This page is specially prepared to you so that you can know the benefits and limitations of professional digital press so that you can maximizing a higher quality of prints. At the same times, clearing some mysteries of printing..

WHAT IS DIGITAL PRINTING?
Digital printing uses computer technology to drive the printing devices to produce color or black and white documents. Digital documents are designed on computers, using layout software and electronic content -- representing both text and images such as graphics and photos. In this process, computers also manage the digital printing workflow, from controlling jobs and equipment to billing and accounting.

BENEFITs
Consistents colour reproduction in the CMYK colour spectrum
Quick turn around time
Economy
Variable data printing (VDP) capabilities

We do not require colour proof, what you see on the printout is what you getting. Our print sample will be the final product.
NO minimum qualities
No setup time, setup fee
No messy plates, films, etc..
Files are printed immediately from the softcopy (ie. cd, dvd, memory drives..)

LIMITATIONs
Although our Xerox DocuColor Press is PANTONE certified, there are some pantone colours that cannot be reproduced. They are namely luminous and metallic colours
Patchiness may be apparent in large chunks of single colour tone
Banding may appear in gradients
Paper sizes in digital printing remain limited. In fact, many output devices have physical restrictions that prevent them from printing to the papers edge. The maximum page size ranges super A3 or 12?x 18.?
No textured paper
 

USE PROPER RESOLUTION
Resolution measures how much detail an image or illustration has and is measured in dots per inch (dpi). In digital printing, recommended resolution for images is 300 dpi at 100 percent size. By selecting this resolution, you can secure a high level of

information to render, or digitally produce an image, yet still keep the file size manageable. It is not advisable to work or save your images in 300 ppi at 200 percent because they will have visible defects such as pixelization (visible individual pixels) or jaggies (lines shaped like a step).

IMAGE RESOLUTION
The sharpness of an image or illustration depends on the number of pixels used to describe it. The 300 dpi image has great detail, but at a price: file size. The 300 dpi image shows plenty of detail while keeping the file size down. Images lower than 150 dpi show signs of fuzziness and pixilation. Note that if you import an image that is 300 dpi and enlarge it 200% you are in effect reducing its resolution by half. Thus, a 300 dpi image would look like the 150 dpi image here.

Digital printing handles type and line art differently. Files are expressed in PostScript, digital shorthand that stores information in coded instructions rather than a mosaic of pixels. PostScript allows you to render files at the maximum resolution of the printer, which ranges between 400?200 ppi, producing sharper type and illustrations that are easily editable.
 

USE REALISTIC MARGINS
There are no borderless commercial printing machines, the reason prints are borderless is that we print slightly bigger than final item size and trim off the edge. When creating margins, always establish three areas on your document before you start:

Paper size or trim size: This is the actual finished size of the document.
Image area: This refers to the location of a graphic element on the page. To ensure that the image area is not trimmed in the final printing stage, create a half-inch margin from the edge of the paper on all sides. If the document is going to be cut from a larger sheet, then allow a half-inch safety margin.
Bleed area: This is the inked area on the page that runs off the paper. If you are creating document that will be trimmed out of a larger sheet of paper, use an eighth-inch margin beyond the trim size around all edges.

PRINT READY
Always supply all fonts and images when submitting a job. especially if you are submitting freehand or illustrator files. Alternatively, embed all graphic and path the text. However, with pathed text, if there is too much, the file will not be able to print correctly.

if you are using PDF creation software such as Distiller, make sure that your PDF files are created with the "press optimized" settings.

When it comes to imposition, please do not do the imposition for us. Simply supply the artwork and set then to the correct size and resolution (300 DPI/inch) + 5mm bleed all around.

Supply a hardcopy proof if possible if you are concerned about colour matching. Note that we can print production proofs, at at flat charge of SGD$10.00 per print. This will be refunded upon a final production is awarded to DigiLab.

To enhance large areas of black, use rich black:
C - 40%
M - 20%
Y - 20%
K - 100%

if you intend to print spot colors, you may request our pantone chart from us at SGD$30.00 per set

Avoid tints below 10%, and limit gradients to not exceeding 8 inches. With some colours there may be banding, so it helps to introduce some Gaussian  noise to hide any irregularities such as lines or uneven density caused by the substrate or printing process. However, best if background are photographic in nature.