One of the things you need to learn when you’re printing your ad is to work with a graphic designer that knows and understands well the basics of color printing. Understanding different factors such as spreads, signatures and imposition can help you work out the best element for your print ad.
So what are spreads, signatures and imposition?
Spreads in color printing are classified into two – reader spreads and printer spreads. The difference with these two is that the former is what the readers see when you open your ad that is saddle stitched. You have page 1 and page 2 that looks like they are across from each other. They are different pages that your readers look at when they are reading your ad.
The printer spreads, on the other hand, are the pages that are connected to each other when you take out the binding from your print ad. This is especially visible when you look at the back page of your print material. This is how the printer prints your ad, hence the name. During printing, these pages are printed next to each other, then folded, and then finally bound at the center as a final result.
Understanding these two can help you save on time and costs. If your graphic designer for example sent your color printer the wrong spreads (which is the reader spreads), your printer will still have to change the order of your pages manually into printer spreads. This takes time and you will have to pay extra as it is considered an additional process. Not to mention that this can eventually provide problems later when your color printer starts printing your ad.
Hence, it is appropriate to provide your printer with printer’s spreads, and not the reader’s spreads. They are not called printer’s spreads for nothing.
A signature, on the other hand, is a set of pages printed on the same sheet of paper. After printing, the sheet of paper is then cut to it required page size. Thus, your number of pages is based on the size of your page, as well as that of the sheet or paper that your printer used for your print project.
Lastly, imposition is the process of identifying your pages in a signature – which goes where and in what direction. Your page may be upside down or even backwards. Nevertheless, the end result would be in their proper position and even in the right sequence.
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