IntroductionEmbossing and die cutting: Paper sculpture| 00:01 |
(MUSIC).
Hi, I'm Claudia McCue.
| | 00:06 |
During this course I'm going to introduce
you to three ways to lure the reader.
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What I call shape, surface, and shine.
Die cutting allows you to shape your
| | 00:15 |
printed piece.
Takes it beyond the boring old rectangular format.
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Embossing sculpts the surface of your
paper.
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It provides the double enticement of
dimension and tactile engagement.
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And foil stamping creates the shine that
can turn paper into gold.
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Of course all these processes require
planning, and close collaboration with
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your printer, even more so than a standard
print job.
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But these enhancements have the power to
grab the attention of a reader.
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To draw them in, and give your printed
piece a chance to deliver its message.
| | 00:48 |
So let's explore the visual impact you can
add to your print projects, by using die
| | 00:51 |
cutting, embossing, and foil stamping.
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| What you should know before watching this course| 00:01 |
During this course, I'll be showing you
some techniques for creating artwork, for
| | 00:04 |
embossing and die cutting, using
Illustrator and InDesign.
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So to make the most of those exercises,
you should already be reasonably
| | 00:11 |
comfortable in those programs.
Certainly, you'll find lots of great
| | 00:15 |
essential training courses here on
lynda.com, to help you enhance your skills
| | 00:19 |
in those applications.
And in addition, if you'd like to know
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more about print production in general,
you might enjoy my print production
| | 00:26 |
fundamentals course and the print
production essentials, spot colors and
| | 00:29 |
varnish course
| | 00:32 |
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| Using the exercise files| 00:01 |
If you're a premium member of lynda.com
library, you have access to the exercise
| | 00:04 |
files used in this course.
You can download this files from the
| | 00:09 |
Exercise Files tab on the main page for
this course.
| | 00:12 |
For the movies in this course that have
exercise files, you can load up the files
| | 00:15 |
and then you can follow along with the
same project that I'm working on.
| | 00:19 |
If you don't have access to the exercise
files, of course you can use your own files.
| | 00:24 |
Okay, let's get started.
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1. Embossing BasicsThe visual impact of embossing| 00:01 |
There's no denying that embossing has a
visual impact.
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Of course it adds depth, here's a nice
little piece.
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It's just blind embossing.
There's no printing, there's no ink on the paper.
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The only thing that's carrying this art is
just that depth of embossing.
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There's a little bit of texture to the
paper and the embossed area is just a
| | 00:19 |
little bit smoother than the area around
it.
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That contrast of texture and height, makes
a wonderful but subtle effect.
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And embossing is tactile, it's sculpture.
It's something that you can feel.
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This is a lovely little piece.
It's a promotional for Gutenberg's.
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That's a company in the Atlanta area that
specializes in creating embossing dyes,
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and doing embossing and foil stamping.
And so, they showcased their capabilities
| | 00:45 |
here by using a multilevel emboss.
You can see that the G is not quite as
| | 00:48 |
pronounced as their company name
Gutenberg's.
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And then of course they've added some foil
stamping.
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And then that little bit of die cutting on
the lower right, that little rounded corner.
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Every little touch makes it something out
of the ordinary.
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And a piece like this just instantly
conveys value.
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This is a rich chocolate brown stock.
It's beautiful paper.
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And the embossed G, because of the
pressure and the heat involved in the embossing.
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There's just a little bit of scorching
around the edges.
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That sounds like a bad thing, but it
isn't.
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It really colors the edge of that G, just
very subtly.
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And it's almost sort of a polish.
And that's something you can use to your advantage.
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Scorching sounds like a bad thing but when
you know what it's going to do, you can
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actually use it as a component of your
design.
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A piece like this makes a lasting
impression.
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This is a promotional piece for Ink
Systems Incorporated and they make ink.
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I know you're not surprised at that.
But you don't even have to read the logo.
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The minute you see it, you know they have
something to do with ink.
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And you can almost feel that splat of ink.
And it's a really, really nice looking piece.
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And then a piece like this, that uses a
multi-level embossing die.
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And this is something called a combination
die.
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And that means that the embossing and the
foil stamping happen simultaneously.
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This looks a piece of metal.
It looks like carved metal sitting on top
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of the paper.
You can image there was a lot of work
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involved in creating this, but it's a
really striking piece and it's a showcase
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for the company that made it.
So, keep these things in mind.
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Embossing is really like paper sculpture
and it adds depth.
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And it adds life to a piece that you work
on.
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It takes planning, but the outcome is
absolutely gorgeous.
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| Die components| 00:01 |
If you're working on a project that uses
embossing, where do those dies come from,
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and how are they created?
Well, the first thing to consider is
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something called the profile of the die.
Now, keep in mind that a die consists of
| | 00:13 |
the die itself, and then the counter.
Now, all of the profile illustrations that
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you're seeing are for embossing.
Meaning that the embossed area's going to
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push up above the paper.
There's also something called debossing,
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where that shape gets pushed into the
paper.
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Although, that's not used very often, the
only difference would be essentially you
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would turn this little set of pieces
upside down.
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But for all of these illustrations,
they're meant to show a die that's
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going to give you raised content on the
page.
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So, for what's called a single-level die,
it's just going to push it all up one level.
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So everything is going to be on one plain
that's pushed up out of the paper.
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That doesn't mean it's just going to be a
big circle or a big square.
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It just means everything's going to be
uniform.
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So you'd use a die like that for borders
or rules or, or line art.
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And you can see the shoulder of this shape
is square, so it's sharp edges.
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Could that be an issue?
If you're trying to make a deep emboss in
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some stocks you're going to find that they
may be prone to tearing.
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So there's always that sort of juggling
act between the shape that you want the
| | 01:16 |
embossing to accomplish And the behavior
of the stock.
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But then the people who create the dies
can also help you judge how you're
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going to create your artwork for the die.
And what the limitations of the embossing
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process are going to be.
The multi-level die, as you can see.
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And you're just looking at it in
cross-section.
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Can push the stock up to different levels.
So not everything's going up to the same height.
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So this gives you an opportunity to add
little more visual interest, a little more
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if you want to call it, a scultptural
quality to it.
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Round edge dies give sort of a soft
transition from the base up through the
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embossed area.
And that can be a good way to handle stock
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that's prone to tearing because it's sort
of a gentle transition from The unembossed
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area to the embossed area.
And here's another solution to that
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problem beveled edges.
That has a more crisp edge than the round
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edge die does, but it's good for heavy
stocks because it's that transition that
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little shoulder that pushes it up so it
doesn't have a sudden move like the single
| | 02:14 |
die that you saw earlier.
So that may be helpful again with stock
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that's prone to tearing.
But for the really elaborate design,
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sculptured dies.
Now those are often, hand created.
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They might be started with some machining,
but they're going to be finished with hand creation.
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Essentially they're engravings, they're
carvings.
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An you can do some beautiful things,
especially with blind embossing.
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An this is when you're really sculpting
paper.
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An you're capable of extensive details.
So trees, an fur, an fine letters, an
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things like that.
Because of the work involved, you might
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expect they can be significantly more
expensive than other kinds of dies.
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So what are dies made out of?
Predominantly they're made out of three
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metals, magnesium, it's good for
single-level dies, it's a soft metal.
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It's easy to mill, most of the time you're
going to find that it's created with
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what's called a photoresist and
acid-etching.
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It's essentially a photographic process
where a chemical is placed on the metal
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that is sensitive to light.
And its exposed developed, and then where
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it remains behind protects the metal.
And then where the acid hits it, it's
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going to etch away the metal and make, you
know, little openings in the metal.
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And it's going to leave that original
surface, and that's going to be the top of
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the die.
One of the issues with magnesium is that,
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well because it's soft, it may expand
slightly when heated.
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And what does this mean to your design?
Well, it might mean that if you want to
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register embossing with a printed sheet,
magnesium might present a problem, it's
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good for 15 to 20,000 impressions.
The production time is usually one to
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three days, of course that's going to
depend on what other jobs are in the die
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cutting company at the time, as you might
expect.
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Copper is a little bit harder than the
magnesium.
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It's good for single-level dies as well
and it can be created the same way using a
| | 04:04 |
photo-resist and acid-etching.
Because it's a little bit harder than
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magnesium, it doesn't expand as much as
magnesium.
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It's good for jobs that require tighter
registers.
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So if you did want to emboss a preprinted
piece, you have a better chance of having
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that embossed shape line up with artwork
on the printed piece because it's harder.
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It's also capable of longer runs up to a
hundred thousand, and it's also a little
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bit more expensive than magnesium diesyes.
And the production time might be a little
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bit longer than what you'd experience with
the magnesium dies.
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And then brass good for single level or
multilevel, you've seen that its good for
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sculptured dies.
It can hold very fine detail.
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Its hand-etched.
Consequently, it's more expensive but it's
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very well-behaved.
Very little expansion under heat so you
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have excellent register, so you can do
fine detail.
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You can line up with previously printed
paper and be sure that things are going to
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turn out the way your expect.
Because it's harder, you can expect to
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have long runs.
But, as with everything that's better
| | 05:07 |
than, you know, the other options, you can
expect that your production time is
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going to be longer.
And it's going to be longer still if
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you're creating a very complex die that
has a lot of detail in it.
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Keep in mind, this is very much like
old-time engraving, there's a lot of hand
| | 05:21 |
work and this sort of die is created by
craftsmen who understand how die behave on paper.
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But when you look at the possibilities,
you have a wide range of options from
| | 05:31 |
fairly affordable to fairly expensive.
But this covers the range of the sort of
| | 05:36 |
artwork that you might want to emboss.
Who's going to make this decision?
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Well, this is going to happen as a result
of conversations you're going to have with
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your printer.
And if you deal directly with a finishing
| | 05:46 |
company, they can advise you as well.
But all of this is conversation you should
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have early in the game, because these
decisions really have a huge impact on the
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success of a job that involves embossing.
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| How dies are created| 00:00 |
Creating an embossing die is a complex
process, and when you look at the
| | 00:03 |
components here, you start to get an idea
of that.
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Now here we're actually looking at the
finished piece, and the components that
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created the embossed effect.
But you'll understand when you see this
| | 00:15 |
what goes into the process.
What he's putting inside the book Is going
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to push the paper up.
That's the actually embossing die.
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And this is the concave version of that.
And that's called the counter.
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You can see that it's hollow.
So as that paper is compressed, using heat
| | 00:31 |
and pressure, it's going to be sculpted by
those two dies.
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The one on the bottom part of the paper's
going to to push it up.
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It's going to be pushed into the hollow
parts of the counter.
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And then it's going to be sculpted because
of that process.
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And then they went one step farther, and
then added a spot varnish on top of this.
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So, the result is something that's very
shiny, it's very tactile, it has a lot of
| | 00:52 |
dimension to it and it's something that
really draws the reader in, it grabs the
| | 00:56 |
buyers eye.
But look at it closely.
| | 00:59 |
And get a sense of the artisanship that's
involved in creating this.
| | 01:03 |
It really is a piece of sculpture that's
used to create this dimensional effect on
| | 01:07 |
a printed piece.
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| Cost and time considerations| 00:00 |
When you start contemplating a project
that's going to involve embossing, you
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have to sort of look down the line at your
final deadline.
| | 00:08 |
And you have to keep in mind that the more
complexity involved in your embossing is
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going to result in higher cost and of
course, it's going to extent the time
| | 00:15 |
required to accomplish all this.
If you're using simple, single-level dies,
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those can be photo-etched, and you could
anticipate maybe a one to three day
| | 00:25 |
production for those.
The cost is going to vary with the size of
| | 00:30 |
the die that's going to be created and the
complexity of the detail of the die.
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And that production schedule again is
going to depend on the job load at the die maker.
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When you start considering multi-level
dies or sculptural dies, or combination
| | 00:44 |
dies, which perform both embossing and
foil stamping simultaneously.
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Those require brass.
And that's more expensive.
| | 00:52 |
But it can hold finer detail.
It's harder, it's better for longer runs.
| | 00:57 |
But it also requires handwork.
And handwork is time consuming and it's expensive.
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So you should anticipate at least a three
to five day production cycle for a complex
| | 01:06 |
die like this, and it could be even longer
depending on the work load at the die maker.
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The cost, again, is going to vary with the
size and the complexity of the embossing die.
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If you're going to be embossing printed
work.
| | 01:20 |
That printed sheet has to be dry before it
can be embossed, so that adds to the lead
| | 01:25 |
time right there, and if you require tight
registration between the embossing and the
| | 01:29 |
printed sheet, that's going to require
brass dies.
| | 01:34 |
They can hold that tight detail.
They're going to cost a little bit more,
| | 01:37 |
and they're going to take longer to
prepare.
| | 01:40 |
If there are any problems, that's going to
require a reprint or it could require a
| | 01:44 |
new die or it could be both.
If there's a problem trying to get that
| | 01:48 |
brass die to align with the printed piece,
if you're asking too much of that
| | 01:52 |
combination of die and print and stock,
you may have to back up and rethink some
| | 01:56 |
of the components.
So this is why you want to plan far ahead.
| | 02:01 |
You want to consult with the printer,
consult with the die maker.
| | 02:05 |
Make sure that your choice of stock is
appropriate for what you trying to accomplish.
| | 02:09 |
And make sure that you have a realistic
notion of the deadlines involved and the
| | 02:12 |
anticipation of the result.
So, the job planning involves at least the printer.
| | 02:18 |
And most printers don't create their own
dies.
| | 02:21 |
They certainly don't usually create
complex dies.
| | 02:24 |
So, then you're talking about job planning
in both companies, the printer and the
| | 02:28 |
finishing supplier.
So as soon as possible, when you're
| | 02:31 |
planning a job like this, try to get them
both involved.
| | 02:35 |
Because you can coordinate your schedules
and they can educate you about things that
| | 02:38 |
you might need to change as you prepare to
send this job for production.
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And keeping in mind that those schedules
have to all be synchronized.
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There's a lot to think about.
And that's one reason there's no such
| | 02:50 |
thing as too much time.
A job involving embossing is not something
| | 02:54 |
you want to rush.
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2. Manufacturing ConsiderationsChoosing appropriate stock| 00:00 |
As you start planning a job that's going
to use embossing, stock is a consideration.
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You should consult your printer if that's
who you're dealing with.
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Or if you have a direct relationship with
the die maker, talk to them.
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If you think of it this way, paper and
embossing is sort of a recipe, and you
| | 00:15 |
want to be a good cook.
The stock weight, of course, is important
| | 00:19 |
as you might expect, heavier stock
responds well to embossing.
| | 00:23 |
But the die may have to be created deeper
in order to provide definition for certain
| | 00:27 |
artwork if it's very heavy stock.
One of the things that happens with heavy
| | 00:31 |
stock, is that, even though it will hold
shape well.
| | 00:34 |
It can also try to collapse.
It tries to go back to its former shape.
| | 00:38 |
So it may have to be pushed deeper than
what the finished emboss level ought to be.
| | 00:43 |
The surface or the texture of the stock is
important.
| | 00:45 |
You'll find that felt finishes are the
best for maintaining detail.
| | 00:49 |
If the stock has very pronounced texture,
it could complete with small details in
| | 00:53 |
your embossing art.
Although the contrast between textured
| | 00:56 |
stock and the slight smoothing that
happens during embossing can actually be
| | 01:00 |
kind of interesting.
Long fiber stock works better than short
| | 01:04 |
fiber stock for deeper embossing because
it stretches better and still holds together.
| | 01:10 |
Stock grain is important, too.
If you have artwork with, let's say,
| | 01:14 |
horizontal components and you're aligning
those horizontal components with a
| | 01:17 |
horizontal grain in the paper.
That could cause cracking, so you might
| | 01:22 |
consider changing your artwork, or perhaps
changing the angle that you're embossing.
| | 01:27 |
As much as we want to be sustainable, as
much as we want to recycle, you may find
| | 01:31 |
that recycled stocks can be inconsistent
under embossing, and that's because
| | 01:35 |
they're created out of a combination of
original fiber.
| | 01:40 |
So it's a good idea if you use stock that
is composed of less than 30% post-consumer waste.
| | 01:47 |
If you're using coated stock or varnished
stock, or stock that's already printed,
| | 01:51 |
you have to keep in mind that paper
stretches but coatings don't.
| | 01:56 |
And so coatings may crack or split.
Especially with deeper embossing.
| | 02:00 |
And often, there's heat applied during
embossing, and with thin stocks that are
| | 02:03 |
coated, they can become brittle.
And that may not be obvious early on in
| | 02:07 |
the job, but during the life of that
printed piece, it may become a problem.
| | 02:12 |
Now, shallow embossing may be okay with
these stocks, because you're not pushing
| | 02:15 |
the paper quite so far, and maybe you
don't break the integrity of the coating.
| | 02:20 |
Stock color can be used as sort of part of
the artwork.
| | 02:23 |
For instance, if you're using blind
embossing on white stock, that makes for a
| | 02:26 |
beautiful result.
If you're embossing on darker stock, you
| | 02:30 |
may find that your embossing needs to be
deeper, so that you can see sufficient
| | 02:33 |
contrast between the shape of the emboss
and the color of the stock.
| | 02:39 |
And if you're embossing stationery keep in
mind that, that may be run through a laser printer.
| | 02:44 |
And that means that it's going to be
subjected to pressure and to heat.
| | 02:48 |
So it might flatten the embossing back
out.
| | 02:50 |
So in anticipation of that, you might go
for a more shallow emboss.
| | 02:54 |
And that way, if it gets flattened a
little bit, maybe it isn't so apparent.
| | 02:59 |
But as always, have good conversations
with your printer as early in the job as possible.
| | 03:03 |
If you're dealing directly with the die
maker, help them give you advice about how
| | 03:07 |
to create your artwork and how to set your
expectations for the success of the job.
| | 03:12 |
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| Embossing preprinted stock| 00:01 |
You're frequently going to be combining
embossing and printing.
| | 00:05 |
Now, if you're performing blind embossing,
which is embossing that takes place on
| | 00:08 |
unprinted stock, that's not an issue.
If you're performing blind embossing on an
| | 00:13 |
unprinted area of printed stock, that's
usually not a challenge unless it's too
| | 00:17 |
close to the printed area.
And then, there might be some buckling.
| | 00:22 |
So that's something to take into
consideration as you're designing.
| | 00:25 |
But registration to a printed area, as you
might expect, requires precision.
| | 00:30 |
And that usually requires the creation of
brass dye.
| | 00:33 |
As for the embossing, they're more
expensive, but they can hold finer detail,
| | 00:36 |
and they're capable of longer runs as
well.
| | 00:40 |
Brass dies almost always require some hand
work.
| | 00:42 |
And that's time-consuming, and it's
expensive.
| | 00:45 |
And if there are errors, those can be
really costly.
| | 00:48 |
Because if you're embossing and you find
out it's not what you want, if you find
| | 00:51 |
out you just simply can't hold the detail
that you want, or it's having awful
| | 00:55 |
results on the printing.
Then you're going to have to go all the
| | 01:00 |
way back, reprint the job, recreate the
dye, essentially you have to start over.
| | 01:04 |
And this is why you want to test early on
and you want to make sure that you
| | 01:07 |
understand how everything's going to
behave when it all falls into place.
| | 01:12 |
You can do some really neat things with
this.
| | 01:14 |
This is a cute little bit of artwork, but
the customer wanted to make it
| | 01:17 |
dimensional, they wanted to emboss it.
And they used a multilevel die, so you'll
| | 01:22 |
notice that the circle comes up to one
depth and then the horse is a little big
| | 01:26 |
higher and then the stars are higher
still.
| | 01:30 |
So, it looks really nice on white heavy
stock that's just got a little bit of
| | 01:34 |
texture to it because the embossing
smooths out the embossed area.
| | 01:39 |
And then of course it raises it up and it
gives it that sort of textural feel.
| | 01:43 |
Here's what could happen, and this is an
exaggeration, but if things went wrong.
| | 01:47 |
If the dye wasn't registered correctly
with the printed area, naturally this is
| | 01:51 |
going to be unattractive.
And this is what I'm talking about when I
| | 01:55 |
say, if things go wrong, then you're going
to have to reprint.
| | 01:58 |
You can't re-emboss the sheet.
You need a fresh unembossed sheet to start
| | 02:01 |
over with.
This is highly unlikely that things would
| | 02:04 |
ever go quite this badly but it's
something to keep in the back of your mind.
| | 02:08 |
Maybe you're over complicating your job.
Maybe you can get a nice effect but do it
| | 02:11 |
with a little bit simpler approach.
And you always have to keep in mind that
| | 02:15 |
there's going to be some distortion when
you emboss because really you're sculpting
| | 02:18 |
the paper, you're stretching it.
And if it's a really deep emboss, it may
| | 02:23 |
distort the artwork, or it could distort
adjacent printing.
| | 02:27 |
So you want to have it in sort of an open
area.
| | 02:29 |
And of course larger details are easier to
emboss than little, tiny ones.
| | 02:34 |
And one of the things that's sort of
unavoidable.
| | 02:36 |
If you're embossing a printed piece, keep
in mind that paper stretches, and coatings
| | 02:40 |
and inks don't.
If it's a very heavily printed piece, if
| | 02:44 |
it's a dark piece, dark ink, heavy graphic
coverage, you have to worry a little bit
| | 02:48 |
about cracking, and what do you do to
fight that.
| | 02:53 |
Well perhaps you don't emboss as deeply as
you originally planned.
| | 02:56 |
And pieces with varnish you should avoid
if you possibly can, trying to emboss a
| | 03:00 |
piece that's varnished or coated in any
way.
| | 03:04 |
But any time you're considering using
embossing, you want to consult with a
| | 03:07 |
printer and if you're consulting
separately with a die-maker, talk to them,
| | 03:10 |
and start early on.
Let them know what your plans are, and
| | 03:14 |
they can help guide you so that you don't
get yourself too far down the line in
| | 03:17 |
production and then find out that things
are not going to work the way you expect.
| | 03:22 |
After all, you're going to all this extra
effort, you want it to be a beautiful
| | 03:25 |
piece when you're done.
| | 03:26 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. Preparing Artwork for EmbossingWhen to start working on a die: Early in the job| 00:00 |
I'm sure you're not surprised to know that
adding embossing to a job adds to the
| | 00:04 |
complexity of the job.
And it also adds to the complexity of
| | 00:08 |
planning for the job.
So, if you're entertaining the notion of
| | 00:11 |
adding embossing to a project, when should
you start the planning?
| | 00:16 |
You know, right about now might be a good
time.
| | 00:18 |
Here are some questions to ask the printer
or finisher.
| | 00:21 |
And I put both terms there, because most
often you're going to deal with the printer.
| | 00:26 |
And if the printer doesn't perform his own
embossing, he's going to pass that job off
| | 00:29 |
to the finisher to do the embossing.
Sometimes you'll deal directly with the
| | 00:34 |
finishing company.
So these questions still apply either way.
| | 00:39 |
You want to determine early on what the
appropriate stock is for a project.
| | 00:44 |
And given that stock, how deep can the
embossing be?
| | 00:46 |
How deep should it be?
Even though you're not going to create the
| | 00:50 |
die, it may be helpful for you to know
what kind of edge is best.
| | 00:53 |
A beveled die?
A rounded die?
| | 00:56 |
Because that can have some impact on your
design.
| | 00:58 |
Especially how you handle text and small
art components.
| | 01:02 |
You need to know what the safe live area
is.
| | 01:04 |
In other words how far away from folds and
trims should you stay as you plan deciding
| | 01:08 |
where your embossed area is going to be.
And to some extent, the press that the
| | 01:14 |
job's going to print on and the embossing
machine could have some determination of
| | 01:18 |
those capabilities.
Of course you need to know the press
| | 01:22 |
schedule on any print job and you need to
make sure that you submit your files in
| | 01:25 |
time for that, but now you have a second
schedule to consider, and that's the
| | 01:28 |
finishing schedule.
Again if you're dealing with a printer
| | 01:33 |
directly they're going to try and keep you
on track for both what they need and what
| | 01:36 |
the finishing company needs.
So, when is the die artwork due?
| | 01:41 |
Well, that's something that's going to be
determined by that schedule and you need
| | 01:44 |
to make sure that they tell you if they
have any special instructions for artwork.
| | 01:49 |
In other words, how would they like for
you to indicate the depth levels if you're
| | 01:52 |
creating a multi-level die?
And any specs for minimum size of type or
| | 01:57 |
other art details.
Oh, and one more thing, beat your deadlines.
| | 02:02 |
If you do that, your printer and your
finisher will love you.
| | 02:06 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| File Format and other considerations| 00:01 |
Of course when you're working on any job
for print, you should communicate with
| | 00:03 |
your printer.
But when you're working on a project that
| | 00:06 |
involves embossing, you really need to be
careful about the way you communicate with
| | 00:09 |
your printer or your die maker.
There are a lot of details that you need
| | 00:13 |
to know when you're preparing your work
for this kind of a job.
| | 00:18 |
Early on, you should specify whether the
embossing is going to be blind embossing,
| | 00:21 |
and that means embossing on an area of the
job that's not printed.
| | 00:25 |
Or whether it's going to need to be
registered to print, because that may
| | 00:28 |
dictate the material that they use to
create the die.
| | 00:32 |
And that may also dictate the kind of
artwork you can use in embossing.
| | 00:36 |
And of course you should ask how art
should be supplied for any embossing project.
| | 00:41 |
But especially one that involves embossing
and foil stamping on the same area.
| | 00:45 |
That's something called a combination die.
Always indicate the kind of edge that you
| | 00:50 |
want on the embossing.
Do you want it to be beveled?
| | 00:53 |
Do you want it to be rounded?
And you should ask the printer or the die
| | 00:56 |
supplier to recommend the most appropriate
kind of edge for the kind of art that
| | 00:59 |
you're supplying, and also the kind of
stock that you're going to be embossing.
| | 01:04 |
You should supply your art at 100%.
Ideally, you supply vector artwork, but if
| | 01:09 |
you have to supply raster artwork, then
make sure that it's high resolution.
| | 01:13 |
It should be at least 600 pixels per inch
and it should be a bitmap image, not a
| | 01:17 |
greyscale image.
The bitmap image is just black and white,
| | 01:21 |
no shades of grey.
Always ask what version of file the
| | 01:24 |
printer or die maker prefers.
Should it be a native Illustrator file?
| | 01:28 |
Would they rather have an EPS?
Do they want PDFs or PSDs?
| | 01:32 |
And make sure you know which software
version they want to use.
| | 01:35 |
For example, if they're using an older
version of Illustrator than you are, you
| | 01:39 |
need to back save.
When you're creating artwork in
| | 01:43 |
Illustrator, don't use any masks.
No screens, so you can't have any halftone patterns.
| | 01:49 |
No compound paths.
Try to avoid intersecting lines, and avoid
| | 01:52 |
strokes, and other artwork components that
are like strokes, that are finer than two points.
| | 01:58 |
And it makes sense that you'd want to also
avoid extremely small text, anything
| | 02:02 |
smaller than 12 points.
Or fonts with very, very fine serifs.
| | 02:08 |
Convert your type to outlines, and as
you're creating your type, allow a little
| | 02:12 |
extra spacing between the lettering.
Remember it's going to push that paper up
| | 02:16 |
into the die.
So you want to increase the spacing so
| | 02:19 |
that you can have deeper embossing.
And for beveled-edge embossing, the
| | 02:23 |
artwork should be slightly fatter than the
desired finished size.
| | 02:27 |
Because, as that beveling happens, the
embossing gives sort of an optical
| | 02:30 |
illusion of shrinkage of art.
So a rule might seem finer.
| | 02:34 |
Or lettering might seem more narrow.
So make it a little bit fatter in
| | 02:38 |
anticipation of the embossing.
Really fine details are going to look
| | 02:42 |
better with a shallow emboss.
If you're going to emboss large, bold
| | 02:46 |
shapes, well, go for deeper embossing.
When you're choosing the area of the
| | 02:51 |
project that's going to be embossed, leave
at least a half of an inch, or one inch or
| | 02:54 |
more, between the embossed area and the
adjacent folds or trims.
| | 02:59 |
And that's because it might buckle if it's
too close to a fold or a trim.
| | 03:03 |
You should try to avoid embossing a sheet
that's printed on both sides.
| | 03:07 |
But if you just have to, remember to keep
the text away from the embossed area on
| | 03:10 |
the back side.
Or it's going to possibly be warped and be unreadable.
| | 03:15 |
Just remember, you have to prepare for
print anyway, but when you're preparing
| | 03:19 |
for something as complex as embossing, you
should communicate with your printer and
| | 03:22 |
the die maker as early in the project as
possible.
| | 03:26 |
And they can help you prepare your artwork
so that you don't have disappointment
| | 03:29 |
later in the project.
| | 03:31 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating artwork for single-level embossing| 00:01 |
We want to enhance this little card by
adding some embossing.
| | 00:04 |
Won't be very fancy.
It will just be a little simple single
| | 00:06 |
level dye.
And because that's our approach, I'm going
| | 00:09 |
to have to change a little bit about my
art work.
| | 00:12 |
And here's why.
Here where I have these two balloons
| | 00:15 |
overlapping, if they are embossed it's
just going to make sort of a one blob with
| | 00:18 |
two lobes to it.
It really look like two balloons.
| | 00:22 |
If we were going to create a multilevel
embossing dye then we could emboss this
| | 00:25 |
balloon, push it up a little bit and then
we could emboss this balloon at higher
| | 00:28 |
sculpture, you know, we push it in further
into the paper, and that way we would see
| | 00:32 |
some distinction between the two balloons.
But we're not going to do that.
| | 00:37 |
We just want to do something simple just
to give it a little bit of visual
| | 00:40 |
interest, but we really don't want to get
involved with the expense involved with a
| | 00:44 |
multilevel die.
So, because of that,m I'm just going to
| | 00:48 |
modify my design.
So I'm going to move this balloon down so
| | 00:51 |
that they are now two separate shapes and
I also want to make sure that there's
| | 00:54 |
enough room in between the balloons so
that there'll be the embossing and then
| | 00:57 |
the paper has room to flatten back out.
Remember that what happens during emboss
| | 01:03 |
is essentially the paper gets stretched
and sculpted.
| | 01:06 |
So with that in mind, I'm going to make
sure that I have enough room between the
| | 01:10 |
balloons so that that paper can sort of
relax again.
| | 01:13 |
And also that same consideration here.
This is where somebody is going to write a message.
| | 01:19 |
I want to make sure that the paper can
flatten back out so that there is no
| | 01:21 |
deformation where they're going to write.
I think this balloon is okay.
| | 01:25 |
And I also want to emboss this text.
So again, I want to have enough room
| | 01:28 |
between the balloon and text and I think
we're okay here, and I have a bit of a
| | 01:31 |
head start with the text because there's
already plenty of room between the letters.
| | 01:37 |
If the letters were much too close
together, I'd have to move them apart, but
| | 01:40 |
with the way they're set now, I think
everything's going to be fine.
| | 01:44 |
So my artwork's in position, but now I
have to create artwork that's going to be
| | 01:47 |
used to create that embossing die.
So I'm just going to duplicate my little
| | 01:52 |
balloon shapes and my text, and create a
new layer and a new color, and that's
| | 01:55 |
going to represent the embossing.
So first, the new layer.
| | 02:00 |
And of course, I'm just going to call it
Emboss.
| | 02:02 |
And now I'm going to create the color.
So in my swatches panel I'm just going to
| | 02:08 |
choose New Swatch and I'm going to name it
Emboss, naturally.
| | 02:12 |
It's going to be a spot color.
The color itself honestly doesn't matter
| | 02:17 |
it's really just representing an area.
I tend to like to make those colors really
| | 02:21 |
bright and obvious so it's clear that they
aren't part of the art work but that that
| | 02:24 |
they serve a different purpose.
So I'm going to choose OK, and now I'm
| | 02:29 |
going to duplicate the artwork so that I
can then assign that color to the
| | 02:31 |
duplicate artwork.
So I'm going to select my balloons by
| | 02:36 |
Shift clicking and I'm going to get my
text as well and you can see this little
| | 02:39 |
selector square here in the Layers panel.
All I have to do to duplicate Illustrator
| | 02:45 |
even tells me.
Click to select.
| | 02:47 |
I'm going to duplicate it and hold down
Alt on Windows or Option on the Mac.
| | 02:52 |
And that duplicates the artwork.
So it still remains in its original
| | 02:55 |
location but now I also have it in my top
layer.
| | 02:59 |
Of course we can't see it, because it's
white.
| | 03:01 |
But what I'm going to do so that I can
keep track of what I'm doing, is I'm
| | 03:03 |
going to turn off all the artwork in the
underlying layer.
| | 03:07 |
I still have that blue shape to help me
keep going.
| | 03:10 |
I'm not going to emboss the strings, I'm
just going to emboss the little globes of
| | 03:12 |
the balloons.
So, I'm going to delete the strings from
| | 03:15 |
my emboss layer, so I don't want them
involved in my emboss artwork, so I'm
| | 03:19 |
going to ungroup them with Object and
Ungroup, and for the rest of them I'm just
| | 03:22 |
going to use the keyboard shortcut, which
is Command Shift g on the mac and Control
| | 03:26 |
Shift g on Windows.
This saves me a little bit of time.
| | 03:32 |
And then, I'm just going to get rid of the
strings.
| | 03:36 |
Now we just have balloons, and then, of
course my text.
| | 03:40 |
Again, since my little blue shape is
locked, I can actually just select all of
| | 03:43 |
this at once.
And then I am going to apply that fill
| | 03:46 |
color which is my emboss.
And there we go.
| | 03:50 |
Now, here's something to keep in mind.
I'm going to turn everything back on.
| | 03:53 |
If we decide that we're going to move one
of these balloons, or we're going to
| | 03:56 |
resize it.
Then we have to remember to do the same
| | 03:59 |
thing to the emboss artwork.
They are dependent on each other, so
| | 04:03 |
always remember that whatever you do to
your artwork, you have to do to the
| | 04:06 |
emboss, and vice versa.
So now this is ready to send off to the printer.
| | 04:12 |
And then the printer is going to
coordinate with the die-making company.
| | 04:15 |
And they're going to create the embossing
die.
| | 04:17 |
And then when the job's printed, they'll
send it over to the embossing company.
| | 04:21 |
And they'll do the embossing.
And I think this is going to look really
| | 04:23 |
cute when it's done.
It's not going to be very pronounced, but
| | 04:26 |
it's just enough to give a little bit of
shape and a little bit of visual interest.
| | 04:30 |
So now that you've seen this happen.
I think this gives you an idea that it's
| | 04:33 |
really not that hard to do.
| | 04:35 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating artwork for multilevel embossing| 00:01 |
If you're working on a project that
involves multi-level embossing, you should
| | 00:04 |
first consult with your printer or die
maker, and let them tell you how to
| | 00:07 |
prepare your artwork properly so that you
get the result that you have in mind.
| | 00:12 |
We're working on a project for a client
who's creating their annual report, and
| | 00:15 |
they want to do something with their logo
to make it look more interesting.
| | 00:20 |
This is their logo and, rather than just
printing it, they've decided that they
| | 00:24 |
want to emboss it.
And rather than using a simple single
| | 00:28 |
level emboss, they want to do a multilevel
emboss.
| | 00:31 |
So they've provided us this comp that they
created in Photoshop that gives us a rough
| | 00:35 |
idea of what they have in mind.
The three little arcs at the left are
| | 00:40 |
going to emboss at different depths.
The left arc just slightly.
| | 00:44 |
The middle arc a little bit more and then
the third arc is going to emboss the most deeply.
| | 00:49 |
So this is something we could provide to
our dye maker but we have to give them
| | 00:52 |
artwork to use.
So this is how our dye maker has asked us
| | 00:56 |
to supply the art.
It's going to be vector art supplied in
| | 01:00 |
illustrator, and we've used spot colors to
indicate the different levels of embossing.
| | 01:05 |
The light orange is going to be the slight
emboss.
| | 01:07 |
The dark orange is going to be the more
pronounced emboss and, then, the green is
| | 01:11 |
going to be the deepest of all.
The text, incorporated, is just going to
| | 01:15 |
print in a metallic silver.
And knowing where that falls in
| | 01:19 |
relationship to the logo, helps the die
maker know how to register the embossing
| | 01:22 |
die to the printed sheet that they're
going to emboss later.
| | 01:27 |
And how are they going to use this art
work?
| | 01:28 |
They're going to use it to mill a brass
die and each separate color is going to
| | 01:32 |
enable them to mill to a different depth.
And that's how the composite dye is going
| | 01:37 |
to be created, and we think that kinetECO
is going to really like the way their
| | 01:40 |
annual report looks.
| | 01:42 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Sculptured embossing| 00:01 |
The most advanced form of multilevel
embossing is something called sculptural embossing.
| | 00:06 |
It really is paper sculpture.
So that multilevel aspect adds dimension.
| | 00:11 |
It requires brass dies so they can hold
the detail.
| | 00:15 |
And brass dies almost always require hand
work anyway.
| | 00:18 |
But when you're creating something that's
really a sculpture.
| | 00:21 |
That's going to require an artist's touch.
It really is a form of engraving.
| | 00:26 |
So how do you provide the artwork to the
die maker?
| | 00:28 |
Vector art as much as you can for sharp
components.
| | 00:32 |
And then separate the layers out for each
level of embossing.
| | 00:36 |
And it's really just sort of a crude
start.
| | 00:38 |
It gives them a start for milling when
they create sort of the base of the brass sculpture.
| | 00:44 |
And it's going to be up to the die maker
to do some engraving, and hand work to
| | 00:47 |
refine it.
It's helpful if you provide a Photoshop
| | 00:51 |
file or a sketch that indicates how you
want the shading to be handled.
| | 00:56 |
So this is really just a start for the die
maker.
| | 00:59 |
It's going to show them the size.
And where the lettering's going to go and
| | 01:02 |
so forth.
And they'll use this as a starting point
| | 01:05 |
for milling out that piece of brass.
This gives them a general idea of how we
| | 01:11 |
want the edge of that milled die to be.
How we want the lettering handled, how we
| | 01:16 |
want that rim around the outside handled
and, of course, the text.
| | 01:21 |
But the head is going to have to largely
be handled by hand.
| | 01:24 |
What happens when they mill, they're just
going to sort of leave a general area
| | 01:27 |
there for the head.
And then it's going to be up to the die
| | 01:30 |
maker to refine it.
Here's the little sketch to give them a
| | 01:34 |
rough idea how we want it shaded.
But again, keep in mind the die maker
| | 01:38 |
really is a sculptor, and you have to rely
on his instinct to do the best job.
| | 01:44 |
When this piece is finished, it's been
embossed with something called a
| | 01:47 |
combination die.
And a combination die performs embossing
| | 01:51 |
and foil stamping simultaneously.
It looks like a piece of metal coming out
| | 01:56 |
of the paper.
It's an absolutely gorgeous piece.
| | 01:59 |
And the dye maker did a fabulous job on
it.
| | 02:02 |
We just gave him a start, he's the one who
really made it shine.
| | 02:05 |
This is truly craftsmanship in printing.
It's created by artisans, it requires an
| | 02:09 |
artist's touch.
That dye is one of a kind.
| | 02:13 |
The dye itself, honestly is a work of art.
But it's a collaboration between you as a
| | 02:17 |
designer and the die maker, and you should
think of him as a sculptor.
| | 02:21 |
And it's really something to be proud of
when the job is finished.
| | 02:24 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Checking an embossing proof| 00:00 |
Before an embossing job goes into full
production, usually the die maker will
| | 00:03 |
provide you with what's called a strike.
It's a proof.
| | 00:08 |
It's a test emboss of the stock that's
going to be used on the final job.
| | 00:13 |
And you need to inspect that to make sure
it looks the way you expect.
| | 00:17 |
You want to check the depth; is the
embossing the proper depth you were expecting?
| | 00:21 |
And if you're using a multi level or a
sculptural embossing die, make sure
| | 00:24 |
there's sufficient difference between the
levels, and you can see the detail that
| | 00:27 |
you were hoping to capture in the
embossing.
| | 00:30 |
And, speaking of detail, you want to check
for broken type, broken rules, any small
| | 00:35 |
art components.
You want to make sure that they're
| | 00:38 |
rendered with fidelity.
You want to check for distortion.
| | 00:42 |
Are smaller details distinct?
And since embossing involves pressure, and
| | 00:46 |
you're really just sculpting the paper,
you want to check for stock buckling.
| | 00:50 |
And this is especially true of very heavy
stock.
| | 00:54 |
And if you're performing the embossing
near a trim or a fold, you want to stay a
| | 00:57 |
certain distance away from trims or folds.
But in heavy stock, it can still have a
| | 01:02 |
bit of deformation of the stock.
Because heat is often used during
| | 01:07 |
embossing, you might see some scorching of
the paper.
| | 01:10 |
Not so much with dark stock but with light
stock, you might see a bit of scorching.
| | 01:14 |
You can actually use that sort of as an
artistic component.
| | 01:17 |
A lot of people do.
But if it's not what you want, then you
| | 01:20 |
may have to either change the stock or you
might have to change a bit about the dye,
| | 01:23 |
so that not so much heat is required and
that no scorching occurs.
| | 01:29 |
If it's thin paper or if it's coated paper
you have to beware of tearing.
| | 01:33 |
If you're embossing printed pieces.
then you have to check for registration.
| | 01:38 |
So does that embossed area align with the
printed area?
| | 01:41 |
If you're using a combination die you
want to make sure that the foil aligns
| | 01:44 |
with the embossed area that it's supposed
to align with.
| | 01:48 |
And you want to make sure that it
interacts with that foil correctly.
| | 01:51 |
You want to check for splitting or
tearing.
| | 01:53 |
So just like going to a press check for a
job that purely invovles print, this
| | 01:57 |
really counts.
When you're looking at a press proof or
| | 02:00 |
you're looking at a proof that a printer
gives you before running a press job.
| | 02:05 |
This is the time to really pay attention
to all the details because once you set it
| | 02:08 |
in motion, you want to make sure that your
going to be happy with the finished piece.
| | 02:12 |
You put allot of work into a job that
involves specialty finishing like
| | 02:15 |
embossing and you really want it to turn
out nicely.
| | 02:18 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. Foil StampingExamples of foil stamping| 00:01 |
Before we start talking about the
mechanics of foil stamping I think it
| | 00:04 |
might be inspirational to see some great
examples of foil stamping in use.
| | 00:09 |
Now when you hear foil you think metallic
and a lot of foil stamping is metallic
| | 00:13 |
foil stamping and this is a beautiful
piece that has some metallic foil on it.
| | 00:19 |
And it also has die-cutting and embossing.
This is pretty much every wonderful thing
| | 00:23 |
you could do to a piece of paper except
put ink on it.
| | 00:26 |
If you look at that script G in the
background, you might think that's black
| | 00:30 |
ink, but it isn't.
It's actually a clear foil.
| | 00:33 |
And it's a little hard to show you here.
But all it does is put shine in that area.
| | 00:38 |
It's similar to the effect that you would
get with a spot varnish.
| | 00:41 |
But it's a much higher shine, it's a
beautiful piece showcasing all the things
| | 00:44 |
that these guys know how to do with foil
stamping, and embossing, and die cutting.
| | 00:50 |
And here's another example of clear foil.
Here it's being used in combination with a
| | 00:54 |
blind emboss.
And it adds just a little bit of color to
| | 00:58 |
the paper.
It adds a pearlescent look so it's very
| | 01:01 |
slightly opaque and it makes the ampersand
a little bit lighter that the paper around it.
| | 01:06 |
But, it's also a bit pearlescent and it's
a very subtle effect that's really
| | 01:09 |
beautiful overall.
And this piece is using two combination dyes.
| | 01:16 |
Now combination dye performs both
embossing and foil stamping simultaneously.
| | 01:22 |
So there's one combination die that
performs the embossing and applies the
| | 01:25 |
gold foil and another combination die for
the embossing and the blue foil.
| | 01:31 |
And you can imagine the precision and the
planning involved in creating a piece like this.
| | 01:35 |
But it really is a work of art when it's
finished.
| | 01:39 |
So when you see these, let that inspire
you.
| | 01:41 |
Let that make you think of what you can do
that goes beyond just ink on paper.
| | 01:45 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| The basics of foil stamping| 00:01 |
There's more than one way to add shine to
your printed project.
| | 00:04 |
One method is called cold foil.
Now, cold foiling happens on press.
| | 00:09 |
An adhesive is applied to the paper, much
like ink would be, and then the foil is
| | 00:13 |
adhered to that adhesive area and then
it's cured with UV light.
| | 00:18 |
One of the beauties of cold foiling is
that it can hold very fine details like
| | 00:21 |
small type or thin art components, even
halftones.
| | 00:26 |
And it's capable of large area coverage.
You can over print it, which means that
| | 00:30 |
your range of color is pretty much
unlimited.
| | 00:33 |
So you can apply process colors you can
even use pan tone colors on top of that
| | 00:36 |
cold foil.
Because it happens on press, registration
| | 00:40 |
is not an issue.
And you don't have to create any dyes for
| | 00:44 |
cold foils.
So that means that you don't have that
| | 00:47 |
wait time for a dye to be created.
There's no change to the stock texture,
| | 00:51 |
because there's no pressure used to apply
cold foil.
| | 00:54 |
And that also means that there's no stock
deformation.
| | 00:57 |
You don't have the warping that you might
have with.
| | 01:00 |
Application of hot foil, that means that
you can put cold foil closer to a fold or
| | 01:03 |
to the edge of a sheet and you don't have
to worry about sustainability.
| | 01:09 |
Cold foil is easily recycled, it uses
standard techniques, it doesn't require
| | 01:12 |
any kind of special handling.
Now cold foil isn't quite as highly
| | 01:17 |
reflective as hot foil.
It's getting closer all the time.
| | 01:21 |
You can't apply it as part of embossing,
but you can emboss it afterwards, so you
| | 01:25 |
can apply the cold foil on press and then
perform that embossing afterward.
| | 01:30 |
For maximum metallic look, you want to use
hot foil.
| | 01:34 |
You have a wide range of color choices,
very high reflective.
| | 01:39 |
Now, when you hear foil, you naturally
think metallic.
| | 01:42 |
But there are other kinds of foils as
well, that aren't metallic.
| | 01:46 |
Why would you want to use that?
And they come in both gloss and matte.
| | 01:50 |
If you've ever tried to print white type
on black stock, you know what a challenge
| | 01:53 |
that can be.
Printing ink is not opaque.
| | 01:57 |
And so that means that you have to apply
two passes of ink.
| | 02:00 |
And even then, it's not really going to
completely cover that dark stock.
| | 02:04 |
But foils can do that.
Foils are opaque, so if you want to print
| | 02:07 |
white or other light colors on top of dark
stock, you might find that foil is really
| | 02:11 |
a better answer than printing ink.
And then there are clear foils.
| | 02:16 |
Now, why would you use a clear foil
instead of what seems to be the same
| | 02:19 |
effect, a spot varnish?
Well there are some neat effects that you
| | 02:23 |
can do with foil that you can't quite do
with varnish.
| | 02:25 |
For example, sort of pearlize looks and
iridescent looks that are possible with foils.
| | 02:30 |
And then of course there are the
holographic and diffraction foils.
| | 02:33 |
They look like metal but then they have
these rainbow effects.
| | 02:37 |
Very, very attractive, really catches the
eye.
| | 02:40 |
Some things to think about when you're
considering using hot foil.
| | 02:44 |
It can be applied over or under inks, you
can use it in a piece that's going to be
| | 02:47 |
laminated, you can use it in a piece that
has varnish involved and, of course, you
| | 02:51 |
can combine hot foil with embossing and
this is sort of counterintuitive some
| | 02:54 |
times hot foil is actually less expensive
than metallic ink.
| | 03:00 |
And keep in mind that if you've used
metallic ink, you know that it doesn't
| | 03:03 |
really look like metal, but hot foil can
really look like metal.
| | 03:07 |
But you also have to keep in mind that
there's some lead time involved because a
| | 03:11 |
die has to be created in order to apply
hot foil.
| | 03:14 |
It's applied offline.
It's not something that happens on press,
| | 03:17 |
and you have to make some considerations
when it comes to stock choice.
| | 03:22 |
Smoother stock, as I think you would
expect, gives you a shiner, more
| | 03:25 |
reflective result.
If you're using textured stock, the heat
| | 03:28 |
and the pressure that's used to apply hot
foil, is going to subdue that stock
| | 03:32 |
texture, so you're going to see some
flattening.
| | 03:35 |
That can actually be kind of neat, you can
see that contrast between the texture of
| | 03:39 |
the stock and the smooth area of the hot
foil.
| | 03:42 |
And you can actually use that to your
advantage.
| | 03:45 |
You want to make sure that you're using
the appropriate formulation of foil for
| | 03:48 |
the stock, but that's not really something
you have to worry about that's a result of
| | 03:51 |
the collaboration between your printer and
the company that's going to be actually
| | 03:55 |
doing the foil stamping.
You don't have to worry about
| | 03:59 |
sustainability or recycling, there's no
special handling that's required for
| | 04:03 |
dealing with a piece that has hot foil as
part of the printing.
| | 04:07 |
There's an interesting process called UV
casting.
| | 04:11 |
What happens is that a mold is made with
little tiny grooves in it and then a UV
| | 04:15 |
varnish is applied on press and that mold
is sort of pressed into it.
| | 04:21 |
This happens on press in very similar to
applying a spot varnish or any other kind
| | 04:25 |
of coating.
But then there's a diffraction effect that
| | 04:29 |
appears on top of that area.
It's just like a UV ink.
| | 04:33 |
It gets a UV cure.
It can be combined with cold foil,
| | 04:35 |
although usually that doesn't happen on
the same pass.
| | 04:38 |
Now, it's not as brilliant as diffraction
foils.
| | 04:41 |
But the fact that you can apply it inline
on press is kind of a plus.
| | 04:45 |
An you can put it on top of ink, or cold
foil, or hot foil.
| | 04:50 |
Now of course we're talking about, foil
stamping and things that happen on top of
| | 04:53 |
a printed piece.
But you might want to keep this in the
| | 04:56 |
back of your mind.
There are also substrates that give you shine.
| | 05:00 |
one kind is something called transfer
metallized substrates.
| | 05:04 |
If you want to get technical, what happens
is that aluminum is vaporized an then it's
| | 05:07 |
vacuum deposited onto a carrier.
That carriers glued to the substrate and cured.
| | 05:13 |
And then that carrier film is removed.
And it just leaves the metal behind.
| | 05:17 |
In a way, it's sort of like you've plated
that piece of paper.
| | 05:20 |
And it comes in gold and silver, and some
defraction and holographic finishes.
| | 05:25 |
One of the beauties of this approach is
that it does not delaminate.
| | 05:28 |
It really does become part of that paper
surface.
| | 05:32 |
You have to keep in mind that if you're
going to print light colors, like skin
| | 05:35 |
tones or pastel tones.
You're going to have to print opaque white
| | 05:39 |
ink before you print those colors.
It's sustainable, it's easily recycled.
| | 05:43 |
Again, it doesn't require any kind of
special handling.
| | 05:47 |
Another approach is something called foil
laminate substrates.
| | 05:50 |
And in this process, metallized film is
laminated to the paper substrate.
| | 05:56 |
Good ink adhesion.
You can overprint any ink on top of that.
| | 06:00 |
Process inks or spot inks.
Very striking visual impact.
| | 06:04 |
And on top of that shiny substrate, you
can emboss and foil stamp.
| | 06:08 |
So you can really get carried away.
Again, because you're printing on that
| | 06:12 |
sort of metallic looking substrate, if
you're going to print pastels or skin
| | 06:15 |
tones, you'll have to print an opaque
white ink first.
| | 06:19 |
Now, this is something you have to plan
ahead.
| | 06:22 |
You have to obtain that stock ahead of
time.
| | 06:24 |
It's not something that's usually in stock
at a printing company.
| | 06:28 |
But again, don't worry, it's sustainable,
easily recycled Doesn't require any kind
| | 06:31 |
of special handling.
So when you think about all this, you can
| | 06:35 |
see that you have a wide variety of
choices when it comes to adding some shine
| | 06:38 |
to your printed piece.
You can even combine them for additional impact.
| | 06:43 |
I think the hard part is going to be
making up you mind what you want to use.
| | 06:47 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Design considerations for foil stamping| 00:00 |
When you're planning and designing artwork
for a job that involves foil stamping,
| | 00:04 |
there are some considerations.
When you're using hot foil, it's important
| | 00:08 |
to choose the appropriate stock.
For example, heavy text and cover paper
| | 00:12 |
are going to work the best, and a stock
with a smooth finish is really good
| | 00:16 |
because you want to maintain that metallic
look if you're using a metallic foil.
| | 00:22 |
Or if you're using one of the clear foils,
again you want a smooth finish.
| | 00:26 |
If you try to iron out that stock in order
to maintain a smooth finish that's
| | 00:30 |
going to require higher pressure.
And because the stock is then placed under
| | 00:34 |
higher pressure, that's going to cause an
impression on the reverse side of the stock.
| | 00:39 |
Which may not matter if you're doing this
on the cover, but it's something to
| | 00:42 |
consider, especially if you're going to
use both sides of the stock.
| | 00:46 |
You want to avoid trying to apply hot foil
to coated or varnished stock, because
| | 00:50 |
there's heat involved, gases are given off
when that heat is applied to make that
| | 00:54 |
foil adhere to the stock, and gases get
trapped and cause bubbling.
| | 01:00 |
And that would sort of defeat the purpose.
You want to have that nice smooth metallic
| | 01:04 |
or clear finish.
Bubbles are going to mar that finish.
| | 01:08 |
And for the same reason, you want to avoid
applying foil on top of inks that aren't
| | 01:12 |
wax free.
And as you're creating your design you
| | 01:16 |
have to remember that foil spreads a
little bit, it sort of fills in narrow gaps.
| | 01:21 |
And so for that reason you want to avoid
fine type and very tiny art details.
| | 01:26 |
And when you're creating type you want to
provide a little bit of extra space
| | 01:30 |
between your letters so track your text
out a little bit.
| | 01:34 |
And you want to consult the printer and
the diemaker, if your'e planning to
| | 01:37 |
register foil to printed art, for that
same reason.
| | 01:42 |
And as far as achieving contrast and
contour, metallic and opaque foils look
| | 01:46 |
great on dark stock.
That's not to say that you can't put them
| | 01:50 |
on light stock.
But you can make some really interesting
| | 01:53 |
effects by applying metallic, or opaque
foils such as white foils, on dark stock.
| | 01:58 |
And then on light stock, clear, pastel, or
pearlescent foils make for really nice effects.
| | 02:04 |
Sort of similar to what you could do with
a spot varnish, but with a higher shine.
| | 02:08 |
And the pearlescent and pastel foils are
almost like using a tinted varnish but
| | 02:12 |
with a little bit extra.
Now cold foil is different from hot foil,
| | 02:16 |
not just in the name, but cold foil is not
a separate process.
| | 02:20 |
It's not something that's applied after
the job is printed, it's something that's
| | 02:24 |
actually applied in line on press, and
that means that it's easier to register to printing.
| | 02:30 |
It can be over printed, so you can print
the cold foil in much the same way as you
| | 02:34 |
print in ink, and then come back on top of
it with process inks or spot inks.
| | 02:40 |
And that means that essentially you can
have an endless spectrum of color
| | 02:43 |
metallic, it gives you a lot of
flexibility.
| | 02:47 |
In the past the reflectivity of cold foil
wasn't quite that of hot foil, but it's
| | 02:50 |
getting better all the time.
So if you want to put metallic effect into
| | 02:55 |
a piece, but maybe you don't want the
expense or the complication of using hot
| | 02:59 |
foil, you might consider using cold foil
instead.
| | 03:04 |
And you might find that that really serves
your needs.
| | 03:06 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Foil limitations| 00:01 |
So, here are some things to think about as
you contemplate using foil stamping in a project.
| | 00:07 |
Coated stock is usually okay, foil
stamping works very well on coated stock,
| | 00:11 |
it gives it a nice smooth surface.
But varnishes can present a problem.
| | 00:17 |
And that's because they can keep trapped
gases from getting out.
| | 00:21 |
And that means that you might see bubbling
under your foil, and you don't want that.
| | 00:25 |
You don't want those ugly bubbles marring
that nice, smooth surface.
| | 00:30 |
There's heat and pressure involved in
applying hot foil, and sometimes that can
| | 00:33 |
cause color changes on the stock,
especially yellow or brown stock.
| | 00:38 |
Darker stocks tend to cause a little bit
of color change.
| | 00:42 |
Some foils can change color too, slightly
after application.
| | 00:45 |
Don't expect to find hot foils in every
Pantone color, but there is a huge range.
| | 00:51 |
The most efficient way to use foil
stamping is to foil isolated areas, you
| | 00:54 |
know a medallion on the cover or a logo on
the back cover, something like that.
| | 00:59 |
Now there are some systems that can do
what's called indexing, and that means hat
| | 01:03 |
they can optimize the foil usage and they
can reposition so that the foil can be
| | 01:07 |
used in the most efficient manner.
But for example, doing something like just
| | 01:12 |
foiling the border around a large area,
essentially that wastes the foil inside.
| | 01:18 |
Again, there's a possibility that they can
index, that they can use that foil for
| | 01:21 |
another purpose, but you may find that
this is going to really add to the cost of
| | 01:24 |
the job.
If you have your heart set on having
| | 01:28 |
something like a metallic border around,
let's say a poster, you might think about
| | 01:31 |
instead of using hot foil, use cold foil.
And cold foil, in essence, means you apply
| | 01:37 |
an adhesive on press in much the same way
you apply an ink, and then the foil is
| | 01:41 |
adhered to that.
As far as holding sharp details, you're
| | 01:46 |
going to find that metallic foils are a
little bit sharper than pigmented foils
| | 01:49 |
such as the opaque white foils or pastel
foils.
| | 01:53 |
If you're checking a proof keep in mind
that there may be a fee for proofing a
| | 01:57 |
foil stamping job.
You're looking for problems like this:
| | 02:01 |
feathering, it's like a little skirt
around letters and other art details,
| | 02:05 |
color changes, has the stock changed
color?
| | 02:09 |
Has the foil itself changed color?
Because of the heat and pressure involved.
| | 02:12 |
Is there scuffing as the pieces fall
together?
| | 02:16 |
Is the foil starting to come back off?
Is the foil cracking, wherein it should be
| | 02:20 |
adhering to the surface of the stock?
Is it peeling off?
| | 02:23 |
It's not sticking to the area it's
supposed to stick to.
| | 02:26 |
Are you getting the adequate pigment
strength?
| | 02:28 |
Is it the color that you expected?
And of course you're always looking at the
| | 02:31 |
edge definition.
Keep in mind, of course, like any aspect
| | 02:35 |
of printing, this is a physical process
and you're sort of at the mercy of the way
| | 02:38 |
a particular foil behaves on a particular
stock when you're trying to create a
| | 02:42 |
particular piece of artwork.
But planning ahead and learning what the
| | 02:48 |
limitations are ensures that you and your
foil stamper are going to be happy about
| | 02:52 |
the results.
| | 02:54 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creation of art for foil dies| 00:01 |
When you're creating artwork that's going
to be used for foil stamping it might be
| | 00:04 |
nice to keep in mind how foil stamping
works.
| | 00:08 |
The foil actually has a bit of adhesive on
the back and that's what makes it
| | 00:11 |
initially stick on the paper, but what
makes it stay there is pressure and heat
| | 00:15 |
from a die and a counter die, and what
you're creating artwork for is that die.
| | 00:22 |
Ideally you should supply black and white
vector art.
| | 00:25 |
If you're going to supply an image it
should be a high resolution bitmap, at
| | 00:29 |
least 600 pixels per inch.
And when I say bitmap I mean an image that
| | 00:33 |
has only black and white, no grayscale.
Don't have any screens, no textures,
| | 00:38 |
anything like that.
It really needs to be solid areas.
| | 00:42 |
And as you create text provide a little
extra space between the letters and keep
| | 00:45 |
in mind that there's always sort of a
little fringe where foil is applied, a
| | 00:48 |
little fringe around the outside, and that
could result in letters that are too
| | 00:52 |
close, sort of running into each other.
And you'll see that same effect inside
| | 00:58 |
text with small counters so keep that in
mind as you choose the font that you're
| | 01:01 |
going to use.
This is another reason why you want to
| | 01:05 |
avoid anything like cross-hatching, or
similar textural effects.
| | 01:09 |
You're best off with just solid shapes.
Convert all your text to outlines.
| | 01:14 |
And then provide whatever the die maker or
the printing company asks you to supply.
| | 01:18 |
Whether it's an EPS, or an Illustrator
native file, AI, or a PDF file.
| | 01:24 |
If you're using multiple colors of foil.
Clearly identify each color.
| | 01:28 |
It's helpful if you know the official name
of the color.
| | 01:31 |
But if you don't, at least name it
something that's obvious, that's in
| | 01:33 |
keeping with your plan.
And create those as spot colors.
| | 01:38 |
And it doesn't hurt to put them on
separate layers either.
| | 01:40 |
Keep in mind that any errors might result
in a reprint because you can't unfoil a
| | 01:44 |
piece of paper.
So plan far ahead, consult with the
| | 01:48 |
printer, consult with the die maker, and
make sure you understand the best way to
| | 01:52 |
create and supply your art so that the job
is successful.
| | 01:56 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
5. Die Cutting BasicsFrom basic pocket folders to origami| 00:01 |
When you want to take your printed project
beyond the plain old rectangular, then you
| | 00:04 |
enter the world of die cutting.
Even if you're creating something as
| | 00:08 |
seemingly simple as tabbed dividers.
We see them all the time.
| | 00:12 |
But how do they get that shape?
Well, they're die cut.
| | 00:15 |
And that means that a die has to be
created and the job has to be planned with
| | 00:18 |
that in mind.
And of course novelty shapes.
| | 00:22 |
Pretty much any shape you can think of can
be die cut.
| | 00:25 |
There are some limitations.
Some small details can be hard to hold.
| | 00:29 |
But you can see from looking at these
pieces, they're very different, all of
| | 00:32 |
them, from the simple rounded rectangle on
the little cards, to the paintbrush, to
| | 00:36 |
the motorcyclist, to the sandwich.
Great variety.
| | 00:41 |
And something that you immediately notice.
That's something that you sort of pick out
| | 00:43 |
of the pack.
Stands apart from all the dull old
| | 00:46 |
rectangular pieces.
And if you really want to hold fine
| | 00:49 |
detail, we're seeing more and more laser
die cutting.
| | 00:53 |
Now, there's no actual die created.
It really is a laser vaporizing the paper.
| | 00:58 |
And that means that you can hold very
small detail.
| | 01:01 |
There's some limitations.
It's a slow process in the sense that you
| | 01:03 |
can only do one piece at a time, but you
can do something with this that you really
| | 01:07 |
couldn't do with a conventional metal die.
So you can see there's a wide, wonderful
| | 01:12 |
variety of possibilities with die cutting.
It takes some planning.
| | 01:16 |
You should talk to your printer, and if
you're dealing directly with the finishing
| | 01:19 |
company, of course, you want to consult
with them early in the process.
| | 01:23 |
But when you see things like this, I hope
it inspires you to go beyond the plain old rectangle.
| | 01:28 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Examining a cutting die| 00:01 |
This is probably the first time you've
seen a cutting die, so let me explain
| | 00:04 |
what's going on here.
This is a cutting die that's going to cut
| | 00:08 |
out some little cards that have rounded
corners on them, so, the job has been
| | 00:11 |
printed with the cards in position, 12 up
And let's take a look at one of the cards.
| | 00:17 |
They're little rounded rectangles.
These are cutting blades, so, you might
| | 00:20 |
want to think of them sort of like razor
blades that have been shaped.
| | 00:25 |
And when this dye presses into the paper,
it's going to cut out the shape of that card.
| | 00:29 |
But you notice that there are other little
blades that are attached to the cutting
| | 00:32 |
blades, so what do they do?
Well, when the card is punched out of the
| | 00:36 |
paper, tey need an easy way to pull off
that excess paper, the waste.
| | 00:40 |
So those other little cutting blades allow
them to punch little lines into the paper,
| | 00:44 |
and easily strip off the excess.
And so that's a process called stripping.
| | 00:49 |
And that's to pull off that excess.
That waste paper.
| | 00:52 |
And those little pieces of foam that you
see around the blades.
| | 00:55 |
Serve as a way to sort of absorb that
pressure as that die hits the paper and
| | 00:58 |
they keep the paper in position, they keep
it from squirming so that the cut is precise.
| | 01:05 |
So how does a die like this come in to
being?
| | 01:07 |
Well you can see the plywood background.
How do those blades get in position and
| | 01:11 |
those little pieces of foam.
Well, in the olden days every bit of this
| | 01:15 |
was done by hand.
Careful measuring, manual shaping of those
| | 01:18 |
blades, mounting those blades in that
plywood base.
| | 01:22 |
Now there's a lot of computerized control.
So, you see CAD programs that create the
| | 01:26 |
dyes and they route little troughs in that
plywood and those little troughs serve as
| | 01:30 |
the positioning places for those blades.
Those same CAD programs also drive
| | 01:36 |
machines that bend those blades so things
that used to be done by hand are now
| | 01:40 |
accomplished by machine, but not every bit
of it.
| | 01:44 |
Those blades have to be manually mounted
in these little troughs.
| | 01:48 |
Those little pieces of foam have to be
manually positioned but that's not a
| | 01:51 |
mechanical process.
There really still is a lot of
| | 01:54 |
craftsmanship involved in making a die
like this.
| | 01:58 |
The die maker has to understand how that
die behaves when it presses into the stock.
| | 02:02 |
He has to know exactly the right height
for that little blade to sit in that
| | 02:05 |
little trough, so there's quite a bit of
tweaking that happens.
| | 02:09 |
So even though we have precision because
of computers we still need that artisan,
| | 02:13 |
we still need that craftsmanship and
that's what to me really makes die making
| | 02:16 |
an art.
| | 02:18 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Laser die cutting| 00:01 |
Another method of paper sculpture is to
use a laser and we're seeing more and more
| | 00:04 |
of this.
It's a direct process wherein a laser
| | 00:07 |
essentially burns and evaporates parts of
a piece of paper.
| | 00:12 |
Now it's a one off process meaning that
it's one piece at a time.
| | 00:16 |
But there are some advantages.
There's no die tooling involved because
| | 00:19 |
there's no die cutting.
And it can hold very fine detail, it's a
| | 00:23 |
digital process, so that means that if you
need to make a modification to a job, you
| | 00:27 |
don't have to recreate a die and start all
over.
| | 00:31 |
You can just recreate the digital file
that's driving the laser.
| | 00:35 |
What's this used for?
Well, projects like special event pieces,
| | 00:38 |
wedding invitations, business cards, I've
seen a lot of greeting cards this way.
| | 00:43 |
How do you supply your artwork?
Well, really it's just art that you would
| | 00:47 |
create in illustrator.
You do have to keep some things in mind.
| | 00:51 |
Think of it as being sort of like a
stencil.
| | 00:53 |
You have to have little bridges to hold
little pieces in.
| | 00:56 |
In other words think of doing the letter
O.
| | 00:58 |
How would you hold the center of the O in
place?
| | 01:00 |
You have to have a little bridge across
it.
| | 01:03 |
Even though it can hold very small detail,
they tell you that usually your smallest
| | 01:06 |
feature ought to be about 3 quarters of a
millimeter.
| | 01:10 |
But if you look at a metric ruler, you'll
see that's really pretty small.
| | 01:13 |
It doesn't replace high-volume die cutting
because you have to do one piece at a time.
| | 01:17 |
And especially if you're creating simpler
simpler pieces, if you're just cutting out
| | 01:21 |
a square, really should use a conventional
die.
| | 01:24 |
But it has some advantages.
If you want to do just a short run, or
| | 01:27 |
especially if you want to do personalized
jobs, and we see this often with projects
| | 01:31 |
like wedding invitations, laser cutting is
probably the way to go.
| | 01:35 |
And to be able to render beautiful detail
that really wouldn't be possible with
| | 01:39 |
conventional die cutting, laser cutting
makes some things possible that otherwise
| | 01:42 |
you really couldn't do.
| | 01:45 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Design considerations for die cutting| 00:01 |
When you start to consider using die
cutting in a job, it's helpful if you sort
| | 00:04 |
of think, like you are creating a stencil
and here's why.
| | 00:07 |
Here's the kineteco logo, and we were
thinking it would really be fun to die cut
| | 00:11 |
that, and so the director of marketing
said, "let's get this die cut." We pointed
| | 00:14 |
out to her that, if we just cut that out,
the little centers of the Es and the
| | 00:17 |
little counter in the Os are just going to
fall out, so that's not going to be
| | 00:20 |
satisfactory, might be kind of cute but
we're just not crazy about the results.
| | 00:28 |
So we struck a compromise, so instead
we're just going to die cut the little
| | 00:32 |
arcs and then we're going to foil stamp
the logo text.
| | 00:37 |
We still get something that looks really
nice, and we get to maintain the shape of
| | 00:40 |
the logo completely and we don't loose the
little hearts of the Os and the Es.
| | 00:44 |
So you have to think about that mechanical
process when you think of creating art for diecutting.
| | 00:50 |
And you also want to avoid very fine
detail, although if you consider using
| | 00:53 |
laser cutting, you can maintain very small
detail.
| | 00:57 |
But, the limitations of laser cutting are
that you can only do one piece at a time.
| | 01:02 |
It's great for short runs, it could end up
being prohibitively expensive for long runs.
| | 01:08 |
And when you have colors that intersect
right at the corner of a die cut then you
| | 01:11 |
have to create what's called a beveled
bleed.
| | 01:15 |
So here where we have the purple
background and the little yellow flower
| | 01:18 |
meeting right at that little die cut line,
we have to change the shape of that
| | 01:21 |
artwork so that if there's a little bit of
misregister between the printed piece and
| | 01:25 |
the die cut then it's not immediately
apparent.
| | 01:30 |
You also have to consider how the piece is
going to be used.
| | 01:33 |
Is it going to be mailed?
Well, I don't think you want to mail it
| | 01:36 |
loose, because it's going to be handled
and you don't want it to get torn up.
| | 01:39 |
So of course, you would enclose it in an
envelope.
| | 01:43 |
Is it a piece that's likely to experience
frequent handling?
| | 01:46 |
Well, then little sharp pieces that hang
out, like the little part of our
| | 01:49 |
kinematical logo, that could be
problematic.
| | 01:52 |
Those are going to to get snagged on
something and get bent and mess up our artwork.
| | 01:56 |
And if you're considering dye cutting
stationary, you can do it, but I would
| | 01:59 |
keep a fairly simple edge because you have
to consider what's going to happen when it
| | 02:03 |
gets pulled into a printer.
It could cause a paper jam, or it could
| | 02:08 |
sort of wreck your delicate artwork.
That's not to say don't use die cutting,
| | 02:12 |
but you just have to consider what's going
to happen to the piece after it leaves the
| | 02:15 |
printing plant.
How is it going to be handled?
| | 02:18 |
Is it going to be mailed?
And you don't want all your nice work to
| | 02:21 |
go to waste.
So you always design in anticipation of
| | 02:24 |
the way that piece is going to be produced
and handled.
| | 02:27 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
6. Designing Die Cutting in IllustratorCreating a dieline in Illustrator| 00:01 |
I'm almost finished with the design of
this card.
| | 00:03 |
But before I send it to the printer I need
to do two things.
| | 00:06 |
I need to create artwork for the die line
that's going to be used to cut this out.
| | 00:10 |
And then I'm going to need to add bleed.
So first, I'm going to create the die line.
| | 00:15 |
You can see how the layers are created.
All the artwork's getting almost ready for print.
| | 00:20 |
And the pieces that I need to create the
die line are actually already in the artwork.
| | 00:24 |
It's going to cut out like this, it's
going to go around the rectangle and then
| | 00:27 |
the little yellow petals are going to pop
out.
| | 00:31 |
First thing I'm going to do is create a
die line layer.
| | 00:34 |
Which of course I'm going to call, die
line.
| | 00:36 |
And then I'm going to duplicate the
rectangle and the little yellow petal
| | 00:39 |
shape into that layer and use them as the
basis for the die line.
| | 00:44 |
So, I select the little rectangle.
And I don't want to move it.
| | 00:48 |
I want to keep that original, of course.
So I hold down Option or Alt, and drag up.
| | 00:53 |
And that duplicates that shape.
Same thing with the little yellow petals.
| | 00:57 |
Option or Alt, drag it up.
And you can see that the original shapes
| | 01:01 |
are still in position.
But now I have the duplicate of them in my
| | 01:04 |
die line layer.
I'm going to turn off all the other layers
| | 01:07 |
so I can just concentrate on this one.
Now, because it's going to be a die line,
| | 01:11 |
I don't need the shadow.
So I'm going to get rid of that, by going
| | 01:14 |
to the Appearance panel, and just
selecting Drop Shadow.
| | 01:17 |
And hitting the little trash can.
What I really need is the perimeter of
| | 01:21 |
this shape.
That's what's going to constitute the die line.
| | 01:25 |
I can combine these two shapes two
different ways.
| | 01:27 |
I can use Pathfinder, or I can use Shape
Builder.
| | 01:30 |
The results are the same.
It's really just which method you prefer
| | 01:33 |
to use.
So first, I'll show you Pathfinder, under
| | 01:35 |
Window of course.
I just select both shapes, and use the
| | 01:39 |
Unite option on that first row.
Now it's just one shape.
| | 01:44 |
I'm going to undo so that I could show you
the Shape Builder, which is a really fun tool.
| | 01:48 |
Select both of the shapes again, get my
Shape Builder and then you just drag from
| | 01:51 |
one shape into the other.
In this case it won't matter which one you
| | 01:55 |
use as the first shape.
There we go, again two different methods,
| | 01:59 |
but the same results.
But what I need now is a die line color.
| | 02:05 |
I need a special color that indicates to
the printer this artwork is used for the
| | 02:08 |
die line.
So in the Swatches panel, I'm going to
| | 02:11 |
make a new swatch.
Now, the look of this really doesn't matter.
| | 02:16 |
It does need to be a spot color and, of
course, I think it makes sense to call it
| | 02:20 |
die line.
And it really wouldn't matter whether I
| | 02:23 |
chose RGB or CMYK.
This document, of course, is CMYK color mode.
| | 02:28 |
But I tend to use RGB.
This is, again, just personal preference,
| | 02:31 |
because I like to make a bright green
color that's really obvious.
| | 02:35 |
And it's clear that it's not part of the
art work.
| | 02:37 |
But again, the color you choose, I think,
should be a contrast to your underlying artwork.
| | 02:42 |
And it should be something obvious.
Just make sure that it's spot color and
| | 02:45 |
make sure that you name it something
fairly obvious.
| | 02:49 |
I don't need a fill, so I'm going to
change the Fill to None, and I'm going to
| | 02:52 |
change my Stroke, of course, to my new die
line color.
| | 02:56 |
Now, back in the layers panel, I turn
everything else back on, and there we go.
| | 03:00 |
Now at this point, I don't have bleed.
That's something I'm going to show you in
| | 03:04 |
another movie.
But at least I have my artwork.
| | 03:07 |
And I have my die line created.
One more thing I'd recommend that you do.
| | 03:11 |
Even though the artwork for the die line
is going to be output separately.
| | 03:14 |
It's not going to be part of the printed
piece.
| | 03:17 |
Just to be sure, here's a good practice.
Go up to Window and Attributes.
| | 03:21 |
And now that's one of those panels you
don't go to all the time, but one thing
| | 03:24 |
you can do here is really valuable.
You can set that stroke to overprint and
| | 03:28 |
what this means is that if they output
this, we know that it doesn't knock out
| | 03:31 |
anything that's underneath.
It's just a little nicety, it's just good
| | 03:36 |
habit and one way to check what you have
is to go to Window, go to Separations Preview.
| | 03:42 |
You have to turn on over print preview to
activate separations preview.
| | 03:46 |
And you make sure that you have any spot
colors that you need.
| | 03:49 |
Make sure you don't have any that you
don't need.
| | 03:51 |
And if I turn off CMYK that leaves just my
die line.
| | 03:54 |
I'll turn off my die line, there's my
CMYK.
| | 03:58 |
So even though I don't have bleed yet,
which means that this is not ready to send
| | 04:01 |
to the printer, I've got a really good
start so that I can finish up this card
| | 04:04 |
and send it off for printing and then
ultimately die cutting.
| | 04:08 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Handling a complex bleed| 00:01 |
I'm almost finished with this job.
I've completed my design.
| | 00:04 |
I've created my die line.
But I have to remember to add bleed before
| | 00:08 |
I send my job to the printer.
Now if it were just a rectangular card,
| | 00:11 |
that would be really easy.
I would just add an eighth of an inch all
| | 00:14 |
the way around.
But what makes it a little bit tricky is
| | 00:17 |
the intersection of this yellow petal
shape and this purple background.
| | 00:22 |
Well, let's do the easy part first.
So over here in the Layers panel.
| | 00:25 |
I'm going to pull this loose and I'm just
going to hide everything but my purple background.
| | 00:30 |
Select that.
And my favorite way to do this is with the
| | 00:33 |
Transform panel.
Window > Transform.
| | 00:37 |
And, of course, you can also use this
little link up here.
| | 00:40 |
You want to make sure that it's centered,
with that reference point in the middle selected.
| | 00:45 |
Now I could do math in my head or I could
make it easy on myself and let Illustrator
| | 00:49 |
do the math.
I know I'm going to add an eighth of an
| | 00:52 |
inch left and right and top and bottom.
To add left and right, it's going to be
| | 00:56 |
actually a total of a quarter of an inch.
So here, in the Width field, I can just
| | 00:59 |
click after the current measurement.
Type a plus 0.25.
| | 01:03 |
There we go.
And same thing for the height.
| | 01:06 |
Just plus 0.25.
it's a little bit easier.
| | 01:10 |
You know, let Illustrator help you when it
can.
| | 01:13 |
Now we get to the tricky part.
And that's dealing with these petals.
| | 01:16 |
So, the first thing I'm going to do is
turn on my guideline and lock it.
| | 01:20 |
I'm going to hide the parts that I don't
need to deal with.
| | 01:25 |
I do want to see my background just so I
can be sure I'm doing the right thing.
| | 01:28 |
And here's what I need.
I need extra on this yellow shape all the
| | 01:32 |
way around.
I can't afford to put it all the way
| | 01:35 |
around the complete shape, or I'm going to
mess-up the designs.
| | 01:38 |
So I just need Bleed over part of this.
What I'm going to use is something called
| | 01:42 |
Offset Path.
So, first I'm going to duplicate my
| | 01:45 |
original flower so I don't mess it up.
And I can do this by coming over here and
| | 01:49 |
saying duplicate path or I could use my
little new object down here.
| | 01:54 |
So, I'm going to drag this down to the new
object and it duplicates it.
| | 01:59 |
Now, having 400 paths called path makes it
a little hard to figure out who's who.
| | 02:04 |
So I'm going to name these pieces so that
I can recognize them.
| | 02:07 |
So this is going to be my original petals.
And I'm going to hide that because I don't
| | 02:13 |
want to hurt that.
This is going to be my bleed.
| | 02:17 |
(SOUND) So I'm going to select this shape
and I'm going to use Offset Path.
| | 02:21 |
Object > Path > Offset Path.
By default, this is the figure that comes
| | 02:27 |
up, but I want an eighth of an inch.
So I'm just going to say 0.125, and there
| | 02:32 |
we go.
Now, it has a shadow on it, which I don't need.
| | 02:36 |
So I'm just going to come over here to my
Appearance panel, select that Drop Shadow
| | 02:40 |
effect, and get rid of that.
But you might notice that hey, I hid my
| | 02:44 |
original, how can I still have a shadow?
Funny things happen when you offset path.
| | 02:49 |
It sort of duplicate sit for you even
though that's not what you want, so I
| | 02:52 |
actually have some shapes that I don't
need.
| | 02:54 |
I have this shape, which is the original
configuration of the petals, so you know
| | 02:58 |
what, I'm just going to get rid of that.
Just hit my little Trash Can, there we go.
| | 03:03 |
This is going to be my bleed.
But, remember, I don't want to deform the
| | 03:07 |
shape of this so I just need the extra out
here outside my trim.
| | 03:11 |
And I'm going to create what's called a
bevelled bleed.
| | 03:14 |
So this is the tricky intersection.
If we have this yellow come right down
| | 03:17 |
here to the trim.
What if there a little bit off when they
| | 03:21 |
trim it.
Then I'll see a little yellow trim in here.
| | 03:23 |
So that won't work.
I can't have the purple come all the way
| | 03:25 |
over to here, because I might have a
little purple rim in the flower.
| | 03:29 |
So the sensible thing is to create this
beveled cut, and it may make more sense
| | 03:33 |
after you see it happen.
Several different ways I could do this,
| | 03:37 |
but I think I'm going to use my pen tool,
because I'll just have a little bit more control.
| | 03:41 |
And before I do anything else, I'm
going to name this, and this is going to
| | 03:44 |
be my petal bleed.
I'm a big fan of naming objects in
| | 03:48 |
Illustrator so you can recognize them,e
specially the next morning when you pick
| | 03:51 |
back up working on something like this, so
smart guides are going to come in really
| | 03:54 |
handy here.
I'm going to get my Pen tool.
| | 03:58 |
Now right now if I draw it's going to draw
a yellow shape.
| | 04:01 |
You can see my fill color...
I'm going to hit a D on my keyboard for default.
| | 04:06 |
Now that would be an opaque white shape
with a black stroke.
| | 04:09 |
Then I'm going to hit my forward Dlash key
or I could hit this little object here.
| | 04:13 |
And that gives me a fill of none.
What I like about this is I can see my
| | 04:16 |
path as I draw it.
But then I can see what's behind it while
| | 04:19 |
I draw too.
So I'm just going to start out here.
| | 04:22 |
And smart guides again are going to help
me out.
| | 04:25 |
I'm going to hit, this little dip right
here where the pedals meet.
| | 04:28 |
And I want to hit this little point where
that rectangular shape is going to meet
| | 04:31 |
the pedal shape when it turns.
Boy, I love smart guides.
| | 04:38 |
And then what happens down here as long as
I draw it big enough that it can sort of
| | 04:41 |
saw off that Unneeded part of the petals,
I'm good.
| | 04:45 |
Now I'm going to use Pathfinder to get rid
of that unwanted part of the shape.
| | 04:49 |
So under Window, and then Pathfinder, I
already have this little shape selected.
| | 04:55 |
When I hold down Shift, I can select the
flower.
| | 04:57 |
And I'm going to use minus front.
There we go.
| | 05:01 |
Now I just have the part of the flower
that I need.
| | 05:03 |
And this is what I meant when I said a
beveled bleed.
| | 05:05 |
See how it hangs out here?
So now we've got a little margin of error
| | 05:08 |
here if they're a little bit off, and they
won't be of course.
| | 05:12 |
But if they are a little bit off, it's not
going to be obvious when the card is trimmed.
| | 05:16 |
So let's turn some things back on and see
what we have I believe this is going to work.
| | 05:21 |
Now, if you're concerned about what
happens to the shadow here ...
| | 05:23 |
Gee, shouldn't I have the shadow all the
way around?
| | 05:26 |
Well, no, because it would sort of leak in
here.
| | 05:29 |
Again, you're trying to go for, I guess
what I would call worst case scenario.
| | 05:32 |
If there's a little bit of slippage.
And I will tell you that printing and die
| | 05:36 |
cutting are much more precise than they
were, gosh, just ten years ago, but it
| | 05:39 |
doesn't hurt to be a little paranoid.
You want to honestly make it as easy on
| | 05:44 |
the folks that are going to trim and print
this as possible.
| | 05:48 |
This is going to be great.
This is going to be well behaved.
| | 05:51 |
Lets turn everything back on and lets lean
back and take a look.
| | 05:55 |
So there's my little green dye line.
I have adequate bleed.
| | 05:59 |
I've done my little bevel trick here so
that's its going to be much easier for the
| | 06:02 |
printer and the dye cutting place to get
this to work right.
| | 06:06 |
Now ultimately you know when this prints,
it's not going to be just one little card
| | 06:09 |
in the middle of a sheet of paper.
They're going to step them up.
| | 06:12 |
There'll be several cards.
But that's something that the printer does.
| | 06:16 |
And how that's laid out is up to them.
They'll work it out with the die place.
| | 06:21 |
How they're going to lay out the die.
That's not something you need to worry about.
| | 06:25 |
Having all that extra art (UNKNOWN) around
doesn't really matter, but you know what?
| | 06:29 |
I tend to like to trim it off, so, I'm
going to take my artboard tool and I'm
| | 06:33 |
just going to trim this down a bit.
Honestly, it's just a personal preference thing.
| | 06:38 |
In truth, all that really matters is where
there's occupied space but, I just think
| | 06:41 |
this presents a little bit better.
So actually my job is now ready to send to
| | 06:46 |
the printer.
Everything's in good shape I've provided
| | 06:49 |
bleed I've given them a dye line.
I think this job's ready to go and I think
| | 06:53 |
its going to be really cute when its
printed and trimmed.
| | 06:56 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Sending Illustrator die-cut files to the printer| 00:01 |
I finished designing this card, I've
created the die line and now I'm ready to
| | 00:04 |
send this to the printer, to have it
printed and die cut.
| | 00:08 |
Now, not all printers do their own die
cutting, a lot of printers don't build
| | 00:12 |
their own dies, and it's often a
collaboration between the printer and a
| | 00:15 |
finishing company.
But in this case, my printer actually does
| | 00:19 |
their own die cutting.
They've already had the die created based
| | 00:22 |
on the die line art that I gave them and
now, it's time to send them this artwork
| | 00:25 |
so that they can print the job, and then
die cut it.
| | 00:30 |
They're going to lay it up, they're
going to have multiple instances of this
| | 00:33 |
card on the press sheet.
But that's not something I do, because
| | 00:36 |
it's up to them, they know what size stock
it's going to run on, they understand
| | 00:38 |
their presses the best, it's just my job
to give them a good, healthy file.
| | 00:43 |
So they've asked me to send them a PDF and
of course, my native Illustrator file.
| | 00:48 |
When I choose File > Save a Copy, and I'm
going to do that to save my PDF.
| | 00:53 |
Why would I do that?
Well, funny thing, Illustrator can make
| | 00:56 |
PDFs without having to use a print process
or an export process.
| | 01:00 |
Under the hood, Illustrator files kind of
are PDFs.
| | 01:04 |
So here I'm going to choose Adobe PDF,
click Save, now the default is something
| | 01:08 |
called Illustrator Default and it's sort
of an odd bird, it's really sort of a two
| | 01:12 |
for one file, it's really your Illustrator
file inside a PDF.
| | 01:18 |
The good news about that, is that,
Illustrator can safely open up a PDF like
| | 01:22 |
that because it's really going to reach
inside and just get that native
| | 01:25 |
Illustrator content.
But that's going to add to the file size
| | 01:29 |
and that's not really what my printer
wants this PDF for, they're not going to
| | 01:32 |
be editing it.
This PDF is going to serve as sort of the
| | 01:36 |
digital equivalent of when we used to send
lasers.
| | 01:39 |
Remember when we used to print lasers and
send with our jobs?
| | 01:41 |
It's still a good idea, but for this I'm
going to say I want it to be high quality
| | 01:45 |
print, even though it's not going to get
printed.
| | 01:48 |
This is not the file they're going to use
for printing, they're just going to use
| | 01:51 |
this as an on-screen reference, just, for
the mechanics of the file.
| | 01:55 |
So, to keep the file a little smaller, and
because editing isn't going to happen, I'm
| | 01:59 |
going to uncheck Preserve Illustrator
Editing Capabilities, Optimize for Fast
| | 02:03 |
Web View does not make it a smaller file,
I'm going to uncheck that.
| | 02:08 |
As far as marks and bleed go, all of the
bleed is actually inside my file
| | 02:11 |
dimensions and I don't need to add marks.
Again, it's just a PDF that's just for
| | 02:17 |
visual reference on screen and I'm
going to click Save PDF, and then of
| | 02:19 |
course, Illustrator's going to squawk a
little bit, because it says, you unchecked
| | 02:23 |
Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities.
It's not a problem, and I know that, so
| | 02:29 |
I'm going to click OK.
Now to save my Illustrator file, I just
| | 02:33 |
say File > Save As, I'm going to put it
back in that same job folder that I'm
| | 02:36 |
going to send to the printer, and it gives
me this little squawk about spot colors,
| | 02:40 |
but this is a process color job.
What's my spot color?
| | 02:46 |
It's my die line, because that's a spot
color.
| | 02:49 |
This doesn't mean that I have a problem,
it's just Illustrator being polite saying,
| | 02:52 |
are you sure you want to do a spot color,
yes I am.
| | 02:55 |
And, if these things annoy you, remember
you can always check this Don't Show Again box.
| | 03:00 |
So when I click Continue, I'm just
going to click OK because all the default
| | 03:04 |
options are going to be fine.
So what happens when this lands at the printer?
| | 03:08 |
What do they do with it?
Now, this is not an actual press sheet but
| | 03:12 |
I wanted to give you sort of an idea how a
job like this might print.
| | 03:16 |
Now, we can still see the die line, that
would not print, that's something that's
| | 03:19 |
just a guide for the die creation.
But, I just wanted you to see how the die
| | 03:23 |
relates to the printed artwork.
And it's always a goal to try to make the
| | 03:27 |
best use of the piece of paper.
So, here's something that could happen
| | 03:31 |
with a job like this, so that the printer
can make just one cut, to separate these
| | 03:35 |
cards, there's no bleed where these two
cards meet.
| | 03:39 |
So that would just be a single cut.
And as far as how close to put a row of
| | 03:42 |
cards next to the next row of cards,
again, it's just going to depend on the
| | 03:45 |
press that they're running on, the size
stock that they're printing on and how the
| | 03:48 |
die is going to be built.
Now, it's not up to you to build this kind
| | 03:53 |
of layout, that's something that's going
to happen at the printer.
| | 03:56 |
You're going to provide them with just
that one single card, and it's up to them
| | 04:00 |
to determine the position for these, what
we called ganged printing for these cards.
| | 04:06 |
And they're going to make that arrangement
based on a collaboration between them and
| | 04:10 |
the die cutting company.
Now, some printers do their own die
| | 04:13 |
cutting, a lot of them don't build their
own dies, though, so they would have the
| | 04:16 |
die cutting company prepare the dee for
them, supply them the die, and then the
| | 04:19 |
printing company performs the die cutting.
Some printing companies don't do this
| | 04:25 |
fancy die cutting at all, they'll send
this entire job out once it's printed to a
| | 04:28 |
separate die cutting company.
They'll make the die and they'll perform
| | 04:32 |
the die cutting.
So it's important of course, that the
| | 04:35 |
printing company and the die cutting
company communicate with each other, and
| | 04:38 |
that the die line of course, lines up with
the final ganged up art work.
| | 04:43 |
So yes, it's a complex process, but the
results are really nice.
| | 04:46 |
So, I would suggest that if you're
entertaining the notion of creating
| | 04:49 |
something like this, of course, you want
to talk to your printer, but go to the
| | 04:52 |
printing company, watch something like
this run, watch it come through the press
| | 04:56 |
and then either, go to their finishing
department and watch a die cutting job
| | 04:59 |
being handled, or go to a finishing
company and watch a die cutting job being handled.
| | 05:06 |
It gives you an appreciation for the
craftsmanship that's involved but, I think
| | 05:09 |
you also find that in addition to being
sort of an education, it becomes sort of
| | 05:12 |
an inspiration when you see what's
possible, when you change the shape of
| | 05:15 |
paper I think it gives you some great
ideas for future projects.
| | 05:21 |
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|
|
7. Designing Die Cutting in InDesignCreating a dieline in InDesign| 00:01 |
When you're working on a project that
involves dye cutting, do you do it in
| | 00:04 |
Illustrator or do you do it in InDesign?
Do you create part of it in Illustrator
| | 00:08 |
and part of it in InDesign?
To a certain extent, it's really a matter
| | 00:11 |
of personal preference.
For me though, if I'm building something
| | 00:15 |
this complex with this little petal edge,
and then I need to provide bleed.
| | 00:20 |
And I have to have that little bevel bleed
where those 2 colors meet.
| | 00:22 |
I prefer to just create the whole thing in
Illustrator because all the tools are
| | 00:26 |
there, and I can just do it all in one
place.
| | 00:30 |
There's no reason why you couldn't create
it in InDesign, just be a bit more frustrating.
| | 00:34 |
But for simple projects, there's no reason
why you couldn't build it in InDesign.
| | 00:38 |
So I have a project here that's really
simple.
| | 00:40 |
It's just essentially rectangular cards
with little rounded corners.
| | 00:44 |
So, there's no reason why I can't do it
right here in InDesign.
| | 00:47 |
But there's still a couple of things you
should know.
| | 00:48 |
First thing is, don't build a lonely
little card in the middle of a letter size page.
| | 00:54 |
Always make your page to the trim size.
Now with the daisy card you saw a minute
| | 00:57 |
ago, that would be pretty tough to do.
But here it's a you know, fairly uniform
| | 01:01 |
card so we can do that here.
First thing I'm going to do, is change my
| | 01:06 |
document size, so File, Document Set up
and the width is going to be 4 and a
| | 01:10 |
quarter and the height is 1 and half, and
I'm going to need bleed, but rather than
| | 01:14 |
typing I'm just going to hit my up arrow
twice.
| | 01:20 |
Now if you're working in points and picas
you have to hit your up arrow a few more times.
| | 01:25 |
But I like being able to just do that, and
not have to type.
| | 01:28 |
Now it's the right size, but I have this
gigantic margin staring me in the face.
| | 01:33 |
Doesn't really hurt anything.
But if it annoys you, you can change it.
| | 01:37 |
I'm going to do that on the master page,
so that it occurs on all the pages in the document.
| | 01:40 |
And that's because this is ultimately
going to be a document containing 4 cars.
| | 01:45 |
So I'm going to put some things in place
on the master.
| | 01:47 |
And while I'm in the master, I'll fix the
margin.
| | 01:50 |
So I double click on the master.
Go up to layout.
| | 01:54 |
Margins and columns.
And then set that to zero.
| | 01:57 |
And there we go.
Now, what I need to do is create that die
| | 02:01 |
line artwork.
That's going to appear on every page.
| | 02:05 |
So I might as well do that on the master,
too.
| | 02:07 |
First I need to create a dye line color.
So in the Swatches panel, going to make a
| | 02:11 |
new color swatch, of course I'm going to
call it dye line, I'm going to make it a
| | 02:15 |
spot color.
Now, it could be any color because it
| | 02:19 |
isn't something that's going to print.
It's just essentially for the geometry.
| | 02:24 |
But, my habit is always make it RGB and
bright green.
| | 02:29 |
Just makes it easy to find it in the midst
of other art work, although of course if I
| | 02:31 |
were working on a bright green project, I
would probably make it something else.
| | 02:35 |
But it's just anything to make it obvious.
And now I'm going to create the die line.
| | 02:41 |
I know that it has to be essentially
rectangular but that it has the rounded corners.
| | 02:45 |
I could do it either with my rectangle
frame tool or my rectangle tool, it
| | 02:49 |
doesn't matter.
I suppose the rectangle tool gives me a
| | 02:52 |
bit of a head start because it already has
a stroke on it when you build it, so there
| | 02:55 |
we go, corner to corner, and smart guides
of course help it snap to the corners.
| | 03:01 |
And now I'm going to give it the rounded
corners.
| | 03:03 |
Under Object...
Corner Options.
| | 03:06 |
If Preview isn't checked, check it.
If you check it once it stays checked,
| | 03:10 |
which is nice.
I'm going to choose the Rounded option,
| | 03:13 |
and then there's my quarter inch.
And I want to separate that from the rest
| | 03:18 |
of my artwork.
So in my Layers panel I'm just going to
| | 03:22 |
re-name this die line.
And I'm going to create a new layer and
| | 03:28 |
drag it below die line.
It doesn't matter whether it's above or below.
| | 03:33 |
Remember, it's not going to be something
that prints.
| | 03:35 |
Where you position it in the layers panel
is just really going to be whatever's
| | 03:38 |
easiest for you.
I tend to put it at the top layer because
| | 03:41 |
I know I'm going to put artwork in this
document that's going to fill up the page,
| | 03:44 |
and I want to make sure that things fall
within it, so it's just easier to see.
| | 03:49 |
If it's up above everything else.
And now, I'm going to create the other 3
| | 03:53 |
pages because this is ultimately, as I
said, 4 cards, so I'm going to insert 3
| | 03:56 |
pages and end design because it's so
polite, thinks you want to start on one of
| | 04:00 |
your newly added pages, but nope I want to
go back to page one and now I'm going to
| | 04:03 |
bring in the artwork.
So I've created the artwork in
| | 04:10 |
Illustrator, so I'm just going to choose
file place, and in the assets folder,
| | 04:16 |
there they are.
I could get them one at a time or I can
| | 04:21 |
take advantage of the fact that InDesign
lets me place multiple artwork at the same
| | 04:24 |
time, so I'm going to choose Open It loads
up my cursor with 4 of my little graphics,
| | 04:28 |
and you can see the number 4.
Of course you can choose to place them in
| | 04:34 |
a different order, but I like the way they
are, so I'm just going to click and they
| | 04:37 |
already have bleed applied.
I very cleverly added that when I was in Illustrator.
| | 04:43 |
And then I could just go through from page
to page, place my artwork.
| | 04:48 |
By the way, if you look at the cursor, you
might notice that it looks like a little
| | 04:51 |
acrobat carousel.
That's sort of suspicious, isn't it?
| | 04:55 |
That's because, under the hood,
Illustrator files are really sort of PDFs.
| | 04:59 |
So.
Don't let that surprise you.
| | 05:01 |
Now, they look really ratty, because
you're looking at, you know, your typical view.
| | 05:05 |
So we want to make sure that it's really
going to look good when it prints.
| | 05:08 |
So I'm going to change my view by
choosing, view display performance, and
| | 05:12 |
high quality display.
And then I'm going to switch to preview mode.
| | 05:17 |
And I can do that by just pressing the w
on the keyboard.
| | 05:19 |
And I just want to make sure that things
fall within trim the way they should.
| | 05:23 |
So I make sure that my artwork is going to
trim out all right.
| | 05:26 |
That looks good.
And I can actually zoom out by hitting Cmd
| | 05:29 |
or Ctrl minus, and scroll up.
Yep.
| | 05:33 |
That looks good.
That looks good.
| | 05:35 |
I think we're in good shape.
So again, for something as simple a this,
| | 05:38 |
I could have built it in Illustrator but
it's just as easy to finish it off in InDesign.
| | 05:43 |
I already had the artwork created in
Illustrator and it was easy to create the
| | 05:46 |
dye line in InDesign.
And because it's going to be 4 separate
| | 05:50 |
cards, everything's already in place.
And when I get ready to send it to the
| | 05:54 |
printer, everything's already done.
| | 05:56 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Sending InDesign die-cut files to the printer| 00:01 |
I'm finished with this job and I'm ready
to send it to the printer.
| | 00:04 |
And what they want is a PDF that they'll
use as just sort of a visual reference,
| | 00:07 |
sort of the equivalent to the old sending
printed lasers.
| | 00:12 |
And then of course they want my
application files.
| | 00:14 |
They want my InDesign file and all the
support art that I need to make that
| | 00:17 |
InDesign file print.
Now some printers will ask you to send a
| | 00:21 |
print ready PDF but, even then, they might
want to have your application files just
| | 00:25 |
in case they need to change anything.
So for my printer, I just need a high
| | 00:30 |
quality print PDF and, then, my
application files.
| | 00:33 |
So to create my PDF, I'm just going to go
to File > Adobe PDF Presets, choose the
| | 00:38 |
High Quality Print.
And it's going to go in my folder that I'm
| | 00:42 |
creating to gather up all the files I'm
sending to the printer.
| | 00:46 |
The Optimized for Fast Web View and Create
Tag PDF options honestly have no bearing
| | 00:50 |
on what it looks like on screen.
How fast the PDF is made.
| | 00:54 |
I just always un-check those.
I do want to make sure though that it
| | 00:57 |
includes my marks, and it includes bleed.
So again, this is just going to be used
| | 01:02 |
for a visual reference.
It's not going to be used for print.
| | 01:06 |
That's a background process, but this is a
fairly light file, so that didn't take
| | 01:09 |
very long.
So what's going to happen at the printer?
| | 01:12 |
Well once they have my file and they've
pre-flighted it and everything's okay,
| | 01:15 |
they're going to gang these up, or you'll
hear it called imposition, ganging,
| | 01:19 |
multiple terms in the print industry.
But they're going to print multiple cards
| | 01:24 |
all on the sheet.
And how do they determine that arrangement?
| | 01:27 |
Well it's based on the size of the stock,
or the press that it's running on.
| | 01:31 |
And in case like this that's die-cut, it
may be based on the limitations of the
| | 01:35 |
machine that's going to be used to die-cut
it.
| | 01:38 |
This is not something you have to worry
about.
| | 01:40 |
You don't have to put these in position.
It happens at the printer.
| | 01:43 |
So you can see all the little cards are in
position.
| | 01:46 |
Now you can actually see the die line here
but this is again not a real press sheet.
| | 01:50 |
it's really just the kind to give you the
thought.
| | 01:53 |
How the die line relates to the finished
piece.
| | 01:56 |
We wouldn't see the die line on the
printed piece.
| | 01:59 |
Once the sheet's printed, it's going to
either go to the bindery department of the
| | 02:02 |
printing company if they do their own die
cutting.
| | 02:05 |
Or it's going to go to a separate die
cutting company if they do the die cutting.
| | 02:09 |
So I would always encourage you to tour
the printing company, and see how these
| | 02:12 |
processes take place.
Especially jobs that involve die cutting.
| | 02:16 |
It's really neat to see that solid sheet
of paper become interesting little shapes,
| | 02:20 |
it's almost like origami when it's cut out
and I think you find again, it sort of
| | 02:23 |
inspires you to think of ways you might
want to handle future jobs.
| | 02:28 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
ConclusionWhat I hope you've learned in this course| 00:00 |
I hope that seeing some great examples of
die cutting and embossing and foil
| | 00:03 |
stamping will make you want to explore
these processes more deeply.
| | 00:08 |
The finishing craftsman can help you take
a printed piece far beyond just ink on
| | 00:12 |
paper, and the resulting shape and surface
and shine make your project stand out from
| | 00:16 |
all those dull rectangular pieces people
see every day.
| | 00:22 |
You can create a striking piece that
they'll notice, in fact, something they'll keep.
| | 00:26 |
Now you've seen that you can use the tools
you already know, especially Illustrator,
| | 00:29 |
to create artwork that the die cutting,
embossing, and foil stamping artisans can
| | 00:32 |
bring to life.
Now these organizations provide resources
| | 00:37 |
to expand your understanding of the
specialty finishing processes and also
| | 00:40 |
information about finishing related
conferences and trade shows.
| | 00:45 |
And to expand your skills in Illustrator
and other graphics applications, of
| | 00:48 |
course, you're going to find lots of great
courses here on lynda.com including
| | 00:52 |
Illustrator Essential Training,
Illustrator One-on-One: Fundamentals.
| | 00:58 |
Print Production Fundamentals, and Print
Production Essentials: Spot Colors and Varnishes.
| | 01:03 |
I really hope that this course has fired
your imagination and taught you that these
| | 01:07 |
elegant effects truly are within your
reach.
| | 01:11 |
So now I want you to go out and make me
proud.
| | 01:13 |
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