Working with Commercial Printers

Quality, Price, Speed

You can have only two of those qualities. You can't have all three.

Quality and price. If you want good quality but don't want to pay very much, a commercial printer will work it into the production schedule when he can. That means you may not get it very fast.
Quality and speed. If you want good quality and you want it done quickly--you're going to pay for it. That's what the quick-print places, like Pip and Kinko, offer--good quality and speed, but at a steeper price than you'll pay elsewhere.
Speed and good price.If you want something done quickly and cheaply, you'll sacrifice quality. This is where a photocopier fits.

Printing Lingo

Bleed. When a color, photo, line, screen, or other element extends off the edge of the page.

Dummy. A rough layout which shows how items will be arranged.

Proof. Printers give you this before they print it. You look it over to see if everything seems okay. Older proofing systems use what's called "blueline," which puts everything in blue ink on photographic paper. Newer proof systems will print the proof in four-color, giving you a close approximation of the finished product.

Two-up. Printing two copies at the same time. It works best to do this with certain sizes. For instance, a half-page bulletin insert could be printed two-up on an 8.5-by-11 inch paper, then cut down the middle. You run 500 copies through the press, but you end up with 1000 copies.

Overrun (or overage). If you order 1000 and get 1100, you can get charged for the extra 10%. This is standard practice.

Getting Quotes

When you need something printed, get a quote from three different commercial printers. Here is the information they'll need to know to give you a quote.

The quantity you need.
Page size.
Total number of pages.
Any folding or stapling they'll need to do.
The number of colors of ink.
Paper stock (they have samples and can make suggestions).
Will you give them "camera ready" copy, which means it's ready to print? Or will they need to add photos, artwork, headlines, or do anything else themselves?
How soon do you need it?
If you're submitting the job on a computer disk, what type of software did you use (Pagemaker, Quark, Word, MS Publisher, etc.).

Quick Print Shops

Quick-print places are like the foodmart at the gas station--convenient, but more expensive. However, many churches and businesses are using these places for nearly all of their printing needs. And they're paying for it.

Some quick-print places have a central printing plant where they do offset printing. Others farm-out higher-quality printing jobs to commercial printers. You could probably save money by going directly to them.

However, quick-print shops are a valuable resource for a variety of printing needs. They can especially provide some good options with their expensive photocopiers, including the use of color. And they can do business cards quickly and cheaply.

Giving the Printer a Computer Disk

If you design something on a computer, most commercial printers can use it straight from a computer disk. The best choice (and cheapest) would be a CD that your burn, though some burners don't produce CDs that are compatible with all computers. Another option would be a Zip disk or a flash drive. Or, depending on how big the file is, you could email it.

If you submit print jobs like this, you'll also need to include the fonts you use. These need to be Postscript fonts, rather than Truetype fonts. Just copy the fonts onto the disk you give to the printer.

Check with the printer to make sure your computer and the programs you're using are compatible with what they have. Most printers will be able to use files created by the high-end desktop publishing programs--Quark Express, Adobe Pagemaker, and Adobe InDesign. Some other programs create problems, so check with your printer.

Checking Proofs

Insist on seeing a proof. You mark corrections or changes on the proof, and they take it from there. They will correct their own mistakes for free. But any corrections which were your fault--like mispellings you didn't catch before sending it to the printer, or something you decide to change--will cost you extra.

Accepting Delivery

When you accept delivery, spot-check the materials in different places to make sure the printing was consistent. Presses can get a bit off-kilter as the job runs. If the pressman lets the press run while he goes to get a cup of coffee, a number of pieces may come off that aren't very good--the ink is lighter and faded, or perhaps two colors don't line up as well as they should.