Commercial Photoshop Retouching: In the Studio

Chapter 9. Preparing Images for Use on Packaging Materials

In this chapter

• The Image You Have Versus the Image You Need

• The Spec Sheet

• Preparing a CMYK File

• Another Option: Creating a Special Color

• Trapping on Special Packaging

One area that appears to have a bright future for Photoshop users is preparing images for use on various print mediums. This may include packaging and carton work, and printing on various substrates, plastics, large format posters, and prints.

Printing on various materials is typically done using a flexo press. Flexo printing allows you to print on a variety of odd materials. Flexo printing requires images to be prepared properly in Photoshop, and can be rather limiting in terms of the color range of the image because of the print specifications required. If you can prepare images for flexo printing, you can prepare images for just about any other print medium.

Note

Printing on some packaging material can be done with traditional litho printing, which is how quality magazines are printed. The print quality is much better when using a litho press, but the types of materials a litho press can handle are limited.

The machines that print large format posters and billboards are typically large, specialized, and expensive. They usually print backlit posters or on fabric-based materials for use in stores, bus shelters, or billboards. The images printed on these machines need to be prepared to print well on the different materials used. Using quality profiles, ...