Do false spreads mean anything to you?

[philipjcowan]

I teach Journalism and one of my younger colleagues made me feel like a dinosaur yesterday when he asked me what a false spread was. This is what I replied:

It refers to a double-page spread that is not the centre spread, and
therefore the two pages of the spread are printed separately, using
different plates.

At one time this would have meant that the designer could not
guarantee that the two pages would be exactly registered together, or
could have a margin between them. This was also an issue at pre-press,
who would have to do all they could to ensure the two pages sat
together properly.

I should really take this up with a printer to see if it is still an
issue. With large, professional magazines, it is not and I have not
seen two pages out of register in a magazine in a long time.

Is this a term only used in the UK? Does the issue matter any more?

[almaink]

We always called it split pages. I never liked doing it but with computer stripping it's less of an issue these days.

[Joe]

As alma says, it's not an issue in prepress as a mathamatic formula will make it perfect on plate. The press/bindery getting it right is still an issue though.

[philipjcowan]

Thanks, I was thinking along those lines, but I am a bit out of the industry, so was not so sure.

How is it when designing the pages in Quark/Indesign? I used to have to design the pages separately, with a copy of an image on one page and one on the other. I take it that is no longer required?

[Joe]

You just set the document up as facing pages and assemble it as a spread (reader spreads). Perfect bound books may require some adjustments for critical crossovers.

[Printservedigital]

In newsprint we call it a "Bleed" page and was used regular of course depending upon the pagination.

We tended to use a panoramic to produce this which our press software would automatically pick up the page that "married up" to it unless of course the pagination dictated that it would have to be two single "bleeding" pages.

We very rarely had problems with register however there was the odd problem but say only once every blue moon.

We did a couple of times get a corner slightly "off register".

After investigations this was found to be a problem with the brass paper separators in the Plate trolley which would bend downwards slightly a corner of the odd plate.

When slightly curved on one corner the image layed down on that "Raised" corner (Even thought the plate was still touching the three register pins on the imaging bed the plate was then readjusted as it went through the punch bender and then seen on the copy as a corner that was slightly out in one colour.

It would make an interesting lesson "test" of investigation from copy to plate mechanics looking at how the problem originated. Mail me if you want further details.

I've also seen preheat temps cause similar problems.

[Printservedigital]

Just to add, the pagination would dictate the "plan" which dictated how the plate came out of the workflow in prepress, this was all done by the workflow system in prepress and the press system which would communicate with each other, sometimes this would cause issues but nothing to do with register or plate quality.

Another term you might want to know is the "slip page", where there are changes during an edition IE new news item or so forth which would be updated at each edition throughout the night.

A slip page would be a page with say new story or advert.

Also a "kill" page where generally there was a "legal" issue or/and "correction" was required, sometimes the press would wait for a kill page but more often than not it was front page.