Handling Solid Colours
While digital printing is excellent for detailed and colourful designs, large solid colour areas and backgrounds can sometimes show banding. This is also true for large gradient areas. If your design includes solid colour blocks, consider incorporating textures or patterns to help achieve a more even appearance.
If you're unsure how your design will look when printed, send your artwork over and we can check for any potential issues before you commit to an order - print@eco-craft.co.uk.
Understanding Toner and Paper Interaction
Digital printing uses heat-fused toner rather than traditional ink. This can result in slight cracking when folded. If you are wanting a printed product like a box, we recommend avoiding high areas of flood colour if possible. If you aren't sure how your print will come out, we would recommend contacting us or requesting a printed sample!
Colour and Alignment
Minor variations in colour can occur between print runs, due to things like heat and humidity during production. We always strive for consistency and ensure that any variation remains within commercially acceptable limits.
Paper movement is another consideration in digital printing. Heat can cause the paper to stretch slightly during longer runs, sometimes leading to a slight misalignment between the front and back of printed items. This is especially important to note if your design includes borders, as they may shift by up to +/- 2mm. Such tolerances are standard in all forms of printing.
Label & Sticker Printing
When printing labels, slight movement of the sheets through the press can cause minor shifts (up to 1mm in all directions). To minimise visible effects, we would recommend avoiding borders around the label edges, and keeping important design elements well within the safe area, approx 3mm away from the edge. Labels with full-bleed designs are less likely to show any movement.
Black Coverage
Our printer prints in full CMYK -CMYK values for pure black are usually C: 0, M: 0 Y: 0, K: 100, however to achieve a richer black, you can use CMYK values of C 60, M 60, Y 60, K 100 when creating your design.
Glossy vs Matte Finish
Due to the nature of toner print, large solid areas of print may have a sheen/glossy appearance. If you prefer a flatter appearance, we can apply settings to reduce the glossiness however this may reduce the toner fixability, leaving the design more prone to cracking on folds. Please get in touch if you have any queries in this area and we will try to advise!
We're here to help!
If you're unsure, don't hesitate to reach out!
We're always happy to review your design before you proceed with ordering to ensure there are no potential issues down the line.