Newspaper Quarter Page

Colour profile

• RGB = Adobe 1988 or SRGB
• CMYK = ISONewspaper26v4.icc
• Greyscale = ISONewspaper26v4_gr.icc

Picture file format

• Photoshop EPS/PSD/JPG/TIFF files
• PSD – flatten layers to minimise printing discrepancy
• JPG – save with maximum quality
• EPS – save in 8 bits/channel
• TIFF – no compression
• Bitmap – line art with a minimum resolution of 600 dpi
• Resolution: 200 dpi

Note:

• No compression for all images
• All 4C images must be in CMYK mode
• Do not use RGB, LAB or INDEX colour – it will not print correctly

Greyscale Images

• Highlight: 3% to 5%
• Shadow: 92% to 95%

Full colour images

• Highlight: 4% Cyan, 3% Magenta, 3% Yellow
• Shadow: Cap to a total sum of not more than 180% (e.g. 40% Cyan, 30% Magenta, 30% Yellow, 80% Black)
• Overall colour: the total sum percentage should not exceed 240%

To improve colour trapping, reduce loss of shadow details, minimise set-off and smudging:

• Full colour area – total sum percentage should not exceed 240%
• 4-colour black shadow area – total sum percentage should not exceed 180%
• Colour trapping – avoid using two solid colours for better trapping
• Whenever possible, use ICR/UCR technique
• Application of UCR (Under Colour Removal) or ICR (Integrated Colour Removal) for colour images – this process reduces C, M, Y and replaces with K for neutral colour areas and saturated colour for the optimisation of colour reproduction

Second colour advertisement

• Material to be provided in match process colour base on booking spot colour
• Refer to the SPH Spot Colour Guide for colour breakdown
• Any tone-down must be proportionately adjusted

• All artwork is to be done up to booking size
• Centrespread and across gutter advertisements – to include 2 cm for the gutter
• Recommended to print to post script and distill to PDF using SPH Distiller Jobs
• Options with embedded fonts and images
• PDF version 1.5 without crop marks and bleeding
• No complex layering allowed – this minimises unpredictable output
• No annotations, comments, attachments (such as movies) are allowed

Flatten or rasterise the layers to minimise postscript errors during printing – this may result in an unpredictable output.

Black overprint.

Only solid black text that are 14 point and below as well as rules (minimum 1 point) should be set to overprint against light colour background because slight misregistration can affect the clarity. Black text above 14 point should not be set to overprint to avoid excessive total ink, which will cause set-off and see-through. For reverse white text or colour text with background, use bold sans serif fonts for better clarity and legibility.

Fonts, rules and point size

• Weight of all rules and strokes to be at least 1 point
• Minimum text point size of 7 point is recommended for clarity
• Thin rules, strokes and small point size should be restricted to single colour to avoid misregistration, ‘break-up’ and ‘fill-in’
• Do not use TrueType fonts
• For Chinese characters, convert all text to path
• Chinese font text point size should be no less than 9 point
• Reverse white text on colour background should preferably be no less than 14 point, sans serif type is recommended. This is to minimise ink fill-in and misregistration.

Screening

SPH is using the Cross Modulation (XM) screening technology for its printing of halftone. This is a hybrid screening technology that incorporates the best of both Amplitude Modulation (AM) and Frequency Modulation (FM) screening, which improves print quality and eliminates rosette patterns.

Resolution

SPH utilises CTP with output resolution of 1200 dpi @ 141 lpi on Sublima Screening (as above).

Dot gain

Tonal compensation adjustment should be made for a dot gain of approximately 30% dot gain in the midtone area.

Double truck (centrespread and across gutter images)

Mechanical paper controls (nips and trolleys) are necessary to hold and guide the printed copy through the press. This can result in undesirable markings across the centre gutter, but as it is not possible to completely eliminate this set-off and trolley marks, we therefore advise to avoid placing images, logos and text in the centre folds.

Set-off and see-through

Colour set-off and see-through are inevitable in high speed wet-on-wet web printing. Some degree of tolerance must be expected.

Misregistration

10-thou misregistration is accepted internationally to be within the printing tolerance on high speed wet-on-wet web printing.

Colour proof

Digital proof supplied by the client must be calibrated to SPH Press Profile on newsprint stock, which is close to our newspaper shade. As the proofing process (using inkjet and toner) differs from wet-on-wet web printing (water and ink), some degree of deviation must be expected.

Colour reproduction

Client must expect a certain degree of colour differences for the same advertisement printed on different presses (i.e. KBA, Colorliner and UNISET) due to different press characteristics – i.e. ink hue, dot gain, paper shade, etc. 

Ink density

Printing is carried out to an ink density range of +/- 0.05. Cyan, Magenta and Yellow is printed to a nominal target of 0.90 and Black to a nominal target of 1.10.

SPH Spot Colour Guide

This guide is reproduced to the closest match that we can achieve during the time of printing. Slight variation in shades must be expected and accepted when printed on different presses at different times and on different shade of newsprints.

The guide can be downloaded here, but we recommend for advertisers to request a physical guide from your SPH Media representative for the most accurate spot colour reference.

QR code

Below are some recommendations to consider when using QR code, to minimise any scanning issues:

• We recommend for QR codes to be printed in single black instead of 4C. The minimum size for QR should be at least 1 cm by 1 cm. Do proportion accordingly based on the overall size of the creative.
• Consider keeping text and QR codes in vector instead of JPEG. Rasterised QR may give rise to scanning issues.
• Consider using a url shortener such as bit.ly for embedding URLs into the QR code. This will generate a simpler QR code which generally has less scanning issues.
• If a shortened URL is not possible, please use a bigger QR code to minimise potential scanning issues.