Print Buying Direct

New Look Website for The Printing House Website – 15th July 2009

We’ve been working in the background to create a new look and some new content for The Printing House Website. Please take a look and let us have some feedback. Some of the new content includes A Guide to Preparing Print Ready Artwork and information about our Large Format and banner printing service.

We’re a bit sad and are so excited by our new site that we’re now rebranding Print Buying Direct, Golf Club Centenary Books and School Prospectus Made Easy.

Keep watching all our sites as we are continually adding new content.

To be continued…

See part one of this blog on digital printing here. Also – what does the future hold for printing – part 1

Order your Appointment Cards online at Print Buying Direct – prices from £13.50 for 100 cards printed in full colour. At print buying direct we are market leaders in the printing of appointment cards and can produce them for doctors, hairdressers, dentists, physio, beauty salons, nail technicians, garages, massage therapists – for anything really. Just visit our Appointment Cards web page for more information.

Our business cards are some of the best in the business – printed in full colour on our £200,000 state of the art digital press – you’ll be proud to hand out business cards that we produce for you. Our business card prices are also very cost effective – 100 full colour business cards for only £10!

Don’t forget we’re still running our Letterheads promotion – 2000 full colour letterheads (headed paper) for £125 delivered! We’ve been producing letterheads since 1991 for hundreds of customs as diverse as Bentley and Royal Mail.

See Part 12 of this blog on Print finishing, See also our Blog on Spot UV Varnishing

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. For more information School Prospectus including School Prospectus Design or School Prospectus Printing (we also specialise in college prospectus) see our www.schoolprospectus.info website

Have a look at our Newsletters webpage for help and assistance with writing and designing your newsletter. It deals with, company newsletters, college newsletters, school newsletters and employee newsletters in particluar. Our blog often focuses on newsletters and we have a page which specifically helps with newsletters as a marketing tool.

TOP TIP: Add that feel of quality to your company brochure by first applying Matt Lamination then a Spot UV Varnish. The UV Varnishing actually ‘lifts’ your pictures to give them a glossy impact.

Our Digital Brochures (turn page technology) are really taking off now – get your brochure put online from only £15 per page.

One of the mainstays at Print Buying Direct is Leaflets. We are experts at Leaflet Design & Leaflet Printing

Check out our Banner Stands (pull up banners) only £99. Design service available.

Everything you need to know about Digital Printing – part 9 – 14th July 2009
High speed inkjets
Inkjets are another major process, already dominant in wide format work and very widely used in desktop personal printers, high quality photographic printers of all size, and widely used in high speed transactions work such as bills and statements. Inkjet heads can be mounted as over-prints on conventional print and finishing lines and so they are widely used for personalising pre printed direct mail materials.
Inkjets have a lot of scope for future development and long term it is possible that they will start to supplant conventional printing presses such as lithography and flexography. The reason is that an inkjet is mechanically much simpler than conventional presses, with the print heads being essentially solid state devices. All that is needed is an accurate and reliable paper or substrate feeding mechanism. However, inkjet inks are far more expensive to make than offset or flexo inks, which may be the real limiting factor unless new manufacturing methods come along. There are also issues about the lack of easily interchangeable spot colours for inkjets.
Inkjets had been used as over-printers on conventional printing and finishing lines from the early 1980s. However, the first recognisable standalone production inkjet was the reef fed Versamark series, demonstrated by Scitex Digital Printing as an early prototype at drupa 1995 and turned into a production model for transactional print by the late 1990s. This uses a full width array of inkjet heads that print in a single pass. Up to four colours per side can be specified. Actually, the development had been started by Kodak when it owned the same operation, based in Dayton, Ohio. It sold it to Scitex in 1993 and bought it back ten years later.
Versamarks have been developed over the years and remain very fast but with fairly limited quality. They are widely used for transactional printing, for bills, statements and the like where text is important but image quality does not need to be fabulous.

To be continued…

See part one of this blog on digital printing here. Also – what does the future hold for printing – part 1

Order your Appointment Cards online at Print Buying Direct – prices from £13.50 for 100 cards printed in full colour. At print buying direct we are market leaders in the printing of appointment cards and can produce them for doctors, hairdressers, dentists, physio, beauty salons, nail technicians, garages, massage therapists – for anything really. Just visit our Appointment Cards web page for more information.

Our business cards are some of the best in the business – printed in full colour on our £200,000 state of the art digital press – you’ll be proud to hand out business cards that we produce for you. Our business card prices are also very cost effective – 100 full colour business cards for only £10!

Don’t forget we’re still running our Letterheads promotion – 2000 full colour letterheads (headed paper) for £125 delivered! We’ve been producing letterheads since 1991 for hundreds of customs as diverse as Bentley and Royal Mail.

See Part 12 of this blog on Print finishing, See also our Blog on Spot UV Varnishing

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. For more information School Prospectus including School Prospectus Design or School Prospectus Printing (we also specialise in college prospectus) see our www.schoolprospectus.info website

Have a look at our Newsletters webpage for help and assistance with writing and designing your newsletter. It deals with, company newsletters, college newsletters, school newsletters and employee newsletters in particluar. Our blog often focuses on newsletters and we have a page which specifically helps with newsletters as a marketing tool.

TOP TIP: Add that feel of quality to your company brochure by first applying Matt Lamination then a Spot UV Varnish. The UV Varnishing actually ‘lifts’ your pictures to give them a glossy impact.

Our Digital Brochures (turn page technology) are really taking off now – get your brochure put online from only £15 per page.

One of the mainstays at Print Buying Direct is Leaflets. We are experts at Leaflet Design & Leaflet Printing

Check out our Banner Stands (pull up banners) only £99. Design service available.

Finishing – part 10 – Lamination - 11th June 2009
Offering lamination in the bindery retains the work in-house preventing the need for sending it out and the subsequent ramifications on turnaround times. These operational benefits prompted printers to start looking seriously at the pros and cons of bringing this service in-house. At the same manufacturers made technological advances that resulted in easy to use and cheaper machines making the decision a much easier one to make.
All of these factors are combining to create a buoyant lamination market that has in turn supported a wide variety of technological improvements. For example, some laminators are equipped with a wireless webcam and Skype phone facility, taking the concept of remote diagnostics to new levels within the industry. With automation also playing a key role in the sales success of laminators. Duplo introduced its fully automatic and user friendly Ultra 205A UV Coater with optional SF-205A Feeder and Morgana launched its DigiCoater – a fully automated, micro format UV coater and priming system with dual path coating stations that allow both matt and gloss varnishes – or two differently textured finishes- to be available at all times. With the latest touch screen technology it is also fully automatic in its wash cycle, which demands minimal operator involvement. While D&K Europe’s DoubleKote Digital can encapsulate/double side laminate in one pass and benefits from a guillotine style cutter. Speed is also a key issue in the sector, a point GBC underlined with its demonstration of the world’s fastest laminator, the 8556HS- Cyclone at drupa.

To be continued…

Order your Appointment Cards online at Print Buying Direct – prices from £13.50 for 100 cards printed in full colour. At print buying direct we are market leaders in the printing of appointment cards and can produce them for doctors, hairdressers, dentists, physio, beauty salons, nail technicians, garages, massage therapists – for anything really. Just visit our Appointment Cards web page for more information.

Don’t forget we’re still running our Letterheads promotion – 2000 full colour letterheads (headed paper) for £125 delivered! We’ve been producing letterheads since 1991 for hundreds of customs as diverse as Bentley and Royal Mail.

See Part one of this blog on print finishing , See Part one of the Blog on Variable Data Printing – also part one of 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. For more information School Prospectus including School Prospectus Design or School Prospectus Printing (we also specialise in college prospectus) see our www.schoolprospectus.info website

Have a look at our Newsletters webpage for help and assistance with writing and designing your newsletter. It deals with, company newsletters, college newsletters, school newsletters and employee newsletters in particluar. Our blog often focuses on newsletters and we have a page which specifically helps with newsletters as a marketing tool.

TOP TIP: Add that feel of quality to your company brochure by first applying Matt Lamination then a Spot UV Varnish. The UV Varnishing actually ‘lifts’ your pictures to give them a glossy impact.

Our Digital Brochures (turn page technology) are really taking off now – get your brochure put online from only £15 per page.

Finishing – part 9 – Lamination – 11th June 2009
Lamination and encapsulation
Large and expensive machines requiring highly skilled operators ensured this was one of the last finishing processes to join in house binderies. Trade finishers were able to hold onto this process for longer than any other discipline because of the prohibitive cost of the machines and the skills required ensuring top quality results.
However, the popularity of digital print also pushed this service into the spotlight. With the increase in demand for short run, fast turnaround products, printers are being required to work faster and smarter with lamination increasingly being used to protect the final product. Not only is it used to prevent ink that is not totally dry from scuffing and thereby allow work to be delivered in shorter timeframes, it also gives it a high quality finish. But there were some initial problems. Manufacturers had to tackle the issue of digital inks or fusing oils reacting adversely to the film. Focused research and development has resulted in systems that can now be used for both litho and digital work.
There are two main methods of laminating- wet and thermal. The former sees a wet adhesive applied at the point of lamination. These machines tend to require a larger footprint to ensure the sheet is totally dry before being stacked. This also dictates the speed of the machine. The second is thermal where the lamination drum is heated up using oil, water or electricity. The laminate film incorporates a dry adhesive on one side. With a smaller footprint, a key attraction with the latter option is the fact that the pressure on space in the bindery is reduced. Despite the bigger capital outlay, larger trade laminators tend to use water based processes while wet laminating allows films with special textures to be used.

To be continued…

Order your Appointment Cards online at Print Buying Direct – prices from £13.50 for 100 cards printed in full colour. At print buying direct we are market leaders in the printing of appointment cards and can produce them for doctors, hairdressers, dentists, physio, beauty salons, nail technicians, garages, massage therapists – for anything really. Just visit our Appointment Cards web page for more information.

Don’t forget we’re still running our Letterheads promotion – 2000 full colour letterheads (headed paper) for £125 delivered! We’ve been producing letterheads since 1991 for hundreds of customs as diverse as Bentley and Royal Mail.

See Part one of this blog on print finishing , See Part one of the Blog on Variable Data Printing – also part one of 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. For more information School Prospectus including School Prospectus Design or School Prospectus Printing (we also specialise in college prospectus) see our www.schoolprospectus.info website

Have a look at our Newsletters webpage for help and assistance with writing and designing your newsletter. It deals with, company newsletters, college newsletters, school newsletters and employee newsletters in particluar. Our blog often focuses on newsletters and we have a page which specifically helps with newsletters as a marketing tool.

TOP TIP: Add that feel of quality to your company brochure by first applying Matt Lamination then a Spot UV Varnish. The UV Varnishing actually ‘lifts’ your pictures to give them a glossy impact.

Our Digital Brochures (turn page technology) are really taking off now – get your brochure put online from only £15 per page.

Finishing – part 8 – Binders – 10th June 2009
Automated functions in perfect binding allow for a quick and accurate set up for each time. These include sensors within the book clamp that enable each book to be measured for thickness, which then sets up the nipping/cover feed guides, and use of book verification systems to avoid wrongly collated signatures.
And now printers are considering whether to add PUR to their EVA gluing capabilities. One of the key benefits of PUR glue is the lay flat properties, which allow books to open flat without the spine cracking. Less brittle, PUR can also content with a range of temperatures- hot or cold- and the glue does not adversely react with digitally printed stock and warp like EVA glues can. Hot melt can be limiting with the range of stock that can be bound and, while PUR is much stronger and works on a much wider range of stock, it is more expensive.
However, a traditional glue tank system using PUR requires emptying and scrupulous cleaning at the end of a shift, or it would very soon become unless nozzle applicators are used. These incorporate a valve to minimise glue exposure so PUR glue is supplied from a sealed unit and the cleaning and handling issues are resolved.
Useful features on perfect binders include intelligent cover handling and feeding that can save many production headaches while winged books can be produced of the machine has a flexible enough scoring system. Having an integrated pre-jogger places an important operation where it is needed, in the loading area, which is ergonomically sensible. Delivery methods too can have variations that make a different-smooth delivery means no spine damage when the books exit the machine, and side gluing and asset for binding heavy stock covers and a feature generally only available with larger, more expensive machines.
Development continues to centre on improving automation with Heidelberg’s Eurotrim 4000 adhesive binders including optimised net output of up to 95% thanks to intelligent automation, modular design and end to precision and Horizon’s high profile colour touch screen on the BQ-270. Not to mention Duplo’s fully automatic. DuBinder range with its easy to use integrated touch screen controls, facilitating a 35 second set up between programmes, and Wohlenbergs’ Master Series extension to its modularly designed ‘City e’ equipped with the dynamic drive technology and ConditionPro compatible control generation.

To be continued…

Order your Appointment Cards online at Print Buying Direct – prices from £13.50 for 100 cards printed in full colour. At print buying direct we are market leaders in the printing of appointment cards and can produce them for doctors, hairdressers, dentists, physio, beauty salons, nail technicians, garages, massage therapists – for anything really. Just visit our Appointment Cards web page for more information.

Don’t forget we’re still running our Letterheads promotion – 2000 full colour letterheads (headed paper) for £125 delivered! We’ve been producing letterheads since 1991 for hundreds of customs as diverse as Bentley and Royal Mail.

See Part one of this blog on print finishing , See Part one of the Blog on Variable Data Printing – also part one of 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. For more information School Prospectus including School Prospectus Design or School Prospectus Printing (we also specialise in college prospectus) see our www.schoolprospectus.info website

Have a look at our Newsletters webpage for help and assistance with writing and designing your newsletter. It deals with, company newsletters, college newsletters, school newsletters and employee newsletters in particluar. Our blog often focuses on newsletters and we have a page which specifically helps with newsletters as a marketing tool.

TOP TIP: Add that feel of quality to your company brochure by first applying Matt Lamination then a Spot UV Varnish. The UV Varnishing actually ‘lifts’ your pictures to give them a glossy impact.

Our Digital Brochures (turn page technology) are really taking off now – get your brochure put online from only £15 per page.

Finishing – part 7 – Binders – 10th June 2009
Binders
It has taken longer for the seeds of change to impact perfect binding but more and more firms are investing in this technology as they seek to increase profit margins. Perfect bound ‘soft cover’ binding was traditionally only practical for long runs. The equipment was very expensive, highly mechanical, required skilled operators and took up a vast amount of space and so was the preserve of specialist manufacturers. This also kept the cost unit of books at a prohibitive price unless long runs were employed.
With automated, smaller machines now virtually standard on the market, buyers are choosing perfect binding to finish items that wouldn’t have been previously practical or economical. Flexible off line binding equipment that has the capability to perfect bind low run jobs quickly and with a high quality finish, have proven extremely popular among printers. After weighing up the capital outlay with savings in out sourcing costs, the flexibility to take on rush jobs or complete large orders by the agreed deadline through overtime, and the ability to widely market the service safe in the knowledge the work could be completed accurately and efficiently in-house proved to be an attractive option for many operations.
What has really impacted perfect binding’s growth is that it enables printers to add value by providing increased demand for his finishing technique in short run work. This is because it has a better perceived value than saddle stitching.
Thanks to automation, fast make readies, easy set up and small footprints, printers can be confident the investment they are making will pay off and they will be able to produce the quality required by end users. They can also be assured the subsequent reduction in the amount of time the job takes to complete allows more work to be produced per shift- making the investment an economical option. Helping slash running times is the ability to store jobs, especially for long or repeat work. Memory storage capabilities eliminate set up times for subsequent or similar jobs as well.

To be continued…

Order your Appointment Cards online at Print Buying Direct – prices from £13.50 for 100 cards printed in full colour. At print buying direct we are market leaders in the printing of appointment cards and can produce them for doctors, hairdressers, dentists, physio, beauty salons, nail technicians, garages, massage therapists – for anything really. Just visit our Appointment Cards web page for more information.

Don’t forget we’re still running our Letterheads promotion – 2000 full colour letterheads (headed paper) for £125 delivered! We’ve been producing letterheads since 1991 for hundreds of customs as diverse as Bentley and Royal Mail.

See Part one of this blog on print finishing , See Part one of the Blog on Variable Data Printing – also part one of 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. For more information School Prospectus including School Prospectus Design or School Prospectus Printing (we also specialise in college prospectus) see our www.schoolprospectus.info website

Have a look at our Newsletters webpage for help and assistance with writing and designing your newsletter. It deals with, company newsletters, college newsletters, school newsletters and employee newsletters in particluar. Our blog often focuses on newsletters and we have a page which specifically helps with newsletters as a marketing tool.

TOP TIP: Add that feel of quality to your company brochure by first applying Matt Lamination then a Spot UV Varnish. The UV Varnishing actually ‘lifts’ your pictures to give them a glossy impact.

Finishing – part 6 – Booklet makers and collators – 8th June 2009

Manufacturers devised a variety of feeding methods from cups that picked up each sheet to suction belt technology and the advanced rotary drum system to give very fast high speed feeds for substrate variation. One of the benefits was the fact that adjustments to the feeder were seldom, it ever, made.
This has come to impact on the market in a big way from table top friction systems for in plant and office applications, right up to sophisticated technology rich production lines with high collating power and a variety of downstream converting and finishing options.
As collators play an important part in full booklet making systems, bins often require frequent loading so deeper pile bins have been created to allow continuous collating. These systems have onboard computers to allow the collating towers and bins to be split to preload one set of bins with the same job. When the job runs out with one set, the next kicks in to allow continuous collating.
To combat escalating raw materials and postage costs, thinner stocks are being specified by end users and this can create some feeding issues on finishing system. It is with this in mind that GAE supplied Horizon developed a long edge feeding system, which works on line with the StictchLiner. It can also handle awkward stocks.

To be continued…

Don’t forget we’re still running our Letterheads promotion – 2000 full colour letterheads for £125 delivered!

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

Have a look at our Newsletters webpage for help and assistance with writing and designing your newsletter. It deals with, company newsletters, college newsletters, school newsletters and employee newsletters in particluar. Our blog often focuses on newsletters and we have a page which specifically helps with newsletters as a marketing tool.

TOP TIP: Add that feel of quality to your company brochure by first applying Matt Lamination then a Spot UV Varnish. The UV Varnishing actually ‘lifts’ your pictures to give them a glossy impact.

For all the rationalisation, mergers and acquisitions that have taken place, the demand for print has largely remained in line with GDP (Gross Domestic Product). As GDP has risen, so has the volume of print but how the printing pie has been cut up and the number of mouths getting what could be considered a fair share has perhaps dropped.

The next couple of years many economists are suggesting we may see some of the toughest trading conditions seen since the late 1970s, but economists are invariably wrong and it is fair bet that they will be wrong for attributing tough trading conditions in the printing industry on the economy. Trading conditions are certain to become turbulent; how can there be stability when several manufacturers introduce presses, including long perfectors, into the marketplace capable of changing all their plates in a little over a couple of minutes, carrying out make-readies in 10 minutes or less? And to boot, web-fed digital presses producing 1800 A4s per minute.

There is another element that is certain to bring instability to our industry that has little to do with economic forces. Customer expectations are changing in a rather profound way. One of the most significant effects of the digital age is the influence on customer expectations. No, not the speed at which they expect to get the job, though that is given, it is their quality expectations; printing from the Internet has meant a huge change in perceptions of quality, strength of design and overall appearance.

Much of today’s print is related to supplying information; brochures, reports, products leaflets, general information and this is delivered usually via an office printer using 11 and 12 point sans serif type printed on white 90gsm laser type paper. The result is more than adequate, with colour where appropriate printed at 600 and 1200dpi. What we are seeing is a fundamental change in our expectations of what is appropriate. Just as wearing a tie in important meetings can seem outmoded and stuffy- print is facing a similar change, with what is ‘fit for purpose’ the new driving force. Certainly collar and tie printing will always have its place, but the situation will arise more often where a superbly produced 16 page brochure in six colours with multiple matt and spot UV overprints will look aggressive and inappropriate. You have been warned.

For more information on Press Technology or printing in general please don’t hesitate to contact us at The Printing House (Print Buying Direct)

5 things you need to know about Spot UV Varnish

Spot UV Varnishing is a great way of enhancing your printed products. Check out our FAQ below for some helpful hints, more information on Spot UV, rollercoat UV and Lamination are available on our website.

1. Ultra Violet Varnish can have total page coverage (Rollercoat UV Varnish) or to certain areas such as logos or photographs (Spot UV Varnish).
2. Spot UV is used to enhance a printed item with a high gloss finish – highlighting logos, photographs, large text or just to create an unobtrusive effect on a solid area of print (or blank space).
3. Spot UV is ideal for use on used on Brochures, Annual Reports – but note that Spot UV is charged per thousand sheets, but there is a significant minimum charge – so printing up to 1000 copies doesn’t give any economies of scale.
4. Spot UV is particularly effective on Board which has been Matt Laminated. This creates a tactile feel and a great contrast between matt & gloss.
5. Spot UV Varnishing isn’t suitable for some small detail, eg. Text smaller than 18 points or with fine serifs, or intricate logos.

For more advice or help with anything to do with printing, just call on 0870 950 8444