In cooperation with the Newspaper Association of America, the Specifications for Newsprint Advertising Production Committee has created a certificate program to promote understanding and application of SNAP specifications, and to provide objective feedback to users of the specifications.

The purpose of this press test is to show that your printing process is compliant with the SNAP specification. The Guidelines are set up so that the printed copy will be measured with instrumentation. SNAP certified printing operations must have a good understanding of the process and how to control the printing conditions. Printers who score 85 points or above will be awarded the SNAP Certificate. You can use the calculation sheet to tally your results before you submit the test sheets.

SNAP Certificate Winners

The SNAP certificate will require cold web printers to run test forms. There are two forms required to be printed. Page 1, will require the printer to place a SNAP sports image and dot gain palette on a page with various other test elements. Page 2 will have the same photo as the standard SNAP test page along with a color gamut. Please see the directions.

PAGE 1 DIRECTIONS:

Page 1 is offered in PDF format.
PDF version
Please do not make any page size adjustments to page 1 or 2. Doing so may adversely effect results.

There are two elements that should be adjusted and placed onto this page:

• The first element is a sports image (sports.jpg). Please adjust the image for dot gain in your process and place into the test page in the box that says place 3.25" X 5" football image file here.
• The second element is a dot gain palette (dotgainsteps.pdf) which will show how well dot gain is controlled in your process. Please adjust the target for dot gain in your process and place into the test page in the box that says place 4.5" X 4.5 dot gain palette file here. The desired effect is that the resulting print will show a print area of 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of each of the primary colors.

On Page 1 the following sections will be measured:

• Dot Gain Control
• Density Variation
• Color Gamut
• Dot Gain of your press (informational only)

PAGE 2 DIRECTIONS:

Page 2 is supplied as a PDF document. The PDF may be downloaded by clicking on (form.pdf) No adjustment should be made to this page.

Directions to adjust and calibrate the SNAP Dot Gain Palette. (dotgain-procedure.pdf)

On Page 2, the following sections will be measured:

• Registration
• Grey Bar

The test pages should be run with nothing on the reverse side of the sheet. For a copy of the SNAP Certificate measurement and grading guidelines, please download (certification.pdf)

Please submit 20 consecutive copies of the printed test for evaluation, along with the following information:

• Information sheet showing the printing equipment used.
• Completed application form
• Registration fee in the form of a check paid to NAA or credit card payment.

If you have any questions, contact CheesemanD@usink.com