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The fastest way to get printed material produced
Posted in: Blog, Marketing, Printing by Paul McEwan on February 2, 2010
It’s not easy to explain printing processes and short run digital vs long run offset to those who “just want it printed”. There is a belief that the smaller the amount, the less money. But doing things this way will cost way more in the long run. The fastest way to get printed material produced is to pre-print colour “Shells” professionally and then imprint the information in black in a blank area in the design, (perhaps your own laser printer). The most simple form of this is letterhead. Yes, it’s still cheaper to have your letterhead professionally printed and stored for your use at a later time.
Bulk, pre-printed colour shells stored for imprinting later are called called “Shells”. Shells need to be printed offset and in large quantities. When you do this, you will pay fractions of the cost compared to printing short run. Here’s why:
Digital:
Is basically a giant Xerox (digital laser) machine. The “ink” is actually a type of plastic fused onto the paper with heat. It’s far more expensive and slower to come off the digital press. It seems faster to the customer because there is no waiting time for plates to be made, press to be set or ink to dry. But in reality, a press can produce more per minute.
Offset:
Is ink to paper, (laying into the paper). Never will anyone purchase 500 or 1000 pieces of offset printing because there is a set up to get the press to run the job and a drying time for the ink. This is why 1000 pieces cost the same as (or close to) 2500 pieces. Some printers minimums are around 5000 pieces for offset. Once set up the cost per piece is a fraction of the cost of digital printing.
Important: You can not run a digital printed piece back through a digital printer (laser) again for risk of delaminating the first print job. (remember, the “ink” on digital printing is a type of plastic). The heat that fuses on your imprinting will de-laminate your past printing. Sometimes it works. Many times people wonder why their printer stopped working and jammed so badly.
Cost:
Full colour, full bleed postcards printed one side and stored at the printer for imprinting short run black and white on the back when needed cost about $700 to $800 for the first 10,000 (offset of course) and about half as much more for double the amount and so on.
The black and white side is about $85 for the first 1000 imprints and $55 for every 1000 (or partial) there after.
The “Simplify Your Marketing” seminar explained a lot of the different cost effective touch points we offer that are not only priced well but easy and fast to implement in a moment’s notice. The seminar explained how design and marketing departments work and how to save on design billing.