Signature: In printing, the signature is the large sheet that contains individual pages of a layout that can be cut and folded to create a book or brochure. This can be assembled in Adobe InDesign and sent to the press operator who then checks the signature for color and mistakes. There is also a band of colors that were used in printing along an edge of the sheet, which are usually, cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The signature is like a story board for the final printed material.
Hickey Picker: This is used to remove the dust that is created from cutting paper. A stack of paper products all need to be cut to a uniform size, and there is a device that does very efficiently. The fine particles that are created from cutting the paper are then put into the air and need to be filtered out so they don’t disrupt the printing process. The hickey picker’s job is to get rid of these paper particles so there are not white dots on the print. Sometimes the press needs to be shut down in order to remove the hickey but there are also automatic hickey pickers (see this blog). In addition to preventing the spread of particles, the building also needs to be controlled to monitor temperature and humidity so that the quality of the paper and inks are not compromised.
DPI: Dots per inch, or DPI, is the term used to identify the quality of a print, also known as resolution. This can is sometimes referred to as spots-per-inch or dot pitch. The dots refer to the dots of ink in a print. The number of dots per inch is determined by the pixels per inch in digital format. A larger DPI will yield a better quality print, which will also be more expensive. For some printing purposes a high resolution print is not necessary. The printed color image is made up of a combination of tiny cyan, magenta, yellow and black dots, which creates an optical illusion so the viewer sees a whole range of colors. This is the same idea used in pointillism.
Bleed: In order to make sure that the color or images extends to the edge of the page. This excess is known as the bleed. Usually a 1/8 inch is a sufficient amount of bleed, around the entire page. This will ensure that there is not a white border on the page. This can be configured in InDesign or another design program before sending the artwork to the printing company.
Packaging can be used as a form of marketing a product or brand. The design, logo, colors and shape should all be considered as this is the costumer’s first contact with a product.