Gravure: More Ups Than Downs

Gravure Assn. of America's Convention and Leadership Summit, themed “A New World of Opportunity,” is being held April 16-19 in Kansas City, MO. This year's more targeted event is covering issues such as competing in the global marketplace and emerging technologies, including printed electronics.

Gravure printing holds color consistently throughout the run. Cylinders last for several million impressions before they need to be changed. In web offset, plate life is shorter. Thus, gravure, in addition to its use by long-run magazines, is also favored in color-critical catalog work. Gravure printing is alive and well in the mass-circulation magazine market. Gravure's advantages include high press speeds, wide-web widths, high quality, the ability to run millions of impressions, variable cut-off lengths and flexible folding equipment.

Of the top 10 magazines using the gravure process, the 23-million circulation AARP The Magazine ranks first, according to Magazine Publishers of America. Traci Lucien, director of manufacturing and distribution, AARP Publications, says the most significant advantages offered by gravure are the economies of scale.

“The process allows us to deliver more pages per form for the magazine—up to 48—running on a lighter basis-weight stock, resulting in reduced costs in both paper and postage,” she says.

Readers Digest (circ. 10 million), Better Homes and Gardens (circ. 7.6 million), National Geographic (circ. 5 million), Good Housekeeping (circ. 4.6 million), Ladies' Home Journal (circ. 4.1 million) and Woman's Day (circ. 4 million) all print gravure. Rounding out the top 10 are Playboy (circ. 3 million), Cosmopolitan (circ. 2.9 million) and Redbook (circ. 2.3 million).

On the down side, Time Inc. has once more pulled the print plug on its iconic LIFE title, which had been resurrected as a weekend magazine in late 2004 after a four-year hiatus. Both RR Donnelley and Quad/Graphics were hit by the news last month. Originally published as a weekly in 1936, LIFE was first “retired” in 1972 and came back as a monthly six years later. The mega publisher says it will now move the brand to more online offerings.

It is common to mix gravure and web offset forms in the same issue. Gravure is used for the national content while offset is used for regional advertising and targeted editorial. Most publishers say gravure regional versioning is too costly.

Sunday magazines are another segment of the gravure market. Circulation leaders like The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times print via gravure, and a dozen other newspapers network to sell ads. Parade and USA Weekend, also gravure-printed products, carry circulations of 32.5 and 23.4 million, respectively. Gravure penetrates the catalog/insert sector as well: users include Sears, JC Penney, Lands' End, Toys “R” Us, Target, Office Depot and OfficeMax.

Just last month, Quad/Graphics announced it will expand premedia capacity after signing a deal to be the exclusive printer and prepress provider for L.L. Bean catalogs as of next January. The multi-year, multi-million-dollar contract covers prepress, printing, binding and mailing for L.L. Bean's 65 catalog titles. Quad's Imaging Service Center in Braintree, MA, and a pending facility near the customer in Freeport, ME, will manage prepress production. Printing and distribution will be handled at Quad's gravure printing plants in Martinsburg, WV; Oklahoma City; and Lomira, WI.

The gravure process uses a metal printing cylinder onto which the image is etched. The cylinder can be created with analog or digital plating processes. During printing, the cylinder revolves in an ink fountain where it is coated with a very fluid ink. A doctor blade clears the ink from the unwanted areas, leaving the ink in the depressions of the cylinder. The substrate passes between the gravure cylinder and an impression cylinder covered in rubber, where the ink from the cells is deposited onto the substrate. An electrostatic assist often aids the ink transfer.

Meredith Corp. has two major titles printing gravure—Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies' Home Journal. Chuck Goodrich, senior director of supply chain management, notes the many advantages gravure offers to his company's long-run titles. “When running lightweight stocks, printability is much better than offset,” he says. “There's more flexibility in reducing paper weight because print quality is better with the gravure process on lighter basis weight paper. There's also less run waste with the process.” Additional benefits noted by Goodrich involve the relationship to cylinders and trim sizes. “You have more flexibility in trim sizes because you can adjust cylinder sizes,” he says.

One issue formerly faced by gravure was small type breaking up. When cylinder engraving was more commonly done by using a diamond stylus, the diamond shape of the gravure dots did not handle small lettering. A jagged type was created. This has been solved by the development of software programs and the introduction of laser-image engraving, which resolve the jagged appearance of the type. Also, direct-to-cylinder imaging using lasers is advancing.

Although the gravure process provides benefits, there are areas of concern, says Mel Baughman, quality manager at AARP. “The one comment I hear from readers most consistently is how troublesome it can be to turn the pages because of the static electricity,” he says. “It would be helpful, especially to our older membership, to find a way to reduce or eliminate this troublesome attribute.”

Looking toward the future, Lucien of AARP says: “As long as roto provides the economic benefits of printing on the lower basis weight stocks and high-volume page delivery, it will remain our first choice for our publications.”