Artwork, Prepress
& Flexo Plates

 

Collaborating with printers and brand owners to streamline the design to print process.

 
 

Customize your design to print journey.

Our engagement with each client is customized. For some clients, we provide both prepress and plates. For others, we partner for plates or prepress only. As part of your team, we make the most of every opportunity to impact the achievement of your goals and objectives.

Let us help make a difference.

  • Need extra capacity?

  • Need to get to market faster?

  • Looking to reduce costs?

  • Looking to improve print quality?

  • Need outside perspective on a complex project?

Please reach out. We want to help!

 
 
 

Explore sections below to learn how we can move your business forward from design to print.

Artwork Prepress Flexo Plates

 
 

Artwork

 

You’ve got a great looking design. It’s creative and captures attention with a compelling message. Consumers are going to love it and want to buy it.

Will the design approved in the creative phase look the same when printed?

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  • • Are there brand standards?

    • Is the design intent maintained?

    • Is the labeling compliant with regulations?

    • Are colors set up correctly?

    • Are barcodes readable?

    • Is typography optimized for print process?

    • Are mechanicals correct?

    • Are adjustments required for tints?

    • Has color space been managed appropriately?

    • Are all high-resolution images linked?

    • Is there anything missing?

  • Collaborate further upstream to ensure reproduction accuracy to save time and prevent expensive revisions or less than favorable printing.

    Leverage optimization suggestions from a technical expert at North American Graphics who will review creative to help ensure the design translates appropriately to the final printed component.

    When production art is built by North American Graphics, we build with print production in mind.

    For example:

    • Improve readability of the design by application of spot and process colors

    • Ensure the printability of the design by optimizing the number of colors and print stations (white and special finishes leverage plate technology)

 
 

Prepress

 

A new product line is about to launch and everyone is excited to see the products on shelf. The package was built with the print result in mind and the printer has been selected.

Will the design reproduce on press as planned? Will stakeholder expectations be achieved for quality, speed-to-market and cost?

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  • • Will the print process allow your copy to be legible?

    • Will the printing process create a hard line in your vignettes?

    • What is the optimum line screen?

    • Will the percentage of color selected and process images be the correct values considering dot gains?

    • Should colors be eliminated or added to reduce the variables and ink stations?

  • During prepress, production art must be carefully examined. Each element of the production art file is taken apart, reviewed and rebuilt as a prepress file.

    Rebuilding to compensate for all variables related to a printer’s capabilities and project specifications (i.e., ink, substrate, color stations) are key. Allowances are engineered into the prepress file to preserve the integrity of a design and prepare for successful downstream execution.

    The experts at North American Graphics manage these variables blending a deep understanding of art and application of the latest methodologies in print science to effectively maintain design intent and capture efficiencies during the print process.

    • How many colors is the press capable of running?

    • What aniloxes create the best print results?

    • Reverse or surface print?

    • Who is ink supplier to determine hues of colors?

    • Press fingerprinted or profiled?

    • Are there special finishes (matte, gloss, embossing, other)?

    • Opacity of white or 2 whites?

    • Should there be special screening to allow coverage of solids and let down of tints?

 
 

Flexo Plate Making

 

As brand owners continue to expect faster speed-to-market with industry leading quality at lower costs, leading packaging printers need to rely on the best performance from premium plates.

Will your flexo plates best produce the design to exceed expectations? Can your plates create operating efficiencies and cost savings across print jobs? Can plates be quickly delivered to meet on demand print schedules?

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  • • Will the plates print solids and tints well?

    • Will ink transfer smoothly from the plates?

    • Are the plates cut to size for efficient mounting of stepped images?

    • Is advanced screening married to the design and press capabilities?

    • Will the plates hold up on long runs?

    • Will the plates hold up on short runs when they must be put on and taken off the sleeve and press often?

    • Ultimately, will the quality and timely delivery of your plates be a benefit to your process?

    • Can environmental impact be minimized?

    • Will the plate have an impact on overall equipment efficiency?

    • Will the plate have a positive impact on short make readies?

    • Can total production time be reduced?

    • How many times will press need to be stopped for plate cleaning?

    • How long will it take to get up to color?

  • A lot has to come together at just the right moment for a quality print impression. However, quality alone does not win in today’s marketplace. Printers have to provide the best service, manage expectations, move mountains to meet filling dates, and continually feel the pressure of cost reductions.

    Plates can have a significant impact on all of the above.

    We have made it our business to partner with printers on plate production to deliver outstanding results for their clients.

    Here’s how we deliver quality, capacity and scale:

    1) Investments in specialized technology to produce premium plates

    Premium plates get results.

    North American Graphics has made significant investments into platemaking technologies and equipment. Our plates are proven to print with superior quality and enable faster run speeds, while reducing printer costs associated with make ready, mounting, and ink usage. Our clients are seeing results rivaling offset and rotogravure print quality and benefiting from minimized waste and maximized efficiency in the pressroom.

    Our premium plates offer:

    • Full-amplitude, flat-top dots minimize dot gain and allow for consistent coverage
    • Robust and stable on-press performance
    • Excellent ink transfer for smooth, uniform solids and high print densities
    • Exceptional resolution for higher line screen and fine highlight detail
    • Longer run times on set of photopolymer plates

    2) Unique workflow built to maximize throughput and responsiveness

    We are fast, flexible and reliable. Our focus on creating internal efficiencies allow us to deliver plates quickly and have greater capacity for all clients.

    What can you expect from us?

    Many orders received in the morning can be ready for delivery to our clients in the afternoon.

    Investment gives us the throughput necessary to convert massive amounts of photopolymer material into high quality flexo plates in very short periods of time.

    With duplicate equipment available, our redundancy means you can rest assured that there will be no down-time and no delays in fulfilling your order according to your production schedule.

    We hand deliver many of our plates locally as well as ship to locations throughout North America with ease.

    3) Focus on developing and growing business relationships

    We are positioned for growth along with our clients. We have the ability and desire to leverage available capacity and to rapidly onboard new clients. We listen to understand and then execute a plan that gets the job done right.

 
 

Collaborate with North American Graphics to ensure you are getting the right graphics at exactly the right time. We’re happy to help!