OT: Digitial Printing help needed

FightingIllini1977 wrote on 2/24/2008, 9:29 AM
A friend of mine had a professional create valentine cards (5by7) for them and I like how the cards came out. What I liked about them was the material the card was printed on (feels like thin poster board) and the inky look on the print out. If you look close at the card, you can see vertical and horizontal lines in the ink.

I would like to produce something like this for the customers that I create videos for. I checked the normal print sites like shutterfly, snapfish, and kodak and I don't see this print option.

Does anyone on here have any ideas on how to get this texture/inky look?

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 2/24/2008, 9:57 AM
Are you sure they were printed digitally? Sounds like an offset press to me.

You can run "card stock" through most inkjet printers and even through some laser printers. The ink won't stand out on it but toner probably would.
FightingIllini1977 wrote on 2/24/2008, 10:44 AM
The picture came from a digitial camera but for certain the printing technique and/or paper type is giving the card a unique look. I'm also certain my inkjet printer could not produce this ink line look.

I'm going to research offset press printing to see if this was the technique.
Coursedesign wrote on 2/24/2008, 5:10 PM
What exactly do you mean by "inky look?" A wet look like you would get with a spot gloss pass?

The "vertical and horizontal lines in the ink" sound like a simple pattern composited into the lettering and design.

jrazz wrote on 2/24/2008, 8:08 PM
I send a lot of my print work to MinuteMan Press here locally (Brochures, flyers, business cards, etc.) and the paperstock they have to choose from gives the prints various looks depending on the paper.

What you could do is take in one of those 5x7's and ask them if they can reproduce the print.

j razz
FightingIllini1977 wrote on 2/26/2008, 5:42 PM
There is a MinuteMan Press close to my house. I'm going to stop by this week and see if they can reproduce the look and for how much.

I did find an internet company that I requested stock paper examples from. Only down fall is they, force you into buying a minimum of 500 quantity 5 by 7's. I obviously don't need that many.

Also, to reply to an earlier poster; it's not really an inky look I guess. The best way to explain it: If you hold the card in the light, you can see vertical and horizontal lines and without the light you really can't notice the lines and it looks like a perfect picture. This texture that can be seen in the light adds a professional look to it in my opinion.