Quality Control
Every designer wants the highest possible quality in his printed job. And most clients would add: at the lowest possible cost. It is the designer's responsibility to try to satisfy both demands. There are several areas in which the designer can influence both the quality and the cost of the job:
Design. Design is crucial to the quality of a job; it also has an enormous influence on the cost of a job. For example, the least expensive job to print is all line art, printed black. Adding a halftone means that original continuous-tone copy will have to be screened and stripped into position. This will add to your cost. And if you use a colored ink instead of black, expect to pay more. Not only do colored inks generally cost more, but since most printing plants are always running black ink, the press must be cleaned before printing another color. And after the job is printed, the press must be cleaned again before going back to black. By the same token, two-color jobs are more expensive than one-color jobs, and fullcolor printing is the most expensive.
Original Art. The quality of the printing plate is dictated by the quality of the original copy, so make sure all copy is of the highest possible quality. If the art is not perfect, have it retouched or crop the areas that will not reproduce well (make sure you consult with the client before cropping!). If the art cannot be improved, show the problem to the printer; a certain amount of correction is possible in the shooting, platemaking, and printing processes.
Paper. Find out enough about paper so that you will be able to make intelligent decisions. The best printing press and the best presswork are useless if the job is printed on the wrong paper. Paper must be suited not only to the printing process but also to the copy to be printed. For example, the selection of paper is far more critical for printing color and halftones than it is for printing type or line illustrations. The smoothness of the paper's surface directly affects the quality of the printed piece: a smooth paper permits each dot to print accurately; a rough paper tends to break up the dot patterns, creating a printed image that lacks strength and detail. In short, the more you know about paper, the better the chances that the job will be properly printed.
Proofs. Check proofs carefully. If the job is printed by letterpress or gravure, you will receive an engraver's proof. In this case, the printing plate has already been made and what you see is exactly what will appear when the job is printed. If the plate is correct, it is sent by the engraver directly to the printer. Corrections or changes at this stage are expensive and may require handwork, or making a completely new plate. Whenever possible, an engraver's proof should be pulled on the same paper on which the job is to be printed.
If the job is to be printed by offset, you will receive a photographic proof. In this case, the printing plate has not been made, and what you see will not help you determine the quality of the printed job so much as reassure you that all the elements are correct and in their proper positions. Check the proofs carefully with the client to be certain there are no mistakes. Mark the corrections directly on the proof and return it to the platemaker or printer along with any new copy to be shot. Unless you ask for a corrected proof, the next time you see the job it will be printed.
Printer. In many cases, the printer can be more important than the printing process. A good printer can control the quality of a job by applying his knowledge of the press, paper, and ink; a poor printer may destroy the job. The printer you choose may be someone you know by reputation or someone recommended to you. Ask the printer to discuss the job with you and perhaps show you similar jobs printed on the kind of paper you intend to use. It won't do you any good if he shows you a great letterpress job on smooth paper when you intend to print offset on rough paper!
At times the designer may have to work closely with the printer to determine imposition, sheet size, and press size. The size of the printing press is designated by the size of the sheet the press is designed to handle-for example, 22" x 29", 25" x 38", or 52" x 76". (In some cases there may be an inch or two difference between the official size and the sheet size because some presses are capable of taking a sheet size slightly larger than standard.) If the job is being printed by web, the press is measured by the width of the roll (web width) and the minimum and maximum cutoff of the roll.
Scheduling. Keep in mind scheduling requirements, allowing the proper amount of time for each of the trades to do its job. The typographer, the platemaker, and the printer must all be included in the schedule. And remember that it takes time to ship paper to the printer and the printed piece to the client. Also, do not overlook vacation schedules. These can involve closing entire plants for two weeks during the summer, and sometimes for the week between Christmas and New Year.
It is impossible to anticipate everything that can go wrong with a job; there are just too many people involved. All you can do is plan well enough in advance so that if things do go wrong there will still be plenty of time to rectify them. Otherwise, you will find yourself making a compromise between what you want and what is available. In the end, lack of planning means more work for the designer, as well as a less than successful job.