[TCP] Old printing terms -- trying to convey a conept to our print vendors in China
Hi everyone, I've been sitting here for the better part of the afternoon googling for concepts from my old days of working in a print shop. I'm not having much luck because 20 or so years have passed since I worked there, and the terms are foggy, although the concepts are still in the back of my brain. Here's the situation. Our manufacturing was moved to China, so our few printed quick reference guides are now printed there, too. We got a check copy today where our normally 100% black logo was, at best, about 75-80% black. To me, it looked gray, not black. I'm drawing a blank on how to tell them in the future (without using a lot of words) that the black needs to be darker. Whenever we try to convey something to them, we find it best to use a graphic with a small amount of text. I would like to include a graphic in our print specifications document that shows a scale of black from 0 to 100%. Then we can specify that anything below a certain percentage is not acceptable. This page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayscale) has a scale off to the right, but it's not something that I can select and save. I remember measuring the level of black on printed copies in the past, or at least comparing the black against a chart of some kind, but the specifics are eluding me. I know that I have, in years past, rejected things when the black wasn't dark enough and could tell them exactly why. Can anyone point me at anything on the web or at least jolt my brain to remind me of what terms I could search for? I've been working with the terms gray scale, print saturation, print density, and a few others, but I'm not finding much that will help. Thanks, Donna - CONFIDENTIAL- This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential, and may also be legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, you may not review, use, copy, or distribute this message. If you receive this email in error, please notify the sender immediately by reply email and then delete this email. __ ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor, Microsoft Word or HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. Download Free Trial. www.doctohelp.comhttp://www.techcommpros.com/componentone/ Interactive 3D Documentation Parts catalogs, animated instructions, and more. www.i3deverywhere.com ___ Technical Communication Professionals Post a message to the list: email t...@techcommpros.com. Subscribe, unsubscribe, archives, account options, list info: http://techcommpros.com/mailman/listinfo/tcp_techcommpros.com Subscribe (email): send a blank message to tcp-subscr...@techcommpros.com Unsubscribe (email): send a blank message to tcp-unsubscr...@techcommpros.com Need help? Contact listad...@techcommpros.com Get the TCP whole experience! http://www.techcommpros.com
Re: [TCP] Old printing terms -- trying to convey a conept to our print vendors in China
Will a Pantone color work? http://www.sharperbrand.com/support/pantone_colors Dana W. On Thursday, August 05, 2010, Jones, Donna wrote: I've been sitting here for the better part of the afternoon googling for concepts from my old days of working in a print shop. I'm not having much luck because 20 or so years have passed since I worked there, and the terms are foggy, although the concepts are still in the back of my brain. *** Dana Worley Software Product Manager/Manager, Software Support Group Campbell Scientific, Inc. Microsoft MVP, Windows Help www.jestersbaubles.com __ ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor, Microsoft Word or HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. Download Free Trial. www.doctohelp.comhttp://www.techcommpros.com/componentone/ Interactive 3D Documentation Parts catalogs, animated instructions, and more. www.i3deverywhere.com ___ Technical Communication Professionals Post a message to the list: email t...@techcommpros.com. Subscribe, unsubscribe, archives, account options, list info: http://techcommpros.com/mailman/listinfo/tcp_techcommpros.com Subscribe (email): send a blank message to tcp-subscr...@techcommpros.com Unsubscribe (email): send a blank message to tcp-unsubscr...@techcommpros.com Need help? Contact listad...@techcommpros.com Get the TCP whole experience! http://www.techcommpros.com
Re: [TCP] Old printing terms -- trying to convey a conept to our print vendors in China
If that's still not dark enough, add the description rich black, which refers to a process in which K100 black is printed over some percentage of the other CMY colors. If your print vendor is using laser-based printing, specify 400% black, aka registration black, which is the laser equivalent, or the Postscript spot color all. Gene Kim-Eng --- Original Message --- On 8/5/2010 10:09 PM Sue Heim wrote: You want to use CMYK (as a reference) and tell them that the K (black) is 100% saturation. (CMYK in this case is 0,0,0,100) __ ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor, Microsoft Word or HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. Download Free Trial. www.doctohelp.comhttp://www.techcommpros.com/componentone/ Interactive 3D Documentation Parts catalogs, animated instructions, and more. www.i3deverywhere.com ___ Technical Communication Professionals Post a message to the list: email t...@techcommpros.com. Subscribe, unsubscribe, archives, account options, list info: http://techcommpros.com/mailman/listinfo/tcp_techcommpros.com Subscribe (email): send a blank message to tcp-subscr...@techcommpros.com Unsubscribe (email): send a blank message to tcp-unsubscr...@techcommpros.com Need help? Contact listad...@techcommpros.com Get the TCP whole experience! http://www.techcommpros.com