In previous blog posts, we’ve talked about the terms bleed, crop marks, and registration marks. In today’s installment we’re going to discuss the term up and how it’s used in the printing industry.
In our every day way of thinking about the objects in our possession, we tend to think of them being made or manufactured — even if done so on an assembly line — one-at-a-time. There’s something of a natural tendency to imagine the postcard we just received in the mail or the business card handed to us by a stranger was printed one-at-a-time after the paper was first cut to size. I imagine customer service representatives at companies that manufacture home/office equipment having to field questions every day from customers trying to figure out how to print 10 single, 3.5” x 2” business cards on their laser printer.
The solution, of course, is to print all 10 business cards on one sheet of paper and then, with a few select cuts, trim the cards to size. This method of printing multiple copies of a business card, postcard or other print item on a single sheet of paper is what the term up designates in printing terminology. Typically, the term up is prefaced by a number indicating the number of copies to printed on a specified sheet of paper (i.e, 1-up, 2-up, 3-up, 4-up, etc.). For example, depending on whether a business card design incorporates bleed, it’s possible to print 12 business cards (12-up) on a standard 8.5” x 11” sheet of card stock.
The size of the printing press, the size of the paper it can accommodate, and the size of the piece to be printed determines the number assigned to an up designation. Hence, pages of a book or magazine may be printed 16-up or 32-up on a large, web offset press, while smaller presses would run common items like postcards, invitations, business cards, rack cards, etc., at 3-up, 4-up, or 8-up, etc.
Printing items in up configurations is ultimately about saving time and money. Lower paper costs and less time a job is on the press equals lower costs. And, it means your order can be turned around quicker.
If you have any questions about up and how it applies to your print project, give us a call (330-597-8560) and we’ll answer your questions!
