Printing the Beacon
The Beacon is a compilation of the best articles written by the Editorial Board of TCSH in the course of one year. It is undoubtedly the culmination of a year’s work. With a ton of interesting articles to present, this magazine is really a “Beacon” (pun intended) for TCSH.
Several weeks back, a few members of the Board decided to pay a visit to our publisher to equip themselves with the relevant know-how for creating this year's magazine.
DI Print Solutions Sdn. Bhd. published the first edition of The Beacon and their services were once again engaged this year. DI Print Solutions is one of the few publicly listed printing companies in Malaysia and counts among its clients, Cadbury and Nestle. Upon arriving at the office and printing factory, we were warmly greeted by Mr. Chris Yap, our liaison and tour guide for the day.
We were taken for a tour of the factory and Mr. Yap explained the various types of paper products that this company works with. Among the many products are flyers, yearbooks, boxes used for shipping and, most interestingly, standees, the cardboard shelves that serve as both shelves and promotional ads for various merchandise.
The factory itself is huge as it contained the printing machines, paper lamination machines and offices for the company spread over two floors. There is also a storage area for large paper rolls which are then cut into sizes such as A4 and A3. To save costs, the factory is open 24 hours a day, constantly producing products. The only time the machines are in fact turned off is during the workers lunch hour.
Mr. Yap also pointed out that the price for just one printing machine is around RM3,000,000! Quite a big difference from the printers we have hooked up to our computers. Running the various machines in the factory obviously has its own costs, and maintenance can cost up to RM500,000 a month.
As for the printing process, the pages of the magazine are arranged numerically, using the page number. The files for these pages have to be a very high resolution of 300 dpi (dots per inch) and in CMYK colour format. The reason for this is when printing, the normal colour set that we see on our computers cannot be used; instead a specific colour scheme which mixes cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black) has to be utilized.
The file format used is Adobe Illustrator and once the files are collected, images of the pages are arranged on a sheet of paper which has 4 pages on each side. A sample print of each sheet is produced to check whether there are any errors in arrangement or ink levels.
Once the set of pages has been checked, the print run is started. As all the sheets with pages on them are printed, they are arranged in order and bound into a book with glue. Lastly, the front and back covers are placed and the yearbook is now complete.
BY JEREMY ALPHONSUS
Several weeks back, a few members of the Board decided to pay a visit to our publisher to equip themselves with the relevant know-how for creating this year's magazine.
DI Print Solutions Sdn. Bhd. published the first edition of The Beacon and their services were once again engaged this year. DI Print Solutions is one of the few publicly listed printing companies in Malaysia and counts among its clients, Cadbury and Nestle. Upon arriving at the office and printing factory, we were warmly greeted by Mr. Chris Yap, our liaison and tour guide for the day.
We were taken for a tour of the factory and Mr. Yap explained the various types of paper products that this company works with. Among the many products are flyers, yearbooks, boxes used for shipping and, most interestingly, standees, the cardboard shelves that serve as both shelves and promotional ads for various merchandise.
The factory itself is huge as it contained the printing machines, paper lamination machines and offices for the company spread over two floors. There is also a storage area for large paper rolls which are then cut into sizes such as A4 and A3. To save costs, the factory is open 24 hours a day, constantly producing products. The only time the machines are in fact turned off is during the workers lunch hour.
A view of one section of the factory
Mr. Yap also pointed out that the price for just one printing machine is around RM3,000,000! Quite a big difference from the printers we have hooked up to our computers. Running the various machines in the factory obviously has its own costs, and maintenance can cost up to RM500,000 a month.
A portion of the massive printer
As for the printing process, the pages of the magazine are arranged numerically, using the page number. The files for these pages have to be a very high resolution of 300 dpi (dots per inch) and in CMYK colour format. The reason for this is when printing, the normal colour set that we see on our computers cannot be used; instead a specific colour scheme which mixes cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black) has to be utilized.
The file format used is Adobe Illustrator and once the files are collected, images of the pages are arranged on a sheet of paper which has 4 pages on each side. A sample print of each sheet is produced to check whether there are any errors in arrangement or ink levels.
A magnifying lens used to check for accuracy in printing
Once the set of pages has been checked, the print run is started. As all the sheets with pages on them are printed, they are arranged in order and bound into a book with glue. Lastly, the front and back covers are placed and the yearbook is now complete.
BY JEREMY ALPHONSUS
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