How the ink gets on the paper.
Howling Press is a digital shop: toner on sheets up to 13 x 19 in and pigment on rolls up to 44 in wide, straight from the file, calibrated and profiled for every paper we run. When a job wants offset, letterpress or a wider print, we arrange it and see it through, and you deal with us throughout. Here is what digital does well, how we measure color, what offset and letterpress are and when a job wants them, how a run is priced, and how a job moves through the shop.
Digital: how we print, and what it does.
Most of what leaves the shop is printed this way: dry toner fused to sheets up to 13 x 19 in, straight from the file. No plates, and every sheet can differ.
0 plates
Nothing to make before the first sheet
An offset press needs a plate for every ink before it can print anything. Our press needs the file. So the first sheet costs about what the hundredth does, a run of 50 is a reasonable thing to ask for, and a job can go from approved proof to the cutter the same day. Business cards, postcards, flyers, invitations, brochures and short-run booklets are all printed this way here.
Toner
Dry toner, fused with heat
Fine particles of pigment in a resin are drawn onto the sheet by static charge and fused to it with heat and pressure. Type is very sharp, fine lines hold, and small solids are even. On uncoated paper the toner sits on the surface with a faint sheen, most visible on large dark areas, and on a deeply textured sheet it can miss the bottom of the texture. The press is calibrated and profiled for each paper we run, so the same file prints the same on the same sheet next month.
13 x 19 in
The sheet
The press takes sheets up to 13 x 19 in. Most of what we print is laid out several to a 12 x 18 or 13 x 19 sheet and cut down, and a job that changes from piece to piece, a name on every card or a number on every ticket, prints in the same pass as one that does not. Anything bigger than the sheet, a poster or a large print, goes to the wide format printer instead.
How close it gets to offset
Close enough that most people, most of the time, cannot tell. Our press builds color from the same four colors offset does, cyan, magenta, yellow and black, and because it is calibrated against measured patches rather than by eye, it holds steady from the first sheet to the last and from one order to its reprint. Side by side with an offset sheet you might notice a slightly different surface on solids and a touch more sheen on toner. On its own, a well-printed digital card is a well-printed card.
Where it falls short
Very large solids, one flat color across a whole sheet, can show faint unevenness. Metallic and fluorescent are not among the four colors, so a metallic look on toner means foil or a metallic paper. The sheet is 13 x 19 in at most, so a poster is a wide format job. And a brand color is matched by mixing four colors in dots, which gets close, measurably close, not exact. The color section below says how close, and what we do about it.
A 12 x 18 sheet holds about 20 business cards, so 100 cards is five sheets and 1,000 is fifty. What every job gets, whatever the count, is the same checking, proof, cut and packing; how the count moves the price is in the quantity section below.
Color, measured.
We do not judge color by eye. The press is calibrated and profiled with a spectrophotometer, for every paper we run, and that is why a printed proof from this press is the job.
Calibration: the press is measured, not eyeballed
A spectrophotometer is an instrument that reads the color of a printed patch as numbers, the way a thermometer reads heat. To calibrate, the press prints a sheet of hundreds of patches on a paper, we measure every one, and the press is corrected until a 50 percent tint really is 50 percent and the steps from light to dark are even. That is linearizing: making the press put down what the file asks, from the lightest tint to a full solid. Then a second set of patches is measured to build a profile, a map of every color that paper can reach and how to get there.
Delta E, in plain words
Delta E is the trade's number for how far apart two colors are. Zero means identical. Around 1 is the smallest difference a trained eye can pick out with the two side by side. At 2 or 3 most people see it if they look for it; at 5 and up anyone sees it without looking. When we calibrate, we measure the press against its target in delta E and correct it until the difference is below what the eye can see. And when you send us a reference color, we can measure how close the press gets on the paper you chose, and say so in the same number, before the job runs.
Per paper
A profile for every paper
Toner on a gloss coated sheet does not look like toner on a smooth uncoated one, so each paper we run gets its own profile. When your job prints on the Cougar smooth or the Polar Bear gloss, it prints through that paper's profile, not a generic one, and the press asks for exactly the amount of toner that sheet needs to hit the color.
Next month
The same file prints the same
A press drifts as the toner, the parts and the weather change, so calibration is repeated, and the numbers say when. That is what makes a reprint match the first run: the same file, on the same paper, through a press that has been brought back to the same measured target. Colors are measured, not remembered.
The proof
A proof from this press is the job
A printed proof here is not a simulation: it is a sheet from the press the run will use, on the run's paper, through the run's profile. Approve it and the run will match it, within the small variation any press has from sheet to sheet. Offset works the other way round, with a proof made on another device to predict the press. Here the proof and the run come off the same press.
- Build the file in CMYK. The numbers you send are the numbers the press is asked for, through the paper's profile. RGB files are converted here, and a bright RGB blue or orange may land somewhere quieter than it looked on screen; the artwork guide explains which colors travel and which do not.
- If a color has to match something, give us the reference: a Pantone number, and we will print its nearest match through the paper's profile and tell you how near that is; or a printed piece we can measure, which is better still.
- Remember that the screen you are reading this on shows color the way your screen does, which is approximately, and no two screens agree. An on-screen proof shows the content, the layout and the bleed exactly; it does not show the color you will hold.
- For a brand color, a large flat solid, a photograph that has to look like the original, or a reprint that has to match the last run, ask for a printed proof before you approve. It is the run's own paper on the run's own press, so what you hold is what you will get. There may be a charge and we will say so on the order.
There is no box to tick for any of this. Every job goes through a calibrated press on a profiled paper, because the alternative is guessing, and if it represents you, it matters.
Offset: plates, ink and water.
Offset is the way most of what you have ever read was printed, and still the best way to print a great many of something exactly. When a job wants it, we place it with a press we trust and manage it here, from the file to the box. Here is what it is, what it does that toner does not, and when a job truly wants it.
Plate, blanket, paper
The image goes onto a thin aluminum plate, one plate per ink. On the press the plate is wetted and then inked: the image areas take the ink and the wet areas refuse it. The plate passes the image to a rubber blanket and the blanket puts it on the paper, so the plate never touches the sheet. That handoff is where the name comes from.
Makeready: the first sheets are the expensive ones
Before a job prints well, the plates are made and mounted, the ink is set across the width of the sheet, the colors are lined up exactly on top of one another (in register), and a stack of sheets goes to waste getting there. That work costs the same whether 500 or 5,000 follow it. Once the press is running, each extra sheet costs paper, a little ink and a fraction of a second: a sheetfed press runs 10,000 sheets an hour and more, so the second thousand takes six minutes. That is why the price per piece falls so steeply as an offset run grows.
1 ink
Spot colors: mixed, not built
A Pantone color on offset is a real ink, mixed to a recipe and run through its own set of rollers on the press. It is the same on every sheet and, within the small variation any press has, on the reprint next year, and it covers as a solid rather than a pattern of dots. Metallic and fluorescent inks exist too. This is the way to print a brand color exactly, and it is the one thing offset does that toner can approach but not imitate.
4 inks
Process color: CMYK
Photographs and full-color designs print from four plates, cyan, magenta, yellow and black, each a fine pattern of dots your eye blends into every other color. Our press uses the same four colors; what offset adds is a bigger sheet, a smoother lay of ink and heavy coverage without unevenness, and when close is not close enough, a spot ink rides along as a fifth plate.
28 x 40 in
Big sheets, and what they ask of you
An offset sheet can be about 28 x 40 in, more than four times a 13 x 19 digital sheet, so a poster or a 32-page booklet goes down in a fraction of the passes. In return: plates cost money, a change to the file after they are made means new plates, the ink needs a day or so to dry before cutting and folding, and every sheet is identical.
What this means for you: a job that truly wants offset, a run in the many thousands, a spot ink that must be exact, a run of something larger than 13 x 19 (a folded map, a thousand posters), is printed offset. We will say so plainly, tell you what the job needs, and quote it with the plates and the press time in it, so you can decide with the facts in front of you.
Letterpress: a plate pressed into the paper.
Letterpress is the oldest way and the one people ask for by name: slow, one color at a time, and unlike anything else in the hand. When a job wants it, we arrange it with a press we trust and manage it here, so you deal with us from the first question to the box. Here is what it is and when a job truly wants it.
The impression
A plate with the image standing up from its surface is inked and pressed into the sheet hard enough to leave a dent. For five hundred years printers worked to avoid that dent; now it is the reason people choose letterpress. It needs a soft, thick, uncoated sheet to sink into, which is why letterpress lives on cotton.
1 color
One color per pass, one plate per color
The press holds one ink at a time. A two-color invitation goes through twice, cleaned, re-inked and lined up again between, and each color is a flat ink mixed by hand to a recipe (a Pantone number works). No photographs and no gradients: the design is line and shape, drawn as vector. Fine lines and small type do well. Large solid areas print slightly mottled, which designers use on purpose or design around.
What it asks of a run
A plate is made from the file for every color. The press prints one sheet at a time, fed by hand or close to it. Makeready is done by feel: the sheets packed behind the paper, the ink and the pressure adjusted until the impression is even across the sheet, then the same again for the next color. Most of that setup is the same for 50 pieces as for 500, and each sheet goes through once per color, so a larger run costs less per piece than a small one, but not dramatically less.
What it does best
Wedding suites, business cards for people who hand them over slowly, certificates, anything with a lot of type and few colors that will be held and kept. One or two colors on cotton, with a blind deboss (the impression with no ink in it) or a foil detail. It is as much a finish as a printing method.
What it cannot do
Light ink on dark paper: letterpress ink is thin and not opaque, so it is not how white goes on black or kraft; that is foil, or screen printing. Three or more colors lined up exactly on top of one another (in register) is slow and never perfect. Type below about 6 pt fills in. And a big flat solid will never be as smooth as offset or toner; if the design is a block of color, choose another method or make the block a deboss.
What this means for you: if the impression itself is the point of the piece, letterpress is the honest answer, and we will say so rather than imitate it. If what you are after is the look of it, crisp type on a thick soft sheet, a foil detail, or an intricate shape cut clean with a laser, that is a digital job with the right paper and finish, and we will show you the difference when we talk. Foil, letterpress's close cousin, is covered in the finishes guide.
Wide format: posters, photographs, fine art and signs.
Wide instead of fast: water-based pigment inks on paper, photo media and fine art papers, one piece at a time, profiled for each of them. Prints come off the roll up to 44 in wide, and larger pieces, banners, yard signs and rigid boards are on the order as well.
12 inks
Pigment, twelve of them
The wide format printer lays down aqueous pigment ink from twelve cartridges rather than four: cyan, magenta, yellow and black, lighter versions of some of them for smooth skin and sky, extra grays so a black and white print is neutral all the way down, a red and a blue that stretch the range past what toner can reach, and a clear ink that evens the gloss on photo paper. Pigment sits in the paper's coating rather than dyeing it, so a print holds its color for many years indoors and, on the right media or under a laminate, outdoors too.
44 in
From the roll, 44 in wide and as long as it needs to be
Paper and photo media come off the roll here up to 44 in wide, so a print up to 44 in on either side, a 24 x 36 poster, a 36 x 44 photograph, a set of 18 x 24 prints for a show, comes off it in one piece, and a larger one is handled the same way. This is the way to print photographs, art reproductions and posters that will be looked at closely.
Paper and more
What it prints on, and where it goes
Poster paper, photo paper in matte and gloss, and fine art papers by request, a cotton rag among them, each with its own profile. Most prints go on a wall or into a frame; on the right media, or under a laminate, plenty of ours go outdoors. Vinyl banners, yard signs, rigid boards and retractable stands are printed on the media each one wants, and are ordered through Start a project.
How it is priced
By the piece, from the size and the material: a poster on poster paper, the same poster on photo paper, a fine art print on a cotton rag, each at its own price. There is no plate and almost no setup, so one print is a reasonable order and ten prints cost close to ten times one. The color is measured here too: the printer is profiled for each paper it runs, the same way the press is.
Sizes and sharpness
Posters are usually 18 x 24 or 24 x 36 in (near A2 and A1, if you work in metric); photographs and art prints are whatever the image wants, up to 44 in on either side from the roll, and larger by arrangement. The printer puts down dots far finer than the eye can see from reading distance, so sharpness is decided by the file, not the machine: a poster read up close wants 200 pixels per inch or more at full size, a photograph or an art reproduction 300 and up, with 400 to 600 welcome for one that will be studied, and vector type and logos stay sharp at any size. The artwork guide has the file recipe.
Three more methods, and what each is for.
Older or more specialized than the ones above, and each available through us: describe the piece in Start a project and we will arrange the right one and see it through. What follows is what each does and when it is the right choice.
Engraved stationery: ink that stands up
The image is cut into a copper or steel die. The die is inked and wiped, so ink stays only in the cuts, and the paper is pressed into it from behind. The ink comes out raised and sharp-edged, opaque enough to print white or metallic on a dark sheet, and the back of the sheet shows a faint bruise where it was pushed. The most formal method there is: a die is made for every job, and the runs are slow. This is engraved printing on paper; the laser engraving we do here, on wood, acrylic, leather and coated metal, is a different thing and is in the finishes guide.
Thermography: raised print without the die
The sheet is printed offset with an ink that stays wet a moment, dusted with a resin powder, and passed under heat. The powder fuses to the ink and swells, leaving letters you can feel. It gives the raised look of engraving without the die, which is why so much business stationery uses it. Up close it is a little glossy and a little rounded, and it must never go through a laser printer, where it melts.
Screen printing: thick ink through a mesh
Ink is pushed through a fine mesh stencil onto the sheet. It goes down thick and opaque, so a light color prints cleanly on a dark paper and a single flat color comes out rich and even. One color per screen, limited fine detail, and photographs only as coarse dots. It is how posters were printed before wide format, and still the way to print on board, fabric and things that are not paper.
If a job truly calls for one of these we will say so rather than imitate it. Often what a piece is after is the feel of a thick sheet, a metallic detail or a shape cut clean, and those are a digital job on the right paper with a foil or a laser cut, which we will show you when we talk.
What a run's price is made of.
Every method has a setup that is paid once and a cost per sheet that is paid every time. Here is how that works on a digital press, and why the curve has a different shape on offset.
Cost per piece as the run grows
Drawn for a 4 x 6 in postcard, full color both sides on 14 pt cover: digital priced per sheet with a file check and the sheets it takes to confirm color; offset carrying four plates, makeready and waste; letterpress one color at a time by hand. Digital falls through the first few hundred as the check is shared, then runs nearly flat. Offset starts far higher and keeps falling as the plates are shared. The two cross between three and five thousand pieces for this postcard, later for a business card, sooner for a big sheet. Letterpress starts high and stays high: every sheet goes through by hand, once per color. Not to scale; the shape is the point.
What it means when you order
Ask for what you will use. The price per card falls from 100 to 250 to 500 as the checking and cutting are shared, but the total still climbs, and a box you never open is paper spent on nothing. Past a few hundred pieces the curve is nearly flat, so the next quantity up costs about what the last did per piece: print more when you know you will use them, not because a number looked good. And when a run is large enough that offset would truly serve it better, in the thousands for a postcard like that one, we will say so and quote it that way.
| Method | Setup, paid once | Per piece | Where it makes sense, and how it is ordered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital | Small: a file check and the sheets it takes to confirm the color on your paper | Higher than offset; falls through the first few hundred, then nearly flat | One to several thousand pieces; anything that changes from piece to piece; anything due this week. Quoted, or priced online as you order |
| Offset | Large: a plate per ink, makeready, waste sheets, drying time | Low, and lower with every sheet | Many thousands; exact spot inks; big flat solids; large sheets in quantity. Through us, quoted with the job |
| Letterpress | Large for the size of the run: a plate per color, makeready by hand | High: one sheet and one color at a time | Small runs where the impression is the point. Through us, quoted with the job |
| Wide format | Almost none | By the piece, from the size and the material | One print or a handful; posters, photographs and fine art at any size. Priced by the piece |
Ask for the quantity you have in mind and the one above it, and the quote shows you the shape for yourself.
Three things the method decides.
Three things that depend on the method more than on anything else: how exact a color can be, whether every piece can differ, and what a very low price is made of.
Process or spot
Process color builds every color from dots of four inks, cyan, magenta, yellow and black, and your eye blends them. It gets close to most colors and cannot reach a few: very bright oranges, deep blues, greens with a neon edge. A spot color is one ink mixed to a recipe, so it is the exact color, solid, on every sheet and on the reprint. Spot inks are an offset and letterpress thing. Our press builds the nearest match from the four, through the paper's profile, and because we measure it we can tell you how near that is before the job runs.
250 names
Every piece can differ
Our press prints from the file, not from a plate, so page 37 can differ from page 36 at no extra press cost. A spreadsheet of names becomes 250 different business cards in one run at close to the price of 250 identical ones; the same goes for numbered tickets, addressed postcards, place cards and invitations with the guest's name on them. Check the spreadsheet as carefully as the design: the proof shows the first few, and the data prints as sent.
The gang run
A gang run puts many customers' jobs on one big offset sheet, so the plates and makeready are shared nine or thirty ways. It is how the large online printers arrive at their prices. The catch: the ink is set once for the whole sheet, so your blue is whatever blue suits the other jobs; the paper is whatever the sheet is; the trim wanders more; and a reprint may not match. It is the wrong way to buy a brand color, a particular stock, or anything that has to match last time. Every job here runs on its own, on the paper you chose, with the color set for it.
When one of our prices is higher than one you found online, this is usually the difference: a job run on its own, on the paper you chose, with the color measured and set for it, and one person who sees it through from the file to the box.
From your file to the box.
Six steps, and we tell you as your job reaches each one. Here is what happens at each, and how long to allow.
- Waiting for your files. The quote is accepted and we are waiting for the artwork. Send it by email, or a link if it is large; the artwork guide has the recipe (0.25 in of bleed, a 0.125 in safe area, 300 ppi at printed size or more).
- Proofing. We check the file the way the artwork guide describes, fix what we can, and send you a proof. Nothing prints until you approve it. Once approved, the job waits its turn on the press.
- Printing. The job is on the press: usually hours, not days, and the sheets are dry the moment they leave it. From here on a change means a reprint, so if you spot something, call or email at once.
- Finishing. Everything after the toner: cutting, creasing and folding, perforation, stitching and trimming, a UV coating or a laminate, foil, contour-cut stickers and labels, laser cutting and engraving, rounded corners. Most jobs take one or two of these.
- Ready. Counted, checked against the order and boxed. For pickup it is on the shelf with your name on it, held for 30 days; for delivery it is packed and labeled.
- Shipped, or Picked up. We send you the tracking. Look the job over when it arrives and tell us within seven days if anything is not right; if it arrived damaged, keep the packaging and send us a photograph within three days.
| Job | Allow | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Flat pieces | 2 to 3 business days | Cards, flyers and postcards, bare or UV coated: no plates and no drying, so it is approved, printed, cut (creased or perforated in the same pass where the job needs it) and packed, with the coating in between where the job has one. |
| Booklets and finishing | About a week | Folding, stitching and trimming, a laminate (a soft touch or gloss card included), a contour cut, a laser-cut edge or an engraving: each a step on its own machine. |
| Foil on its own | About a week | The foil is set up for the job, then one pass. |
| Posters and prints | 1 to 3 business days | One print at a time on the wide format printer. |
| Offset and letterpress | Quoted with the job | Plates, press time and drying add days, and the quote says how many. |
| Banners, signs and boards | Quoted with the job | Printed on the media each one wants, and the quote says how many days. |
On hold means we have a question for you and the job is paused until we hear back. Need it sooner than the table says? Say so and we will tell you what is possible.
Not sure what the job needs? Tell us about it.
Say what it is, how many, when you need it and what it has to look like. We will tell you plainly how we would print it, and if it is a job that truly wants offset, letterpress or a banner, we will say so and take care of it. Business cards and booklets you can order right now.