Print Buying Direct

Debunking the Urban Myths of Digital Colour Printing – 12th February 2009

As Digital Colour Printing Reaches the Tipping Point, It’s Time to Set the Record Straight on Popular Misconceptions about Today’s Systems.

Which of the following is a true statement:

1. Tapping the side of a can of soda will prevent its contents from foaming over when you open it.
2. The Great Wall of China is the only man-made object that is visible from space.
3. Offset presses are still the only real option for high quality colour printing.

The correct answer is that none are correct.

In reality, tapping a can of soda does little to prevent foaming, the Great Wall is barely visible at altitudes of 180 miles and today’s digital color printing offers a no-excuses complement to offset printing.

Still these urban legends persist. And in the case of digital printing, a handful of urban myths continue to hold sway with many creatives and print buyers, warning them about digital printing pitfalls that either no longer exist or are easy to avoid. Fortunately, these urban myths – grounded in what was reality less than a decade ago – are easier than ever to dispel. So set aside your preconceptions and see how you, too, can bust the urban myths of digital printing.

1. The image quality isn’t good enough.
Last fall, the Technology Watch newsletter reported that its scientific testing in the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Printing Applications Laboratory concluded for the first time digital color print image quality matched offset. Scientists drew that conclusion based upon output from the then-new Xerox DocuColor 8000 Digital Colour Press, which has true 2,400-dots-per-inch resolution, similar to offset. Further, today’s premier four-color digital presses typically achieve a larger color gamut than four-color offset presses. For example, the flagship Xerox iGen3 110 Digital Production Press can match about 80 percent of Pantone colors, compared to about 67 percent on the Heidelberg Speedmaster. The iGen3 press and DocuColor 8000 are among several digital color presses released in recent years that successfully complement offset production. Their print quality compares to offset as digital photos compare to analog shots. Each technology has distinctive characteristics that affect output, but the quality achieves professional standards in nearly every application.

In many cases, I don’t even tell my clients I’m printing digitally, and they don’t notice the difference because the quality is equal to or better than offset, said Linda Dickinson, director of print production and purchasing at Lexington, Kentucky-based advertising and public relations firm Meridian Communications. For me, deciding between digital and offset printing is more about turnaround time and costs – and other factors, like printing variable – information. We print more jobs digitally all the time because the quality is there, the fast turnaround time is there and, often, the cost is equivalent to offset.

2. Digital printing is too expensive.Besides, our run lengths are too long to run on digital presses.
Offset will always have a cost advantage on longer runs. But as digital technology improves, its cost advantage extends to increasingly longer short runs. And many are willing to pay a slight premium for the improved workflow efficiency, faster turnarounds, elimination of warehousing and personalization of every piece in a production run that digital printing provides. In many cases, these benefits compensate for the higher cost of digital printing by delivering big costs savings and better results.

And in fact, more creatives are specifying jobs for digital print than ever before. According to a recent survey, 63 percent of the creative professionals who read Graphic Design: USA now claim to have tried digital printing,compared to 52 percent last year and 25 percent in 2003. Most of them – 53 percent – also say they are using short-run digital printing more often this year than last.

Based upon last year’s survey, Graphic Design: USA, Publisher and Editor Gordon Kaye believed digital colour printing was close to the tipping point, where many individual decisions combine to create a mass movement. This year, he said, ‘It is fair to say that digital short-run printing has tipped’.

3. The available papers for digital printing are way too limited.
In 1999, most of the available papers for digital colour printing were uncoated white stocks in a narrow range of weights, which were about all the leading xerographic printers could handle. The industry has come a long way since then.

First, today’s digital presses perform better. The iGen3 press, for example, sets new standards for printing a wide range of coated and uncoated substrates from the very light to the very heavy (60 to 350 gsm for uncoated stocks, 90 to 350 gsm for coated stocks).

Second, paper manufacturers have continually developed new substrates for digital printing. In recent years, many print needs have been met with coated one- and two-sided papers, parchments, off-white graphics stocks for text and covers, and specialty products for ID cards, labels, transparencies, photos and other applications. Just this year, Xerox has added three new coated paper lines and weight and size extensions to several others, a new digital colour transfer paper for textile products such as t-shirts, and the first carbonless paper for digital colour printing of multi-part forms.

The new carbonless paper for colour printing has permitted Beyond Signs & Graphics, Inc. to move its multi-part forms printing business in house, reducing turnaround from a week or more to hours while boosting customer satisfaction and revenue. Time-wise and money-wise, Xerox Premium Digital Carbonless is a much better value for us than outsourcing, said Annette Cogburn, production manager, Beyond Signs & Graphics.

4. We don’t have the sophisticated data to leverage variable information (VI) printing, which is digital printing’s real value.
In reality, many of the most effective one-to-one marketing pieces make creative use of the most basic data sets. For example, Pantone recently promoted its Spyder2 color monitor calibration device with the company’s first personalized direct marketing campaign, using data points for name, title, company, address and industry served. The hook: photographs of extravagantly tattooed models under a headline, ‘Nobody touches my colour but PANTONE’, Chips positioned as if for a live job. Greetings were personalized, copy was customized for photographers or creatives, and when multiple pieces were sent to the same company, three different layouts were rotated, to generate interest.

The result: an 81 percent increase in sales over the previous year’s promotion. It accomplished what I was trying to do better than anything done in the past, said Doris Brown, vice president of marketing, Pantone, Inc.

Pantone is not alone in achieving such stellar results. Today’s vanguard digital presses, breadth of paper technologies and professionals who know how to apply them to generate business results are busting urban myths about digital color printing every day. And that’s not an urban legend…

For more information please see our websites

The Printing House

Print Buying Direct (Print Buying Direct is a brand of The Printing House Ltd, Crewe, Cheshire, UK)

Eight Easy Ways to Improve Digital Print Sales to Creative and Design Agencies – 11th February 2009

Print Services Providers (Printers) Can Help Design Agencies Improve Business Results for their Clients with Fast-Growing Digital Colour Printing.

The greatest opportunity for printers to grow print volume today is with digital colour printing and a new study finds that creative agencies play a critical role in that growth.

Looking specifically at digital printing. Over the next five years, digital printing is projected to grow 11 percent annually, while the U.S. printing industry as a whole will grow by only 1.5 percent, according to market research from CAP Ventures. The firm further projects that the total revenue generated worldwide with digital colour printers and presses producing 41 pages per minute or more will grow by 26 percent annually.

Creative advertising and design agencies will specify many of these jobs. A recent survey of 250 agencies by the Printing Industry Center at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) found that 83 percent were involved in media buying decisions, accounting for an average purchase of $1.5 million annually and a median of $400,000. And 89 percent say they play either the primary role or a collaborative role with the client in campaign development and direction. According to Victor Basile, senior vice president/director of Print Graphic Services, Publicis N.Y., and chair, Print Management Committee, American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As), Agencies today seek to offer integrated services that tap into all the resources in their network at speeds that weren’t possible a few years ago. Digital printing provides the fast turnarounds that keep pace with these programs. The quality is really good, and it can only get better. If you’re not looking at digital printing today, you should be. Digital colour printing’s economical short runs and personalization capabilities can also improve the targeting, response rates and overall effectiveness of such integrated communications programs. Print services providers who can support these programs and help agencies use new media to better track with their clients’ goals will have an advantage in landing agency business.

Following are eight tips for print providers seeking to sell digital colour printing to creative design professionals.

1. Target agencies with business-to-business clients.
Agencies that support businesses communicating to consumers generally focus on building brand awareness through mass media, such as television and radio. In contrast, business-to-business (B-to-B) agencies tend to have more limited budgets and narrower targets that they reach through trade magazines, direct mail (leaflets, flyers, postcards) and sales collateral (brochures). Digital-colour printing delivers the highly targeted, cost-effective print that makes these programs thrive. One additional point: B-to-B firms tend to have smaller marketing departments than business-to-consumer (BtoC) outfits, so they rely more on the agency for everything from marketing strategy to media and print services provider selection.

2. At the agency, target the production manager.
According to the RIT survey, the production manager is the most common agency contact to the print community. In numerous agencies, the production manager also plays a role in educating the creative department on new technology options (for example variable data printing), making that person both a sales target and a marketing partner, who can help the print provider sell its services to the agency’s creatives.

3. Demonstrate the image quality.
Designers are unforgiving judges of image quality, yet many may be working with dated references for toner-based print, which has only recently become an effective substitute for offset in most applications (even Annual Reports, Parish Plans and Brochures). Bring designers up to date and set correct expectations with a sample book that shows offset and digital prints of the same text and image files. Consider enabling designers to submit test files via the Web to receive a free digital print sample of their design.

4. More advanced technical infrastructure supports stronger partnerships.
Supporting a sophisticated integrated marketing campaign typically requires a set of advanced capabilities that can include variable information colour printing, Web systems programming and design, telemarketing, fulfillment and other services. Some print providers develop these capabilities, others partner for some or all. Most count digital colour printing among their base core competencies, and most find that broader infrastructure support strengthens partnerships with agencies.

5. Demonstrate effective return on marketing investment.
For the best results, print providers should link their service offerings to the agency’s media selection criteria: reaching target markets, cost and budget considerations, and marketing strategy implementation. In other words, print providers need to demonstrate that digital color is the most cost effective alternative for successfully reaching target markets. The pitch is most effective when backed by examples showing a significant return on the marketing investment.

6. Quality and dependability are more critical than price.
That’s right: price is not the agency’s key factor in print vendor selection. The RIT survey found that pressure on the agency to meet deadlines and deliver quality led respondents to select dependability as the top factor in selecting print services providers. Quality was second, followed by turnaround time and ease of doing business. Price ranked fifth.

7. Help creatives design for digital.
Print service providers can help creative designers improve their printed work by providing guidebooks and seminars on designing for digital. Many print providers and industry associations publish materials and can provide assistance to help in this effort. In addition, color variable information printing introduces new design challenges, such as accounting for all the possible image and text variations in a piece. That requires close collaboration with variable information programmers, relationships that print providers would do well to foster.

8. Measure the results.
Print services providers should ensure that a measurement system is in place for programs they run, and the best measurements use ‘boardroom terminology.’ For example, one creative group in the study was able to show that every dollar spent on marketing communications in one campaign resulted in $6,000 in revenue. Such measurements increase the likelihood that the agency and its clients will buy into future programs, and they are useful as a sales tool for prospects and for fine-tuning programs to optimize results. The RIT study found that a change in sales was the most frequent measurement (29 percent), followed by the number of sales leads (24 percent), the response rate for a direct mail piece (ie postcard or leaflet) (23 percent) and return on investment (six percent).

Most measurement programs were conducted by clients (37 percent), though client-agency partnerships were nearly as frequent (34 percent) and agencies sometimes took on the task alone (22 percent).

Help Lead the Transformation
More than ever before, marketing executives are looking for more efficient ways to communicate and share business information. Many are finding these efficiencies in integrated communications that mix old and new media to deliver improved business results. Digital printing technology plays a critical role in this more efficient media mix, while also offering printers their best opportunity for revenue and business growth. Print services providers who help lead this transformation by building strategic partnerships with creative agencies around integrated communications opportunities will be well positioned to capture this growth.

For more information please see our websites

The Printing House

Print Buying Direct (Print Buying Direct is a brand of The Printing House Ltd, Crewe, Cheshire, UK)

Output falls in the sector in the UK

The printing, paper and publishing sector has incurred a greater than average fall in the 3 months to November – compared with the previous 3 month period (source: UK Government Statistics).

Print, paper and publishing output fell 4.9% (UK average manufacturing decline of 3.3%). Paper, print and publishing make up 13% of the total UK manufacturing. Print wasn’t the worst sector affected, Transport equipment fell by nearly 6%, as did metal and metal products.

With this gloomy figure in mind, cheer yourself up and have a look at some of our great value credit crunch offers.

2000 A4 full colour letterheads (headed paper) – Only £125 (plus VAT)

Pull Up Banners (Banner Stands) only £99 (plus VAT & Carriage)

500 Full Colour Wallet Folders (Presentation Folders) – Only £273

See Print Buying Direct at The Printing House, Cheshire for more offers and information about printing.

For only £125 (plus VAT) for 2000 A4 full colour letterheads, produced with the same care and attention that we always use. Because this offer is so popular we can benefit from the economies of scale and pass the savings on to you.

• Offer runs until 13th February 2009
• Full Colour letterheads
• 100gsm Fully Laser guaranteed paper
• Printed one side only
• Price includes delivery to one UK address

Prices are based on a print ready pdf being supplied. If you need your letterhead designing please allow an additional £25 (plus VAT)

Click here for more information or to place your order

Call 0870 950 8444

or email info@printbuyingdirect.co.uk Thanks for taking the time to check out our promotion. Please remember that this is for a short period only.

• Ideal for exhibitions, point of sale & displays
• 800mm wide x 2000mm tall
• Graphic Rolls away into foot
• Foot folds away for easy storage and transport
• Supplied with Carry Bag
• Tried and tested reliability

Online Printing Solutions

Print buying direct

is the revolutionary way of ordering printing! Using both conventional printing presses (Litho) and the very latest Xerox digital presses we are able to provide print to anywhere in the UK, quickly with minimum fuss. There are no minimum or maximum quantities for Business Cards, Marketing Postcards, Appointment Cards, Letterheads or colour brochures (we can print pretty much anything you need). So you can have what you want, when you need it.

Print Buying Direct specialise in Business Cards, Postcard Printing, Leaflet Printing, Appointment Card Printing, Letterheads, and more. If you require any items that are not available on this website then please don’t hesitate to contact us on 0870 950 8444.

These are some of our current offers

Business Cards: Now Only £7.50 Per 100

We can produce as little as 100 business cards single or double sided, full colour on a 300 gsm matt or 350 gsm silk board, and despatch them within 2 working days. Try using our business card templates online. We specialise in top quality, cost effective, fast turnaround Business Cards.

Postcards: From just £35 Per 100

Business postcards for marketing. Postcards in full colour on a range of card from 200gsm up to 350gsm matt or silk board, dispatched within 2 working days. Design your business postcards online or let us design them for you.

Appointment Cards: Now Only £7.50 per 100

Premium Appointment Cards for business. Ideal Appointment Cards for many applications such as chiropodists, chiropractors, dental surgeries, doctor and more.

Leaflets: From Just £36 Per 100

Quick leaflet printing, quick delivery and top quality leaflets.

Brochures

We can produce as few or as many brochures as you need. Please contact us for more details.

20th January 2009

When looking at the folders the first thing you need to consider is which of the three options- knife, buckle and combination will suit your needs?

The buckle folder is the most common choice. It uses a set of guides and plates with a backstop to buckle the paper and create the fold. The document enters through a set of rollers and into a plate where the paper strikes a backstop; it buckles and is forced downward and into a set of nip rollers. The nip rollers grab the sheets at the buckle and pull it through, pressing a fold into the sheet. If several folds are required, then the sheet is sent into another plate and the process is repeated. The fold or buckle location is adjustable allowing for different folds to be created. A knife folder uses a blunt steel blade to push the sheet at the right point to create the fold in the material. Its accuracy makes it ideal for booklet work.

Finally the combination folder- using both buckle and knife technology- is faster and provides close registration. It is suited to large quantities and more complex folding jobs. With the issue of toner cracking on digitally printed work still a key consideration the choice of folders can be more complicated. On the whole, a suction fed system rather than friction fed- usually used for litho printed stock- will offer greater protection to the surface. And creasers have been developed specifically for the digital print.

How much automation does your guillotine have? Is there a touchscreen console? An air table? A quick and easy-to change knife? If ‘none’ and ‘no’ are the main answers to these questions the chances are you are one of the majority of printers that only upgrade equipment when it is absolutely necessary.

At some point during the lifecycle of most pieces of print they will go through a guillotine or a trimmer, so getting a high- quality finish is vital. Although often overlooked for investment, this piece of kit, when upgraded, can transform the bindery. This is especially the case now as the demand for automation has increased and the cost of adding features to smaller machines has reduced. The result is more affordable highly-automated kit.

But what should a new guillotine feature? To get the best out of the printed sheet it should have programmatic capability to store jobs and reduce wastages resulting from errors in set-up, ease of use to enable fast changeovers between jobs and variable clamp pressure to hold a variety of stock and enable a clear cut; the latter being important when cutting digital stock.

For more information on printing, trimming, and print finishing in general please don’t hesitate to contact us at The Printing House (Print Buying Direct)

While many of the other stages in the bindery have been an essential element of post press, lamination is a relative newcomer. Previously restricted to trade finishers because of the prohibitive cost of the machines and the skills required to ensure top-quality results, the popularity of digital print has pushed this process into the spotlight.

With the increase in demand for short run, fast turnaround products printers are being required to work faster and smarter. As a result lamination is increasingly being used to protect the final product and give it a high-quality finish. But because sending this out could have ramifications on turnaround times and create unacceptable waiting times, printers started to look at the issues surrounding bringing this service in-house. At the same time, manufacturers were making technology advances that meant easy-to-use and cheaper machines.

A fully automatic laminator should cope with both lithographic and digital output for example and consideration should be given as to how easily a feeder could be added to a hand fed laminator at a later date should the printer’s volumes increase. It should be built for longevity of use and be backed by a comprehensive service organisation.

This is true for B1 and B2 printers and now includes B3 and digital printers, too. Despite increasingly tighter margins, printers are realising the added value a laminator can bring to their businesses. The time and cost associated with outsourcing means that printers are now keen to reap the benefits of providing all their offering under one roof, as a means of creating another profit centre. With modern technology making the lamination process so simple, the need for highly skilled operators has disappeared. Having a laminator in-house means that printers have greater control over the job at hand, there’s faster turnaround and as a result many printers are actually winning new business.

To ensure successful lamination the minimum diameter for a nip roller should be 10 inches so it provides a decent amount of nip pressure, together with a good water heating system.

For more information on printing, Gloss Lamination, Matt Lamination and print finishing in general please don’t hesitate to contact us at The Printing House (Print Buying Direct)

The type of stock used for printing (whether digital or offset litho) has a significant effect on
colour reproduction. Paper reflects unabsorbed light back to the eye of the viewer, so the more reflective the paper’s surface, such as coated paper, the wider the range of colors perceived that can be produced.

Choosing the right paper calls for a strong knowledge of paper characteristics and how they relate to the specific print technology. Digital Presses use dry ink, which is a very fine powder. Litho presses use liquid ink. The following stock properties interact with the dry ink to determine the quality of colour images. At The Printing House (Print Buying Direct) we have 3 offset litho presses, all manufactured by Sakurai (ideal for high quality colour printing of annual reports, brochures, leaflets, flyers and newsletters. One large format inkjet (ideal for large posters, pull up banners etc) and a Xerox Digital Press (ideal for short run printing, business cards, appointment cards, postcards, posters etc).

BRIGHTNESS

Brightness is the measure of blue light at 457 nm. Brighter papers produce images with higher contrast.

Be aware that some artificial brighteners can affect colour reproduction by reflecting colors unevenly. A bright blue-white paper may reflect more blue and less red and green, affecting how the eye perceives the paper color.

Blue-white papers contain ultraviolet (UV) brighteners that break down over time when exposed to UV light. As UV brighteners break down, the paper shade may change from bright white to a warm white (yellow cast). UV light exists naturally indoors and outdoors.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BRIGHTNESS

As a general rule, use brighter papers when printing documents with photographs, halftone images, or complex graphics. Ideal for brochures, annual reports, postcards, leaflets and flyers.

FINISH/ SMOOTHNESS

Finish is the smoothness or roughness of a paper’s surface. Paper is processed to have a specific type of finish, ranging from very smooth to highly textured. Finish can significantly impact image quality on the printed sheet. If paper is too rough, light patches and graininess appear in solid areas. Halftone images also
appear grainy. Dry ink may not fuse properly to extremely rough paper, which may cause deletions where the ink rubs or flakes off. Wet ink suffers from muted colours and drying issues, always allow longer for uncoated papers to dry.

Smooth and coated papers produce sharp images because they reflect light more directly than
rougher papers.

Sheffield is a test that is used to measure the smoothness of paper. It measures the rate of air flow over the surface of a sheet. The lower the Sheffield smoothness number, the smoother the sheet.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FINISH/ SMOOTHNESS

Use smooth or coated papers for proper dry ink transfer to ensure the best colour density and image detail, and to increase the appearance of glossiness. Using a very smooth paper is especially important when printing fine lines and detailed images.

SHADE

Shade is the color of the paper. Paper shade may change the colors of printed images because ink is transparent and also is applied in dot patterns that allow the paper shade to show through. Lighter images reveal more of the paper color than darker images.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SHADE

• Select a true white for the truest colors and natural looking skin tones.
• Be aware that shaded paper will affect image colors and overall hues.
• Remember that paper shades can vary significantly among brands and lots.

FORMATION

Formation is the distribution of fibers and fillers in paper. Fibers and fillers should be distributed evenly throughout the sheet. Although formation is not included in the manufacturer’s specifications, you can check it by holding a sheet up to a light. If the sheet looks even throughout, it has good formation. If
you see uneven light and dark areas, formation is poor. Good formation is especially important when documents include halftone images of photographs or high ink coverage. Halftone images appear sharper
on paper with good formation. Solid images can appear uneven or spotty when printed on paper with poor formation.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FORMATION

• Choose paper with good formation to ensure uniformity of color images.

IMPURITIES
Impurities in the paper-making process can leave tiny specks in some stocks. The specks can appear as marks or spots in printed images, especially in high resolution images, fine type and fine lines.

Impurities in recycled papers consist of inks and adhesives (from window envelopes, stick-on notes, labels, etc.), which are difficult to remove during the recycling process.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPURITIES

Use high quality non- recycled papers when the best image quality is required.

OPACITY
Opacity impacts the ability of a printed image to show through from the opposite side of a sheet or from another sheet below it. To increase a paper’s opacity, filler may be added to increase thickness or be applied as a coating.

Opacity is measured according to how much light a sheet blocks and is expressed as a percentage between 0 and 100. Most papers fall within the 80% to 90% range. However, an opacity of 98% will prevent a printed image from showing through on the opposite side of the sheet (show through).

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR OPACITY

• Choose paper with high opacity when printing on both sides of the paper or when heavy dry ink coverage will be applied.

For More information of assistance please visit either of our websites – The Printing House Ltd – Print Buying Direct – or call us on UK number 0870 950 8444.