Registration, what is that?

Registration, tight, bad, off, or spot-on makes a big difference in the quality of your printed materials.

Registration in printing is not about signing up for anything. Unlike every app you download, you don’t need to submit your personal information and a credit card just to get something printed. In printing, registration is the alignment of all the various inks you are using.

If you are printing something with more than one color, then each color will be printed separately by the printing press. In the path of a press, each color is laid on top of each other. If something isn’t registered properly, then when it prints, colors will blend, letters and images will look fuzzy, colors may be where you don’t want them, and in some instances gaps will open up where they shouldn’t be. None of which will lead to a beautiful piece of print.

Printers need a way to ensure that all the colors line up perfectly to form your design, and that process is known as registration.

Think, for example, of old comic books when parts of Superman’s iconic blue and red, are mistakenly printed purple. This is a classic example of the kind of problems that can occur with poor and shifting print registration. In many older, cheaply produced comic books it was a common problem – take a look at these examples and notice how some of the inks are bleeding right over the black lines. Bad registration is pure kryptonite to great printing.

So what can be done to ensure proper registration? First and foremost it takes excellent press operators who pay attention to a job and how a press is running. She or he makes adjustments by keeping an eye on what are called registration marks. They look like this:

Each ink is aligned on top of each other – target over target. If the targets don’t line up into one single image, then the registration is off and the press operator needs to make adjustments.

Perhaps you’ve seen these before? On a printer’s proof, or even on products you have around the house. Tomorrow at breakfast check the bottom of your cereal box. How’s the registration look? Right on target, or slightly off?

By knowing the dimensions of the paper to be used, the press a job is to be run on, and the colors to be aligned, our pre-press and production teams work together to ensure that all the inks are in place and contributing to the whole. One more step to ensure that a printed work is prepared correctly, waste is minimized, and the job comes out beautifully.

Your questions and comments are welcome below. Or if you have a specific question about a job you need printed, than give us a call.

cutpasteandprint Printing, graphic design, binding, and promotional product specialists in Huntingdon Valley, PA. We proudly serve the Bucks and Montgomery County areas with superior quality, great customer service, and a commitment to getting you and your the best possible printed materials. Our services include: Digital Printing, Offset Printing, Graphic Design, Promotional Items, Bindery, and Copying.