Trapping, bleeding and what to do with half tones

Graphic arts - It's a whole new language

Here are a few techie tips to impress your service provider the next time you have some printing produced.

Trapping: Trapping is the process of overlapping adjacent colors to avoid multiple-color registration problems. Trapping, also called "choke and spread," is necessary in screen printing.

Halftones, Screen Tints and Graduated Tints: Halftones and screen tints are areas of color created by dots instead of solid ink coverage. Some items cannot be printed in this format Graduated screen tints are areas of color that gradually change their density from light to dark. Depending on the print process some graduated screen tints below 10% will not print well. Tints of 90% or more will print as a solid.

Bleed: An imprint is considered to "bleed" when the image runs to the edges of the paper.

Line Screen: Line screens refer to the number of lines per inch in a halftone image. The lower the number, the larger and more widely spaced the dots. Higher numbers allow reproduction of fine detail. Typically screen printing uses 65 line screen, jobbing printing uses 120 line screen and full colour litho uses upwards of 175 line screen.

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Good luck

Gordon Flavell
www.flavell.com

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