To Mrs. A. Garner, Head Administrator
From: Matt Howard
Date: Thursday 12th June
For the up coming 'Top Note' award ceremony I have been asked to look at several different printing techniques, I believe all of them can recommended. We need posters, invitations for award winners and VIPs as well as program sheets for those attending. Firstly, the posters should be designed by an art student and reflect the creative nature of the award winners work. 50 posters would be sufficient for the university site. Secondly, the invitations should have a high quality feel to them, as this is the deparments most prestigeous . There will be 40 award winners and 25 VIP guests. Last of all, the programme is only a running order and can be a mass printed on A5 paper. 300 should be enough to cover the largest number of guests expected. Here I will list general information on each of the printing techniques I have looked at as well as the costs and benefits.
Firstly is Gravure, it involves engraving an image onto a cylinder, using a rotary printing press. Gravure is primary used to print rolls of paper instead of sheets. The printing cylinders used can last through large volume runs without being worn out. The quality of the image reproduction is also of a high quality. However it does have some major flaws. To start using Gravure the cost is high, 200,000 copies are needed in order to make a profit at least. The text and image lines can be rasterized and to add to these possible issues is that the ink used contains harmful chemicals.
Secondly, Letterpress. Letterpress involves using a pressing machine, rollers press against a plate. Advantages of Letterpress are that the process is straightforward and is very good at publishing handmade books. It also creates clean and crisp lines and bold images and is able to create 2000 impressions an hour and is cheap. But, it does have disadvantages, it is a slow way of printing and can only print different colours seperately as well it is costly when used to print images and photos.
Next is Linocut, also known as Woodcut. This is a cheap and relatively quick form of printing. It enables us of layering effects. However is does use a large amount of ink which could possibly add to the cost.
Offset Litho, this is a common printing technique. An ink image is transferred from a plate to a rubber blanket and finally a printing surface. Offset Litho usually produces images that are smooth and sharp. It also requires very little maintenance, it is also a very quick form of printing being able to print 18,000 sheets per hour. It also works on a wide variety of printing surfaces, including Leather, Metal, Cloth and Wood. However, compared to some printing types the image quality is quite inferior. Also the time and cost has lead to smaller printing jobs to move it digital printing.
Finally is Digital printing, this form of printing involves the use of a computer. Most Digital printing include inkjet and laser printing. Digital printing is a cheap and very simple way for produce large amounts. Digital is also very good for small printing jobs and only takes up to 2-3 days. When added with a photocopier, which alone only costs 5p a sheet, Digital printing can be seen as a very cheap and effective way of printing.
Overall I think that Gravure should not be used, given its expense and that is highly time consuming. This is also how I feel about Offset Litho, given the maximum printing job we require is 300, Offset Litho is most effective when large scale jobs are required. Now onto the techniques I think we should use, I think Letterpress would be best used for the invitations, given it high quality and presentation which is best suited to an event of this nature. For the posters I think Linocut would be best suited, given the layering effect it would greatly reflect the creative nature of the event. Finally for the programmes, I view Digital printing as our best option given the speed of which it prints, photocopying enables us to quickly and cheaply print the 300 programmes.
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