A basic understanding of the printing process will go a long way when considering the construction of a form. Royal Business Forms & Printing has many options due to our wide array of presses, but for simplified explanation purposes, the following describe the general flow of a form on a press from beginning to end.

Upon customer approval, Pre-Press sends the artwork to the Scheduling Department who matches a job to the press best suited to print the job. Scheduling then has printing plates made on our computer-to-plate system. Plates are then transferred down to the presses, along with the job ticket that outlines the specifications of the job.

Plates are then put on the print cylinders. In order for a form to print correctly at the press, the documents require a total of 3/8" Lockup (also called Gap or Gripper). This is defined as the area that is used to lock the plate onto the print cylinder. No print information may be in this area.

The form runs through the press and the image on the plate is transferred to the paper. It then reaches the numbering/imprinting section where marginal words, gothic numbers, and MICR imprinting are added. The next area of the press is the processing section, where  file hole punching, line hole punching, and perforations are added to the form.

Click here for a diagram of the basic printing process and of lockup