Art Paper and Printing (II)

Art Paper Design Points
The characteristics of art paper itself determine that in the field of packaging and printing, it is not the value of the reproduction of the product mainly based on graphic arts, but the full use of the unique color and texture of the art paper, and then appropriate design. The unique glossiness and color difference of art paper will bring people different feelings. When these different paper personalities are combined with the design, they need the designer's ingenuity to use the individuality of the art paper to convey the design intent, so that the individuality of the paper becomes a part of the design, and it is perfectly integrated with the design style, so as to show a unique artistic effect. .

In the prepress design, the following points should be noted.

1 according to the characteristics of the product to choose the appropriate art paper
When designing, we should make full use of the emotions and emotions expressed by the original lines and colors of art paper, and achieve a simple and beautiful artistic effect through the simple design of the finishing touch. Therefore, sometimes it is not necessary to reproduce the effect of the product with a large area of ​​printed text, which can also save printing costs and reduce costs. For example, selecting colorful art papers and matching the inks according to the characteristics of the products will create a strong contrast between ink color and paper color so as to attract customers' attention. Of course, some art papers with higher transparency can also be selected to make use of their translucency and to be rationally designed to enhance the artistic sense of the product.

2. Understand the silkiness of art paper, and consider the stiffness required for product packaging
The effective use of art paper has the characteristics of good strength, flexibility, stiffness and elasticity, which can increase the appearance stiffness of packaged products and improve the grade of the products. In the design of the carton, it is often necessary to confront plain paper and art paper, and at this time, pay attention to the orientation of the paper. It is a common practice to align the plain paper as the liner with the direction of the silk of the art paper to increase the stiffness of the carton.

3. Use a special post-printing process
Mainly used embossing, UV glazing, hot stamping and other processes. Due to the long fiber content in art paper, it has good stiffness and toughness, and is usually thicker and is suitable for embossing processing to improve the artistic effect and grade of the product. Many art papers have a rich texture and a special texture. This feature can be used to make it in sharp contrast with the gloss produced by UV glazing in order to achieve special artistic effects.

4. Choice of printing methods
If the product is required to have a bright color and the ink layer is thick, screen printing should be considered. However, if you want a clear feeling, you should consider using offset printing. The choice of printing method will have an important impact on the final product.

5. Selection of printing ink
Many customers would like to use silver ink and gold ink in order to pursue a gorgeous appearance. However, in the design process, according to the characteristics of art paper and the printing process, a reasonable layout should be designed so as to not only be beautiful, but also fully consider the gold, Silver ink features and printing process requirements, try to avoid printing failures that should not occur. In general, gold and silver inks are mainly used in the field parts or color blocks, and it is better not to design them as gold or silver for very small intaglio texts, yang texts, and hierarchical transitions. In the process of plate design, the order arrangement of gold and silver ink should be taken into account to ensure the metallic color. Also consider the requirements for gold and silver ink for art paper. If the absorption of ink on art paper is very strong, the linking material will be quickly absorbed, and the metal pigment in the ink will float on the surface of art paper, lose its luster, become weakly attached, and even fall off. The strong acid art paper easily reacts with the metal powder, causing discoloration and loss of luster in the metal pigment. When printing gold and silver ink on art paper, it is usually necessary to first coat the background ink. For example, when printing silver ink, first lay a light layer of white ink. This can not only improve the gloss of the silver ink layer, but also strengthen the silver ink on the paper. Adhesion. Some products, after printing gold and silver inks, should also consider UV coating or water-based coating, or laminating to prevent the metal pigments from discoloring or falling off.

The uniqueness of the papermaking process has made the art paper a lot of specialties in the structure and performance of the paper, resulting in many special aspects of the printing process.

1. Ink absorption
All kinds of art papers have a great absorption of ink, such as: coaster paper is easy to absorb ink, Leniy paper is easier to absorb ink, and transparent paper is difficult to absorb ink. The ink absorption of the used art paper is directly related to the quality of the printed product and the required delivery time. For papers with poor ink absorbency, driers can be properly added to the ink or cured by UV light to prevent the back of the ink from drying too slowly and causing the back of the dirty, imprinted powder and other phenomena. Of course, the structure of the paper has a great influence on ink absorption. Some papers have a loose texture and the ink can easily penetrate and dry; while others have a very tight texture and the ink floats on the surface of the paper, so that it is not easily penetrated into the paper and is less likely to dry. Art papers with different ink absorption properties can usually be controlled by adjusting the printing pressure and processing the ink. If necessary, a certain amount of test printing can be performed first (the quantity is determined according to needs).

2. Smoothness
Due to different papermaking processes, some art papers are relatively bulky and have low smoothness; some papers are denser and have higher smoothness. In art paper, there are also papers with embossed effects (such as embossed paper) and stripe-like textures (such as bamboo paper). When encountering this type of paper, it is generally recommended to print less or even not to print, and to use paper's natural embossing to perform some simple local processing such as embossing, UV varnishing, hot stamping, etc., thereby basically retaining the original paper's characteristics. And make full use of these qualities to achieve the desired decorative effect. Of course, if it is necessary to print, it is very necessary to regulate the printing pressure so that specific problems can be analyzed. Such as the printing of thicker art paper, the printing pressure should not be too large, otherwise it will undermine the characteristics of this type of art paper shading obvious, and make the paper deformation. On the other hand, if it is an art paper with a more closely printed texture, the pressure on printing should be appropriately increased.

Special paper printing and decorating effect
With the improvement of people's living standards, there are more and more varieties of paper, and specialty papers have emerged. They are widely used in various graphic designs, especially the design of high-end albums and book covers, and are deeply loved by the general public. The special paper has the advantages of compressibility, foldability, and convenience of processing and easy molding. It is not achieved by other packaging materials, and it is also a great advantage as a paper printing material.