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• What precautions do you need to take when designing printed matter that includes punching?
• LABELS, are a world apart?

What precautions do you need to take when designing printed matter that includes punching?

Die CUTTING is a cutting process conducted using a blade known as a punch, which is made from a strip of sharpened steel that is bent and shaped to create a given pattern. SCORING - a process often undetaken at the same time as punching - consists of creating a groove in the support to facilitate folding. Die cutting and scoring are essential in packaging (making boxes and cases), but they are also common in commercial printed matter (folders, greeting cards...) and pubblications (covers). The first thing is to remember that, once it has been die cutted and scored, the paper CANNOT be subjected to any other processes any more (except for packing) an that it is a good idea to choose PAPERS WITH A GRAMMAGE OF MORE THAN 150 G., because lighter products make it complicated to separate otu the shavings. Then you have to consider the paper's RESISTANCE TO CUTTING: there is no problem with natural papers and sigle-cast coated papers (which only have one fibrous layer), but multilayered papers may lose their coating. Most papers weighing more than 250 g. are multilayer, but non all: Fedrigoni Symbol Card is made with a single layer up to 330 g. Lastly, care must be taken with parchment papers and translucent products: as they are very compact, they may split along acute angles. CUTS WITH VERY ACUTE ANGLES AND CURVES are the ones that are liable to create the worst technical headaches. LASER CUTTING can be used to overcome the problem, or to create very elaborate patterns, such as concentric cuts etc.; the downside of this, when using white papers, is that it may leave a dark shadow along the cut, where the cellulose fibres were burned. Always leave a minimum DISTANCE OF 1,5 CM. between any two cuts and always respect the DIRECTION OF THE FIBRES: for papers weighing from 170 to 300 g., the lay of the fibres should be perpendicular to the main cuts and scores, while for heavier papers it should be parallel.

LABELS, are a world apart?

It is always a good idea to use a WATER-BASED OVERPRINT VARNISH for vividly coloured labels, or when there is a risk of the ink transfering after the container has passed through the labelling machine. HOT FOIL STAMPING OR EMBOSSING at the edges of the label is a risky business: you should always leave a free margin of at least 5 mm around the outside edge. Generally speaking, another good idea is to avoid labels WITH A VERY IRREGULAR OUTLINE, MADE OF PAPERS THAT ARE RIGID OR HAVE A HIGH GRAMMAGE, as these are more likely to detach from the container, especially if it has a small radius, like many brands of wines and spirit.