GOCCOclub
E-News
GOCCOclub
E-News
This page . . RISO competition winners Using half a B5 Lamp Housing Page 2 . . New product - PG Digital Q&A - Getting rid of pinholes/ spotting - Keeping Adhesive Boards alive Page 3 . .CMYK colour separations - Changing the colour scale - Basic printing options Page 4 . .CMYK colour separations (cont.) - Advanced printing options Hints & Tips - Fixing a bad Photocopy - Tip for GOCCO Pad Table Welcome to the 71 New Members registered between 25th November 2000 and 31st March 2001 Australia - 32 (Internet/ E-mail 14)International - 39 (Internet/ E-mail 39
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For the first time Australia didn’t receive a Gold, Silver or Bronze Award, however we have continued to set a high standard of work receiving 4 Fine Work Prizes.
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Japanese entries scooped all the major prizes with the USA and Canada the only other countries with winners!
Special Prize
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Silver Prize
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Any print you make with your RISO or PRINT GOCCO system can be entered!
Simply put aside 2 copies of everything you print and enter them in December when we advise the new competition details. Entry is FREE and prizes are PG Coupons in US$!!
Tip for larger GOCCO's
‘The new version of the large GOCCO printer (with a new expensive price tag) has the capabilities to use only two bulbs to expose a part of the master. I decided to try it with my large GOCCO by cutting book board dividers and covering them in foil (as a reflective surface). The machine worked very well with two bulbs and the screen exposed normally. It didn't seem to matter whether I was using the two bulbs on the horizontal or vertical.’
Artemis BonaDea (E-mail: paradux@alaska.net), North Bound Book - Anchorage, Alaska
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Questions and Answers Spots In My Screens Q) I’m screen printing onto fabrics and see hundreds, maybe thousands, of little dots around the design - how can I get rid of them without coating the entire screen with Correction Fluid! - Ms B. Jennings (NSW) A) There are three things you can do: 1/ Prepare your artwork by ironing against the Artwork Clean-Up Paper. It may take an extra minute but this will remove most of the dots before they are placed onto your screen. Prevention is better than a cure! Details of the Artwork Clean-Up process are available from your supplier, on the Internet or contact the GOCCOclub. 2/ If you have already made your screen, this option can only be done immediately after the first print! Cover the entire area of the screen with your squeegee (print everything not just the design). After the first print, lift the screen off the paper and let the screen air for about 30-40 seconds. Most of these holes will dry naturally, but if you keep printing they will remain open!
Keeping Adhesive Boards Alive Q) ‘My Adhesive Boards have lost their stick and I use them all the time. I have been removing the lint with masking tape but now the edges have started to lift - what can I do!’ - Mr S. Williamson (ACT) A) Keep Adhesive Boards in great shape after they loose the ‘stick’ by applying Table Adhesive onto the board to rejuvenate the ‘stick’. Simply put 1-2 drops onto the board and spread it around - this can be repeated as required.
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What's New for GOCCO in Japan
The GOCCOclub has received a test machine of the newly released PG Digital imaging system from RISO - an electronic system that digitally scans artwork and transfers it onto special Print Master (B6 size) - with a number of amazing effects available!
Artwork
Artwork is scanned (not directly transferred), so you can go against GOCCO tradition and use non-carbon artwork e.g. bubble/ ink jet printers, plus also use mixed media in the same design e.g. hand drawn, magazine & ink jet.
Imaging Options
General Information
PG Digital Imaging service for CMY & Photographs?
Handy Hint
A little tip for everyone about batteries: ‘I was doing a TV segment and I didn’t get a flash from my GOCCO, forcing me to tape again after replacing batteries, so I now do this - I place a small piece of masking tape on my battery area and write the date that I installed new ones. That way I am always noticing the date when I put in a Print Master. I replace the batteries once a year so this way I know when the year is up.’
Happy New Year everyone Mrs M. Watson, California USA (MR3653@aol.com)
Creating CMYK Colour Separations with Adobe Photoshop©
Using a computer for CMYK artwork separations is an advanced topic, that is difficult to put onto paper, as computers vary as too the type and version of design program used. In this example Abobe Photoshop (version 5.0) is used, run on a PC (PIII 500Mhz processor, 256Mb RAM, 20Gb HD), especially when there are computer courses are available on these programs just so you can understand the basic features available!
Instructions and information can quickly become very complicated, so for this exercise we will apply KISS = Keep It Simple Stupid!
Let's get started!
Task 1: Changing the Colour Scale
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Change the colours of the picture to CMYK. Normally a picture is
set to RGB (Red, Blue, Green) when you scan or import the file.You have now changed your picture from RGB to CMYK colour settings ready for printing.
Selecting
Channels
Channels are the different colour separations - also called layers.
In the Channel Window, click the mouse onto the Cyan channel – watch as the picture changes from colour to black & white.
The same change happens for the Magenta, Yellow & Black layers as well.
To print a colour (also called channel or layer), simply click on the channel colour with the mouse, then with the channel highlighted proceed to print as outlined below.
Advanced
Colour Preferences - CMYK Setup
As PRINT GOCCO Paper Ink does not have a Process Black you can change the Black Generation to NONE to produce CMY printing (similar to RISO Artwork Books).
Task
2a: Printing - Older models with basic optionsIt's important to understand all printers provide different printing options – the more advanced your printer the more options may be made available. If you have more memory and functions available you can modify more characteristics of the printing. Example - the ‘Printer Colour Management’ box at the bottom of the ‘Print’ box may be greyed out with older model printers.
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Open the Print options box (pictured right)
With a basic printer the options at the bottom of the Page Setup box will be ‘greyed out’ and you don’t have much ability to manipulate your picture – you’ll just have to stick to Photoshop’s default values for CMYK separations.
With all your options selected/ changes made you can proceed to Print by clicking OK.
Task
2b: Printing - New models with advanced optionsWith newer model laser (plus bubble/ ink jet) printers you have the ability to change more options and take advantage of other features, as your printer can handle many more commands from the computer program.
NB: Printer Colour Management should only be used if you KNOW your printer’s software drivers have CMYK support. If you are unsure simply let the program (Photoshop) do the work.
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Open the Page Setup box (pictured right) by clicking the Setup
button from the Print boxNow you can manually adjust some of the setting, as you can add registration and crop marks to your print or select from the other available buttons!
What the buttons do (remember you can press F1 for help):
BACKGROUND: Select a colour to be printed as a background outside the picture area.
BORDER: Lets you print a black border around the picture.
BLEED: Lets you print crop marks inside rather than outside the image.
CALIBRATION BARS: Prints an 11-step grayscale, a transition in density from 0 to 100% in 10% increments. With a CMYK color separation, a gradient tint bar is printed on the left of each CMY plate, a progressive colour bar on the right.
CROP MARKS: Where the page is to be trimmed. You can print crop marks at the corners, at the centre of each edge, or both
LABELS: Prints the file name and channel name on the image.
TRANSFER: Lets you adjust the transfer functions, traditionally used to compensate for dot gain or dot loss that may occur when an image is transferred to film. Generally, it’s best to adjust for dot gain using the settings in the CMYK Setup dialog box.
SCREENS
(pictured left): This is the option you will commonly
use with CMYK printing, as this options enables you to change the frequency,
angle and shape of the dots that the computer generates to make up the
separations.
NB: The preferred Shape configuration for process printing is Round
With all your options selected/ changes made you can proceed to print by clicking OK.
Summary
If you are after a magic formula that gives a perfect result every time - we don’t think one exists! All pictures vary (colours/ density/ size/ etc.) so changing the settings, testing and playing with these features is quite fun and quickly gives you a few different results.
Can you expand on the information above, explain a point more directly or think we have missed something - we would be pleased to hear from you E-mail us now
Hints & Tips from Members
ED NOTE: Just be sure not to cut too close to the design as it may leave a raised edge that stops the carbon coming into contact with the film on the screen- causing a faded or missing edge. If you have to go right to the edge rub the edge down - taking care not to scratch the carbon off on the paper.
ED NOTE: Give this a try everyone! We cleaned up a few of our GOCCO Pad Tables and then tested these against a new machine - the cleaned pad held its ‘stick’ longer than a new one!
Additional Links
Download this Issue (paper version) in Adobe pdf (403k)
- Click
here . .
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If you have already started printing, then you can cover the back of the
screen around the design with masking tape - making sure you don’t come
any closer to the design than about 10mm. With tape covering most of the
unused areas of the screen you can now use the Correction Fluid to fill in
the remaining areas.