How and where to print your projects

Interested in a prescription for total confusion about the printing process? Look under “printers” in a phone directory. You are likely to find a storefront shop with a copier and four employees listed next to a business with 150 employees and a multimillion-dollar printing press as big as a house. And to maximize the confusion they both claim to be interested in printing “brochures.”

How, you ask yourself, would someone who is unfamiliar with printing navigate their way through that mine field? How do experienced designers, keep up with the continual changes? Stick with me for the next few minutes and I’ll tell you when to use your desktop printer, a quick-copy shop, a commercial printer, and what types of projects are best suited for a specialty printer. If I've done my job, by the time we're finished you’ll understand a little bit more about the processes and discover how to get a measurably better product for substantially less cost.

IMPORTANT: You're going to see a lot of “typicallys” and “generally speakings” below. I use them so often because I want to emphasize the fact that these are, in my experience, sound basic guidelines—they are not gospel. Printing images on paper is a hugely complex business and innovations appear all the time. Your local expert may have a perfectly good argument for doing things a different way.

For personal printing choose a desktop printer

Let's begin by sharing the obvious: the inkjet or laser printer on your desktop is ideal for printing everyday, personalized materials such as letters, notes, memos, reports, address labels, and so on. It is also excellent for producing small quantities of business-to-business materials such as proposals and formal reports, and, if your printer has 1200 dpi or higher resolution, for creating masters of pages you need reproduced on a copier.

Generally speaking, I do not use my desktop printer for producing finished copies of business cards, stationery, brochures, and other pieces that are printed in large quantities on a printing press. They certainly can be printed on a desktop printer, but to me they look as if they were printed on a desktop printer and, therefore, seem something less than professional. I also don't much care for the idea of printing on pre-printed papers—stationery and brochures decorated with illustrations that have little or nothing to do with the specific organization they are meant to represent. You can spot them a mile away.

And, while inkjets can reproduce beautiful, vivid color, it comes at a cost. For day-to-day printing I prefer a fast, high-resolution (1200dpi or higher) black and white laser printer. It costs more up front but considering the ongoing expenses of an inkjet, a laser printer is easy to justify. Mine does duplex printing (printing on both sides of the sheet), cutting paper costs to boot.

For simple black and white copies choose a copier or copy shop.

To make lots of copies of a single document, you're going to need something more than a desktop printer. Obviously, many organizations opt for in-house copiers. A copier adhere's toner to paper much as a laser printer does. And like a desktop printer, it is great for internal materials and for occasional proposals and formal reports; but many small businesses don't do enough copying to justify the cost of a big, high-quality copier. Not to mention that “in-house” means you become the printer's staff—you learn it, you maintain it, you man it, and you repair it (or, more likely, pay to have it repaired).

Hence, many of us take jobs that require more than a few copies down the street to the type of quick-copy shop you find in a storefront or as an extension of your local office-supply megastore. The critical point is that they use a high-quality, high-speed versions of office copiers—they rarely use printing presses.

Why is that important? Because adhering ink to paper is different than adhering toner to paper—printing quality, generally speaking, is superior to copier quality. And, believe it or not, having a job reproduced on a copier can be more expensive than having it printed on a printing press.

That's right. At eight cents a copy, for example, it may be less expensive to have your 2000 flyers printed on a press than copied on a copier. And if the price is close to the same, the superior quality of the press, to me, trumps the convenience of copying. As a matter of fact, if you regularly print over 1000 pieces at a quick-copy chain, I can almost guarantee you’ll save money by finding a commercial printer with a printing press. (Most commercial printers are willing to offer discounts for repeat business.)

Which leads me to my first rule about printing: Get at least two estimates on every job you suspect will cost over $100. And, when you get into reproducing more than 500 of anything, be sure to get at least one estimate from a vendor with a printing press. The difference in prices between two seemingly similar vendors may surprise you.

Don't misunderstand me: copiers are perfectly adequate for small runs of a wide range of projects such as flyers, simple newsletters, announcements, and other black and white originals on one or two sides of a sheet of paper up to 11 by 17 inches. But as soon as you need a larger sheet, want to add large areas of solid black, screens of gray, or colors; want to extend the image off the edge of the page; or to choose something more exotic than solid colored bond stock; it pays to look at alternative sources.

Another difference between many franchise copy shops and their commercial printer counterparts is printers are willing to bargain. A large printing press (in particular) is a profit center that requires skilled operators—if no jobs are running on a particular press during a particular hour of the day, the printer loses money. The paradigm at copy shops is different—they typically use fixed pricing and are less likely to bargain for your job.

You often pay a premium for the convenience and speed of a quick-copy operation so don’t be afraid to insist on good quality. At its best, a system such as the Xerox DocuTech (used at many copy shops) is capable of producing crisp, clear, copies so you shouldn't settle for less. There is much that can go wrong—toner gets low and pages get faded, pages get out of alignment so images are crooked, the setup for one job is not adjusted for the next so gray tones get muddy or overly contrasty, the operator gets busy and the beginning of the job looks significantly better than the end, and so on. If you see something unacceptable (on a copier OR a press) ask to have it reprinted.

One way to avoid many inherent problems is to present your project as a file versus supplying master pages to be copied. The Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF), supported by all the major desktop publishing programs, has made direct to device transfer more common and easier than ever.

Rule number two: When dealing with copy shops and small printers, find out who will print your project. Be aware that many shops actively pursue jobs such as 4-color brochures, color labels, embossing, premium imprinting (mugs, keychains, and such), and other projects that require specialized equipment and broker it to third parties. Be sure to ask early-on if a printer has the equipment to reproduce your project in-house. If they are sending it out, you may get a better price by going direct to a vendor who does the work.

For complex black and white and 2-color jobs (newsletters, brochures, stationery...) choose a commercial printer with a 1- or 2-color sheetfed printing press

Complex black and white and all solid-color (mainly 2- and 3-color) work typically requires the superior quality of an offset printing press. Many types of projects such as booklets, brochures, newsletters, letterheads, business cards, and envelopes fall into this category. The process is more expensive than a copier because a paper, polymer, or metal plate must be made from your artwork or computer file (the plate transfers the ink to the paper on the press).

The advantages are many: An offset press reproduces the fine detail and subtleties of high-resolution photographs and artwork better than a copier; it does a far better job reproducing large gray tones and solid areas of color; and, because it can print larger sheet sizes, your design can extend or “bleed” off the edge of the paper.

To understand the difference between a printer who prints solid-colors and one who prints 4-color process you need to know a little about how a printing press reproduces color.

There are two ways to arrive at matching a specific color. You can choose a specific ink color that matches it, called a “solid” PANTONE® Color or you can combine four standard colors to match it as closely as possible, referred to as “process” colors.

There are over one thousand Solid PANTONE Colors. If, for example, you want bright orange, you would choose the exact color from a PANTONE formula guide (available from the printer) and the printer would buy a container of that ink and print your job using it. (Remember when figuring where to print a job, that in the printing world, black is considered one of the two or three colors mentioned above.)

The alternative method is to print the job using the 4-color process. The process colors are cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK). This combination of colors can be screened to represent just about any color value across the spectrum.

Four-color process is best for printing color photographs and any other material that contains a range of colors that cannot be reproduced using two or three solid colors. The limitation of the 4-color process is that it cannot reproduce some colors as vividly, and is typically more expensive than the solid color method. That said, the point is that printing one, two, or three colors on a 1- or 2-color press (they can pass a sheet through multiple times) is often less expensive than printing on a 4-color press.

Where do you find a printer with a press? Get on the phone and ask. The question is, “Do you use a printing press or a copier?” If they do, the next qualifier is the scope of the job. I would ask, “I will be printing 5000 sheets of stationery using one solid color and black, is that the type of job you specialize in?”

Something else to remember when you are printing on a printing press: no matter what you print, order a minimum of 500 pieces. Unlike a photocopier or a desktop printer, a printing press requires that the operator run some throw-away sheets to get the press up to speed. The difference between printing 50 and 500 on an offset press is insignificant—little more than the cost of the paper and a few minutes of press time.

My third rule about printing is this: Choose the least expensive process that can adequately produce a professional-looking job. The cost of printing is based primarily on the value of the equipment and the amount of time it takes to complete the job. Prices increase when you run a simple job on equipment used to print more complex jobs and/or larger sheets of paper. The rule of thumb is to avoid being the smallest job in a big shop or vice versa.

For large quantities of 4-color process (catalogs, brochures, posters, packaging...) choose a commercial printer a with 4- or 6-color sheetfed printing press

The next progression is to move to a commercial printer with a 4-color offset press. When is this necessary? When you want to print a 4-color job in quantities of 2000 or more and/or when the job exceeds the size of a smaller printer's press.

As you graduate to bigger printers with more expensive equipment you will also find a greater variety of in-house finishing services—perfect binding, hole drilling, die-cutting, and so on.

This environment, too, is where you are likely to find the latest direct-imaging technology and perhaps some of the other seemingly endless list of alternative printing methods. Direct imaging, in some cases, can save you money and time by streamlining the prepress process. Instead of creating the negatives and stripping used to make conventional printing plates, a direct-to-press system sends your document directly to the press. Generally speaking, it is a process ideal for short runs of 250 to 5000 process color pieces. The test is to compare pricing. I am only concerned about the quality of the finished product, how we got there doesn't much matter.

Printing rule number four: Decide how you will print your project before you design it. A layout, for example, that bleeds off the edge of an envelope will dramatically affect the cost of producing it. Instead of printing it on a manufactured envelope, it must be printed on a flat sheet, trimmed out, folded, and glued-–a process that could easily triple the price.

Need more than 25,000 copies of a catalog, brochure, or direct mail piece? Check into a local or regional printer with a Web press. The obvious difference between a sheetfed press and a Web press is that a Web press prints on rolls of paper instead of sheets of paper. They are enormous machines, that not only print the piece but fold, bind, and trim it in one cycle.

For specialty jobs choose a theme printer

If you’re printing the type of standard-profile projects lots of other organizations print, (pocket folders, postcards, catalog sheets, posters, three-panel brochures, and so on) it pays to look for a firm that specializes in what I call “theme” printing. A theme printer, for example, that specializes in printing a couple of different sizes of postcards and brochures, gets fairly good at printing postcards and brochures. Experience teaches them how to maximize efficiency and minimize cost and the resulting savings are passed on to you.

Those savings are often substantial. As a matter of fact, for one recent job, the estimate by a printer over 1000 miles away was less than half of that from the printer down the street.

For example: Need to print a book? It wasn’t long ago it required a significant investment. Today a service such as lightningsource.com can print a 200 page book in quantities of less than ten copies for less than five dollars apiece. Need 4-color, numbered tickets with a security backing for your next event? Believe it or not, psprint.com can produce 500 of them for under $150. It boggles the mind that a printer like carlsebastian.com can produce 20,000 2.25 by 6.25 inch bookmarks for under $500.

Check out these Specialty Printers:

General, four-color: carlsebastian.com
Books (500 or less): lightningsource.com
Books (500 or more): sheridanbooks.com

Do you have a favorite printing source or a different opinion on what you've read above? Chuck welcomes your feedback.

FEEDBACK FROM READERS

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From KAY MULLIGAN, RCAC

Chuck, you said you don't much care for pre-printed papers. I have to produce approximately 150 different workshop flyers every year.
The typical run is 30-50. What I have done instead of using stock pre-printed paper is to design and print our OWN pre-printed brochure paper, usually ordering a quantity of 5000. Then, I just imprint either on our laser printer, or if the quantity needed is more, send it out to our copy service (giving them our preprinted stock), where they print, fold and tab for mailing.

It's worked well for me and my trainers are pleased with the results. It gives the appearance of a 2-color job at a fraction of the cost, and we have a standard look to our workshops.

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From Emily Tipermas, Plan To Print, Rockville, Maryland

I enjoyed reading Printer Versus Press, but as a print broker, I was looking for a suggestion in the article to contact a print broker for expert assistance in picking the right printer for a particular job.

From Chuck: Good point Emily. I haven't used a broker but I know that printing demands can be complex enough that some companies hire someone to do nothing but coordinate and oversee the process. Emily tells me she and most other brokers are paid a percentage.

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From Nancy DeDiemar, Printing Resources of Southern California

...Copiers today are really high speed laser printers, capable of remarkable color fidelity, unplugged screens and sharp photographs—a far cry from the old analog days. Frankly, poor quality is much more likely to be due to the fact that we have to go “off-the-glass” from a paper original or to bad file preparation than it is due to equipment.

That said, the main limitation of toner-based printers is the size of the toner particles themselves. This is a technology limitation that at the moment can't be overcome and the main difference between printing on a toner-based device (like a digital copier/printer) and printing on a printing press using a press plate. The finest a dot or line can image on a toner-based device is the size of the toner particle, whereas a film of ink can adhere to a much smaller dot or line.

My printing company is very typical of a quick-copy or small commercial printing company. We have digital copier/printers (Canon) for black & white and color imaging. We have small format offset presses (they feed a sheet size of up to 12x18 inches). We have a prepress department and produce press plates using a laser that images onto a poly-backed plate material. Our ideal customers are those that have regular, recurring printing needs of at least $2000 per year and who prepare their own document files.

Competitive quotes is always a good idea, but please don't advise your readers to look for printers who “bargain.” Instead, advise them to look for a printer who offers the best value—one who has the equipment, prepress department and technical knowledge of printing and copying to deliver a professional-looking product that fits the customer's budget and delivery time requirements.

The best way to secure the lowest price is to prepare documents files correctly so they are press-ready. This means selecting the correct software for the project and learning to use it. A trifold brochure prepared in Word, Photoshop, Illustrator or Excel will take much longer for our prepress department to prepare for plating than the same brochure prepared in MS Publisher, Adobe PageMaker or InDesign or QuarkXPress...

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From Jim Bellomo

Two thoughts. One, you mention getting two quotes on every print job. I agree but would add that once you find a printer you can build a relationship with, stick with them. I have a printer that I treat as a business partner. They go so far as to catch my mistakes, always deliver my jobs on time, always charge me the price they quoted and refuse to print for my competitors. I show them the same loyalty.

Two, one thing I do on big black and white and two color jobs is to find out what size paper they are running my stuff on. If bigger than I need (like when I print 6 or 8 marketing postcards) I add in some business cards (I like to have about 10 different kinds for myself) around the edges. A really cool way to get some free printing. Lastly, I also do the old 2nd color thing that gets me free color just by asking when they are doing some other stuff in the color I want. They will often run it without a second color charge.