Common printing issues - causes and how to avoid them

Printing is a mature industry and most printers have learned to achieve quality results while keeping costs under control. Sometimes however, the printed result may not match your expectations. This page describes common printing issues, what causes them and how they can be avoided.

White spot in the print

One or two dots of white appear on the print suddenly during the printing process. Some are random, some are consecutive and appear to be in the same position. It is mostly due to the broken printing plate or dust attached on the printing plate. A clean area with air-conditioner for printing is the basic configuration.  Sampling check during the process is necessary to reduce the problem.

ChingTeng is consistently reliable with colour quality.

Dot Loss

In prepress and printing, dot loss refers to halftone dots either disappearing or reducing in size. Dot loss can happen in prepress as well as during the printing process.  In prepress tiny dots such as a 1 or 2% dot may not appear because of limitations in the output device and/or the substrate (the printing plate or film). In the development process of plates an over-aggressive developer or excess pressure of clean-out rolls can cause it as well.  For letterpress, normally 3~5%, the dot loss can happen during clean-out process.  

Without modified the original artwork, ChingTeng can make not only the full colour as per expected but also improve the problem of dot loss. ChingTeng can assist you in creating the best labels that communicate the good quality of your products.

Poor registration

In colour printing, registration is the method of correlating overlapping colours on one single image. The proper registration of these colours is crucial to produce a sharp image. Even a slight position shift in one of the four colours will cause the printed image to appear blurred or fuzzy. 

Our inspection system performs a 100% print inspection before delivery to ensure the high quality, error-free labels. ChingTeng ensures the customer's expectations are always met. 

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