A Couple of Coupons

This document will be produced in InDesign (or Quark)

The document size is 7"x9", full bleed, single page

This tutorial must match the sample below except for the fonts used

One of the problems with coupons is setting up the perforations. Perfs (for that is what they are normally called) are yet another letterpress operation. It is possible to produce simple perfs on an offset press but the perforating knife ruins the blanket and the impression cylinder, so most shops will not do them there.

Basically a perforation is made by a knife, like those used for die cuts and scores. Knives for diecutting are sharp. Knives for scoring are dull. Perforation knives are also a long steel rule, sharp on the top edge, about .5" to .75" wide by however long you need (up to several feet). The sharpened edge has teeth that look something like this:

These teeth cut little slots into the paper to help it tear accurately.

Showing the perf in your artwork is essential

In the finished sample to the right, you can see the dashed black line set up for the perf. The problem is that you normally do not want that dashed line to show up in the final printed coupons.

The location of the perf should be visually obvious, but not printed. This is because your letterpress shop is often only accurate ± a sixteenth of an inch. But you need an accurate location to show the letterpress die maker where to pute the perfed rules.

You need a separate spot color for the perfing lines.

You should draw a non-printing dashed line to show the letterpress personnel where to place the perf rules. It would be best to make a new spot color swatch called Nonprint Perf (or something like that).

As you can see, I made one that is bright red so it can be easily seen. Also notice that I made the name of the color Nonprint Perf Rules. When this dicument is separated, these rules will be on their own page, negative, plate—and this color name will clearly label this separate spot color as a non-printing color tp be used for the perf rule location. You must make things clear & easy to understand for the production people.

The rule indicators should be around a half point wide
to give a very accurate location for the diemaker.

The rules must be nonprinting & overprint

They have to overprint so that they will not knock a dashed white hole in the purple and green colors below.

They should be Nonprinting so that the perf will look clean & professional.

Final Submissions

• You need to submit 2 PDFs: one in composite color and one in separated spot color.

• The separated PDF will have three pages: purple, green, and the special nonprinting perf color.

• You will need to print PostScript to disk and then Distill the .ps file to make a separated PDF.

GRADING: (If you are taking my prepress course at MSB)

The project is worth 50 points

Penalties:

• -5 points for typos

• -15 points for wrong size of the PDF document

• -12 points for missing pieces (bleeds, colors, marks, & so on)

• -25 points for no separated PDF