Question about print process - and errors

[theh0bbit]

Hi i was talking with rg and dragsamou in the trading forum about a misprint gaea's cradle promo that i bought some months ago.

And rg told me that i should post my question about the print process and the error on the card here in the news forum.

Here are 2 (not really good pics ;) ) of the cradle

http://www.pixum.de/viewalbum/?id=1386297


I better quote my explanation from the other thread :

The whole picture of the cradle is printed a bit offcenter,
(slightly miscut down)
but the whole text, including the card name, the card type, the box text and the text below, seem to be printed centered (where the text of a well centered card should be)

So it looks like the text is printed too high, although it's the picture thats printed too low.
Interesting is, that the the "G" and the "C" in the card name already touch the black background (not really much but you can see it if you look carefully)

Also interesting is that the green mana symbol seems to belong to the "picture print", because it's also printed lower than the text line it belongs to.

Btw. the foil star is printed where it belongs to (*sniff*)

A few minutes before, i looked at the back of the cards and saw that the back is well centered and not printed as low as the front picture.


How are Wizards printing the cards and how can this error occur ?  All Miscuts (even the heavy miscut cards) have the text miscut too (or better all the miscut cards i know yet) and the cradle is the first one i've seen where this error occured.


Plz help me to fill this hole in my knowledge  :D



Oh and btw. feel free to ignore my bad english or any other errors  ::) ;)

[hammr7]

Nothing much unusual with those cards, at least as far as printing is concerned.  Likely just one or two sheets weren't pulled along quite as far as they should have been during a single stage of the printing.  

Card  printing is a sequence of coordinated processes, with the card backs being completed first.  The card fronts are then done in at least two distinct stages, with the first being the artwork and background coloration (the colored dot patterns that you can see under magnification), and the second being the "solid print" text and symbols.   There might be a third distinct stage where a clear wear coat is applied.

For your card, the backs and text stages were completed successfully, but the sheet didn't quite get to where it was supposed to for artwork printing.  This could have been a mis-adjustment in the mechanical guide that was supposed to place the sheet correctly in the printing press, or it might have been a problem where the rollers that advance sheets to the artwork printing didn't quite get the sheet where it was supposed to.  Think of your computer printer, which every now and then doesn't advance the next sheet of paper correctly (sometimes in high humidity, sometimes because the rubber roller becomes "glazed" and too smooth).

It is likely the latter problem, since if it were a mechanical guide it would have caused many sheets of cards to have the same problem, and active human intervention to correct.  If the affected sheet was in a stack of sheets the small anomoly would be tougher to notice.  When the stack of completed sheets were cut, they were all cut correctly, and again, since it was likely only one or two sheets with slightly off-center artwork, no one noticed.

[theh0bbit]

Thank you for your reply  :)

It's really interesting to know about the way Wizards prints the cards. The only thing i have to ask is about the following:

and the second being the "solid print" text and symbols

When the text and the symbols are printed in one step,
shouldn't the green mana symbol on the card fit to the text line like the tap symbol ?

Or does the mana symbol belong to the coloured background in the first step since it is coloured and the tap symbol to the text since its black / white ?

[Cizzio]

sorry to say this, but dont u think u can change your avatar since another guy in this forum already have the same... I mess u two up all the time...  :D

[hammr7]

The text is just printed in black, although I assume that the silver and gold expansion symbols use equivalent processing.

If you look at the mana symbols under magnification, you'll see that they are made up of dot patterns, not solid colors.

[theh0bbit]

sorry to say this, but dont u think u can change your avatar since another guy in this forum already have the same... I mess u two up all the time...  :D

Hehe no problem already done  ;D


Thx again hammr7!  :)

[rg]

Hehe no problem already done  ;D


Thx again hammr7!  :)

So now we can call you therAbbit  ;D ;D ;D

[theh0bbit]

So now we can call you therAbbit  ;D ;D ;D

lool ;D  Ok this sounds interesting  :D


But i really should make my own avatar in the next days  :-X
Or maybe change my nick to therAbbit  ;D ;D ;D


*thinking*


*edit*  it was too clear ;D  it could only be the cradle *G*