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Folder printing - A brief guide

Pre-Press Production for folder printing
The first step with any litho print job (weather it's a printed folderor a printed brochure) is to convert the artwork to plates. Plates are created from the original artwork files (weather that is Packaged Indesign files, collected Quark files, original Illustrator files or a print ready PDF...which we always prefer!). The process is called Computer to Plate (CTP)

There are 4 plates, one for each of the primary colours:

Cyan
Magenta
Yellow
Black

When looking at a presentation folder you may see lots of colours, though these will all be made up from cyan, magenta, yellow & black (CMYK). This is also known as 4 colour process.

Running the job on press
Pre-cut paper is fed into the press to print the job. The sheet sizes are always bigger than the final document size allowing for bleed. We print our standard oversized A4 folders 1 up on an SRA2 sheet. The job is then run on press and each plate is printed. Once printed the paper is then run through an oven which sets the inks so that it doesn't smudge. It's then run through a small section of chill rollers which then sets the ink.

Finishing
The folder may then need laminating either with a gloss or matt finish and then from there the finished sheets need to be die cut. We have various folder styles to choose from. The sheets are then die cut to shape with the waste stripped away leaving the cut sheet.
Interlocking folders are supplied flat ready to be made so can be packed straight away.
The glued up folders will then be put together by hand and then packed ready for despatch.

All the printed folders are despatched via courier on a next day delivery service. We guarantee we will complete the process for you within 5 working days from sign off of a proof (This is often sooner).
Then the die cut printed folder completed will be on their way to you.