Printing Companies: A Buyer's Guide
Get your free Quote from Printing Companies
Around 1439 Johannes Gutenburg introduced the movable type printing press, paving the way for the renaissance, the reformation and the scientific revolution. Since then the technology used by printing companies has come a long way but the basic principle remains the same – reducing the time and labour that goes into creating documents by reproducing large numbers of pages from a single ‘master’ image.
Gutenburg’s printing press was chiefly used for making Bibles, books and pamphlets but modern printing companies offer a much wider variety of products. Posters, flyers, brochures, letterheads, business cards, presentation folders, product packaging, labels and more can all be produced to an exceptionally high quality and at low costs.
Finding the right deal from printing companies is a matter of knowing precisely your requirements and how to properly compare quotes on offer from different suppliers (who sometimes use terminology and jargon as old as Gutenburg himself).
This Buyers’ Guide was written in partnership with Printing Companies Business Expert Gradelet Print Management.
Over twenty years experience has given Gradelet a large network of trusted suppliers. By carefully managing each project, no matter how big or small, they ensure you receive the best quality, service and value in all areas, giving you the benefit of economies of scale, saving time and money and most important, offering a helpful and friendly service at every step.
Printing Companies: What’s on Offer?
The technology available to modern printing companies allows them to offer many different varieties and styles of printing. For documents and marketing material there is a choice between digital and litho printing:
- Lithographic (litho) Printing involves printing on to paper from a metal, stone or rubber plate. These large machines rely on the electrostatic properties of ink and water to fine detail and minimal colour bleeding over huge numbers of reproduction documents.
- Digital Printing is done with professional quality laser or inkjet printers. Each page is reproduced as if it were the first so cost doesn’t drop with quantity. Until recently it was hard to maintain colour consistency and quality with digital printing but now the gap between digital and litho has been reduced to the point where it’s almost non-existent.
Of course, printing on paper isn’t the only kind of printing:
- Screen printing is the process where ink is forced through a stencil in a mesh screen. Used to print on uneven surfaces and fabrics.
- Flexographic printing uses a flexible plate for printing on shopping bags, food packaging etc.
- Rotogravure is a rotary printing process where the master image is engraved on a metal cylinder. Used for very high volume magazine or catalogue printing and for packaging. Lower quality images than litho.
Because the overwhelming number of enquiries for printing companies are for printing on paper, we’ll only cover digital and litho printing in this guide. Don’t worry about the distinction between them – due to the high quality of modern digital printing the only real difference between the two is cost – litho is cheaper for large print runs and vice versa). A printing company that offers both will always quote for the lowest priced of the two. If you’re a connoisseur of printing quality however, you may wish to specify litho printing when requesting a quote.
Your Printing Requirements
In order to obtain and compare quotes from different printing companies you’ll need to work out what your requirements are to some level of detail. Here we’ll run down all the criteria that will affect pricing so you can get quotes quickly and compare them on an equal footing:
- Paper quality – or paper density or grammage. Measured in gsm, or grams per square meter. Standard writing paper is around 80-100gsm, a glossy leaflet around 130-150gsm and the cover of a glossy mag around 300gsm.
- Paper finish – matt finishes are the cheapest and are dull, allow ink to rub off but don’t reflect much light. Glossy finishes lock in the ink and provide a reflective sheen whereas silk/satin finishes lock in the ink without the reflectivity. A UV finish is the luxury version and provides a more noticeable gloss. This can be applied all over or in defined spots (to provide an embossed look). A UV finish is the most expensive.
- Paper size – A4 is standard office size. A3 is twice the size of A4, A5 half the size of A4, and so on. Custom sizes are also available.
- Colours used – less important with modern digital and litho printing though black and white is still cheaper than full colour.
- Number of distinct pages – (i.e. pages with different designs) or pp. e.g. a 32pp brochure would have 32 sides including covers.
- Binding – saddle stitch is where the pages are stapled together; perfect binding is for larger brochures/catalogues/books and involves gluing the pages together; spiral bound documents are bound by wire; a presentation folder will hold loose leaves of paper.
- Number of copies – a lot of the cost involved in a print job is due to the set up costs. This means that the more copies you have printed, the less you’ll be paying per copy. So you’ll want to think hard about whether you can afford to risk running out of copies and come back for a second print run. You can usually arrange for a run-on of further copies to be provided at a later date to be included in your initial quote, avoiding further set-up costs.
- Design – most likely you’ll already have designs in the form of a pdf or other publishing file, but most orienting companies can offer design services if required.
Choosing the Right Printing Company
Obviously cost will be of prime consideration in deciding where to place your order. But there are other factors you should take into account:
- Quality – if the professional finish of the work is important to you, and you have time, you may wish to request samples of previous similar work. If you’re engaging their design services as well as printing, you’ll certainly want to see a portfolio of previous designs.
- Turnaround – can the printing company complete the job in the required timeframe? Do they charge less for a longer turnaround? This is often the case as batching together similar jobs from different customers keeps costs down.
- Reliability – does the printing company have testimonials from satisfied customers?
- Impressions – it may be obvious but a company that’s prepared to spend time on the phone discussing your requirements and options obviously cares about the service they provide and the satisfaction of their customers.
Once you’ve found the right printing company be sure to check that they can accept your files in their present format and the correct email address to send them to. Payment could be requested in arrears or in advance so make sure you’re confident about your choice before handing over card details.
That’s about it. You may not quite be a printing scholar just yet but hopefully you know have the knowledge required to confidently request and compare printing prices. So press on!
This Buyers’ Guide was written in partnership with Printing Companies Business Expert Gradelet Print Management.
About Gradelet: At Gradelet Print Management we understand and work every day with issues like these. You may not be a print expert but by using Gradelet Print Management we can take care of all the day to day management and the many concerns you might have because that is what we do!! Applying our proven expertise we can help you bring everything together to achieve the best possible result. This will free up more of your time to concentrate on managing and growing your own business.
Get Quotes from Printing Companies
