Print Buying Direct

20 Years of publications printing – Part 5 – 27th May 2009

Magazine rack
Magazines too are embracing the Internet and many now offer an online presence. Software technologies enable magazines online to mimic the abilities of the print and paper versions with ‘page turner’ technology that allows the reader to interact with the magazine in a virtual world in much the same way as they would with a conventional product. The reader can turn pages, zoom in and out of areas of particular interest, and get even more information from clicking on video, audio, and PDF pop ups, as well as instant hyper linking to other websites. This makes it a more in depth experience, but reading on screen is still not as enjoyable as reading a printed version – nor is it as flexible.

According to the PPA and PricewaterhouseCoopers, the UK magazine market is set to increase in worth at around 9.2% between 2007 to 2011. Advertising spend is set to increase by 9.7% over the same period, but consumer titles a will see the larger portion of this with a spending increase of 14.8%, whilst trade magazines will see an increase of 5.4%.

And, even with the challenges posed by the Internet, the two organisations see consumer spending on magazines rising by 8.8% to 2011. ZenithOptimedia aggress with this positive outlook, estimating that advertising spend in magazines will grow 7.4% globally by 2010.

Perhaps because a magazine is a product with a ‘throw away’ culture and not something that is bought to be kept forever, the big ‘threat’ of the Internet has not emerged. In fact, electronic media seems to be playing in the favour of magazines by giving them a broader reach, and certainly for the next few years will remain a complementary offer for publishers rather than a true ‘threat’. The PPA says that ‘In the decade since the dawn of the Internet, consumer expenditure on magazines has increased by 48%’ and that ‘consumers spent nearly £2.2 billion on their favourite magazines in 2007, a growth of nearly £500 million on 1997 figures’ (Advertising Association).
The World Advertising Research Center (WARC) states that 48 million UK adults purchased 1.4 billion consumer magazines in 2007 – an increase in sales of 69 million on five years ago. This now means that the average adult still buys almost 30 magazines a year – even with access to information from electronic media.

The number of magazines available is till growing too. According to BRAD (British Rate and Data), in the UK there are now 3409 consumer magazines, which is up from 2438 in 1997 – a 40% increase over the past decade.
The business magazine publishers have also seen growth over the last decade. Figures for 2006 show this sector with a worth of £8.9 billion per annum.

In 2007, there were some 4917 UK business magazines with around 700 publishers. The PPA states that ‘Eighty-seven percent of decision makers use business and professional media publications regularly for work purposes, more than any other medium’.

To be continued…

See Part one of the Blog on Variable Data Printing – also part one of this blog, Publication Printing

Print Buying Direct and School Prospectus Made Easy are both brands of parent company – The Printing House Ltd of Crewe, Cheshire, UK. Keep visiting both websites for details of our latest offers and promotions.

12647 and all that – Colour Management in Printing – Part 5 – 14th May 2009

Digital input needed
Certification by a government accredited body such as PMC gives print buyers proof that a printer can produce high quality colour print and achieve defined targets, both on-press with documented colour management, and in handling customers. Buyers can hopefully spend less time asking for proof of competence. It could also mean that their work doesn’t need to be tied to a specific printer: as long as reprints are done by an accredited service provider. The same quality can be expected.

The UK’s certification scheme was designed to improve quality for printers with conventional offset presses, but its scope readily includes digital printing. Digital printers who follow it can benefit from the business process controls it requires for compliance, as well as quality assurance. However their input is vital for the future because, as Mr Sherfield explains: ‘From a colour management and standard viewpoint many of the manufacturers are not supplying workflows that reflect the latest standards, and have colour management tools that are often difficult and counterintuitive to use. Clients need to be clear on their colour requirements from digital printing: do they need common appearance across a campaign using digital and other printing methods? In turn users need the knowledge and expertise to meet the client’s expectations. So… there are many gaps and pitfalls in the area’.

Optimised process controls reduce consumables waste and save time. It can also offer greater latitude for achieving good quality on lower grade stocks than might otherwise be possible. Becoming a formally certified ISO 12647 printers can be a boost to a business’s credentials, while for customers is gives a guarantee of reliable and consistent quality, with a defined complaints procedure when things go wrong. As it should lead to greater efficiencies, this can also be a way to cut costs, despite the initial outlay for certification.

To be continued…

See Part one of – The magic circle – print, paper and recycling

Also part one of in Flight, preflight and post flight –

& Part one of this blog -

Print Buying Direct is one of the leading websites for buying print and is a brand of The Printing House Ltd, Crewe, Cheshire, UK

The Printing House are specialists and experts in Prospectus of all kinds – see our dedicated prospectus Website www.schoolprospectus.info – New on our Schools site – have a look at our new turn page technology (also known as digital editions)- have your prospectus or brochure online (digital prospectus or digital brochure) – but turn the pages as if it was paper.

Don’t forget to see our new offer – Budget Black and white leaflets – 10,000 Leaflets designed, printed and delivered for only £199

Best of all – don’t forget that our Banner Stands (pull up banners) are still only £99 plus delivery!

Business Cards (Business Card Printing) – £10 for 100 Full Colour Business Cards.

We’re still running our very popular Lettterheads Campaign. 2000 letterheads for only £125 in full colour, printed onto a quality 100gsm laser guaranteed paper. see our letterheads webpage for more info.

At The Printing House (Print Buying Direct) we are experts at helping you with the production of your newsletter, whether it be for your employees, customers or fellow club members. See our Newsletters web page for help and advice.

Keep an eye out for our new website for The Printing House Ltd, due for relaunch in May.

Our superb Wallet Folders are still on offer – see http://www.printbuyingdirect.co.uk/wallet-folders.html

12647 and all that – Colour Management in Printing – Part 4 – 13th May 2009
Auditing print
PMC and its equivalents abroad categorically do not provide any consulting services, unlike Fogra and UGRA. Their qualifications are internationally endorsed by governments, which require absolutely squeaky clean auditor credentials. Auditors in the UK must complete a week-long course, followed by on the job training before they can be considered qualified. PMC has already run one of these courses, described by Mr Lindstrom as ‘very demanding and professionally executed’ and has another scheduled for June.

Jon Stack, scheme manager at PMC, explains that ‘the auditors on the course are not qualified to certify – it’s only accredited certification bodies that can do that. For those on the course wishing to become auditors, they first have to pass the course, and then go through on the job training with us to become fully qualified auditors’.
The PMC course is demanding, but that is as it should be for certification to have teeth and to make sure that print buyers really can trust it. Formal certification can also help printers in disputes since it requires documentation of their complaints procedures and quality assurance controls.

To be continued…

See Part one of – The magic circle – print, paper and recycling

Also part one of in Flight, preflight and post flight –

& Part one of this blog -

Print Buying Direct is one of the leading websites for buying print and is a brand of The Printing House Ltd, Crewe, Cheshire, UK

The Printing House are specialists and experts in Prospectus of all kinds – see our dedicated prospectus Website www.schoolprospectus.info – New on our Schools site – have a look at our new turn page technology (also known as digital editions)- have your prospectus or brochure online (digital prospectus or digital brochure) – but turn the pages as if it was paper.

Don’t forget to see our new offer – Budget Black and white leaflets – 10,000 Leaflets designed, printed and delivered for only £199

Best of all – don’t forget that our Banner Stands (pull up banners) are still only £99 plus delivery!

Business Cards (Business Card Printing) – £10 for 100 Full Colour Business Cards.

We’re still running our very popular Lettterheads Campaign. 2000 letterheads for only £125 in full colour, printed onto a quality 100gsm laser guaranteed paper. see our letterheads webpage for more info.

At The Printing House (Print Buying Direct) we are experts at helping you with the production of your newsletter, whether it be for your employees, customers or fellow club members. See our Newsletters web page for help and advice.

Keep an eye out for our new website for The Printing House Ltd, due for relaunch in May.

Our superb Wallet Folders are still on offer – see http://www.printbuyingdirect.co.uk/wallet-folders.html

12647 and all that – Colour Management in Printing - Part 3 – 12th May 2009
Commercial certification
Certification to ISO 12647 is not news. Fogra, the research arm of the German printing trade association BVDM, offers its FograCert service for certifying a proofing system’s compliance with 12647-7. It’s a snip at £6000. It also has certification for compliance to its Process Standard Offset (PSO) which is based on ISO 12647-2.

According to Fogra: ‘externally, this certificate provides proof of the quality a printing or media company is capable of an internally it ensures smooth production that helps to avoid complaints.’ In other words, you can wave your certificate at print buyers to prove you can hit the appropriate colour standard.

The Swiss organisation UGRA also certifies to Fogra’s PSO and both organisations train consultants to audit companies for certification. The problem with this is that these organisations provide consulting services and both also sell testing and measuring devices for colour print. It’s hardy an arm’s length accreditation service.

Instead of taking this route the BPIF’s technical committee has been working with a UK government recognised expert committee, led by Mr Sherfield. The committee has come up with a certification procedure intended to provide the guarantee print buyers need, without involving conflicts of interest. This model follows ISO 12647 and borrows heavily from ISO 9001, the standard that defines quality management for a business. Although this standard is not specific to the printing industry, many printers are ISO 90001 accredited already.

This one is defiantly relevant for digital printers, as Mr Sherfield explains: ‘Regarding validation and even formed certification for digital, this has to be based on the technology used. An HP Indigo can be process controlled in a similar way to an offset press in order to match ISO 12647-2. Other devices need to be treated as proofing systems, so ISO 12647-7 methods will work in this case. Using the maximum gamut is in effect a ‘house’ standard, but still needs validation. Most of the validation software for printing and proofs can use imported custom CMYK profiles as the validation standard’.

Much of the work that’s been done so far for the UK echoes work already completed in Sweden by the Swedish Printers’ Federation. This organisation began its accreditation efforts some 18 months before the BPIF and has been extremely active in funding and resourcing the development and promotion of its certification procedure. Their investment is already paying off, with an increasing number of printers requesting certification at the behest of customers keen to simplify print buying processes.

Paul Lindstrom, special consultant to the Swedish Printers’ Federation says that: ‘Besides offering customers a product specific quality guarantee, the printers often find that they reduce waste and errors, as well as shorten make ready times’.

In the UK, the expert committee has completed its work and is awaiting approval for its documentation from UKSA, the internationally recognised UK Accreditation Service. ISO has a standard (ISO 17021) for checking the certifiers themselves, which is what UKAS does.

In the UK there is only one company authorised to accredit printing companies for compliance to 12647 in addition to other international standards. Print and Media Certification (PMC). This works exclusively in the world wide paper, printing and publishing industries, providing assessment and certification services in the UK and elsewhere.

To be continued…

See Part one of – The magic circle – print, paper and recycling

Also part one of in Flight, preflight and post flight –

& Part one of this blog -

Print Buying Direct is one of the leading websites for buying print and is a brand of The Printing House Ltd, Crewe, Cheshire, UK

The Printing House are specialists and experts in Prospectus of all kinds – see our dedicated prospectus Website www.schoolprospectus.info – New on our Schools site – have a look at our new turn page technology (also known as digital editions)- have your prospectus or brochure online (digital prospectus or digital brochure) – but turn the pages as if it was paper.

Don’t forget to see our new offer – Budget Black and white leaflets – 10,000 Leaflets designed, printed and delivered for only £199

Best of all – don’t forget that our Banner Stands (pull up banners) are still only £99 plus delivery!

Business Cards (Business Card Printing) – £10 for 100 Full Colour Business Cards.

We’re still running our very popular Lettterheads Campaign. 2000 letterheads for only £125 in full colour, printed onto a quality 100gsm laser guaranteed paper. see our letterheads webpage for more info.

At The Printing House (Print Buying Direct) we are experts at helping you with the production of your newsletter, whether it be for your employees, customers or fellow club members. See our Newsletters web page for help and advice.

Keep an eye out for our new website for The Printing House Ltd, due for relaunch in May.

Our superb Wallet Folders are still on offer – see http://www.printbuyingdirect.co.uk/wallet-folders.html

12647 and all that – Colour Management in Printing – Part 2 – 11th May 2009

Establishing a standard
In the offset print world, the BPIF has already recognised that this is making life difficult for its members and is working to take general quality assurance controls one step further.

The idea is to provide a certification procedure that accredits printing companies for compliance to ISO 12647. This is the international standard for Graphic Technology Process Control for the production of Half – tone Colour Separations, Proofs and Production Prints. You can tell it’s important because of all those capitals. It is divided into seven sections: one defines parameters and measuring methods and the rest are specific to different print processes (offset, newspapers, gravure, screen, flexo and proofing).

An eighth is under consideration, but there is so far no subsection for digital printing systems. These often have different print characteristics to any of the conventional processes. While it may be often desirable to match digital to something else sometimes that would artificially limit its quality potential. Another problem is that there are a lot of digital ‘marking engine’ technologies, each with their own characteristics, unlike say offset presses that all use broadly similar plates, blankets and have agreed standards for process ink colours.

Even so, elements of the ISO 12647 offset and proofing parts can apply o digital work. Paul Sherfield, principal consultant with the Missing Horse Consultancy group, explains: ‘ISO 12647-2 is the litho part of the standard, based on the colour gamuts available from litho presses, inks and papers. Digital printing devices, though still mainly CMYK, have differing, often bigger gamuts. The question is what standard or gamut to use? This must be dependent upon the purpose of the piece. In a mixed printing process campaign, the litho colour gamut will be the smallest, so the other processes used have to colour manage their output to ISO 12647-2. if only one form of digital printing is being used, say wide format inkjet, the maximum gamut of the device can be used to produces great results, but only if it starts from a good RGB image’.

To be continued…

See Part one of – The magic circle – print, paper and recycling

Also part one of in Flight, preflight and post flight – & Part one of this blog -

Print Buying Direct is the online facility for buying print of The Printing House Ltd of Crewe, Cheshire, UK

The Printing House are specialists and experts in Prospectus of all kinds – see our dedicated prospectus Website www.schoolprospectus.info – New on our Schools site – have a look at our new turn page technology (also known as digital editions)- have your prospectus or brochure online (digital prospectus or digital brochure) – but turn the pages as if it was paper.

Don’t forget to see our new offer – Budget Black and white leaflets – 10,000 Leaflets designed, printed and delivered for only £199

Best of all – don’t forget that our Banner Stands (pull up banners) are still only £99 plus delivery!

Business Cards (Business Card Printing) – £10 for 100 Full Colour Business Cards.

We’re still running our very popular Lettterheads Campaign. 2000 letterheads for only £125 in full colour, printed onto a quality 100gsm laser guaranteed paper. see our letterheads webpage for more info.

At The Printing House (Print Buying Direct) we are experts at helping you with the production of your newsletter, whether it be for your employees, customers or fellow club members. See our Newsletters web page for help and advice.

Keep an eye out for our new website for The Printing House Ltd, due for relaunch in May.

Our superb Wallet Folders are still on offer – see http://www.printbuyingdirect.co.uk/wallet-folders.html

12647 and all that – Colour Management in Printing – Part 1 – 11th May 2009
It may not have a snappy name, but the ISO 12647 standard can help digital printers prove that their colour is up to scratch. Laurel Brunner elucidates.

It’s fair to say that compared to conventional offset, digital technology is a relatively new business with a unique scope to change how print is used. Advances in quality mean that digital print is no longer a second-rate alternative to real offset, so for many jobs these days it is considerations of responsiveness, cost and format that are the deciding factors when choosing between processes. Yet while many digital printers can certainly compete with offset for output quality, just saying so is not enough for print buyers. They increasingly demand absolute quality guarantees.

So far there is no formally recognised methodology for quality assurance, nor is there any guarantee that steps to achieve it are implemented consistently. Print buyers have to trust their eyes or go through often convoluted processes of quality checking. For printers this means they often have to provide themselves against subjective criteria and expectations over which they have little control.

To be continued…

See Part one of – The magic circle – print, paper and recycling

Also part one of in Flight, preflight and post flight

Print Buying Direct is the online facility for buying print of The Printing House Ltd of Crewe, Cheshire, UK

The Printing House are specialists and experts in Prospectus of all kinds – see our dedicated prospectus Website www.schoolprospectus.info – New on our Schools site – have a look at our new turn page technology (also known as digital editions)- have your prospectus or brochure online (digital prospectus or digital brochure) – but turn the pages as if it was paper.

Don’t forget to see our new offer – Budget Black and white leaflets – 10,000 Leaflets designed, printed and delivered for only £199

Best of all – don’t forget that our Banner Stands (pull up banners) are still only £99 plus delivery!

Business Cards (Business Card Printing) – £10 for 100 Full Colour Business Cards.

We’re still running our very popular Lettterheads Campaign. 2000 letterheads for only £125 in full colour, printed onto a quality 100gsm laser guaranteed paper. see our letterheads webpage for more info.

At The Printing House (Print Buying Direct) we are experts at helping you with the production of your newsletter, whether it be for your employees, customers or fellow club members. See our Newsletters web page for help and advice.

Keep an eye out for our new website for The Printing House Ltd, due for relaunch in May.

Our superb Wallet Folders are still on offer – see http://www.printbuyingdirect.co.uk/wallet-folders.html

In flight, preflight, and post flight – part 2 – 6th May 2009

For years, workhouse preflight applications such as FlightCheck Professional and PitStop Professional added, and continue to add, value in the preflight process. Where Adobe Live Preflighting stops or is limited both FlightCheck and Pitstop taker over. For instance, the ‘Sharing the Preflight profile with Acrobat’ point is easily remedied with FlightCheck because is examines both native files formats as well as PDF files. Another example, the ‘Allowing Custom profiles to be shared and downloaded’ point is remedied with Ground Control sets. Ground Controls can easily be set up and shard with other.

Complete control
FlightCheck Professional is an all encompassing preflight technology, developed by the founders and US patent holders of the preflight process, Markzware. This standalone application provides time tested software to both preflight and post flight digital files destined for print. For more than 13 years, the system has embodied an innovative method of checking more than 50 files format. These include Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, QuarkXPress and the resulting PDF. This application gives printers and layout artist alike, a quick, easy and standardised way of checking numerous disparate files in and out of a work flow.

Yet another technology is the Enfocus PitStop product. This tool is also highly regarded by printers at the post fight stage and excellent for checking PDFs. Further, it can also edit PDFs, which is often a necessary evil.
The question is: why use Adobes Live Preflight, Markzware’s FlightCheck Professional and Enfocus’ Pitstop together?
The answer is simple: For complete quality control.

To be continued…

See Part one of – The magic circle – print, paper and recycling

Print Buying Direct is the online facility for buying print of The Printing House Ltd of Crewe, Cheshire, UK

The Printing House are specialists and experts in Prospectus of all kinds – see our dedicated prospectus Website www.schoolprospectus.info – New on our Schools site – have a look at our new turn page technology (also known as digital editions)- have your prospectus or brochure online (digital prospectus or digital brochure) – but turn the pages as if it was paper.

Don’t forget to see our new offer – Budget Black and white leaflets – 10,000 Leaflets designed, printed and delivered for only £199

Best of all – don’t forget that our Banner Stands (pull up banners) are still only £99 plus delivery!

Business Cards (Business Card Printing) – £10 for 100 Full Colour Business Cards.

We’re still running our very popular Lettterheads Campaign. 2000 letterheads for only £125 in full colour, printed onto a quality 100gsm laser guaranteed paper. see our letterheads webpage for more info.

At The Printing House (Print Buying Direct) we are experts at helping you with the production of your newsletter, whether it be for your employees, customers or fellow club members. See our Newsletters web page for help and advice.

Keep an eye out for our new website for The Printing House Ltd, due for relaunch in May.

Our superb Wallet Folders are still on offer – see http://www.printbuyingdirect.co.uk/wallet-folders.html

In flight, preflight, and post flight – part 1 – 6th May 2009

On January 15, 2009, Chelsey Sullenberger, captain of US Airways Light 1549 landed his plane safely – in the Hudson River! As a quality control expert, coupled with years if experience, he crash landed the plane, with nobody seriously injured or killed.

Even though working in a print workflow is not a life or death situation, the principle and execution of quality control check does, in fact, prevent disasters.

For years, more than one designer and creative team have lost work as a result of not implementing a quality control programme. As a result, printing jobs with missing fonts, low resolution images, or both, remain common simply because there were no preflight checks.

At long last, Adobe is offering a preflight solution within InDesign CS4. The solution, called Live Preflight is accessible via a small button in the bottom left of the document panel within InDesign. Using Live Preflight allows the user to perform in flight checks on documents before saving, making a PDF or printing. Production departments will find this new set of controls very useful to ensure their documents fly correctly.
Recently, we visited a lively discussion at Indesignsecrets.com

(http://indesignsecrets.com/cs4s-preflight-limitations.php) that highlights the limitations of using only Adobes Live Preflight.

Some of these limitations include:
• Checking four colour text,
• Checking bleed/trim hazard,
• Checking profile error reporting,
• Sharing the preflight profile with Acrobat,
• Checking for fonts not allowed,
• Allowing custom profiles to be shared and downloaded,
• Overall slow performance,
• Checking non-proportional scaling.

To be continued…

See Part one of – The magic circle – print, paper and recycling

Print Buying Direct is the online facility for buying print of The Printing House Ltd of Crewe, Cheshire, UK

The Printing House are specialists and experts in Prospectus of all kinds – see our dedicated prospectus Website www.schoolprospectus.info – New on our Schools site – have a look at our new turn page technology (also known as digital editions)- have your prospectus or brochure online (digital prospectus or digital brochure) – but turn the pages as if it was paper.

Don’t forget to see our new offer – Budget Black and white leaflets – 10,000 Leaflets designed, printed and delivered for only £199

Best of all – don’t forget that our Banner Stands (pull up banners) are still only £99 plus delivery!

Business Cards (Business Card Printing) – £10 for 100 Full Colour Business Cards.

We’re still running our very popular Lettterheads Campaign. 2000 letterheads for only £125 in full colour, printed onto a quality 100gsm laser guaranteed paper. see our letterheads webpage for more info.

At The Printing House (Print Buying Direct) we are experts at helping you with the production of your newsletter, whether it be for your employees, customers or fellow club members. See our Newsletters web page for help and advice.

Keep an eye out for our new website for The Printing House Ltd, due for relaunch in May.

Our superb Wallet Folders are still on offer – see http://www.printbuyingdirect.co.uk/wallet-folders.html

The magic circle – print, paper and recycling – 4th May 2009 – Part 5

Better than ever

Tullis Russell, agrees that there is still a strong call for recycleds, but that print buyers are looking for top quality grades.’ The demands of the print, design and publishing markets continue to evolve and the clear message we are receiving from end users are brand holders is that the availability of recycled grades is more important than ever,’ he said. ‘However, it is vital that these green products continue to deliver the superior performance expected from such recognised brands. Achieving this balance has been at the heart of our new product development strategy and has resulted in us introducing recycled grades across our leading premium quality board range, trucard.’

‘The trucard recycled portfolio now includes a variety of recycled options in trucard 1 gloss, trucard 2 gloss and, in uncoated products, trucard 0 matt and felt.

‘Made to the same premium standard as the rest of the range, all the new additions contain 50% virgin fibre and 50% post consumer deinked recycled fibre. As such, they carry the National Association of Paper Merchant (NAPM) recycled mark as well as FSC certification.

‘The top quality recycled fibre used in manufacture of the recycled range guarantees there is no compromise in performance. The new recycled products print and convert like standard trucard. These new versions give users and specifiers a genuine recycled cartonboard with the same outstanding performance and give users an even greater choice when looking for a board with sound environmental credentials.’

Whether you are looking for the lightweight or heavyweight, high white or ‘natural’, there are plenty of options available that will truly help to close the loop an from the ‘magic circle’ of recycling.

To be continued…

See Part one of this blog – The magic circle – print, paper and recycling

Print Buying Direct is the online facility for buying print of The Printing House Ltd of Crewe, Cheshire, UK

The Printing House are specialists and experts in Prospectus of all kinds – see our dedicated prospectus Website www.schoolprospectus.info – New on our Schools site – have a look at our new turn page technology (also known as digital editions)- have your prospectus or brochure online (digital prospectus or digital brochure) – but turn the pages as if it was paper.

Don’t forget to see our new offer – Budget Black and white leaflets – 10,000 Leaflets designed, printed and delivered for only £199

Best of all – don’t forget that our Banner Stands (pull up banners) are still only £99 plus delivery!

Business Cards (Business Card Printing) – £10 for 100 Full Colour Business Cards.

We’re still running our very popular Lettterheads Campaign. 2000 letterheads for only £125 in full colour, printed onto a quality 100gsm laser guaranteed paper. see our letterheads webpage for more info.

At The Printing House (Print Buying Direct) we are experts at helping you with the production of your newsletter, whether it be for your employees, customers or fellow club members. See our Newsletters web page for help and advice.

Keep an eye out for our new website for The Printing House Ltd, due for relaunch in May.

Our superb Wallet Folders are still on offer – see http://www.printbuyingdirect.co.uk/wallet-folders.html

Offset Lithography – Printing to you and me! – Part 19 – 29th April 2009

Offset: the big fight back
Clearly, there has been no resting on laurels when it comes to developments in offset over the last 20 years, but because offset litho is the most prolific form of printing, it also finds itself under increasing attack, mainly from digital processes that have now matured beyond measure. The last ten years have seen the digital process go from mere photocopy colour and output standards, to a process that without doubt threatens the quality, speed and versatility of litho printing. And, digital machine manufacturers have been very quick to play any advantages they have.

But it is ‘hats off all round’ to the offset machine manufacturers who have pulled out all the stops when it comes to innovation, even totally changing the way litho actually work. All manufacturers have been concentrating on the key elements such as speed, automation and quality output, but two in particular, Heidelberg and manroland, with the Anicolor and DirectDrive respectively, have in recent times brought out new concepts that really do keep the litho press at the forefront of technology for printing’s future.To be continued…

See parts one, to eighteen of this blog – Offset Lithography - Printing to you and me!

See our design and print testimonials page to see what our customers say about us.

Print Buying Direct is the online facility for buying print of The Printing House Ltd of Crewe, Cheshire, UK

The Printing House are specialists and experts in Prospectus of all kinds – see our dedicated prospectus Website www.schoolprospectus.info – New on our Schools site – have a look at our new turn page technology (also known as digital editions)- have your prospectus or brochure online (digital prospectus or digital brochure) – but turn the pages as if it was paper.

Don’t forget to see our new offer – Budget Black and white leaflets – 10,000 Leaflets designed, printed and delivered for only £199

Best of all – don’t forget that our Banner Stands (pull up banners) are still only £99 plus delivery!

Business Cards (Business Card Printing) – £10 for 100 Full Colour Business Cards.

We’re still running our very popular Lettterheads Campaign. 2000 letterheads for only £125 in full colour, printed onto a quality 100gsm laser guaranteed paper. see our letterheads webpage for more info.

At The Printing House (Print Buying Direct) we are experts at helping you with the production of your newsletter, whether it be for your employees, customers or fellow club members. See our Newsletters web page for help and advice.

Keep an eye out for our new website for The Printing House Ltd, due for relaunch in May.