When choosing a printing company, you should use put a premium on the kind of printing services you need. This covers a huge area of expectations, including the kind of Printing Quality and Customer Service that comes with it.
Both of these should be included in your standards. Price Estimate is also a factor to consider, but given the number of players out in the market – this really isn’t the most crucial factor. Besides, having to redo poor quality prints and bearing with the hassle of inadequate customer service may result in more cost than you bargained for.
The value of adhering to these standards varies from situation to situation, and from company to company. Here then are descriptions and measures you can use to gauge your printer of choice.
1. Print Quality
In printing photographs or any images, the measure of good quality is producing sharp, high contrast, and color accurate prints. In commercial printing, the measure is how close the print is to how the customer wants the print to be. Sharpness, contrast, and color expectations vary from material to material, and customer specifications.
The following factors affect printing quality:
• Size – Small prints that will be viewed in close distance are expected to have higher print resolution. Large format prints like vinyl banners and billboards do not require high resolutions since they will be viewed from a distance.
• Paper Material or coating – This is likely to affect the contrast. High gloss paper provides high contrast while matte finish can give you a dull, soft yet elegant finish. They have different uses, but you should expect them to look different.
• Ink –printers by default use four-color printing system (CMYK). These four-colors are layered and combined to create a wide range of colors that create photographic quality prints. Although it cannot accurately mimic all the colors our eyes can see, it satisfies most printing requirements. But for the most demanding designer, they can order a specific color from the Pantone Matching System, a company that specializes in expanding the color range of CMYK. This is a custom service and is more expensive.
When shopping for the best print quality, ask the printing company for samples of their work. They have catalogs or sample books that would demonstrate their print output in varying types of paper. Another option is to get a hard copy proof too so you can check for color accuracy better.
2. Customer Service
Printing is a service industry. Its business is not selling ink on paper; its business is to work with you to put your ideas to paper. Most of the printing problems occur before or after the printing process itself, usually because of misunderstanding, or poor service. Good printing services should be able to provide you with the following services.
Technical Support
Sales / Customer Representatives
Quick Turnaround Time and Rush Printing Services
Printing Resources such as guides, articles and other references for printing and product specifications.
Varied Customer Programs such as trade programs, wholesale printing and others.
A comprehensive discussion will follow in the part 2 of this article. Nevertheless, make full use of this discussion and see if your printing provider fits the bill.
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