy is the actual final art.

The prepares phase:

• Stripping, negs and plates
• In the prepares phase, the printer makes a plate from the base art and one from each over lay.
• Each paste up (mechanical) has to be photographed separately.
• The various layers of line art and halftones are converted to film negatives, which are carefully
mounted together
• In perfect registration through a process known as stripping onto opaque plastic sheets called flats.
• A completed flat is a mask that allows light to pass through only where lines and dots are to appear
on the plate.

• The flat is pressed against the printing plate, and ultraviolet light exposes the plate’s photosensitive
emulsion.
• Once exposed, the emulsion is developed, etching the plate in the process.
• This leaves some areas of the plate capable of holding ink and others unable to do so.
• Once dry the plates are hung on the press, ready for printing.

A)printing in color
• A printing plate can print only one color at a time. An advertiser who wants to print an ad or a
brochure in blue, green and black needs three different plates (one for each color) and the job is
referred to as three color job.
• To print in full color though the four color process is used.

_________________________________________________________________
© Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan
Advertising - MCM501 VU

• This process can simulate nearly all colors by combining the four prime colors: process red (also
called magenta)
• Process blue(cyan), process yellow and black (which provides greater detail and density as well as
shades of gray).
• To print in full color therefore, the printer prepares four different printing plates-one four each
process color plus black.

• Designs that do not need full color are printed in blended inks rather than process colors. For
example, it would take two process colors (magenta and yellow) to make red or three process colors
(magenta, yellow and cyan) to make burgundy.
• When printing a brochure in black and burgundy, its cheaper to use only two ink colors rather than
black plus three process colors.
B)four-color separations
• Four separate negative halftones are needed to make a set of four color the set is called the color
separation.
• In printing the process color inks are translucent, so two or three color can overlap to create another
color. For example green is reproduced by overlapping yellow and cyan dots.

The duplication & distribution phase

• Printing, binding and shipping
• The last phase of the print production process involves the actual printing, proofing and
finishing steps of drying, cutting, binding and shipping.
• The press run
• Once the paper, plates and ink are readied, the press is started and stopped a few times to adjust
the alignment of the image on the paper.
• In multicolored printing the proper alignment of all the colors is critical. When the initial proofs
show good alignment, the press are started again and slowly spend up to maximum output.

B) Finishing
• Once all the pieces are printed, the ink must dry (unless heat-set or cold-set inks were used).
• Then the excess paper is cut away using huge cutting machines.
• Depending on the nature of the job the pieces may be delivered to special subcontractors who
emboss or die cut or perform other special techniques to enhance the final printed piece.
• The final step may be the bindery for two and three hole drilling, wire stapling and folding.

_________________________________________________________________
© Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan