To many people, commercial printing seems pretty simple. I mean, how different could it be than just printing something at home?
The answer is that it’s quite a bit different.
While we could sit here and explain all sorts of terms you have never heard of, the differences between 10 different types of files, and how color is perceived by the human eye, that blog wouldn’t be a very fun one to read.
Instead, here are some of the most important things you need to know about commercial printing that will make your next project go smoother. Plus, show you why trusting a commercial printer like Econoprint of Racine is so important!
Think of this as your “commercial printing for dummies”!
Commercial printing includes A LOT of different things
While standard printing is obviously the most common thing done by a commercial printer, many people don’t realize how many different types of things we can print! Of course, we handle brochures, envelopes, postcards and other “standard” types of projects, but we also can help you print things like promotional items, t-shirts, banners, signs, sandwich boards, and more!
Commercial printers like us are also experts in design allowing us to help you create the perfect product sheet, newsletter, menu, flyer, or anything in between.
We have a lot of terms that you haven’t heard of before
Do you know what a bleed is? How about die cutting? Have you ever heard of a .TIFF file?
Our guess is the answer is probably no to all of those.
The commercial printing world is full of all sorts of words and phrases that can be confusing to most people. In order to help, we actually put together a dictionary of print terms to help you decipher what we might be saying to you. Take a look and you’ll see just how important using the right terms and phrases can be!
We talk about color a little bit differently
While most people talk about color in terms of hex codes and RGB (Red, Green, Blue), the printing industry does things a little differently.
CYMK (or Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, Black) is how the printing industry identifies colors before they go down on paper. The reasoning is pretty scientific, but in a simple sense, it has to do with the canvas that the color is being painted on.
When you look at the world, the color you are seeing is painted on a black canvas (without light, everything would be black), however, most of the time we are printing, we are printing on a white sheet of paper. Because of this, color is reflected differently and we need a different combination of colors in order to make the color you see be what you expect.
Bet you didn’t know that commercial printing was so scientific did you?
Local companies vs. online, what’s better?
The biggest question that we get as a local Racine printing company – Is it better to go with an online printer or a local company?
We aren’t just saying this because we are one… but a local company is going to win every time.
With a big online commercial printer, you may get a slightly better price, but when it comes to convenience, project delivery time, customer service, and print quality, a local company is superior.
What you have to ask yourself is what happens if a printing project doesn’t meet your expectations? With an online printer, you are often going into your project blind. Sure they might send you some online proofs to review and everything might look great, but what things look like on screen and what they look like on paper are often two very different things. And when your project is delivered a week or more later, you just wasted all that time and money on something that isn’t up to your expectations. As a local company, we deliver most projects within a few days and involve you in the entire process to make sure you get exactly what you need.
At the end of the day, we care about our community.
There is so much more to talk about when it comes to the commercial printing industry, but we hope this answered a few of your questions, taught you something new, and showed you that trusting a local expert with your printing needs is the way to go!