Printing 101

Baby Steps To Print Purchasing Know How

The Printing Crash Course - Printing School

What Color Paper Should I Use?

White paper is available in dozens of shades of white. From a blue white to a cream or yellow white. The difference in the color is very subtle, and not obvious when viewed individually. The differences in the hue of the paper color are immediately visible when placed next to each other. The proper light environment to see the color of paper is in a light source defined to be closest to natural light and defined in the print trade as a proofing light is a specific color referred to as 5000 degrees Kelvin.

Almost all jobs these days are printed on white stock, and papers in white have the most available weights, finishes, coatings, and applications. Preferably designers modify the white paper with a spot color to enhance the background or even go as far as print a light tint in a soft color with a pattern such as a parchment paper, modifying the look of the paper to look like a parchment paper.

When a color paper is chosen, one has to remember that the effect of the colors printed on the color stock will be different. Therefore a yellow ink printed on a soft blue stock will look much greener as the blue of the stock will tend to mix with the yellow of the ink color.

Printoutlet utilizes a spectrophotometer that analyzes the effect of applied ink colors to colored substrates, in this case the paper. This device enables us to identify the delta of the difference in the ink color required to achieve the proper effect of a color ink on a color paper. This, however, has large limitations in that the color being printed has to have the colors of the stock in it as a part of its formulation, so that the spectrophotometer can offer to remove certain requirements from the formulations modify the color to its required effect.

The use of colored stock is highly cautioned, and everyone, from the designer to the printer should be aware of the use of such paper. Modifications on design, content, photographs, and printing inks will definitely be required. The costs involved in using colored paper is not recommended by Printoutlet to keep the price of print cheap for brochures, sell sheets, flyers, business cards, post cards etc. The use of such special items should be reserved for some high end application that justifies the cost expenditure.

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