What do you mean, ‘punchy’?

Welcome to print.coop, the ink-on-paper pages from specialist printing and design co-operative, Calverts. We produce high quality, economical and sustainable, commercial print. We're experts in the latest and best litho and digital printing technology, as well as traditional craft applications. We know almost every commodity grade or 'designer' FSC® or recycled paper on the market, and can tell you about the most cost effective formats.

our approach

Why work with Calverts?

Print buyers come to Calverts for four main reasons - our creativity, quality, expert advice and track record in sustainable printing.

We have proper conversations with our clients, to help them realise their print ambitions - from fairtrade teaching tools and low carbon travel guides to art and science comics and high end books. There's almost no print idea we can't turn into reality.

We have a hard-earned reputation as 'green' printers. We're always investing, learning and sharing what we know about every aspect of low environmental impact communications.

And Calverts worker co-operative business model means we're able to improve continuously, by putting our money into state-of-the art repro and printing hardware, software and training - instead of paying dividends to outside owners and shareholders.

All this adds up to higher quality, higher impact print; timely delivery - and a better print experience.

Get in touch and we'll help you print something beautiful.

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Standards & certification

Design and print affect the environment. Calverts has therefore implemented an environmental management system to the requirements of ISO 14001 to reduce our negative environmental impacts.

We are committed to comply with or exceed the requirements of environmental legislation and other environmental initiatives to which we subscribe. We are also committed to the prevention of pollution and continual improvement.

Our objectives are to:

1) Reduce our carbon emissions

2) Reduce the impact of paper use on natural resources

3) Improve resource efficiency and recycling

We have set up programmes to achieve this with targets and time scales.

Find out more about our environmental initiatives.

Print

Calverts is descended from the design and print wing of the Arts Lab, back in the '70s, but after all this time we still wonder sometimes if designers and printers will ever speak the same language.

To test the waters, we recently asked: "what do designers mean, when they ask printers to make their images look punchy?" No two designers gave the same answer, so is it any wonder we sometimes get misunderstandings?

Vincent said that punchy means "great repro (on images) to make CMYK rich and full". Our own Scumboni interpreted it as a request for "the sharpness and ink lift you get from printing on coated paper - but on uncoated".

Our favourite answer was from John Wallet, who reckons punchy means "like full colour, but with really vivid oranges and greens" - in other words, Hexachrome for the price of CMYK.

On reflection, we came to the conclusion that 'punchiness', like 'richness', is one of those qualities designers look for when they're anxious that the job should really impress the client and look great in their portfolio.

As WDLtd told us, it's a bit like when a client asks a designer to 'jazz it up a bit' - in other words, imbue it with that little, difficult-to-define, something extra. What do you think?