Mechanical Preparation
Introduction
The printing process largely determines the quality of reproduction; however,
the best machinery available cannot hide the flaws in a poorly constructed
mechanical. It is through the mechanical that the DM exerts a direct
influence on the resulting print, both in quality and cost.
Preparation
Before you begin creating artwork for reproduction, you must gather your
materials and information. Determine the press operation involved and the
materials to do the job. Settle on a format, finished stock, and type style. If
the originator provides artwork, it may require cropping, retouching,
eliminating background clutter, or halftone screening. If you must copyfit or
scale artwork, do so before you commit yourself to paper.
Cropping
Sometimes you use only a specific portion of the original artwork in a
finished product. Cropping is the procedure of defining the desired
reproduction image area within a larger piece of work. A simple method of
cropping uses two right angles cut from opaque paper or board.
By
maneuvering the two pieces of angled paper, you can frame the desired
subject in many different ways. You indicate crop marks on a drawing or
photograph by lightly marking the borders of the artwork or print, by
marking an overlay attached to the artwork or print, or by cutting a window
in an opaque masking paper, such as goldenrod, to expose the desired portion
of the artwork or print. Use a grease pencil if you mark on the borders of
original artwork so it can be easily removed. Do not mark more than one set
of crop marks on the same artwork.
Figure 1-31 illustrates the use of cropping arms.
Figure 1-31. —Cropping arms.
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