How is a stamp actually made?
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This is Jonny. Jonny likes licking stamps
(especially the old ones that were still gummed with animal glue).
This is Martina. Martina is Jonny's boss. Martina doesn't like licking stamps that much, so she uses the modern self-adhesive stamps from Postado. Now both want to know how such a small stamp is actually made.
(Martina acts here on behalf of the unknown graphic designer.)
The Production of a Stamp at Postado
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Martina wants to make a stamp for Anastasia from LMF. Anastasia already has an idea, but how should they start? So they first ask the professionals at Postado if they can help a little. The friendly employee from the Postado team explains some things over the phone. He tells how big the stamp can be, how the stamps must be arranged on a sheet, explains what a trim is, what a color space is, and what resolutions the photos need to have to appear sharp on the stamp. Then Andi from Postado sends Martina a file that she can use to design the stamp sheet.
Now Martina sits in front of her computer, which she bought from a nice man in California. She has all kinds of programs on it.
Today, Martina uses InDesign, a program for creating layouts. Anastasia has decided on a standard size stamp because it has the advantage that the Postado people can produce it more cheaply since they already have templates that Martina can use now. So Martina creates a new document with the dimensions 44.8 mm x 30.8 mm – and because the man from Postado said that a bleed is important, Martina also sets a bleed of 1.5 mm. She also wants an inner margin of 1.5 mm – this is also recommended by the Postado people.
Now Martina can click to her heart's content and design a chic stamp. Because Anastasia likes animals, Martina makes stamps from the Augsburg Zoo for her. Different animals from the zoo come on the stamps, a different animal for each denomination.
When Martina is done with the individual stamps, she saves the result as a pdf. Pdf is a file format that the printers at Postado love. Sometimes, however, they are not happy when you send them a bad pdf. That's why Martina asks again for safety, because everything is easier together.
Now Martina has many small stamps on her computer. But they should still be printed ten at a time on a sheet of paper. So Martina opens a new document.
Designing a Stamp Sheet
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The Postado people told Martina to create the block approximately 20 cm x 12 cm. This is good, they said, so that the sheet later fits, for example, in an envelope, and she can easily send the new stamps to her mom. Because she also wants to send something with the beautiful new stamps from Martina.
Then the Postado people said that the stamps should be arranged with a spacing of 5 mm so that they can use the inexpensive die-cutting form. Anastasia also wants a tear-off perforation on her stamp sheet so she can detach individual stamps and, for example, carry them in her wallet. Then she should arrange the stamps in the middle of the sheet, the Postado people told her. So Martina sets about putting together her stamp sheet. First, she creates a pretty background, writes a few infos on it, and places the LMF logo. Then Martina inserts the first stamp – somewhere on the sheet. And then she uses the "Duplicate and Offset Paste" tool in InDesign. She duplicates the stamp once horizontally and shifts the stamp by exactly 49.8 mm (= 44.8 mm + 5 mm). Then she selects both stamps and duplicates them five times vertically with a spacing of 35.8 mm (30.8 mm + 5 mm). And voilà, she has ten stamps on her sheet. Now she groups the stamps to prevent shifting and centers this block in the middle of her document. The first stamp block is ready!
She just has to output it as a PDF and immediately send it to the Postado people, who will check the file and help Martina if there are any problems.
The Prepress
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At Postado, the employees check whether Martina did everything right: the colors of the file are checked, the resolution of the images, and the spacing of the stamps. If everything is okay, Andi from Postado sends the data to the print server and lets the files convert. If this works without errors, these files are sent back to Anastasia from LMF. Anastasia reviews the file again and approves it if she is satisfied with the result.
Anastasia also wants a so-called proof to see a color-accurate print of the files in advance. The proof is sent to her by mail.
While the proof is on its way to Anastasia, Andi from Postado already starts to "assemble" the data, as he calls it. The stamp sheets are arranged on a large sheet so that several are always printed together. Andi has to pay close attention to the spacing of the individual stamp sheets so that everything can be die-cut later. The print sheet is optimized to fill almost every millimeter, ensuring a cost-effective price for Anastasia. Andi prints the print sheet on his roll plotter. Now Mike and Markus check whether Andi made no mistakes, measure the distances, and look for typos, etc.
In the meantime, Anastasia has given print approval.
The Printing Plate
The files are okay, approval is granted, and the print data is prepared. Now Chris can produce the printing plates. He does this with a very modern thermal plate imaging machine. In the machine, a strong laser directly lasers the image to be printed onto the printing plate. For Martina's stamps, four printing plates need to be produced. One plate for each color: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. By mixing these primary colors, almost all other colors can be produced, almost like in your paint box.
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The Printing
With the printing plates, Chris can now start printing immediately. He just has to punch and bevel the plates on one side and then clamp them into the printing machine. Pre-stacking paper and adding color to the ink trays, and the first sheets start running through the machine. Chris adjusts the correct ink amounts at the control panel and pulls a sheet from the output of the printing machine for control.
Chris compares the print sheet under so-called standard light with the proof from Anastasia. Here and there, he may need to adjust the color a bit. He has a measuring device to measure color, which helps him with the work. And the printing continues. After some time, Chris has already printed a decent amount of stamps and has to set them aside because Anastasia wants a lot of stamps, so it becomes quite a stack of paper. The stack stays there to dry. About a day should be allowed for the stamps to dry, so the fresh color doesn't smear in the next processing steps.
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Numbering
Anastasia wants the stamp sheets to be numbered, both as a security feature and to keep track of how many stamps she has.
For numbering, a different, smaller printing machine is used. Markus must first halve the print sheets so they fit through the smaller machine. He does this with the cutting machine, which can cut whole stacks at once.
Markus stacks the halved print sheets in his printing machine and sets up the numbering units. Adding ink to the machine, and it's ready to go.
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Die-Cutting
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After Markus has numbered all the stamp sheets, the ink has to dry again. Then the sheets are divided once more, and only then can Uwe start die-cutting. He uses an old but very beautiful machine: the Heidelberg platen press. The platen press takes a sheet of paper and presses it onto a die-cutting plate that cuts out the stamps. Uwe must work very precisely because even tiny deviations are noticeable, and Anastasia wants nothing but perfect stamps. Uwe also has to make sure to only score the stamp paper, not cut through it, so the stamps can be easily detached.
Uwe continues die-cutting until he has done all the stamps.
Finishing
After die-cutting, Beate can trim the stamp sheets to their final format. She then stacks the finished sheets in the gluing station. The stacks are clamped and glued. They must dry again, with a heater available for this purpose. When everything is dry, Beate separates the blocks and prepares them for packaging.
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Overview
From Anastasia's idea for a stamp, it came to designing on the computer. First, a single stamp was designed, then a sheet with a total of ten stamps was created. After the file was converted by the print server, print approval was granted. Then these ten sheets were arranged on a large sheet and printed. After printing, the large sheet was halved and numbered with another machine. Then this sheet was further divided and die-cut with the next machine.
Finally, 50 sheets were glued into a block.
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Stamp Perforation Machine
Martina also ordered gummed decorative sheets for her Jonny from the zoo. In production, the Postado people do everything similarly to self-adhesive stamps: checking print data, creating a proof, obtaining approval, making a positioning plot, producing printing plates, and printing.
Then a new machine comes into play: the stamp perforation machine punches holes into the paper so the stamps can be torn off. The machine uses rigid combs with many needles. Therefore, the decorative sheets must be placed correctly on the large paper. Such a comb is very expensive, and Postado has several in stock for different stamp sizes.
After perforation, the print sheet is divided and run through the numbering machine again. Then comes the final trim, and everything is packaged.
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First Day Cover
Anastasia also wants a so-called first-day cover for her stamps. This is something for stamp collectors who think it's great to have all the stamps of a series on one card. The card is printed first, then numbered, and later Beate scores the cards so they can be folded well. Beate then sticks the original stamps into the first-day covers and cancels them. After packaging, everything can be sent to LMF.
The small stamps are now on their way. Where will they end up?
Maybe they will come to you someday!
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Information
This description includes one of the possible production paths through our print shop, depending on print run, motif, and format. For understandable reasons, we did not go into all controls and, in the interest of security, not into the security precautions in the stamps.
Unauthorized copies of the text, images, or excerpts are prohibited. It is allowed to link to Postado or LMF-Postservice.
©POSTADO ©LMF-Postservice
A male stamp experienced
Something beautiful before it stuck.
He was licked by a princess.
Then love awakened in him.
He wanted to kiss her again,
Then he had to travel.
So he loved her in vain.
That is the tragedy of life.
(Joachim Ringelnatz)