Understanding the Printing Process

Do you know what dye-sublimation is and what impact it has on your commercial color printing? When you are going to be printing a catalog along with some flyers, are you aware of what kind of printing process is best for these different kinds of advertisements?Larger printing jobs are not anything like printing something off your computer. There are various different options you should be aware of, along with what kind of impact it will have on your finished project. What you will need for business card printing is not going to be the same as what a newsletter would entail.Most companies are going to use an outside source for their color printing, which is the best option for quality results, however, that does not mean they should not have an understanding of what the process is like. Even if someone else is handling things, it is best to know what questions to ask and what impact different kinds of printing will have.A very important reason to know the process is so that you can take certain measures before the printing has even begun to ensure you are getting what you want. This is where making proofs becomes important.Many people do not realize that what they see on their computer screen is not always going to look the same when it is printed out. The positioning of the text and designs on the page might not look the same as it did on your computer screen. Using an everyday color printer should be enough for making a basic proof to ensure the general look of your advertisement is what you want.For colors, this can become a little more complicated. Because the standard printer is not designed for high-end graphic printing, the colors you see might not be up to the highest quality. Still, while the colors might not be perfect, they will still be closer to what the finished project will be than the way it looks on your computer screen.Now that you have the proof and you like what you see, the time comes to decide exactly what kind of printing to use. As I said before, different types of advertisements are going to require different styles of printing.To give an example, if you’re printing a brochure with spot color or perhaps a fully colored photograph you’re likely going to need offset printing to make it look right. For something like a fine letterhead, you will need engraving, or if you wanted a less expensive option, thermograph could be the right choice.I am aware that you might not know exactly what all of these options are, but that is okay. What you need to be aware of is that each style of advertisement has its own unique kind of printing that works best. This means when you order your job, talk to the person who will be handling the order to find out what method is the best for your project.Often there are going to be different methods depending on the budget you have. If the more expensive style of printing costs too much ask them about the cheaper alternatives. What you do not want to do is send something blindly to a printer without any idea of what is going to make your advertisement look like what you had in mind. In the end when you receive the final project in the mail you are likely to realize after the work is done that you made a mistake.