6 Tips to finding a Great Online Printer!

April 29, 2009 – 11:30 am
In a world now becoming quickly dominated by online printers how can you be sure the one that has the flashy website and big impact, really does get the job done? Many online printers are exactly NOT that. They are brokers who markup the cost of the print and sell it on to you, simply providing a service. This gives them limitations in some respects as they are unable to control breakdowns and other such problems and can only work on the same answers you would receive if you asked the questions yourself, as they are only ever customers. You can try to ensure to get your print from an actual printer providing an online service as well!

What is Set-Off and how does it happen?

April 17, 2009 – 11:42 am
In printing, lithographically only, ink is tacky as it is transferred onto the paper. If there is a lot of coverage, i.e. a 4-colour black (CMYK - Mentioned in this article) of e.g. 100% of all colours, this would make that area of the print particularly tacky to touch and as such, when it is delivered onto a pallet at the end of the press it starts to stick to the sheet below and above it.

What is Trimming or Cutting?

April 17, 2009 – 11:14 am
Obvious you might think? Not necessarily. There are things that need to be considered when you supply artwork for print, you have to consider the whole process. You see, print work is printed more than 1-up on a sheet, depending on the size of the flyer or leaflet. As a result, these then need trimming or cutting down to size. As you can imagine, a pair of scissors isn't quite what is required!

What is Lamination?

April 8, 2009 – 12:32 pm
For that extra professional finish, you can choose you have your flyers or usually business cards Laminated. This process involves a heated roll machine which heats up a thin layer of "laminate" film and sticks it to the material. It's available in two finishes aswell, Matt or Gloss!

Why Do Flyers Work So Well?

April 3, 2009 – 4:39 pm
I have been asked many times why I think flyer printing is such an effective advertising medium so here a couple of reasons why I think flyer printing is so good at selling.

What is FSC and what is the logo for?

March 31, 2009 – 5:21 pm
FSC is the real buzz word in the print industry at the moment. The FSC logo is a branded trust mark that identifies responsible forest management in the market place. It empowers consumers to make responsible purchasing decisions on forest products.

What is creasing and folding?

March 31, 2009 – 2:07 pm
Well hopefully one of these you will be familiar with, but the other perhaps not? Folding is the process of simply "folding" paper to make it into different shapes, usually in half or into 3rds. Creasing goes hand in hand with folding as it's also termed as a "score". It's a folding aid often used on heavier papers to help the paper fold efficiently and neatly.

Ok, so I get ISO sizes, what about yours?

March 31, 2009 – 1:47 pm
We wondered when you were going to ask that. Well it's not an industry standard process that's for certain, but it is done with the customer in mind. To enable us to offer excellent prices and service we need to waste as little paper as possible. With this in mind we have to physically divide a blank sheet up and see how many flyers of different sizes we can get "up" on a sheet. Imagine cutting out some A6, A5, DL shapes and trying to fit them all on 1 sheet of paper, it's not really that easy.

ISO Paper Sizes - What’s best for me?

March 27, 2009 – 4:45 pm
A lot of people we speak to know that they want some Flyers, or Leaflets, but they don't know what size is best. Often bombarding them with different sizes is intimidating and they are not really sure what they mean. Well, everyone knows what A4 is, just think of a Utility Bill (yeah I know!). The paper these come on are often folded in weird and wonderful ways but ultimately they are usually A4 in size. This is a UK standard letter size and also the paper you load into your printer!

Saving a PDF from Microsoft Word!

March 26, 2009 – 1:32 pm
It's a common one. Unfortunately, software like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign aren't easily available to some, due to their price, what is usually more mainstream is the Microsoft Office suite. Let's face it, everyone who's everyone knows how to use Microsoft Word, and as such we get a lot of 'artwork' supplied in this format. There are several problems with this. Because of different screen resolutions, different fonts, different leadings and displays it often causes our version to display differently to what you see on your screen. The same may happen if you take it to another computer yourself! This means we have no idea what it SHOULD look like and can only go on what we see. The solution? Download a free program called PrimoPDF which, once installed, acts as a Virtual Printer you actually 'print' to (File > Print). You then select this is a printer and click "Print". ...