Have you heard about offset printing services, but you’re not really clear as to what offset printing is exactly? This blog post will help educate you on today’s most popular printing process.

 

In a nutshell, offset printing is where an image is transferred from a plate —> to a rubber blanket —> to paper. This process was discovered accidentally by Ira Washington Rubel in 1903.

Offset printing is usually combined with the lithographic process to take advantage of the repulsion of oil and water. The plate that contains the image (that makes contact with the ink roller) has sections of a water-based film that repels the ink — this film is used for the non-printing areas of the plate.

Offset printing (right now) is the most common print process for high-volume jobs because of the strong combination of quality and efficiency.

If you have any questions, please let us know!

 

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Today’s blog post talks about how the slightest artwork size change can sometimes result in significant cost savings.

We recently quoted a postcard project for a new client. Like we do on every project, we made sure the piece was running on the press at the most efficient size. In doing so, we realized that if they shaved just 1/8″ off the height, it would save them $1,200.

And this was on a small mailing of only 84,000 postcards.

Always make sure your print vendor is checking this for you. Or make it a habit of asking your print vendor during the artwork design stage, “Is this size we’re designing at the most press efficient size?”

So why would shaving off an 1/8″ make such a big difference?

It’s all because of how the artwork lays out on the sheets or rolls of paper. You want to utilize the paper dimensions the best you can and prevent waste. The less paper you waste, and the better fit the artwork is on the paper when it’s being printed, the more money you save.

If you have any questions pertaining to this blog post, please email Matt: matt (at) ballantine.com.

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In order to insure that you’re paying the right price for your print job, it’s important to bid it with at least 3 vendors. 

This, however, is not always enough because printing has become a very specialized business and a major key to paying the right price is running your job on the right equipment. 

So in addition to getting multiple bids, be sure to consider the following questions:

• Web vs. Sheetfed?
• Inline vs. Offline?
• Heatset vs. Non-Heatset?

This can be accomplished by working with vendors that have a large variety of equipment and can offer one-stop shopping or by increasing the number of vendors you consider.