Welcome to Under The Cone

Softproofing is the natural transition from paper proofs to digital proofs. Today, we use a color-managed inkjet printer with a RIP to print contract proofs. The technology is mature and the proofs are close to perfect, not only for color but also in terms of what a specific press can do. Hardproofing is ideal and […]

This is an interesting article Kevin started to write for us at the time of his death in 2019. There’s affection and regret reading this but, as usual, pleased at finding so many interesting facts. I hope you enjoy this piece written by a wonderful friend. A frisson of awe ran down my neck as […]

The printing industry has long pioneered new forms of technology and is now on the cusp of more significant change, spurred on by the devastating deterioration of our planet. The truth is climate change is here and our industry has to change.   The printers we consulted say that the best strategy for this kind of […]

Here's actually a pretty common problem, although it always sort of blows me away when we see these. We've got this job that's come in to a customer, they want to do a sticker of this little Toyota truck. Just a small cut out sticker, but it's tiny, it's floating in the middle of an 8.5 by 11 blank page. […]

Well, here's a situation we get into pretty frequently. A customer has sent us a folder of work. This one's named Many Jobs. Spoiler alert. And inside of that, we have a bucket of Illustrator files with a common Fonts and Links folder. Now packages of files work great. That way I have the original artwork in a Fonts […]

Let's do a quick workflow to look out for elements in a job that are a hundred percent of all four colors and replacing them with just a simple rich black. In this example I've created just a sample file and this one as you can see from the output preview is a hundred percent of all four […]

We used to have an amazing technician here who had some very opinions about PDF. I’m a designer and sort of do what I’m told and that usually works pretty well. But Rich’s background is in prepress and he doesn’t like to do what he’s told, especially not when it comes to PDF. His settings […]

If you’ve just read Get the best print out of your printer, your files are ready and it’s time to print. Consider first what paper best fits your images, and your taste. Finding the Best Paper: Practical Tips Different paper types provide different degrees of apparent sharpness. The amount of gloss on the surface and […]

How to get the best out of your brilliant idea Creatives today are faced with many new challenges. The path from initial design to final output has many steps and many pitfalls. New creation tools allow greater design freedom but sometimes hinder the print process. With ever improving printing technologies, there’s higher quality output, expanded […]

Alain De Borger seeks out the most innocuous scene and makes it into a glorified landscape. People become beautiful in his pictures. He lives his work.“Since the beginning with Agfa IsoRapid and its development curve, to today, my work is varied. In spite of many detours, it remains close to the documentary or, vital to […]