All about Personalised Forms

Although our range of forms covers most payroll requirements, some clients require personalised forms. Generally personalisation is used to brand a form with a company logo, but other reasons include the following:

	More involved company branding of form.
	Forms other than payslips.
	Very specific payroll field/space requirements

Based on the colour requirements, the best method of printing is selected. The three methods utilised are Process (CMYK), Spot & Digital. These are explained here.

After discussion with the client regarding their requirements, our artwork department will start designing a form. Once this design is completed and approved by the client, it is given to the printing company to enable them to create plates for each colour.

The three most important factors in choosing which printing method is used are complexity, number of colours and quantity. These factors are used to decide if the form will be overprinted or totally bespoke printed. Overprinting and Bespoke printing are described below:

Overprinting

This involves printing on an existing form. The process is similar to having a letterhead printed in that the printing is done on an existing A4 sheet.

Typical reasons for overprinting include:

A simple addition required such as a postage paid mark or logo.
Small quantity required.

Bespoke printing

This involves printing the form from scratch. The printing is done on a reel to reel press and is then finished (glue & perforations applied, then the paper is cut into A4 sheets and packaged).

Typical reasons for bespoke printing include:

A more complex form is required.
Large quantity required.
A print requirement that is incompatible with an existing form.

Printing Methods

CMYK/Process printing

Magazines and colour newspapers are printed using this method. The process uses four inks (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black) to create any colour required. For forms, CMYK printing would only be used for complex colour requirements including photographs and other complex colour images.

The printing process uses four plates corresponding to each of the CMYK colours.

Spot printing

The spot printing process revolves around the number of colours required on a form as each colour requires a different plate. A printing press will have a maximum single pass colour capacity. This means that a certain number of colours can be applied during one print cycle. In some cases (mainly with overprinting) the paper may be printed on more than once to include all the colours required.

Spot printing is the main method for printing simple forms as the colour requirements aren't as complex as CMYK printing. Spot printing utilises the Pantone colour matching method. Each colour has a corresponding Pantone number to ensure a consistent colour.

Digital printing

Digital printing is comparable to process (CMYK) printing in the print output. It can meet very complex colour colour requirements. Colour laser printers utilise digital printing.