Guidelines For Choosing the Right Commercial Printer

Many printers specialize in certain types of printing. Part of what kind of printing a printer does depends on what kind of printing press it has. Printers with web presses, in which items are printed on one continuous roll of paper, generally specialize in magazine printing and longer-run marketing pieces.

Sheetfed presses produce higher quality images (more detailed), but take longer to print because the sheets are already cut and have to be pulled one at a time out of the sheet holder. Sheetfed presses are used for everything from poster printing to art books.

Many printers have one or the other type of press as well as a digital press, which is used for shorter-run pieces.

When trying to choose a printer, it’s important to know what kind of press the printer has as well as knowing the following:

The location of the printing facility. This is important to your shipping costs. Paper is heavy and the cost of shipping is going up with the price of gas. The fewer miles the delivery truck has to travel, the cheaper it will be for you. Of course, if you find a printer that has a great discount, go with that company if the discount is more than what you have to pay for shipping. You can ask for a shipping estimate before you place your order.

Find out if the printer is capable of your size of print job. If you need a large number of items printed (at least 150,000) you can usually save money by going with a web printer. Ask the printing companies you’re checking out what kind of printers they have and if they’ve done a job of your size before. A sheetfed printer could certainly print 150,000 items, but it would take longer and could cost up to $10,000 more than printing the job on a web press.

Printing companies are pretty good about helping you decide which kind of press you need and which kind would save you the most money. Call several printers asking for bids and let them know you are shopping around. This should get you the lowest price and some helpful information.

Look for a digital printer if you have a small print run. If you only need 500 or 1,000 copies of a flyer or some other small-format piece (meaning not a poster or something bigger than 8.5” x 11”) look for a company that has a digital printer. The best digital printers are iGen and the Heidelberg DI for color and DocuTech for black-only jobs. These digital printers produce great color contrast and can get the job done quickly. Generally, printers can run these jobs as soon as you give them your digital file.

Go with the printer that has the smallest press that will do the job to your satisfaction. The bigger the press, the bigger the plates and the more ink will be used. Plus, it takes more energy to run a bigger press. Generally, you can save money (hundreds of dollars) if you use a smaller press.

These are just some general guidelines to give you an idea of what to look for in a printer. The best way to find the right printer is to ask around, research their Web sites and ask for a bid on your project.