While we’re cranking away on our presses to print our letterpress cards, we’re also working hand-in-hand with Shear Color Printing to create our offset (or flat-printed) line. We’re fortunate to have a partnership with Joel and his team. For most of last week, I was there to check proofs as they came off press. For this specific run, I was making sure our new gift wrap, gift labels, and calendars were spot on in terms of color.
The printer itself is huge and so fast, printing hundreds of sheets in just a few minutes! In fact, it’s not set up to print out just one sheet. During the press check we print on the backs of other test sheets to save paper and avoid unnecessary waste.
Offset printing is a four color process. Above you see the yellow ink (the Y in CMYK). Each color has its own plate, and the paper is fed through the machine one color at a time. While I was checking colors, the press operator made slight variations to the amount of ink to change the output.
We spend a considerable amount time finding the perfect balance of color for our products. So suffice to say, we take our press checks seriously! And fortunately, the team at Shear Color makes it easy to have fun too.