Knowledge about Printing that Layout Designers Should Know

1. Printing process 
Pre-press: Refers to the preparatory work before printing, generally including photography, design, production, layout, and film making, etc. 
Indian and Chinese: Refers to the work during the middle stage of printing, the process of printing finished products using a printing press; 
Post-printing: Refers to the work carried out in the later stage of printing. Generally, it includes post-processing of printed materials such as cutting, coating, die-cutting, bag-filling, and framing, and is mostly used for promotional and packaging printed materials. 
2. Printing Elements 
Paper: There are many types of paper. Generally, they are classified as coated paper and uncoated paper. Coated paper usually refers to coated paper (with gloss) and matte paper (without gloss), which is mostly used for color printing; uncoated paper usually refers to offset paper and newsprint, which is mostly used for letter paper, envelopes and newspaper printing. 
Colour: Ordinary printed materials are typically printed using four colours: yellow, magenta, cyan, and black. Additionally, there are also special printing colours. 
Post-processing: Post-processing involves various techniques such as foil stamping and embossing, which help enhance the quality of the printed materials. 
3. Classification of Printed Materials 
(1) Classified by the ultimate product 
Office-related: Refers to stationery such as paper, envelopes, and office forms, etc., which are printed materials related to office work. 
Promotional category: Refers to a series of printed materials such as posters, promotional leaflets, and product manuals that are related to corporate promotion or product promotion. 
Production category: Refers to large quantities of printed materials directly related to the production products, such as packaging boxes and self-adhesive labels. 
(2) Classified by printing machines 
Offset printing: Refers to the process of printing using a flat plate, commonly used for printing on four-color paper. 
Gravure Printing: Refers to printing using an engraved plate (typically a steel plate), mostly used for plastic printing. 
Flexographic printing: Refers to the printing method using flexible material plates (typically including resin plates, etc.), mostly used for self-adhesive printing. 
Screen printing: It can be applied for printing on various materials, and is mostly used for gift printing, etc. 
(3) By material classification 
Paper printing: The most commonly used printing method. 
Plastic printing: Primarily used for printing on packaging bags. 
Special materials: Printing refers to the printing of glass, metal, wood, etc. 
4. Industry Terminology 
P number: Refers to one sheet of 16-page-sized paper. 
Film: It is a transparent film that transfers the electronic files of printed materials through a phototypesetting machine and is used for printing and plate making. 
Grammage: An important indicator for measuring the thickness of paper. 
Proofing: The process of creating a printed sample copy. 
Outputting: The process of converting film negatives into electronic files. 
Offset Printing: Flat plate printing, the printing plates used are smooth. 
Offset paper: A type of printed paper, with no coating layer on its surface. It is mostly used for stationery such as letter paper and envelopes.