Wednesday, June 19, 2013

The Secret to $aving Money on Printing







Printing = manufacturing

Printing is a custom manufacturing process. When we fill your order, we aren’t taking something off the shelf and shipping it to you. We start from scratch each time, with paper, ink or toner, and a digital file containing the images to be printed (either provided by you or retrieved from our secure file storage). 

All printing jobs have at least two manufacturing steps: prepress and printing. The prepress step uses a digital file (usually a PDF) to create a raster image. Printing is the output and reproduction process, which may be done on an offset press or a digital printer.

Depending on the requirements of the job, it may also require finishing steps such as trimming, folding, stitching, drilling, binding and assembly. Jobs being printed for the first time may need design and preflight. Like all custom manufacturing jobs, printing requires clear, unambiguous specifications to guide the manufacturing process. These include the type of paper, the ink color(s), the finished size of the printed piece, and whether finishing work is required. For each new printing project, we write the initial specifications based on the choices you make. To eliminate errors that might be caused by rewriting specifications each time the job reprints, we use a computerized print production management system to store the specifications.

Custom manufacturing takes time, and haste makes waste. Recognizing this, we have developed production standards that tell us how much time to allow for each step in the manufacturing process. Our production standards aren’t arbitrary; rather, they were developed to allow our production team enough time to read and understand the job specifications, decide the best equipment to use for the job, and operate the equipment in a manner that produces quality results while ensuring operator safety.

Can we speed things up when necessary? Can we pull rabbits out of hats and perform minor miracles? Of course. But that’s exceptional work, not our production standard.



Printing = partnership

We learned long ago that being dependable is the most valuable thing we can offer you. Our goal is to deliver your printing on time, as ordered, and at the agreed upon price. But we need your help to do this.


Tell us the real due date. 

We will have your job done at the agreed upon time – period. That means you don’t have to pad the due date because we might be late. If you prefer to have all printed materials in hand a week before the meeting at which they will be used, we understand and will have the job ready. If you intend to pick up the job on your way to the meeting, we also understand. Either way, we won’t let you down.


Provide your inputs on time. 

Remember our production standards? They are the basis for developing the production timeline. When you are providing inputs – a PDF file, text, photographs, illustrations, mailing list, postage deposit – we will give you an interim due date for each input. The interim due date is when we must receive the input for the job to stay on schedule and be ready on time. If others in your company are responsible for some of the inputs, we suggest you share the interim due date so you won’t be late. You’ll be on time and we’ll be on time.


Provide inputs in industry standard format. 

Microsoft Word is an industry standard for a report, but not for a brochure or a mailing list. Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop are industry standards for drawings and illustration or color correction and photograph manipulation but not for page layout. Some programs can make print ready PDFs; others cannot.


A special word about design, file repair and desktop printing: our job is to make you look good in print, and we take this seriously. We want all your printed materials to represent you well and for your branding to be consistent. That is why we may suggest that you let us design your new printed piece, or redesign an older one that needs refreshing. We may suggest redrawing a pixelated logo or creating a digital file of a document that currently exists only as printed copy. 

We make these suggestions as part of our job as print professionals. Most of the time our suggestions are based on a short term or one time expense that we can demonstrate will save money in the long run.

Reprinted from Printing Arts Press The Word on the Street newsletter.



Posted by Chuck Gherman


For more information about Printing Arts Press please visit www.printingartspress.com


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