Comments on: 12 money-saving questions to ask before printing your promotional material

By: moserw

moserw — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:56:30 +0000

Quite a comprehensive check list. Must say you are quite thorough. Must make sure I follow along the same lines.

By: David Airey

David Airey — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:44:32 +0000

They’re good tips, Yannis.

I completely agree about offering to pay a deposit. Printers are just as worried about losing out as anyone else, and they’ll feel more at ease if they see you’re serious (obviously this point is more important for first time customers). Even if it’s not required, it’s good to offer.

By: y4nnis

y4nnis — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:36:42 +0000

Hi there,
Really educational post about printing. I work in a small size printing company and i can share with you some simple tips to get the most of your printer.
1. If you walk for the first time on a printer and everyone looks extremely busy and there is a great mess in the office that means they are really busy try to avoid them except if you know them, they could do your job very quickly and do not pay the attention you expecting.
2.Be friendly with them try to create a close relationship even be friends going for a drink, invite them to your gigs and of course on the guest list .Always a ‘mate’ can put a priority on your job and be flexible to meet your tight budget.
3.Be in touch with them, be ‘fussy’ for the quality of the finishing, try to be on their cases,probably the stuff could dislike you a bit but your job will be treated with respect and more carefully.
4.Be a ‘gentleman’ with the payments, always let them know if there is a problem, willing to pay a deposit and the start is a ‘good’ start for your ‘relationship’ with your printer.For the printers is very valuable to have reliable costumers on payments.
5.Be there when they printing your stuff to check the colour on the first ‘pull’
and demand to be the same.
6.Knowing the actually printer(the guy who runs the press) is really good. These people they are skill full artists of the printing art. Most of them they have developed a sixth sense of observing letters and colour, probably they are the best people to check your final proof, they will be willing to do it that is their nature!!
Finally I want to say that digital printing is so developed last years and litho is dying, but nothing is more ‘classic’ and ‘authentic’ of litho printers. The noise of the machines, a lot of ink on the walls and people with coloured uniforms and hands!So classic.
thank you
yannis

By: David Airey

David Airey — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:46:05 +0000

You’re very welcome, Jason.

Adriana,

Nice tip, and I’m glad your client was fine about the typo.

By: Adriana

Adriana — Sat, 31 May 2008 10:31:02 +0000

it is also recommended to double check if the mistakes/typos noted by the proof reader were corrected.

We designed some calendars and I was told to make a correction. And I really thought I did, until our client called us pointing out that April had 31 days!!!

Luckily he took it very lighthearted and we had no problems.

Adriana’s last blog post…MejorEnBikaPrograma de préstamo de bicicletas en las colonias…

By: Jason Marsh - Website Designer

Jason Marsh - Website Designer — Mon, 19 May 2008 07:43:23 +0000

Thanks Great advice, I’ll be sure to check the list when printing

By: David Airey

David Airey — Sat, 17 May 2008 12:00:18 +0000

Allen, and whoever typed the previous comment,

Thanks a lot for stopping by with your thoughts.

By: Color Printing

Color Printing — Sat, 17 May 2008 06:24:20 +0000

This is a great article for anyone getting ready to submit a job for print. On question #2 it tipically goes the other way on full color jobs. Most of our clients save lots of money by having their small items printed on our large press. If we can fill the press sheet with our current jobs everyone wins. So the client gets a very high end print on a press run that they could have never aforded on their own.

I agree with what Allen said on checking colors in Acrobat. I do this all day long. It’s very easy to spot issues like RGB Black or spot colors that shouldn’t be there. In addition to this I would recoment utilizing the built-in Pre-Flight using the profile that coresponds to the type of press you are sending the job to. Acobat does a very good job on what used to only be availble with a 3rd party program. Of course one of the best ways to make sure everything goes smothly is getting the printer involved early reviewing drafts so problems are caught early on.

Last but not least is turnaround time. Leaving plenty of time will not only save you loads of money on your projects but will minimize the chance of error.

By: Allen Walker

Allen Walker — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:06:06 +0000

For checking a PDF prior to sending to a printer, an invaluable tool is Adobe Acrobat Professional. The Output Preview function alone is worth the money, allowing you to accurately see exactly what is going to be printed on each colour plate and checking overprints, etc.
This ’separation preview’ functionality has been in high-end reprographic software for years, but now it’s available off the shelf for few hundred quid or as part of the Adobe Creative Suite bundle.

By: David Airey

David Airey — Mon, 05 May 2008 08:54:28 +0000

Gareth,

Looking out for the environment is a great addition, thanks. I’m glad you like my blog, and thanks for taking the time to comment on a few of my articles.