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Printing Tips
Paper products for a wide variety of printing techniques.
Neenah's fine paper products are ideal for a wide variety of printing techniques. The uncoated premium papers can hold that perfect flesh tone or add depth to the message like no other medium. The Neenah brands perform beautifully for offset lithography, letterpress, and gravure printing as well as ink jet and laser printing on the medium and light weights. Your project can be enhanced with foil stamping, embossing and die cutting among other embellishments and then be bound into the final product using saddle stitching or rivets or collated into envelopes or folders just to name a few examples.
Due to the nature of some of our specialty products and unique textures we have included brand-specific printing tips and techniques on each of the brands' landing page.
General Guidelines for Uncoated Papers
Included here are some general guidelines for printing on uncoated premium papers. Please review specific printing tips for specialty brands or finishes found on each of the brands' landing pages. We recommend pretesting to realize optimal results.
Prepress
As a general rule with uncoated paper, imagery should be adjusted in prepress to compensate for the additional 5-15% tone value increase that will occur. The precise amount of undercolor removal is image-specific. Total area coverage should not exceed 320%.
Proofing
Contract color proofs should be prepared on the actual stock. Keep in mind that the majority of color proofs have a fixed compensated dot gain for coated stocks.
Ink
Inks with more tack will provide a firmer dot. A textured finish is more absorbent than a smooth, so more ink may be necessary when printing on textures.
Web Offset
Our uncoated papers require no special considerations when printing heat set web. Note folding cover weight considerations.
Varnish
Low solvent (0-5%) varnish can be used as a surface protector; it will not alter nor enhance the appearance of uncoated papers.
Embossing
The uniform formation of our premium papers lend themselves to perfectly registered, beautiful embossing and debossing.
Engraving
Engraving inks need no special treatment. Best results come with a female plate of .064 guage copper and handcut male counter plate of 24-ply counter board applied with 2,000-4,000 pounds of pressure. Pressure range is dependent upon complexity of copy. Precision when cutting a counter requires less pressure and enhances the image.
Foil Stamping
The use of of wax-free litho inks when combining offset lithography and foil stamping are recommended. For best results stamp directly onto the paper using new foils. Pretest to determine the proper foil, heat conditions, and pressure required for the best results.
Thermography
No special considerations are needed with thermography on our premium uncoated papers. Pretesting for optimal results is recommended.
Trimming & Die Cutting
Use a sharp knife with minimum clamp pressure. To achieve a clean edge, back trimming is important. Wipe the newly cut edge with a clean, lint-free cloth.
Binding
Our uncoated papers are suitable for all standard binding processes. Binding should be parallel to the grain direction to prevent moisture buckling and minimize wear on the crease.