News

Joanne Gardner tracks down the solutions to your print problems

Q I work for a small, but growing, wholesale specialist grocer and we’re trying to find a supplier to print our company logo on hessian bags. We are not particularly loyal to our current hessian bag supplier, so if they provide a good, low-cost service, we would be making regular orders.
Derek Chapman
via email

A Hessian must be hard to print on with its loose weave and coarse fibres sticking up all over the place, but apparently in India recently, a Vutek PressVu UV 200/600 W+ digital printer, with new “rigid and flexible” printing capabilities, was used to print high-quality images onto hessian. Anyway, I believe SG Baker (01241 828681, www.sgbaker.co.uk) is the leading supplier of hessian bags (for use on automated packaging lines) in Europe. It prints onto hessian bags and offers a number of options, such as polypropylene lamination and liner for foodgrade packing or bitumen lamination and crepe paper liner, and it can print bar code labels if you need them. Also try The Bag ‘n’ Box Man (www.bagnboxman.co.uk, 01295 788522) in Oxfordshire.

Q We’re based in Sheffield and need a company – as local as possible – that can print sheetfed 50 micron plastic. It’s pretty urgent!
Name and address supplied

A Off the top of my head, I know that the West Yorkshire Printing Co can print plastic, sheetfed, from 50 micron up to 800 micron. They’re in Ossett (wherever that is!), West Yorkshire (of course!) and their number is 01924 280522. They got in touch with me a while ago offering their services, should they one day be needed, which I thought was very proactive. If your company specialises in any niche product or service, let me know and I’ll keep your details to hand for future queries. Remember, you lot are the wind beneath my wings.

Q I’ve just printed off a job for the third time and it’s causing me grief! The black of the text is coming out fine, but there’s a block of solid black as part of an image underneath it that’s coming out a more murkier shade of black. Any idea why?
Name and address supplied

A It sounds like it’s something to do with your CMYK settings in the files you’re using – I know of another case similar to this. For printing black you should only have ‘K’ at 100 % and cyan, magenta and yellow at zero per cent. If the block of solid colour comes from supplied artwork maybe the settings are all at 100%. I might be wrong but give it a go.

Worries with your workflow? Problems with your press? Email printweek.helpline@haymarket.com