I would like to use a pixel grid background for my next brochure. in web design these are quite common these days, you see them all over the place. But I’m a bit unsure about how they come out in print.
I know that fine detail does not come out well or at all in print. So I would assume that a pixel grid with say one pixel wide lines would probably be to fine for your average print? It’s pretty fine on a high resolution monitor of ready…
What’s a good rule of thumb? Or what is a good resource where I could look this up?
Unfortunately my own printer is not good enough to provide a reliable reference…
I would like to use a pixel grid background for my next brochure. in web design these are quite common these days, you see them all over the place. But I’m a bit unsure about how they come out in print.
I know that fine detail does not come out well or at all in print. So I would assume that a pixel grid with say one pixel wide lines would probably be to fine for your average print? It’s pretty fine on a high resolution monitor of ready…
What’s a good rule of thumb? Or what is a good resource where I could look this up?
Unfortunately my own printer is not good enough to provide a reliable reference…
what a crappy first line, but then again its true. so things to consider are the colors used, the final print resolution, athe resolution of the file and the paper used in the for printing.
the offset print uses 4 colors: cyan magenta yellow and black. lets say your line would be 50% black, also known as gray. the printer would be still using only black ink to produce the gray line, but instead of printing it with solid color (black) the illusion of gray will be produced through a halftone pattern… you know those dots you see when you study a magazine print with a magnifying glass. what it means is that if your lines are 100% cyan, magenta, yellow or black you can go thinner than if the colors are tints. also if your color for the lines are mixed from two color components, lets say you want the firetruck red and you put in 100% magenta and 80% yellow, Instead of getting one fire truck red line, you might end up with two lines that are really close to each other but not quite overlapping, one being 100% magenta and the other one pale, rasterized yellow. This happens because sometimes the paper moves during the printing process or it hasnt been calibrated carefully enough.
… agh, this might be a long post if I try to explain it all… Lets try a short cut:
if you want to use thin lines dont go bellow 0.25pt. and thats if your lines are solid, one component CMYK color.
For tints and mixed colors I wouldn’t go bellow 0.4pt.
what a crappy first line, but then again its true. so things to consider are the colors used, the final print resolution, athe resolution of the file and the paper used in the for printing.
the offset print uses 4 colors: cyan magenta yellow and black. lets say your line would be 50% black, also known as gray. the printer would be still using only black ink to produce the gray line, but instead of printing it with solid color (black) the illusion of gray will be produced through a halftone pattern… you know those dots you see when you study a magazine print with a magnifying glass. what it means is that if your lines are 100% cyan, magenta, yellow or black you can go thinner than if the colors are tints. also if your color for the lines are mixed from two color components, lets say you want the firetruck red and you put in 100% magenta and 80% yellow, Instead of getting one fire truck red line, you might end up with two lines that are really close to each other but not quite overlapping, one being 100% magenta and the other one pale, rasterized yellow. This happens because sometimes the paper moves during the printing process or it hasnt been calibrated carefully enough.
… agh, this might be a long post if I try to explain it all… Lets try a short cut:
if you want to use thin lines dont go bellow 0.25pt. and thats if your lines are solid, one component CMYK color.
For tints and mixed colors I wouldn’t go bellow 0.4pt.
With Offset (not digital print) you can go under 0.25pt with non composite but full color. (eg. standard CMYK or Pantone colors) Also the source file should be vector image and not bitmap. If you talking about a picture and not a vector image, and you need a very high detailed and good quality print there is an another but rare solution, called FM or diamond or crystal raster system. There is no standard angles between the raster dots but random. The LPI could be very high, in between 175-200. But! You will need a good quality paper for this. Not every paper able to use for this high quality print.
Your Grid needs to be 100% of hopefully a single color, any dual color mixes risk being out of registration. (Instead of Green rules; you will end up with slight cyan and yellow edges if the reg isn’t perfect).
A .25 Rule is a good rule to use. the larger the better.
Offset printing will most likely output as halftone. Which is why you want 100% single color for the grid pattern - C, M Y or K
2 colors out of reg will ruin your desired effect.
Find a printer than can handle fine line registration printing.
