Graphic Design
What is Film:
| Since
most of the paper printing presses in North America are
now direct to plate, this page really only pertains to
the optical disc face imprinting, which still requires
analog films to make the silkscreens. |
In our "Basics" page we mentioned that prior to
computers, designers pasted up their designs and then shot their
work with a camera. Historically, the term "camera ready
artwork" has meant that the copy is ready to be
photographed, film developed, proofed, scanned, edited, re-shot,
placed and then finally burned onto printing plates.
What a
hassle! What better way to eliminate cost than to keep
information inside a computer for as long as possible?
Today
we use two modes to eliminate the camera and paste ups:
Film
Image Setter is a glorified, expensive printer that uses
mylar film acetate sheets instead of paper to print your
document. Once your computer layout file is preflighted (checked
for bugs) a post script 'snap shot' is created and sent down to
the image setter. Out pops films used to make the silkscreens.
Direct-to-Plate
technology has been invented for the paper printing portion of a
project - today's Standard Web Offset Printing (SWOP). It
literally does what its name suggests - transfers images and type
directly from an electronic format to the printing plates.
Because shooting, stripping, and other film processes have now
been eliminated, the amount of lag-time for set-ups has been
dramatically reduced... literally from hours down to minutes.
Negatives
and Positives
Usually
you will find two different types of film used in the production
of CDs and DVDs. Film positives are used for Silkscreen
Printing, and film negatives are used for Offset Printing for
disc print as well as paper and board-stock packaging. CDman
also uses Direct-To-Plate technology for most of our paper and
board-stock packaging.
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