We are going to talk about various topics around CD DVD duplication and replication. From the design, mastering, duplication and pacakging.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Worst woes for a first time producer (part 3): Preparing the art

What is Bleed?
A bleed is the area that will be cut off from the print to prevent the final artwork from having white edges. When scanning images, keep the bleed in mind so you do not have to force a bleed by resizing an image. This will inevitably cause a loss of sharpness and make the pixels more apparent.

What is a White Flood?
Also called white base or white mask. A White Flood is the coat of ink that is applied first to a CD face print. This flood-coat is often used with 4-color process printing on CDs. A CD is reflective Silver in color. The White flood-coat acts as a base-coat or primer for the colors printed on it, recreating the effect of printing on White paper. Without the flood-coat background, colors may not be as bright or vibrant as they would print with the darker Silver background.

What does CMYK mean?
Colors on a printing press are created using a combination of four ink colors - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (called CMYK). These four inks are called process colors because they are the standard inks used in the four-color printing process. Your artwork must be in CMYK format (as opposed to RGB) before submitting.

What is offset printing?
Offset / process printing, sometimes referred to as 4-color process or CMYK printing is the technique of printing with 4 standard colors; CMYK: Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Black. This industry standard for "full-color" printing allows for near "true-to-life" color printing. The technique or process prints all 4 colors as miniature dots in precise closeness to each other. The size of each dot and its relation to the other dots is what provides the finished look of colors and tones. Most full-color brochures, magazines, newspapers, and yes, CD packaging and CDs are process printed. When process printing is not required, Pantone colors are specified.

What is silkscreen printing?
Silkscreen printing is a process whereby the artwork is converted to screens and ink is pressed through the screens onto the CD or DVD. The average resolution of silkscreen printing is 85-135 lines per inch (lpi).

Can I change an image from 72 dpi to 300 dpi?

If you are using Photoshop, just keep in mind that it cannot invent detail that isn't there. Example, increasing an image of 5"x5" @ 72 dpi to 300 dpi does not enhance its quality and detail. Photoshop merely scales up the image to 300 dpi, it samples the dots around it and adds the additional pixels as a mix of the colors next to it.

The best way is to create or scan the images @ 300dpi or greater, so you are not depending on Photoshop to re-invent.

Should I submit fonts that are used in artwork?
Artworks files that are being submit must include all fonts used, including any that are embedded in placed EPS files. Or have all text outlined in the EPS files.