Offset printing: the complete guide to manufacturing a board game

An independent board game publisher wrote to us early in the year with an 80-card PDF file. Beautiful visual, careful illustration, clean graphic identity. On opening the PDF on our side: colours in RGB, no bleeds, 5-point text, 100% black without underprinting the other layers. "Is the file good?" Our reply was: "The file is very beautiful on screen. It's unusable in offset as is." Three days of back-and-forth to bring it up to standard, time that would have been saved with ten minutes of upstream checklist. This guide is that long checklist, and everything that goes with it.

The offset is a century-old process whose beauty is due to its stability: today we print on presses whose fundamental principles were laid down at the beginning of the 20th century. This stability also explains why so many files derail the transition from digital to offset: the conventions of the printed manufacturing are numerous, precise, and largely invisible to whom did not put their hands. Here is the essential.

What is offset printing - principle of indirect deferral

L'offset printing The name comes from the English "to offset" - shift, reporter. The principle: the ink does not pass directly from the plate to the paper, but passes through a rubber intermediate cylinder called "white". Hence the name "indirect carry-over".

Three cylinders work in sequence. The plate cylinder carries the engraved plate with the design. The blanket cylinder receives the ink from the plate and transfers it to the paper. The impression cylinder presses the paper against the blanket to ensure transfer. This three-stage mechanism offers several advantages: the plate never touches the paper (so less wear), the rubber blanket conforms to the paper's micro-reliefs (so better coverage on textured substrates), and the design on the plate is the right way round (whereas in letterpress it was reversed).

The second key principle of the offset is water-oil antagonism. The printing areas of the plate are oleophile (attract oil ink), the non-printer areas are hydrophilic (retain water and push the ink). It is this chemical game that allows a perfectly flat plate (no relief) to transfer a pattern. The mastery of the "wetting" is one of the art of the press driver.

Offset 4 Colors (CMJN) vs Pantone: When to Use What

Standard offset printing works with four inks: cyan, magenta, yellow, black. It is the quadrichromy, abbreviated CMJNAll visible colours are reconstructed by superimposing frames of these four inks. This is the standard mode for most prints - books, magazines, brochures, board games.

Pantone colours are factory premixed inks according to precise recipes. The Pantone Matching System (PMS) color chart is a reference to more than a thousand shades. Advantage: perfect reproducibility from one draw to another, possibility of metallic, fluorescent or pastel colours impossible to reproduce in CMYK. Disadvantage: each Pantone requires an additional plate and a dedicated ink, therefore an additional cost.

When to use what?

All in CMYK. Standard case. Illustrations, photos, drawings, graphic identities without extreme chromatic fidelity constraint. Suitable for 80% of company gaming projects.

CMYK + Pantone. When a corporate color is to be reproduced identically. Example: the specific blue of a mark used on the box and cards. The Pantone guarantees stability.

Pantones alone (without CMYK). For simple graphic projects with 1, 2 or 3 uniform colors. Example: a rule book printed in black bichromy + Corporate red Pantone. Cost-effective on graphic visuals.

CMYK + Pantone metallic. To add gold, silver or copper as premium touch. Economical alternative to hot marking on extended areas.

Offset plates: preparation, minimum drawing, tooling cost

Each colour, each side, each notebook or board requires a dedicated plate. The modern offset plate is made of aluminium, covered with a photosensitive layer. It is engraved with a CTP (Computer To Plate) device that projects the digital file directly on the plate.

The cost of the plates structure the offset economy. It is a fixed cost: the same as the 500 or 50,000 series. On a complete set with cards double-sided, tray, rule book, external box, the number of plates can reach several dozen. Hence the threshold of profitability of the offset compared to the digital: below a few hundred copies, the plates weigh too much. See our guide cost structure of a game for detailed economic mechanics.

Setup is the press adjustment operation once plates are mounted. Adjustment of ink thickness, pressure, register (alignment of the four colours with hundredths-of-a-millimetre precision). Setup typically requires several hundred so-called "waste" sheets before the result is compliant. These sheets are lost: their cost is included in the quote. The longer the run, the less this cost weighs per unit.

Offset sheet vs offset rotating: differences, uses, volumes

Two large families of offset presses coexist.

The sheet-fed. The press prints sheet by sheet. Standard sheet format: from 50x70 cm for small presses to 100x140 cm for large presses ("grand B1" format). Cadence: several thousand sheets per hour. Advantage: flexibility, the ability to print on heavy substrates (up to 400 gsm board and more), quick run changes. Suited to short to medium runs, varied work, technical substrates. It's the dominant press for board game manufacturing.

Rotary offset. The press prints on a continuous coil of paper that scrolls at very high speed. Cadence: tens of thousands of copies per hour. Advantage: unit cost unbeatable on very large series. Disadvantage: limited paper gramming (rarely beyond 130 g/m2), long-running changes, significant loss at each start. Adapted to daily newspapers, magazines, catalogs with very high circulation.

For a board game, the sheet offset is almost always the right choice, except for exceptional cases of drawing on light supports. Rotatives would be oversized and would limit support options.

Offset vs. digital: when to choose one or the other

Digital has profoundly transformed the printing industry in twenty years, but it does not replace the offset - it completes it. offset vs digital for a B2B game details the arbitrations.

The rule of choice: for a medium or long series game, with a structured graphic identity and corporate colors, the offset is required. For a prototype, a very short series (less than 100 copies), or a kit customized to the unit, digital is required. See also our MOQ (minimum order quantity) board game for minimum quantity issues.

Preparing files for offset

A large part of the production incidents come from poorly prepared files. Here is the standard prepress checklist, to be presented to your graphic designer before sending to the manufacturer.

Colorimetric mode: CMYK. All elements must be in CMYK, never in RGB. If an image is only in RGB in the PDF, the flasher's RIP automatically converts it - often with a noticeable chromatic drift. Convert upstream with visual control.

ICC profile: FOGRA39 (or Co-ated FOGRA39). This is the European reference profile for the offset on coated paper. All colours must be calibrated on this profile. FOGRA51 for the more recent variants.

Resolution: 300 dpi minimum at print size. A 1000×1000 pixels image printed at 10×10 cm is comfortable. The same printed at 30×30 cm becomes pixelized. Always check the resolution at the final scale.

Lost funds: 3 to 5 mm. Any color area that must go to the edge of the document must exceed the final format. Without lost bottoms, the cut (still imprecise to a few tenths of a millimetre) shows a white edge.

Overprinting of black. The black 100% pure on a colored image must be set to overprint - otherwise it makes a hole in the layers of color. All extended blacks (title, flats) must be in "rich black" defined (usually 60-40-40-100 CMYK) rather than 0-0-0-100.

Vectored fonts. All fonts in the document must be either incorporated (PDF/X-1a or X-4) or vectorized. Otherwise, the manufacturer may be forced to substitute a nearby font, which shifts the spacings.

See also our BAT glossary page for final validation.

Quality control: BAT, contract test, colorimetric control

Three control milestones structure an offset project.

The BAT (Good to Shoot). This is the document you validate before the production is launched. It can be digital (PDF sent by mail), paper (printed on paper close to the final) or press (first copies from the actual press). The BAT is the legal point of non-return: what is signed is what will be produced. No further changes are free.

The contract test. For demanding projects, a test printed on a calibrated system (Epson or equivalent) that simulates the offset rendering according to the ICC profile of the final paper. A colourimetric reference for the printing.

The colorimetric control being drawn. The press operator regularly monitors the ink density and register using a spectrophotometer on control bars printed outside the document. Any tolerance exceedance triggers a readjustment of the press.

Once these three milestones have passed properly, the stability of the draw is very high - this is one of the great advantages of offset over digital over long runs.

The peculiarities of the offset for a board game

Printing a board game is not a magazine print. Several features require specific technical choices.

Multi-supports in the same series. A complete game typically involves several supports: cards in breakestol 300 g/m2 (see our glossary page bristol), compact cardboard laminated, box in cardboard 350 g/m2, booklet of rules in paper coated 90 g/m2. Each holder has its own printing, sometimes on different presses. Coordination is essential for the colours to be consistent between supports.

Caling board-plate-box. The corporate colours must be identical on all three supports. A brand blue on the box that does not exactly match the same blue on the cards is a big surprise to the recipients. The solution: use a Pantone for critical colors, and impose the same ICC profile on all media.

Precise back and forth on the cards. The playing cards are printed double-sided with a very precise spotting. Any drift of a few tenths of a millimetre shows a shift between face and back visible on the slices. See our specialized article Custom Playcard Manufacturing.

Cut to shape and finishes. Printing is only the first step. cut to shape, coatings, hot markings, embossings are then made. Each step requires a clean setting. hot marking guide details premium finishes.

For individuals who also want to print a personalized game for a family event or gift, these principles remain true - simply on a smaller scale, which can lead to a preference for digital over very small run.