Screen Printing vs Digital Printing

Screen Printing is a type of printing where a stencil being hand made or electronically is placed on a screened material like nylon or silk which is stretched across a frame and tightly kept in place. Ink is placed inside the frame and moved about the stencil with a rubber squeegee. The ink goes through the screen and onto the material.

When screen printing, a few things will be needed. Most obviously is drawing fluid. Using screen filler is a simple means of preparing a screen for printing. The screen filler is used to block out those areas that you do not wish to print. This lets the ink to be forced into the screen wherever there is no screen filler.

Hinge Clamps will also be needed, which features wide-wing thumbscrew for firm fastening to the frame, and positive locking for perfect registration.

When it comes to mediums, there a re a few different types to be used or chosen from. Acrylic Extended Base is designed to create a transparent colour. Fabric/Acrylic Transparent Base is designed to create a transparent colour for fabric/acrylic inks. 

Printing screens are smooth, hardwood frame securely fastened together. It is cordlocked in grooves and can be tightened or replaced.

When it comes to Digital Printing, it describes the process of transfering a document on a personal computer or other digital storage to a printing substrate by means of a device that accepts text and graphic output. Digital printing has steadily replaced Lithography in many markets, especially at the consumer and business level, as a result of its lower production costs.

 The ink cartridge holds ink that sprays onto your paper, fabric or whatever you need. When viewed with a magnifying glass small dots of colour can be seen to make the effect of reality and to see the image you are seeing. This is also used with CMYK colours.

RGB and HSV

 Display devices like computers, mobile phones and so on generally use a different colour model called RGB, which stand for RED, GREEN, BLUE. One of the most difficult aspects of desktop publishing in colour is colour matching. Colour matching is properly converting the RGB colours into CMYK colours so that what gets printed looks the same as what appears on the monitor.

"RGB colours are also knwon as 'additive colour', because there are no colours and the colours are being added together to achieve further colours or until the outcome is white(look at the colour chart image directly below, the inside colour is white because it is all the colours added together). This is because our eyes receive no reflected and they perceive the colour to be black. However, when you add portions of red + green + blue the outcome is the CMYK colours.

HSV stands for hue, saturation and value, and also is also often called HSB, B being for brightness.

Hue is the colour chosen.

Saturation is the amount of white desired in your particular colour, being very washed out or very clean. It has also been described as The "colorfulness of a stimulus relative to its own brightness".

Value on the other hand is how dark or shaded you want your colour to be. 

If the user has selected as colorful as possible a dark purple  , and then shifts the lightness slider upward, what should be done: would the user prefer to see a lighter purple still as colorful as possible for the given hue and lightness  , or a lighter purple of exactly the same chroma as the original color  

ICC Profiles

ICC stands for international colour consortium. An ICC profile is the colour ID of a device. It contains two essential information:

• The colour space of the particular device, so all the colours can be displayed or printed

• the colour 'defects' off this device. In the case of photoshop for example, reading the ICC profile of a particular monitor, Photoshop knows how to fix the colours so they are correctly displayed.

An ICC profile is therefore a short file linked to a colour reproduction device. Each device must have its own ICC profile. It contains many different pieces of information about the colours of that device. It is also described as the colour ID of a device.

The ICC profile device on the device. It could be a of an input device such as a camera, scanner and so on,  or of an output device like a printer. 

Does an image contain a profile or a space?

when an image leaves the camera, it contains the profile of this camera but it is instantly and automatically converted into a neutral colour space. 

In fact there is hardly a difference between an ICC profile and a colour space.

These are two different aspects of the same thing which may, however, contain more or less information. It is a bit like a cylinder, either you look at it from the top and you say that it is a circle, or you look at it from the side and you say it is a rectangle.

Colour Harmony

Harmony is when two things go good together or work peacefully together. It is a sort of tranquility. Harmony is nature's way of saying that two or more things make sense together. Colour harmony represents how two or more colours work together in unity. Harmonious combinations are pleasing to the eye and attract attention.

The colour wheel becomes the designer's tool for choosing harmonious colours.

What follows are different examples of colour harmonies found on the colour wheel that all begin with the colour yellow as the main colour, but you can choose different harmonies with any colour from the colour wheel.

The picture below is a good example of the use of monochromatic harmonies.The main colour used is orange. You can see different shades and tints of orange within the same colour family.

The clocks below are a good example of Analogous colours being chosen from three of twelve parts of the colour wheel sitting side-by-side.

Complimentary colours are my personal favourite in colour harmony. Being so opposite, and working so well together is why i love complimentary colours.

Colour can come first or last in the designing process, either way the combination must be chosen carefully and must work together. The colour of a work is very important and could make it or break it.
You must also see the message you are trying to send when choosing the colour palette by taking psychology of colours into consideration.


REFERENCE: http://www.sensationalcolor.com/understanding-color/theory/color-relationships-creating-color-harmony-1849#.WAOFoOB9670

Raster vs Vector

Raster and Vector are both different type of graphics that are found in different applications for graphic design. 

Raster graphics are found in Photoshop, where these images and pixels are not done with mathematical calculations, and so will get pixilated if enlarged or changed in a way.
Vector graphics on the other hand are done using mathematical calculations and can be enlarged, reduced and still keep its proper shape and detail.

When drawing with pixels, like said before, you are at risk of losing clarity when enlarging your image.

When drawing with vectors, this will not happen as it uses a system of mathematical applications. So if you were designing a poster, business cards and a logo for a particular company, you would have to use Vectors because you will need to enlarge and shrink the logo size for posters and business cards as to keep clarity.

Since raster images' dimensions are measured in pixels, suppliers may have specific size requirements for their processes. They might require a specific pixel resolution: a specific amount of pixels within each inch.  The amount of pixels within each inch in the image represents the image resolution or PPI(pixels per inch)  

File sizes are also different from each other. In raster images like photoshop, the size is about 200MB for example, and in Vector images like illustrator, the size is below 100MB.

Raster graphics is used for photo manipulation like the example below. This is useful as because of pixels, you will not able to tell the full detail even with a magnifying glass. This helps perfect the illusion trying to be portrayed.

In order to determine what size your raster image must be for good quality printing, you have to multiply the resolution required by the area to be printed. For example, magazine size is 300PPI and you have a space of 5inches on the magazine, u multiply them and get 1500(pixels wide).

Pixel Perfect Details

Pixel Perfect Details is closely related to pixel perfect principles. Details are as said, more in-detail points for designing in itself. These are sort of principles, but in more small details.

Sharp Edges - These should be on-pixel and sharp, blurred edges are not good. Appearance wise, there is a big difference between the two. The square with the sharp edges looks much neater and more attractive.

Consistency - Consistency is very important when designing. This could be a consistent, design, style, layout, alignment of objects and so on. This could involve placement of title bars, footers etc. These should be the same to prevent objects jumping around in your work. You could set up a grid, which you can follow by when adding things to your work. Take this photo for example, consistency is used in the style of the objects being portrayed. This link them together by colour, design and sharp edges.

Text Length - Text Length is important, not just for the length of a particular actions or product, but even if it is going to be used internationally. You have to consider how long it will become when translated into other languages. Take the example below, Settings translated to German and Portuguese is much longer than in English.

REFERENCE: http://cdn.ustwo.com/PPP/PP3.pdf

Screen vs Print: SCREEN

When it comes to screen designs, these are more of a web designers job, being coding and things like that. However a graphic designer can design the layout and design itself for the web designer to incorporate.

The design or the layout must be different but the same at the same time for each type of device. For example on a computer, iPad or phone.

Screen designs also includes animation. Animation is the process of making an illusion of motion and change by means of or rapid change of images that creates motion or a type of 'video'.

In print you are trying to get your audience to stay on a page long enough to get a marketing message across. 

On the web, you are generally trying to keep your audience on a specific website for as long as possible.

When it comes to screens, you are measuring your space in pixels and you are faced with a challenge. This challenge is designing your site to look the best on all size monitors and at all monitor resolutions.

Methods of Printing

Printing is a process for reproducing a particular image or text using a master form or template.

Over the years printing methods have changed and obviously improved.

The first ever press was a Letterpress. By using stamps, it grabs ink and places on the paper. It is very similar to a typewriter, but printing things whole not part by part. This is all done by hand by someone placing an empty piece of paper or material chosen in the place to be pressed by ink. It also has to be done fast according to the machine's speed, which is controllable. Nowadays the Letterpress is not used 

Another method, which is the most common used today is Offset Lithography. This is a process whereby a sheet passes through 4 different printing colour machines, being those of CMYK. The paper passes through each machine one after the other through rolls. These rolls are slight wet and added with water and chemicals. The percentage of colour per area is added one after the other and then has some time to dry out. Offset Lithography works on the principle that water and oil don't mix. "By using metal or polyester sheets(plates), image and non-image areas are burned onto the plate using light to expose the image areas. This plate is attached onto a cylinder that as it goes around on the press, picks up water onto the non image areas, since water and oil don't mix, when the plate comes into contact with the ink, it only sticks where the water isn't, our image area."  REFERENCE: http://www.hignell.mb.ca/printingclarified/printing101/methods-of-print

Flexography is usually used to print labels. Here multiple rolls are used for each colour used in that particular label or design. These can go up to incredible printing speeds of 4 miles per hour(that's a lot). IT is the packaging industry who mostly use flexography.

This is done on materials such as lables, stickers, plastics, tissues and so on. This is a cheap way of printing as it does not use a lot of ink, barely actually just to look filled. This is good in a way because things such as packages, bottle labels and so on are thrown away. The chosen plate is wrapped around a cylinder that rotates and while rotating picks up in that then presses it into the material.

Gravure printing is a lot like flexography printing. The main difference is that its grooves are engraved into the cylinder therefore it could be used time and time again. It is usually used in printing long run magazines

REFERENCE: http://www.hignell.mb.ca/printingclarified/printing101/methods-of-print

CMYK

CMYK colours are a combination of CYAN, MAGENTA, YELLOW AND KEY(BLACK). In the printing press days when plates were being used the black plate was typically called the 'key' plate because it carried the most important key information relating to the artistic detail.

Computer screens display colours using RGB colour values.Printers often present colours using CMYK colour values.

In the print industry, cyan, magenta, yellow and black are used like paintings' primary colours. When you mix all the colours, you get grey. If you look at a printed page like a magazine with a magnifying glass you might see something like the illustration below.

All printed images are a mixture of these 4 colours, with different percentage out of 100. This could come in handy when trying to recreate the same colour by entering the same percentage as used before. The way in which photos are printed is by having an aluminium plate and letting the amount of percentage of ink of 4 colours onto the plate which transfer it to paper. Some examples of printing are offset lithography, flexography and so on.

So what would each colour look like if separated from each other in an image? Exactly like the image below.

You can see how different colours are made up of different strengths of CMYK. Because such printing uses inks of these four basic colours, it is often called four-colour-printing.

The RGB colours combined at 100-percent brilliance, produce white. The colours of CMY combined at maximum concentration, make black. Shades of gray result from the equal(but not maximum) brilliance of R,G, and B, of from equal(but not maximum) concentrations of C, M, and Y.

REFERENCE:

 http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/CMYK.html

http://cruxcreative.com/rgb-vs-cmyk-when-to-use-which-and-why/

Pixel Perfect Principles

Pixel perfect principles are the sort of 'rules' when designing something on any of photoshop, illustrator and so on. These are the basics to start from, making sure that your basics are correct. 
Your primary consideration should always be your users, ie: the target audience. Age will greatly affect how you design your work, be it with text, style, detail, colour etc.. 

The main Principles are: 

• Environment
• Accessibility
• Copy
• Colour and Shape
• Visual Hierarchy
• Typography
• Motion
• Testing
• Prototyping
• Taking a Break!

• Environment - The environment consists of the 'literal' environment of the product. For example the difference in designing the layout of a television and a mobile phone will be very different.

• Accessibility - Accessibility refers to how accessible it is to users not in the sense of having a disability by how easy and reliant it is to use. Things such as people with colour blindness and dyslexia should be taken into consideration. Things like simple wording and straight forward wording could be of great use to all types of people, sweet and simple.

Take this example of google. The top is how the logo actually is, and the bottom is how colourblind people see it. So making things more eligible to read instead of complex designs would be more appropriate.

• Copy - When it comes to copy, this refers to that what you say is as important as the design itself. So here the wording is vert important, being in a positive tons and welcoming approach rather than just boring text. This will invite the reader to continue reading and feel a sense of emotion when reading the text. Look at the example below, the left is the boring text and the right is the best way to write text.

• Colour and Shape -  Colours and shapes have become tied to specific meanings, feelings, warnings and so on. This makes it important to use appropriate colours and shapes in the particular type of design you will be creating. For example, green and ticks are seen as good whereas red and crosses are seen as bad or wrong.

• Visual Hierarchy - This is all about how the text is going to be laid out. Think how you would like yourself and others to see it, in what order, what type of colours and go by that. You could grab someone's attention by using high contrast and large bold type, or lower contrast and smaller, lighter type to push items to the back.

• Typography - This should be high on your priorities. This is the information itself. You should make the size and spacing comfortable for the reader to read without squinting or getting discouraged to read it with long lines or bad font. Treat type with the respect it deserves.

• Motion - Motion is important to be used if you want to give a direction to the reader. For example you want the user to click on a specific button, you could add motion to it to attract the readers attention and curiosity.

• Testing - Nothing beats testing on the desired device. For example if you are designing a logo, check how it looks on phones, laptops, computers, even maybe on TV for commercials. This is important to note details that you might want to change. Testing is very important.

• Prototyping - Prototyping could be different things such as doing a detailed version of your project, or simple sketches of the possible outcome. These will help give you direction in your project for the best possibility.

• Taking a Break! -  This is very very important. Breaks are essential to you to recover and relax to be able to focus when starting again. This also helps to solve a design problem. By having a break and going back, you might look at things differently, notice something you want to change or think of something new and better.

REFERENCE: http://cdn.ustwo.com/PPP/PP3.pdf

Screen VS Print : PRINT

When designing for web based things and print based, there are a number of differences. The two can be compared in major topics like the type of media, audience its portraying, layout, colour and technology used.

When it comes to becoming a print designer, there are different types or fields of print designing. The main consist of Magazine editorials, product packaging, business cards, logos and so on.
Although designing magazines are said to eventually stop, it is not looking like they will as they are still very popular, even though news is portrayed online. You could be asked to create a field of design works to match throughout a magazine or to match a story perhaps. 

Product packaging is one of my personal favourites. This is designing the packaging of a particular product. This will change how the customers will view this product, for better or worse. This could be adding a feel to the product, a theme, type of colouring, style or texture. Texture such as soft, shiny, flashy, rough and so on. 

Business cards are also one of my favourite. This helps show the message that the company wants to send to potential customers by being either creative, serious, fun, or whatever the company wishes to provide. I see business cards as being very important for company image and favourable word of mouth. Edge painted business cards really add a cool and new factor to the cards, while also improving the image of the firm or business.

Logos are the company. This is the most important of them all. Logos affect the company incredibly for the better or for worse. Having a bad logo could or will destroy your company, unless the product or service provided is the best of the best. It is important to try to create a logo that does not phase-out or lose its style. This is perfectly shown by Coca Cola. They have technically kept the same logo since they started with few minor changes.

In print you are trying to get your audience to stay on a page long enough to get a marketing message across. 

On the web, you are generally trying to keep your audience on a specific website for as long as possible.

In print you know the space allowed from the start and that your finished product will look the same to everyone who sees it.

When it comes to colour on screen against printed colour there are different choices, issues and concerns when dealing with colour.

In print you must notice and see the difference on screen to actually being printed(on screen VS on paper).

In print a proof can be used to help ensure you are getting the right results in colour. You often choose between a "spot" or "process" colours for you printer to use. These are colours you choose from a palette and identify with a code that you provide to your printer.

A pantone could and should also be used when identifying colour. You will choose the colour you desire from this 'colour booklet'(pantone) and enter that code into the printer or application. Even though this will look different on the computer, it is the printed image that you should worry about(final work). This also has to do with CMYK and RGB colours.

For screen you must also consider the difference in colour from monitor to monitor

For both print designers and web designers, keeping up to date with today's technology is key to success and knowing new ways of printing designing and so on.

Colour

Colours are something that are used for many reasons, not only in graphic design.

 Colour is used to catch the eyes of people, in our case, the customers eye and the people's eye. colours are also appealing to the eye and can give a sense of emotion to the person viewing it. so colours are very important and the design or integration of colours should be selected carefully to give the type of message or feeling that you are trying to communicate.

Colour affects our mood and can represent cultural significance and also political associations.

Colour psychology affects our lives in so many ways, yet we often don't realize the impact of our colour choices on our website colours or logo colours or brochure colours or anything related to graphic design. also on our stationery and packaging, business clothing and so on.

Colour has a very important impact on our every day lives without us even knowing sending of messages and details to our brain to show a message.

I did some research and found a sight which shows colour meanings in businesses.

Red represents masculine energy, passion, strength, excitement. where it could also be romantic, dangerous, reminds us of blood and violence, desire, lust, courage, attention-seeking,motivating, stimulating and so on.

Yellow is a very warm and happy go lucky colour associated with cheerfulness and playfulness. psychologically it is optimistic, uplifting and illuminating, brightening people's spirits.

Blue adds strength and unity, and is therapeutic to the mind and body. It brings harmony to the spoken word. it is also associated with loyalty, trust, integrity, caring, concerned, reliability and responsibility.

These are the primary colours of the colour wheel. These three colours are used to create every form or shade of colour along with black(being no colour) or white(being light or brightness).

Then come the secondary colours which are orange, purple and green.

and the tertiary colours follow which are darker and lighter shades or green, purple and orange.

REFERENCE :

  http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-meanings-in-business.html