As a designer and marketing professional, I’m often in charge of all my clients printing projects, but some clients prefer to handle this aspect by themselves so I’ve compiled this little list of handy tips to help control the costs of printing services.
Keep these tips in mind when printing your next project …
Use standard sizes
When you use standard sizes, then your printer will often have it in stock and ready for printing. Non-standard sizes may require special ordering and/or special cutting which will add time and costs to your final production. Standard sizes also make it easy to mix and match products. In other words, standard letter-sized brochures can be tri-folded and slipped into a standard #10 envelope, standard sized A2 invitation cards can be slipped into standard A2 envelopes, standard sized business cards will fit into wallets and into rolo-dexes … you get the idea.
Use standard papers and materials
The same logic applies here. Your printer will have standard papers and materials in stock and not have to incur extra time or expenses for procurement. Since choosing the right paper and/or materials is sometimes more of an art than a science, ask your printer for suggestions on which are right for your project(s).
Use color creatively and sensibly
It’s a given that color inks cost more to print than black inks, but you could print black text on colored paper for a fraction of the cost. You can also use colored inks sparingly but still have an eye-catching result —think of a colored headline on the front of a newspaper. Keep in mind that photos usually suffer a loss of detail and pizazz if they’re not printed in color.
Also remember that your printed materials are part of your overall branding and you want to make a good impression … sometimes it’s necessary to spend extra for better quality and products printed in full-color to make that best impression.
Proofread and use a Preflight Checklist
If at all possible, don’t proofread your own materials. If you don’t have the luxury of having someone do your proofing, put your project away for 24 hours and then you’ll be able to proof it from a fresh viewpoint. Preflighting is the process of gathering and reviewing all necessary elements of a print project before it is submitted for final production. Most printers can provide you with their preferred preflight checklist to use for projects which they’ll be producing.
You can also download and use this handy Preflight Checklist courtesy of About.com.
(Zip file containing Adobe PDF, OpenDocument ODT, Word DOC, and Word DOCX)
Allocate extra time for production errors and re-runs
It’s better to be safe than sorry. Factor in an additional 3 days for production just in case problems arise. If everything goes smoothly then you’ll have the satisfaction of having your printed pieces earlier than anticipated and be able to move on to the next step of your project.
Avoid rush orders … they add to everyone’s stress levels and can potentially subtract from the final product.
One last, little, personal tip is the fact that I only use online printers.
I’m able to upload my files, proof the design online, then chose the options for the specific printing project. Another nice thing about using online printers are that they limit your options. Why is that a good thing? They’ve already eliminated the guess work of which materials and options work best for which projects.
The point: don’t limit yourself to only printers available in your local area.
One caveat: complex projects and/or extremely superior quality can sometimes only be achieved by working closely with a local printer while physically visiting them repeatedly during the production process.
