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Joanne Gardner tracks down the solutions to your print problems

Q I’ve just taken on a job producing a small regional newspaper and it’s our first time printing on newsprint. We’ve noticed that our photographic output, particularly in the shadow areas, seems overly saturated, resulting in a loss of detail. Any tips on how to improve it?
Name and address supplied

A It sounds like you may be using too fine a screen for the type of stock you’re printing on. Newsprint is obviously a very fine paper and that means it’s not conducive to fine screen ruling, which may be contributing to the spreading of your ink and loss of detail in your shadow areas. Fine screen rulings – anything from 175lpi to 300lpi – are used for high-quality glossy magazines, but for newspapers, screens need to be something closer to 100lpi. I hope that helps!

Q I work for a small repro house and we’ve got a job where I have to scan loads of photographic images from a book, but I don’t have the originals. I notice there’s a weird pattern on screen and even more obviously on hard proofs. What do I do to get rid of it?
John Dixon
via email

A Phew – two pre-press questions in one week? That would be what they call a moire pattern, and the finer the screen ruling, the less severe the pattern will be. If you’re using Adobe Photoshop, Gaussian Blur is the tool you have to use to soften the severity of the moiré. The less you use that filter the better though, or the photo will begin to blur. Other software applications will have a similar function.

Uni degree business follow-up
Simon Biltcliffe, Webmart managing director and entrepreneur extraordinaire, is keen to help Tom York and his fellow Southampton University students to establish a green print business for their degree. Call 01869 321321 or email simon.biltcliffe@webmartUK.com. Do it soon though as he’s doing a 42-mile training walk and then he’s off to Alaska from 9 May climbing Denali, as you do.