Published: Wednesday, 20 December 2017 14:44

Perth businesses in all shapes and sizes, require professional printed business stationary and printed promotional materials. Building better brand recognition is easy, with the right tools, and will ultimately lead to your business success. However, these important business tools, don’t have to break the bank! Working with a professional, locally based printer, who understands the needs of your business, can help reduce your overall expenditure.

We have put together some tips to help save you time, and your hard-earned money, on your printed stationary and other materials. As always, we recommend you talk to your local printer about what will work best for your individual and unique business needs.

Proof Read

When you receive your finished art work, or even if you are writing the copy yourself, make sure you get multiple people to proof read and check all art work. There is nothing worse than printing thousands of pamphlets or business cards, only to discover a typo or something even worse, which renders the whole job worthless. Take your time and check thoroughly, as any additional amendments may incur extra fees, or worst-case scenario, a total reprint, which can prove costly.

Art Work

If you are submitting finished art work directly to your printer, make sure it is in the correct format and ready to go. They should give you a breakdown of what format and file type it should be delivered in, to make sure no further amendments need to be made, which may cause delays or additional costs.

It’s a great idea to discuss with your printer, the various design options, when having artwork created, to ensure the design is the most cost effective, while also remaining true to your business objectives. As an example, CYMK design for business cards, envelopes & notepads is usually a cost-effective option, as it can be printed quite inexpensively in a digital format. However, always remember if consistency and true colour is important, spot colour Is usually the best option.

Also, the design itself may be costing you more. If you have a design with large areas of solid ink, or if the colour runs all the way to the edge of the page, this may increase costs. Try and stick to simple clean designs, and use the paper stock itself to help add colour to your design. Speak to your printer about what option is best for you.

Offset v Digital

Digital Printing is a fast, low cost method of printing. It is best suited to small quantities of under 1000 A4 sheets, or than this, depending on the page size. Digital Offset will be cheaper for larger quantities than this.

Offset Printing is a traditional method of printing, best for large volumes. It is capable of producing both spot colour (PMS) and full colour (CMYK) printing meaning it is the only option available for precise colour matching to the internationally recognised Pantone Matching System (PMS).

Digital Printing is better for booklets where the content is different on each page, while Offset is usually more cost effective for NCR pads and referral pads where the same image is repeated throughout. If your printer has both options available they can guide you in the best, most cost-effective direction.

Online Print Management

If you can, try and choose a printer with an Online Print Management system. These are a great online tool, which allow you to login and view your products and pricing, and manage the ordering process online. If you have reprints of the same orders, such as re-doing business cards with new staff member details, it makes it really quick and easy to go in and change the name and other details, rather than re-doing all the artwork. This will also help you save on design fees.

Depending on the system, there should also be stock management functions available, so you can make savings by printing larger quantities of more costly products, such as Take 5 Books (see take 5 safety checklist examples) or tailored Presentation Folders, and keep them stored at your printer, retrieving extra quantities as you need them, and saving costs by ordering large quantities at a time.

Quantity

Always check with your printer the prices for a different range of quantities. Generally speaking, the more you print the cheaper it becomes per item. You might be surprised to find you can get hundreds more of an item for a slightly higher total.

Paper

It seems like a no brainer, but the type of paper or stock you choose to print on, can have a big effect on the final product, and the final quote! The main differences in paper are weight and finish, and you should look to choose a paper that functions correctly for your requirements (for example, will it need to be folded, does it need to protect documents etc). Get you printers advice on paper selection, they will know the most suitable stocks at the best prices.

With all the above in mind, you can certainly print high quality business collateral, at an affordable price. We would love to have a chat to you about how we can help, so feel free to get in touch with the professional Perth printing team at G Force Printing today.