5 Tricks For Minimizing Your Printing Cost While Maintaining Quality
There are very few rich' printers in the world .. however to the designer and customer, the cost of having brochure printing, greeting card printing or swing tag printing done often seems amazingly high. If you know a little about the printing process and where costs come from, though, you have a good chance of cutting down your printing costs without compromising at all on quality. We give you five handy tips for cheaper printing!
- Don't use spot colours
If you've had your logo professionally designed, your contractor may have used Pantone colours for the logo. These are very specific color combinations, and are sometimes known as spot colours. Some people feel that they add to the uniqueness of a logo or design .. but every single company having printing done knows that they add to the cost of a trade printing job! Simply convert your spot colours to process for an instant cost reduction and a difference so miniscule, I defy anyone to pick it.
- Use two colour printing for part of a job
If you have a large document like a booklet, can you use two-colour printing for part of it? Two-colour printing (for example, black and red on white paper) is much cheaper than four-colour or full colour printing. It may be possible for you to have a single contrast colour for headings and breakout boxes and black text, without detracting from the professionalism of the piece at all.
- Stock choice
Again, this is an area where larger trade printing jobs such as books, booklets and manuals can really save. Don't use the same stock throughout - but create the same impression of quality in your reader's mind by using high-weight coated stock for covers, and much lighter, uncoated stock for inner pages. The savings here are proportional to the number of pages in your print job.
- Type size
Unless your audience is invariably visually impaired or elderly, it is usually acceptable to take the type size for your brochure printing or booklet printing down to 10pt or so. If doing this means that you can save on the number of pages that you need printed, you could make substantial savings overall.
- Shop around, look for extras
There are plenty of printing services online .. plenty of well-priced ones too! Ask for sample prints from the well-priced services, to assure yourself of the quality of their output. Look for extras that come with the service, like free delivery, free proofs etc. Anything you get for free is essentially a saving - revel in it!
- Don't use spot colours
If you've had your logo professionally designed, your contractor may have used Pantone colours for the logo. These are very specific color combinations, and are sometimes known as spot colours. Some people feel that they add to the uniqueness of a logo or design .. but every single company having printing done knows that they add to the cost of a trade printing job! Simply convert your spot colours to process for an instant cost reduction and a difference so miniscule, I defy anyone to pick it.
- Use two colour printing for part of a job
If you have a large document like a booklet, can you use two-colour printing for part of it? Two-colour printing (for example, black and red on white paper) is much cheaper than four-colour or full colour printing. It may be possible for you to have a single contrast colour for headings and breakout boxes and black text, without detracting from the professionalism of the piece at all.
- Stock choice
Again, this is an area where larger trade printing jobs such as books, booklets and manuals can really save. Don't use the same stock throughout - but create the same impression of quality in your reader's mind by using high-weight coated stock for covers, and much lighter, uncoated stock for inner pages. The savings here are proportional to the number of pages in your print job.
- Type size
Unless your audience is invariably visually impaired or elderly, it is usually acceptable to take the type size for your brochure printing or booklet printing down to 10pt or so. If doing this means that you can save on the number of pages that you need printed, you could make substantial savings overall.
- Shop around, look for extras
There are plenty of printing services online .. plenty of well-priced ones too! Ask for sample prints from the well-priced services, to assure yourself of the quality of their output. Look for extras that come with the service, like free delivery, free proofs etc. Anything you get for free is essentially a saving - revel in it!
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