When you want to get beautiful color prints without breaking
your budget, you should consider offset printing. It used to be that offset
printing requires large volume for minimum orders, but with the developments in
printing, minimum orders have gone down. Now, you can order as little as 100
pieces for posters, and a few hundreds for other smaller items.
You can print out full-colored flyers for a single event or
for a seasonal promo, without worrying about having truckloads of them in your
basement later on. More importantly, you can print larger format materials than
your standard 8.5 x11 legal paper.
Digital Offset Printing vs. Inkjet Printing
Offset does not limit it self. There are other materials
such as paper labels, matte and high gloss paper to name a few other available
stocks.
You can now put your trusty inkjet printers to rest and let
the big boys come to the rescue. Photo quality inkjets are made for small
prints and business documents, and have more expensive ink (not to mention
paper). Colored copiers on the other hand have poorer print quality than the
rich photographic prints of commercial printers.
Commercial digital printers, on the other hand, come at par
with offset when it comes to print quality and longevity. And like the inkjet
printers at home, it has carved out a name in printing for short order prints.
But even though it is as effective as offset prints, digital prints are still
quite expensive to afford one your bulk printing needs.
Unlike offset prints where the cost goes down dramatically,
the change in cost for inkjet printing only goes down marginally. When the
printing volume goes to more than a few dozens, it will be cheaper to print a
hundred offset than to have the exact amount printed digitally.
Printing Cheaply with Offset
1. Commercial
printing companies use offset to print volumes of prints. These are favored for
being efficient and cost-effective. At the same time, it turns out consistent,
well-defined prints that makes every print produced count.
2. A wide
range of print products can be purchased in offset. From business cards to
greeting cards, multi-page documents such as newsletters, booklets or catalogs
and calendars, to small stickers.
3. Different
print jobs are laid out together in a single sheet also known as a gang-run.
When you run different print jobs as a single plate, on a single sheet, the
cost of plating and set-up is distributed over a number of jobs, making
printing cost-effective.
4. You can
have a number of sizes for your offset prints. Aside from the standard and
common sizes available for certain products, you can produce prints in your own
desired size with no problem. There are even printing companies out in the
market who would allow you to print as large as 12" x 18" without
undergoing custom printing.
The developments in digital technology have rubbed off on
offset printing, and are passed down to the users. This means you can afford to
have your marketing materials printed professionally and cheaply at the same
time. Added to this, you can enjoy them soon enough for offset prints also
possess short turnaround time.
