7 inch record cover paper?

[jamiejunk]

Hey everyone,
I've been reading the forums all night and i think i am more lost than when i started.

We have a small tshirt printing shop and we've never printed paper before. My band is putting out a 7 inch and i wanted to screen print the covers.

I read all this stuff about MRfrench and xPDEx or whatever.. But i'm lost.

Does anyone have a suggestion for what type of paper and where to buy for a 7 inch cover? Do i have to buy a bigger size and have it cut down?

I don't know anything about weight and stuff.. so i'm looking for some pointers.

Thanks!

[Gregory]

mr french has a wide variety of colors and you can order small amounts which is great

most of their paper is non-archival - meaning it will fade, yellow with time (actually their color lines seem to fade quite a bit to me) - they do have some archival stuff tho - read the fine print on each of their paper families

you only have to buy a bigger size and cut it down if you want to print to bleed (have the print go to the edge of the paper) - it's much easier to make bleed prints look good if you print on a larger sheet and cut them down afterwards.

you'll probably end up getting a larger sheet anyway as I think you'd be hard-pressed to find the weight/color you want for seven inch covers in a standard 7"x14" size.

As far as weight, if you were going with French I would go with a 80 cover or something like that - doing folds on anything heavier can be tiring and the paper does tend to crack if you're using a thicker stock. it's a trade-off tho because thinner paper will buckle under silkscreen ink. I think that 80 lb cover is a safe happpy medium.

Also - when do your folds - if doing them by hand - you should invest in a bone folder. It's a book-binding tool that will make your folds much nicer/crisp. would cost you about $5 in an art supply store. just a thought.

[steve w]

any paper you like.
the correct final size is 7.25 x 14.5".
use a butterknife and a straightedge to score, if necessary.

[boatdreams]

Definitely score before folding. When I did something like this, I had a score lines beyond the bleed so I could score them before cutting. Then after they were trimmed down, it was easy to fold them perfectly.

[crosshair]

I save scraps and trimmings of other paper for 7" covers.
I never run out.
It's cheap to take a stack of 7" sleeves to Alphagraphics or somewhere like that, and have them score them all by machine, cleanly and evenly. Like $40 for 500+.

Scoring 500 sleeves by hand is a slow horrible task and yields an inferior result.
It is way punker than paying $40 to have it done, however.
In the same way that it is punker to to make your own emulsion out of rainwater and emulsion-berries and stretch your own screens from your Mamaw's hose.

[ohdanielsan]

LOL @ emulsion-berries. i want emulsion-berries.

[jamiejunk]

Thanks for all the replies! It's a big help. I do have a few other questions.
Is scoring the folding or the cutting? I looked it up in the dictionary but that wasn't much help

Do you mostly print all one color and then the others. Or could i do all 3 colors wet on wet?

I'm thinking a 230 mesh will do the trick with water based inks. Do i need to build a vacuum table?

Thanks again!
jamie

[ohdanielsan]

you score before you fold, and it makes the paper easier to fold in a precise manner. go along your fold-line with a tool that has a dull edge, such as a butter knife. you can also buy a scoring tool specifically for the job at an art store. take a straight-edge and run the scoring tool/butter knife over the fold-line to make a crease in the paper. then fold

always wait for ink to air-dry before you move on to the next color. printing the next color while the first one is still wet will kill the job fast.

by the way, this may be totally obvious to you, but since you've only ever printed shirts, i'll say it just to be safe: when printing on paper, do NOT heat-cure the ink. you will scorch the paper, throw off your registration by warping/shrinking it, and maybe even cause a fire, haha. sorry if that was stupidly obvious, but you never know.

230 mesh is fine. you don't NEED a vacuum table, but it certainly wouldn't hurt. it all depends on how crucial your registration is. vacuum tables help to make sure that your paper doesn't move when you put it down to print on. spray adhesive should do a pretty good job of holding your paper down though, and if you set up your registration tabs good enough, you shouldn't have too much of a problem with registration. again, mileage may vary depending on how good you are and how important accuracy is in the project.

good luck!

[spacelooper]

have you checked out
Stumptown Printers Store : Blank Disk Packaging

they have a pretty neat 7" Pak to hold your 7"...ships flat and blank...set up for screen printing..no gluing required...just folds up into itself...it's called the the 7" Arigato Pak

check it out...

[Apetass]

My question is the opposite. How do you screen print a 7" record cover? I was thinking of using the innersleeves (the paper bags) that you get from the pressing plant to print on, but how do you do the actuall print?