Flexographic printing excels in high-speed, high-volume production, making it exceptionally cost-effective for large print runs. One of the key advantages of flexo printing is its versatility. This printing method can handle a variety of substrates, including non-porous materials like plastic, metal, and film, making it ideal for packaging materials, labels, and more. Its adaptability allows for striking designs on diverse surfaces, catering to various industries and applications.
Complicated designs, though unique, have the potential to become a printing nightmare, increasing costs and causing production delays. Trebnick's in-house Graphics Team will optimize the design for printing, allowing the design to move flawlessly from computer to press. These prepress solutions ensure smooth production runs and high-quality prints.
Graphics
The first thing we check with your artwork is the graphics. Does the logo look fuzzy? Are the images at a high enough resolution to print well? If the graphics are less than ideal, we will do our best to optimize them, but in some cases, an element will be redrawn entirely by our on-site artists.
Starting with high-quality graphics can expedite the prepress process. If you want to learn more about the optimal graphics for print, check out our article, "Raster vs. Vector - Art Tips to Get the Best Quality Print." If you would rather stay hands-off, you can also take advantage of our in-house custom graphics services and have us take care of the process from concept to completion!
Color
Color is a major factor in printing, and ensuring color accuracy across multiple substrates and print runs are critical. Flexo's ability to achieve bright and consistent colors is one of its many advantages, and our color management solutions ensure that every print is a true representation of your design.
Let us know if there are any critical colors in your print. We will ensure that it will come out correctly every time! Just know that printed colors may look different than those on your computer. To learn more about color profiles, check out our article "RGB vs. CMYK vs. PMS – How to Get the Best Colors for Your Print."
Texturing
One of the many advantages of flexographic printing is the ability to apply various textures to a print, making it possible to achieve multiple "looks and feels" for your printed materials. These textures will add depth to your prints and make them more visually appealing, providing a unique tactile quality that will impress! Our team will check to ensure the textures are applied correctly and enhance your design!
Proofing
Once we check the artwork to ensure it can run efficiently, we put together a digital proof that will give you an idea of how your design will look before it goes to print. Proofs save you time and money by confirming that any necessary changes are made before printing begins. Additionally, this feature means that you can be confident that the final printed product will be exactly what you envisioned, giving you peace of mind.
Plating
Once the proof is approved, it is time to make the plates that will print the design. To print efficiently, it is common practice to print multiple tags simultaneously. When crafting the plates, copies of the design are laid out in a grid pattern so multiple tags print with each pass of the plate. This process is called stepping. But when a flat plate is mounted onto a print cylinder, the curvature of the cylinder will elongate the outside of the plate, causing the print to grow and distort. Part of our prepress process is to counter-distort the plate file after it is stepped to compensate for the cylinder's distortion. This ensures that the final print is proportional to the original design.
Registration
The registration process plays a crucial role in achieving precise and detailed prints. Registration refers to the positioning and alignment of plates on the printing cylinders. Each plate represents a different color, and small registration marks are added to the plate during the stepping process to ensure they are all positioned correctly relative to each other. A misaligned plate can result in a blurry image. So, this meticulous alignment ensures that the colors, images, and text all line up correctly, resulting in a final print that is sharp, clear, and well-defined, even at small sizes.
Depending on the graphics' colors, trapping or overprinting may need to be used to keep the design looking crisp, even if a misalignment happens. To learn more about this process, check out our article "Trapping vs. Overprint - Ensuring the Perfect Print."
Our goal is always to produce the highest-quality prints for our customers. Prepress helps us accomplish this as it can catch any mistakes before they can result in large amounts of wasted materials and lost press time. If you have any concerns about how your design will print, contact us! We can provide advice and design services that enable you to incorporate the latest trends and insights, resulting in high-quality prints that stand out!