Prepress from A to Z
During the prepress phase, the creative design is translated into a print-ready production file. Above all, many questions are asked. Technical questions, such as which Pantone colour is used for your logo. And design questions too: is your image still clearly visible, even if part of it goes into the side fold? Don’t worry – we’ll guide you every step of the way. Like to know more about what to expect? Read on!
What happens during the prepress phase?
1. Document analysis
As soon as we receive the folding plan, we first do a thorough analysis of the design.
In technical terms, we check whether the colours have been composed in such a way that they will be reproduced correctly during the printing process. Does every aspect of your design use the right colour system (CMYK or Pantone)? And do we have all the information we need, like the Pantone colour codes?
We also think about the type of paper to be used for printing. Some types of paper absorb greater or lesser amounts of ink, so that we sometimes have to apply a varnish or a white base coat in order to bring out the colour.
We always check whether the texts will be easy to read. For example, some texts need to be set in bold, which may look too much on a screen, but gives the right effect in print.
There are a lot of other technical issues to take into account, but we need not go into those.
As well as the technical issues, we look at the design itself. After 30 years of producing block-bottom bags, we’ve reviewed many designs. Based on this experience, we have established best practices in terms of the clarity of images and texts, layout and general design principles.
At this stage we work closely with the customer and the designer, if any. During this consultation, we will ask for any necessary adjustments or for additional information, until we have a completely satisfactory design.
We also recommend our customers to print out their folding plan and make a mock-up model. In this way, you’ll have a preview of how your bag will turn out. This gives a completely different picture than an on-screen folding plan. Want to know more? Take a look at the blog article, “Making a mock-up model of your bag”.
2. Technical implementation
After the analysis, the technical aspects of the design are forwarded to the flexographic printer. He takes care of the necessary technical conversions, resulting in a print-ready file.
3. Proof approval
When we receive the print-ready folding plan from the flexographic printer, this proof is forwarded to the customer for approval. The proof is also known as the ‘BAT’ (bon à tirer, meaning ‘print-ready’). This is an important step, and the customer must check the folding plan very thoroughly. Once approval has been given, we can set everything in motion to produce the bag.
4. Ordering the clichés
After approval of the proof, we order the clichés. These are flexible printing plates from which the non-printing parts have been removed. We work with high-tech printing plates for an optimal result. The succession of printing plates on the printing machine creates a complete image. So for every colour, there must be a cliché. Read more about this under “Colours explained: CMYK vs Pantone”.
The printing technique using clichés is called flexo printing. Flexo printing allows us to print very precise designs. The registration errors, or how precisely colours are superimposed, cannot be seen with the naked eye. For the techies among us: our presses have an accuracy of 25 microns or 0.025 mm. We use the latest printing machines, which can print up to eight colours.
Ready for production: the next step in the process
Once we received the clichés we’re ready for production. This takes place in two stages:
Phase 1: printing your design on a roll of the chosen paper
Phase 2: assembly of the bag: if applicable, a film is added and a window punched out. Then the paper is shaped and cut into a bag.