Tenth entry- Process and Technology of Visual Printing

Hello, everyone! Basically this is my last entry post and it’s a pleasure to share my knowledge with you. Anyway, today I’m going to further discussed on Process and Technology of Visual Printing, emphasizes on the techniques and process used in printing nowadays. Let’s go!

As I mentioned in my previous entry, printing is a process for reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest examples include Cylinder seals and other objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The earliest known form of woodblock printingcame from China dating to before 220 A.D. Later developments in printing include the movable type, first developed by Bi Shengin China, and the printing press, a more efficient printing process for western languages with their more limited alphabets, developed by Johannes Gutenberg in the fifteenth century.

Modern printing is done typically with ink on paper using a printing press. Its also frequently done on metals, plastics, cloth and composite materials. On paper it is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing.

Woodblock printing

In the East Asia

Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns that was used widely throughout East Asia. It originated in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later on paper. As a method of printing on cloth, the earliest surviving examples from China date to before 220 A.D.

In the Middle East

Block printing, called tarish in Arabic was developed in Arabic Egypt during the ninth-tenth centuries, mostly for prayers and amulets. There is some evidence to suggest that these print blocks were made from non-wood materials, possibly tin, lead, or clay. The techniques employed are uncertain, however, and they appear to have had very little influence outside of the Muslim world. Though Europe adopted woodblock printing from the Muslim world, initially for fabric, the technique of metal block printing remained unknown in Europe. Block printing later went out of use in Islamic Central Asia after movable type printing was introduced from China.

In the Europe

Block printing first came to Europe as a method for printing on cloth, where it was common by 1300. Images printed on cloth for religious purposes could be quite large and elaborate, and when paper became relatively easily available, around 1400, the medium transferred very quickly to small woodcut religious images and playing cards printed on paper. These prints were produced in very large numbers from about 1425 onward.

The Printing Press

Johannes Gutenberg's work on his printing press began in approximately 1436 when he partnered with Andreas Dritzehen – a man he had previously instructed in gem-cutting – and Andreas Heilmann, the owner of a paper mill. It was not until a 1439 lawsuit against Gutenberg that an official record exists; witness testimony discussed type, an inventory of metals (including lead) and his type mold.

Compared to woodblock printing, movable type page setting and printing using a press was faster and more durable. The metal type pieces were sturdier and the lettering more uniform, leading to typography and fonts. The high quality and relatively low price of the Gutenberg Bible (1455) established the superiority of movable type for western languages, andprinting presses rapidly spread across Europe, leading up to the Renaissance, and later all around the world. Today, practically all movable type printing ultimately derives from Gutenberg's innovations to movable type printing, which is often regarded as the most important invention of the second millennium.

The Rotary Printing Press

The rotary printing press was invented by Richard March Hoe in 1843. It uses impressions curved around a cylinder to print on long continuous rolls of paper or other substrates.

All printing process are concerned with two kinds of areas on the final output:

1. Image of printing areas,
2. Non-image or non-printing areas

After the information has been prepared for production (the prepress step), each printing process has definitive means of separating the image from the non-image areas.

Conventional printing has four types of process:

1. Planographics, in which the printing and non-printing areas are on the same plane surface and the difference between them is maintained chemically or by physical properties, the examples are: offset lithography, collotype, and screenless printing.
2. Relief, in which the printing areas are on a plane surface and the non printing areas are below the surface, examples: flexography and letterpress.
3. Intaglio, in which the non-printing areas are on a plane surface and the printing area are etched or engraved below the surface, examples: steel die engraving, gravure
4. Porous, in which the printing areas are on fine mesh screens through which ink can penetrate, and the non-printing areas are a stencil over the screen to block the flow of ink in those areas, examples: screen printing, stencil duplicator.

Offset Printing

Offset printing is a widely used printing technique where the inked image is transferred (or "offset") from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to the printing surface. When used in combination with the lithographic process, which is based on the repulsion of oil and water, the offset technique employs a flat (planographic) image carrier on which the image to be printed obtains ink from ink rollers, while the non-printing area attracts a film of water, keeping the non-printing areas ink-free. Currently, most books and newspapers are printed using the technique of offset lithography.

Gravure Printing

Gravure printing is an intaglio printing technique, where the image to be printed is made up of small depressions in the surface of the printing plate. The cells are filled with ink and the excess is scraped off the surface with a doctor blade, then a rubber-covered roller presses paper onto the surface of the plate and into contact with the ink in the cells. The printing cylinders are usually made from copper plated steel, which is subsequently chromed, and may be produced by digital engraving or laser etching.

Gravure printing is used for long, high-quality print runs such as magazines, mail-order catalogues, packaging, and printing onto fabric and wallpaper. It is also used for printing postage stamps and decorative plastic laminates, such as kitchen worktops.

Flexography Printing

Flexography (often abbreviated to flexo) is a form of printing process which utilizes a flexible relief plate. It is essentially a modern version of letterpress which can be used for printing on almost any type of substrate, including plastic, metallic films, cellophane, and paper. It is widely used for printing on the non-porous substrates required for various types of food packaging (it is also well suited for printing large areas of solid color).

Letterpress Printing

Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing using a printing press. A worker composes and locks movable type into the bed of a press, inks it, and presses paper against it to transfer the ink from the type which creates an impression on the paper.

In practice, letterpress also includes other forms of relief printing with printing presses, such aswood engravings, photo-etched zinc "cuts" (plates), and linoleum blocks, which can be used alongside metal type in a single operation, as well as stereotypes and electrotypes of type and blocks. With certain letterpress units it is also possible to join movable type with slugs cast using hot metal typesetting.

Inkjet Printing

Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper, plastic, or other substrates. Inkjet printers are the most commonly used type of printer, and range from small inexpensive consumer models to very large professional machines.

There are many different kinds and types of printer paper, and one size does not fit all. In fact, a specific grade of paper that might be absolutely perfect for a particular task or purpose may be wildly inappropriate for another. Paper destined to be output on a desktop printer is generally divided into two distinct categories: photo paper, and everything else. In this article, we’ll talk about non-photo, general-purpose paper only. Every kind of paper is graded according to four different criteria and this website will help and guide you in choosing the right paper for the right printing results. 

So that’s the end of my very last entry. Till we meet someday in different days and have a nice day everyone!

Ninth Entry- Production of Static Product

Hello Everyone! Welcome to my ninth entry and are you excited to start our lesson today. So today we will emphasizes on Production of Static Product, which generally covers the creation of pamphlets, brochure, bunting, banners and so on. Since we have covered the digital imaging and their process of making it, so this entry will show the end / final product of your work. Excited enough? Let’s the lesson begins!

Step 1: CMYK Mode

The first rule for creating any printing file is to start it with a CMYK mode. This is one important step that is often overlooked by designers. It is advisable to start learning colour mixing with basic CMYK.

Step 2: Actual size 

Illustrator allows the designers to create the design file in different measurements such as:

• Points
• Picas
• Inches
• Millimeters
• Centimeters
• Pixels

 For example, the bunting size is 15 Feet x 3 Feet so the actual size for this artwork would be 180 Inches x 36 Inches.

Step 3: PPI setting

Since banner and bunting is viewed at a distance away, the dots per inch (ppi) can be set at lower value as contrary to the one that you will normally setup in a magazine, which is 300 ppi.

Therefore, it always a good idea to set it at the range between 100 and 150 ppi to be safe and to preserves it clarity in printings.

Step 4: Save in JPEG

One of the most crucial reasons to flatten your design works is it greatly reduce your file size. Everyone loves having a small size as it makes:

1. sending it through email possible and can be done swiftly
2. loading file on older computers a lot faster without too much problems
3. less likely to have printer pooling error

Step 5: Ready to be print

Now everything is ready and all that left to do is to send this to your printing supplier for printing. Do leave your comments whether you think this is useful or vice versa.

Different sizes of banners available

Different types of pamphlets designs

Different types of posters 

Are you interested already? I hope you do. So that’s basically the examples of creating and making posters, pamphlets, bunting and banners. For the last entry, I’m going to explain on process and technology in of visual printing, types and techniques in digital printing. Till then, I do hope you gain something from my blog. Together we gain the same knowledge and shared with the others too. Thank you and keep fighting!

Eighth entry- Visual Technology for Dissemination

HELLO EVERYONE!!

Good day, everyone! How do you do? So for the last week entry, we focused and explored on Adobe Photoshop whereas we learned on how to manipulated images and combining many images into a single image, with special effects and unique and mindblown backgrounds. So today, we are going to explore on image technology printing, CD-ROM and web, and as well as producing images for the three main subjects earlier.

We start off our entry with image technology printing. What is actually an image technology printing? Are we familiar with these terminologies? Well, luckily I have the answers that you needed.  Image Technology Printing or Digital printing refers to methods of printing from a digital-based image directly to a variety of media. It usually refers to professional printing where small-run jobs from desktop publishing and other digital sources are printed using large-format and/or high-volume laser or inkjet printers. Digital printing has a higher cost per page than more traditional offset printing methods, but this price is usually offset by avoiding the cost of all the technical steps required to make printing plates. It also allows for on-demand printing, short turnaround time, and even a modification of the image (variable data) used for each impression. The savings in labor and the ever-increasing capability of digital presses means that digital printing is reaching the point where it can match or supersede offset printing technology's ability to produce larger print runs of several thousand sheets at a low price. 

Examples of digital printers that were used to print bigger size of images

History of printing

Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. As a method of printing on cloth, the earliest surviving examples from China date to before 220, and woodblock printing remained the most common East Asian method of printing books and other texts, as well as images, until the 19th century. Ukiyo-e is the best known type ofJapanese woodblock art print. Most European uses of the technique for printing images on paper are covered by the art term woodcut, except for the block-books produced mainly in the 15th century.

Examples of block printing in the early days 

Tibetan monks engraves wordings on woodblocks

Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. As a method of printing on cloth, the earliest surviving examples from China date to before 220, and woodblock printing remained the most common East Asian method of printing books and other texts, as well as images, until the 19th century. Ukiyo-e is the best known type ofJapanese woodblock art print. Most European uses of the technique for printing images on paper are covered by the art term woodcut, except for the block-books produced mainly in the 15th century.

Modern days

There are nine main types of printing processes:

Offset lithography

What we are exploring in this article

Engraving

Think fine stationery

Thermography

Raised printing, used in stationery

Reprographics

Copying and duplicating

Digital printing

Limited now, but the technology is exploding

Letterpress

The original Guttenberg process (hardly done anymore)

Screen

Used for T-shirts and billboards

Flexography

Usually used on packaging, such as can labels

Gravure

Used for huge runs of magazines and direct-mail catalogs

Disk Images

Disk images, in computing, are computer files containing the contents and structure of a disk volume or an entire data storage device, such as a hard drive, tape drive, floppy disk, optical disc or USB flash drive. A disk image is usually created by creating a sector-by-sector copy of the source medium, thereby perfectly replicating the structure and contents of a storage device independent of the file system. Depending on the disk image format, a disk image may span one or more computer files.

Disk image file formats may be open standards, such as the ISO image format for optical disc images, or proprietary to particular software applications.

As disk images contain the contents of entire disks, they can be huge. Some disk imaging utilities are filesystem-aware and can omit copying unused space from the source media, or compress the disk they represent to reduce storage requirements.

So far, we have cover digital images making and processing. That’s it for today folks! The next entry, I will explored more on Production on Static Visual Product, emphasized on banners, pamphlets and so on. See you soon! Fighting!

Seventh entry- Image Editing (Introduction to Image Editing Software and Image Manipulation)

 Computer icon of Adobe Photoshop in computers 

Screenshot of Adobe Photoshop software

Welcome once again everyone! How do you do? Are you feeling fine today? In that case, I am going to continue our journey to the next chapter, which is the introduction of image editing software namely Adobe Photoshop. Honestly speaking, I don’t have any experience in handling image editing and I’m willing to learn because it looks fun and interesting. Manipulating images look cool and I want to try and it was difficult for a beginner level like me. Anyway, we start the topic by introducing Adobe Photoshop first before we go deep into the software. Let’s go!

Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Systems for Windows and OS X. Photoshop files have default file extension as .PSD, which stands for "Photoshop Document." A PSD file stores an image with support for most imaging options available in Photoshop. These include layers with masks, transparency, text, alpha channels and spot colors, clipping paths, and duotone settings. This is in contrast to many other file formats (e.g. .JPG or .GIF) that restrict content to provide streamlined, predictable functionality. A PSD file has a maximum height and width of 30,000 pixels, and a length limit of 2 Gigabytes.

Photoshop files sometimes have the file extension .PSB, which stands for "Photoshop Big" (also known as "large document format"). A PSB file extends the PSD file format, increasing the maximum height and width to 300,000 pixels and the length limit to around 4 Exabytes. The dimension limit was apparently chosen arbitrarily by Adobe, not based on computer arithmetic constraints (it is not close to a power of two, as is 30,000) but for ease of software testing. PSD and PSB formats are documented.

Because of Photoshop's popularity, PSD files are widely used and supported to some extent by most competing software. The .PSD file format can be exported to and from Adobe's other apps like Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premiere Pro, and After Effects, to make professional standard DVDs and provide non-linear editing and special effects services, such as backgrounds, textures, and so on, for television, film, and the web. Photoshop's primary strength is as a pixel-based image editor, unlike vector-based image editors. Photoshop also enables vector graphics editing through its Paths, Pen tools, Shape tools, Shape Layers, Type tools, Import command, and Smart Object functions. These tools and commands are convenient to combine pixel-based and vector-based images in one Photoshop document, because it may not be necessary to use more than one program. 

Upon loading Photoshop, a sidebar with a variety of tools with multiple image-editing functions appears to the left of the screen. These tools typically fall under the categories of drawing; painting; measuring and navigation; selection; typing; and retouching. Some tools contain a small triangle in the bottom right of the toolbox icon. These can be expanded to reveal similar tools. While newer versions of Photoshop are updated to include new tools and features, several recurring tools that exist in most versions are discussed below.

Pen Tool.

Photoshop includes a few versions of the pen tool. The pen tool creates precise paths that can be manipulated using anchor points. The free form pen tool allows the user to draw paths freehand, and with the magnetic pen tool, the drawn path attaches closely to outlines of objects in an image, which is useful for isolating them from a background.

Measuring and navigation

The eyedropper tool selects a color from an area of the image that is clicked, and samples it for future use. The hand tool navigates an image by moving it in any direction, and the zoom tool enlarges the part of an image that is clicked on, allowing for a closer view.

Selection

Selection tools are used to select all or any part of a picture to perform cut, copy, edit, or retouching operations.

Cropping

The crop tool can be used to select a particular area of an image and discard the portions outside of the chosen section. This tool assists in creating a focus point on an image and excluding unnecessary or excess space. Cropping allows enhancement of a photo’s composition while decreasing the file size. The "crop" tool is in the tools palette, which is located on the right side of the document. By placing the cursor over the image, the user can drag the cursor to the desired area. Once the Enter key is pressed, the area outside of the rectangle will be cropped. The area outside of the rectangle is the discarded data, which allows for the file size to be decreased. The "crop" tool can alternatively be used to extend the canvas size by clicking and dragging outside of the existing image borders.

Slicing

The "slice" and slice select tools, like the crop tool, are used in isolating parts of images. The slice tool can be used to divide an image into different sections, and these separate parts can be used as pieces of a web page design once HTML and CSS are applied. The slice select tool allows sliced sections of an image to be adjusted and shifted.

Moving

The move tool can be used to drag the entirety of a single layer or more if they are selected. Alternatively, once an area of an image is highlighted, the move tool can be used to manually relocate the selected piece to anywhere on the canvas.

Marquee

The marquee tool can make selections that are single row, single column, rectangular and elliptical. An area that has been selected can be edited without affecting the rest of the image. This tool can also crop an image; it allows for better control. In contrast to the crop tool, the "marquee" tool allows for more adjustments to the selected area before cropping. The only marquee tool that does not allow cropping is the elliptical. Although the single row and column marqueetools allow for cropping, they are not ideal, because they only crop a line. The rectangular marquee tool is the preferred option. Once the tool has been selected, dragging the tool across the desired area will select it. The selected area will be outlined by dotted lines, referred to as "marching ants". These dotted lines are called "marching ants", because the dashes look like ants marching around the selected area. To set a specific size or ratio, the tool option bar provides these settings. Before making a selecting an area, the desired size or ratio must be set by adjusting the width and height. Any changes such as color, filters, location, etc. should be made before cropping. To crop the selection, the user must go to image tab and select crop.

Lasso

The lasso tool is similar to the "marquee" tool, however, the user can make a custom selection by drawing it freehand. There are three options for the "lasso" tool – regular, polygonal, and magnetic. The regular "lasso" tool allows the user to have drawing capabilities. Photoshop will complete the selection once the mouse button is released. The user may also complete the selection by connecting the end point to the starting point. The "marching ants" will indicate if a selection has been made. The "polygonal lasso" tool will only draw straight lines, which makes it an ideal choice for images with many straight lines. Unlike the regular "lasso" tool, the user must continually click around the image to outline the shape. To complete the selection, the user must connect the end point to the starting point just like the regular lasso tool. "Magnetic lasso" tool is considered the smart tool. It can do the same as the other two, but it can also detect the edges of an image once the user selects a starting point. It detects by examining the colour pixels as the cursor move over the desired area. A pixel is the smallest element in an image. Closing the selection is the same as the other two, which should also should display the "marching ants" once the selection has been closed.

Quick Selection

The quick selection tool selects areas based on edges, similarly to the magnetic lasso tool. The difference between this tool and the lasso tool is that there is no starting and ending point. Since there isn’t a starting and ending point, the selected area can be added onto as much as possible without starting over. By dragging the cursor over the desired area, the quick selection tool detects the edges of the image. The "marching ants" allow the user to know what is currently being selected. Once the user is done, the selected area can be edited without affecting the rest of the image. One of the features that makes this tool especially user friendly is that the SHIFT key is not needed to add more to the selection; by default, extra mouse clicks will be added to the selection rather than creating a new selection.

Magic Wand

The magic wand tool selects areas based on pixels of similar values. One click will select all neighboring pixels of similar value within a tolerance level set by the user. If the eyedropper tool is selected in the options bar, then the magic wand can determine the value needed to evaluate the pixels; this is based on the sample size setting in the eyedropper tool. This tool is inferior to the quick selection tool which works much the same but with much better results and more intuitive controls. The user must decide what settings to use or if the image is right for this tool.

Eraser

The eraser tool erases content based on the active layer. If the user is on the text layer, then any text across which the tool is dragged will be erased. The eraser will convert the pixels to transparent, unless the background layer is selected. The size and style of the eraser can be selected in the options bar. This tool is unique in that it can take the form of the paintbrush and pencil tools. In addition to the straight eraser tool, there are two more available options – background eraser and magic eraser. The background eraser deletes any part of the image that is on the edge of an object. This tool is often used to extract objects from the background. The magic eraser tool deletes based on similar coloured pixels. It is very similar to the magic wand tool. This tool is ideal for deleting areas with the same colour or tone that contrasts with the rest of the image.

Colour Replacement Tool

The Colour Replacement Tool allows you to change the colour, while maintaining the highlights and shadows of the original image, of pieces of the image. By selecting Brushes and right clicking, the Colour Replacement Tool is the third option down. What is important to note with this tool is the foreground colour. The foreground colour is what will be applied when painting along the chosen part of the image with the Colour Replacement Tool.

We move on to the next topic which is photo manipulation. Photo manipulation is the application of image editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion or deception after the original photographing took place. A mere enhancement or correction is known as retouching, while doctoring refers to more involved processes, which often purposefully deceive the viewer or misrepresent the scene.

With the advent of computers, graphics tablets, and digital cameras, the term image editing encompasses everything that can be done to a photo, whether in a darkroom or on a computer. Photo manipulation is often much more explicit than subtle alterations to color balance or contrast and may involve overlaying a head onto a different body or changing a sign's text, for examples. Image editing software can be used to apply effects and warp an image until the desired result is achieved. The resulting image may have little or no resemblance to the photo (or photos in the case of compositing) from which it originated. Today, photo manipulation is widely accepted as an art form.

Examples of Image Manipulation

 

Before (up) and after (down) pictures of a Hollywood actress

Before (up) and after (down) pictures of Joseph Stalin and 'his vanished' Commissar

We move on to the next topic which is photo manipulation. Photo manipulation is the application of image editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion or deception after the original photographing took place. A mere enhancement or correction is known as retouching, while doctoring refers to more involved processes, which often purposefully deceive the viewer or misrepresent the scene.

In this website, it teaches us on how to recreate an image manipulation by using Adobe Photoshop. Few steps are were highlighted as the main step such as ‘preparing the background’ as the image manipulation process starts here. I’ve included some image that had been manipulated / adjusted by using Adobe Photoshop and here’s the examples: 

Cool hah??We can do  lot more unique and catchy image manipulations and more complex by adding special effects and this website has a lot of complex image manipulations in which they also provide tips and guidance on how to make a similar photo for us to try. Here are the examples of photos from the website itself.

As you can see in this entry, it focused more on the learning process of using Adobe Photoshop. The steps that been introduced did helped and guided especially for the beginner levels whom had an interest in using Adobe Photoshop whether in their workplace or as their leisure time. Adobe Photoshop for me is an art form software that help to manipulate images with a specific reason.

That’s enough for today folks! We will continue on with the topic on visual technology for dissemination for the next entry and see you soon!