Silkscreen Printing versus Offset Printing for your
CD or DVD
At
Precision Disc we provide two options for printing
your replicated discs: Offset Printing (with CMYK
ink) and Silkscreen Printing (with Spot Colour ink).
These
two printing processes are very different and have
very different strengths and weaknesses. Due to
this, as a designer it is always in your best
interest to steer your design towards the strengths
of the print method or printing equipment and away
from the weaknesses. By doing this you will get the
best printed result.
Designing for Offset Printing is more intuitive than
designing for Silkscreen Printing – especially for
inexperienced designers – so we see quite a few
designs that are set-up for Offset Printing that
would have been much better suited for Silkscreen.
Before you begin designing your CD or DVD, review
this list of strengths and weaknesses and decide
which printing method would be best for the design
you have in mind:
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Offset
Printing |
Silkscreen
Printing |
Strengths:
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Photographic images.
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Unlimited colours.
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Higher resolution. |
Strengths:
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Large areas of solid colour.
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Bold designs.
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Gloss ink. |
Weaknesses:
►
Large areas of solid colour
(other than the white flood).
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Ink is not glossy. |
Weaknesses:
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Photographs and bitmaps.
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Rasterized text and images.
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Small/fine text and images.
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Subtleties.
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Maximum of 6 colours
(including white flood). |
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Example 1 : This 'Stevens
Pass' mini DVD is a good example of
a design that is best suited for
CMYK Offset Print. |
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• Photographic imagery •
• Well balanced text and graphics •
• No large areas of solid colour • |
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Example 2 : This 'Image
Engine' disc is a good example of a
design that is best suited for
Silkscreen Print: |
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• Three colour design (black, white
and grey/blue)
• It’s a bold design that isn’t
trying to be subtle
• It uses large areas of solid
colour
• Created completely in line-art
(including the logo at the bottom). |
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Specifying
Colours for Silkscreen Printing
When
designing for Silkscreen Print the spot colour
values must be specified using the Pantone Matching
System (aka: PMS) Solid Coated colour palette. This
particular colour palette is referenced by the
letter “C”. For example: PMS 185 C
No Clear Cut
Choice?
Now,
what if there’s no clear cut choice based on the
design you have in mind? Some elements are best
suited for Offset Printing and other elements are
best suited for Silkscreen Printing. Which printing
method should you pick?
The
answer to that will vary depending on your specific
design, but if there is no clear cut answer you
might just have to modify your design idea to get
the best end-result possible. Having said that,
there are a couple of rules that you’ll want to
stick with:
• If the
key element in your design is going to be a
photograph, you’re going to want to Offset Print it
– so steer the rest of your design elements toward
the strengths of Offset Printing and away from its
weaknesses.
• If you
want to use the ‘less is more’ approach featuring
text and large blocks of background colour you’re
going to want to Silkscreen Print it – so steer the
rest of your design elements toward the strengths of
Silkscreen Printing and away from its weaknesses.
• Even
if you have chosen to go with Offset Printing, the
white backprint (aka: white flood) is still
Silkscreen Printed. Due to this, it's possible to
have a large area of solid white colour that looks
smooth, consistent and glossy within your CMYK
Offset Printed design.
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Example 3 : This design has
aspects that would be best suited for
both styles of printing, but because the
main visual element is a bitmap image
(the blue graphic in the dominating the
top right portion of the disc) Offset is
the printing method of choice. This,
despite the solid orange colour at the
bottom of the design and the solid white
on the left hand side.
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Some Other CD DVD
Design Examples:
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Example 4 : This is a very good
example of designing for Silkscreen
Print using just three colours (black,
red and white). The entire design was
done using line-art and the shading
inside the skull/wings which looks grey
is actually a gradient within the black
print.
Note: We do not advise using elements
that contain less than 100% solid colour
when Silkscreen Printing - such as
gradients and drop shadows - unless you
know exactly what you're doing.
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Example 5 : This design is well
suited for Offset Printing because the
main visual element is a bitmap image,
and (as noted previously) the white
backprint/flood used in Offset Printing
is actually done in the Silkscreen
method. |
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