Learn the essential questions to ask printers prior to hiring them. Learn what to look for, what to expect, what to ask your designer, and how to get the maximum return on investment.
I get sample packets all the time from printers who want to become primary suppliers. They generally send their very best work, all contained in a sleek package. If the work is impressive, I keep the samples, file the card, and give the printer a shot on some quote requests. However, if the samples are lackluster, they make their way swiftly to the round file, and I remember them for their poor quality.
Online printers don't get it
I recently received a packet from a large online printer. I requested samples of postcards, business cards, brochures, and other identity materials. The packet I received contained only a few business cards, one of which had an ink smudge across the logo, and three identical postcards. All of the samples were poorly printed. The packet also included a form letter with a typo and two sentences that failed to make any sense whatsoever. One of those sentences happens to also be their tag line. The printer did not even bother to enclose their own business card. This company claimed to be able to help me with my marketing. As if!
Be sure to consider all factors
Large and small clients alike are telling us with increasing frequency that they want the cheapest printing available. They usually do not take into account that online printers charge for shipping. When you consider the lower quality, shipping costs, and poor service, it is usually better to stick with a local printer and pay a little more. The difference in quality will often be paid for by the first resulting sale.
There is no better way to ensure that the good money you just spent on developing a handsome brochure, or a striking identity is wasted than by hiring the cheapest printer. There are literally dozens of factors to consider when choosing a printer. Pricing generally slots in about four rungs down the ladder, after experience, quality, and service.
Budget for success
If you put off setting a budget until you are ready to go to press, you are sure to have a giant headache looming. If you set your budget before the project gets started, you will have a final design that will meet both your budgetary needs and printing requirements.
Use your designer to order your printing
Leave it to your designer to choose the right printing source for the project. An experienced designer who has purchased printing for many years will know the right printers for each type of job. Designers are experienced with proofing stages, and they can catch common printer errors that clients often miss. While it may seem easy to write those things off, keep in mind that the little details that designers obsess over are the very things that make your marketing communications more effective. If you let details slip through the cracks, your marketing will be less effective. Also, while special cuts such as rounded corners may look cool, aesthetic decisions are best implemented as part of a design. Gratuitous effects rarely improve marketing materials.
Here's a quick checklist that will help you get the printing you need every time. This checklist will help you understand what is involved in good printing and why it is so critical to the success of your marketing communications.
10.5 Things to Check Before Hiring a Printer
1. Budget: Set a reasonable and realistic printing budget that fits with your goals before your piece is designed.
2. Print Quality: Ask printers for a sample packet. If the samples contain obvious mistakes such as ink smudges, or if the colors are not properly registered, or the color is inconsistent, find another printer.
3. Service: Make sure there is a high level of service. A printer who has low or no service doesn't understand that printing is a service industry. Online printers are especially guilty of this. If you have to spend fifteen minutes on hold to get an answer to a one-minute question, that's a waste of your time, and ultimately, your money. The more time the printer wastes, the less actual value their low prices offer. Use local printers whenever possible.
4. Price: Make sure that you get the best quality for your money. Upon receiving the quote, make sure that the printer has followed your specifications correctly. They sometimes miss small details that can make large differences in quotes. Keep in mind that printing specifications are sometimes quite complex, and the best estimators are human. Keep your cool when asking for corrections.
5. Quantity, part 1: Always get quotes from at least three different printers. The quotes you get may surprise you. Since different print jobs fit best on different types of presses, you may find that the prices are all over the board. If a printer really wants your business, they will sometimes price the first job very low. If the quote is too low in comparison to the rest of the quotes, that is often a red flag. If a high-end printer's quote is way out of your budget, the job is probably not a good fit for that printer. If the prices are consistent across the board, pick the one from the rep that gives you the best service.
5.5. Quantity, part 2: Keep in mind that the unit cost on most printed pieces will go dramatically down as the quantity goes up. If you have more and you paid less, you are more likely to hand out your communications more liberally. For obvious reasons, this is a good thing. If you can afford more, get more, but do not sacrifice quality for a higher quantity. Avoid going one step up and two steps back.
6. Delivery: Does the printer deliver? What is the cost of delivery? Local delivery is sometimes free. Online printers charge what UPS charges. Printed goods are heavy, so count on adding a significant shipping charge to your online price. If you need it online and fast, you need it expensive.
Additional checklist for designers:
7. Planning: Allow enough time to make sure that you can do all of these things without jeopardizing your deadline, and without making impossible demands of your printer. To borrow a saying from one of my best printers: Want it bad? Get it bad.(TM) (Of course, they always deliver excellent quality.) Local printers can sometimes move your job up in the schedule, but be aware that there is sometimes a charge for that service.
8. Stick to Your Guns: If a printer tells you that your design is too difficult, find another printer. Not every job is a good fit for every printer. Printers are generally hungry by nature, and they hate turning away work. They will often try to get designers to change a design to better fit their press. Do not give in to that pressure. Stick to your guns. A knowledgeable printer is qualified to make good suggestions for improving a piece, but they sometimes overstep their territory to the detriment of the marketing piece. If you know your stuff, you will know the difference between a good and bad suggestion. If they go too far, hold firm or find another printer.
9. Double-Check Your Art: If you are getting spot color printing, make sure you have used spot colors. If you have used CMYK builds, make sure that you have used proper builds, not spot colors, or worse, RGB screen values. This may seem like an overly basic suggestion, but it is astoundingly common for printers to receive art from design firms or ad agencies who simply do not know how to properly set up their art.
10. Review Specifications: Review colors and papers with your client. Choose a stock that makes a strong impact and meets the budget. Good designers know which papers to specify for meeting goals and price points. If the client specifies an online printer for their business cards, make sure to tell your client that higher quality uncoated stocks are not available. Be sure to explain the extreme difference in brightness between many spot and process colors (oranges and blues, for example).
A few words about cheap business cards
Avoid using online business card template designs and printers who offer free cards. It can take months to build your credibility, but it takes only one cheap business card to undermine that credibility in the eyes of a prospective client. Are you a fly-by-night company or an established professional? Your business card will succinctly answer that question.
Make your printing a strong link
High quality printing defines an important part in the difference between acceptable and high-impact, memorable corporate identity, branding, and marketing communications. Consider your printing to be a critical link in the chain, and you will help ensure that your marketing communications will get the maximum return on investment.
Read the full text of this article at http://kellyhobkirk.typepad.com
Kelly Hobkirk is co-founder, creative director and senior copywriter for Train of Thought, a graphic design, branding, and marketing communications firm with a 17-year history of helping clients succeed.
Learn more about the author, Kelly Hobkirk.
Hi Kelly,
As someone who works almost exclusively on the internet, this article was very helpful.
Having a long illustrious history of asking the "dumb question" every on else wants answered but is afraid to ask, I would like to ask you to expand on #9. I know CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and black (figure that one out!) and RGB stands for red, green blue but what is spot color printing and what should we know to prevent a problem?
Thanks!
This is excellent advice, Kelly. Many a well-designed piece has been ruined by poor printing. There are so many factors to consider and you have done a good job of outlining them here.
Your #8 is so important ("not every job is good for every printer.") We have found that we use certain printers for certain types of jobs and others when a different set of skills is needed.
Generally, I have found your statement of "Online printers don't get it" to be true. In our 16 years of graphic design and copywriting, we have found only one online printer that can compete on price and quality, even with the shipping charges thrown in. A very rare find.
And #4, so important, those specs (making sure each printer you get a quote from follows them exactly so you are comparing apples to apples).
I wish every client could have a copy of this list because sometimes they just don't get the printing thing. Great job!
Thanks for a great article Kelly. I absolutely agree that high quality printing makes a difference in the type of impact your material, even business cards have in the world. It is quality that I am willing to pay for. With that quality of printing comes the insurance plan for getting it right. There is also a trust factor with your printer that is important, my material is me. My materials are often in the door first so they need to convey that same quality I give in person. I go after top notch clients therefore I need a presence that says I am worth what I charge.
What you say here with out writing it clearly, and it is important to be said out loud - working with your printer is a partnership - equal parts responsibility. Having been around the print shop for a while, I know when I am involved and clear on my expectations, meeting my deadlines, the job goes much smoother.
One final note and really an addition to points 1 and 2 - find out upfront what the corrective process is for printing that doesn't meet your standard. If you get a batch of printing that has faults, there are variations in color, bleed, blemishes etc., find out upfront what the printer will do to fix it. You want to know what options you have before there is ever a problem. I have seen printers refuse to make right the problem and/or blame the problem on the files. The key to this is - CHECK YOUR PROOF BEFORE YOU SAY PRINT and know your options.
A great topic and thanks for sharing your tips and tools with us.
Hi Elge,
Spot color printing is done with formulated, pre-mixed inks that print in continuous tone. Since process (CMYK) tones are made up of small dots, many colors are invariably muted. The dots are determined by percentages of the individual cyan, magenta, yellow, and black colors. The blends are carefully formulated, but many of the tones end up with a grey/brown feel due to the mixes. It is possible to get bright colors in process printing, but not all colors can be made bright. For instance, orange cannot be made bright in process. Blues are less intense. Purples are often muted.
People often think that if you add more color to the mix, you can get richer colors, but the opposite is true. Remember that water color set in the plastic case that may have had as a kid? Well, if you still have it, open it up and start mixing all of the colors together. You'll wind up with varying shades of brown. If you use the colors individually, you will get brighter colors.
When companies want their colors to really 'pop', we use spot colors. With spot color printing, you can have colors that print and communicate with an intensity that you just cannot get with process printing. This is yet another reason why I prefer local printers. Online printers use almost exclusively process color printing. When they do spot color, since it is not their bread and butter, they tend to provide less quality, primarily in the form of inconsistent color.
Spot color makes a good design even better. It helps the design command attention, and it brings out the details. Because of the way we learn about color from a young age, spot color is better for guiding user perception.
Hope this helps.
Kelly
Thanks! That's very helpful.
Hi Tammy,
That's a good point, regarding partnership with your printers. It is important to be able to trust your printers, and really, all of your vendors. In my experience, some printers understand the vendor relationship, while others kind of miss the point. For instance, I had a printer tell me last year that they view their own opinions of our design work as being equally important to our opinions, or to our clients' desires for that matter. I couldn't work with that, so they are not on our vendor list.
My best printers understand that I trust them to do great work, and I rely on them for their knowledge and expertise. It is important that they reciprocate with the same level of trust and respect. When that relationship is healthy, the end product, the service, and the overall experience of working together is great. Importantly, those types of relationships result in better print deliverables for the client.
I have found the best way to avoid printing mistakes is to know your printer. Yes, always check the proof, but today's proofs don't work as well as they did some years ago. Colors are often inaccurate on PDF proofs. Old proofs used to be made from the negatives that were used to make printing plates, but printers by and large do not use negatives anymore. Instead, they send the PDF proof, then they send the file to a different device to output plates. A plethora of problems can occur at that stage, and no amount of PDFs will entirely avoid these problems. That why it is SO important to do press checks. More than ever before, press checks are a critical part of the printing process. (You can't do a press check when you use an online printer.)
Best, Kelly
This article is excellent. I can think of no possible way to improve on it.
I have been working with my particular local printer for nearly 20 years, and I consider them a valuable partner in my creative process. They know what my standards are and do everything they can to meet them. When there is a problem, they have 5 words: We'll. Take. Care. Of. It. And they do.
Interestingly, I have managed to develop a similar relationship with the one online printer I use. They are in California, yet they know me by first name and they have the same approach to customer service as my local guys. They'll do hard copy proofs and work with me on color issues. In fact, my local guys often job out to them. But you are right: for the most part, online printers can't match the advantages of a good local printing partner.
I hope as many Bizniks read this article as possible. You have done all of us a good service by posting this information. (And I bet you miss chromalins as much as I do.)
Thank you, Laurel, for the compliment. I'm glad you enjoyed it. And yes, I do miss chromalins!
Just say no to Vistaprints! That's my motto. When someone hands me a template card I have seen a million times from Vistaprints I immediately get a read on their sophistication level as a business person. (Caveat: There are times when someone is still figuring out what they are doing and they have another job, just want some quickie cards, okay then; But a serious business person should hire a designer and look sharp.)
If someone reading this is turning red, have no fear, just seek out a solid designer like Kelly to help you bring your image up to snuff. If you are serious and you really have a great product or service, spend some money on great design and quality printers.
Many great points, especially the one about checking the artwork and colors before doing the final print. There isn't just one blue! It's infinite.
Wow Karrie, my sentiments exactly regarding Vistaprints. A good business card design and quality printing will usually pay for itself very quickly. Thank you for reading (and for the plug!) :-)
Kelly as a print professional I want to applaud you on this article. I have spent years in the trade and now I am in the sales end of it and I could not agree more.
I think the value of a good designer as well as a good quality printer makes for a nice finished piece. This combination of professionals will also make sure you are printing something of value that will get your message across.
Also a good designer working with a printer can really reduce the stress of deadlines as you will have experienced professionals helping you top stay on schedule.
Thank you Kelly.
Mike
Mike is good karma. When you go local, go with Mike! =)
Great Article - and even better - fabulous job on managing the printing for my business cards.
Thank you Catherine! Glad you are happy with them.
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