I've been reading a number of articles and promotional pieces on large format printing presses. The technology is improving in leaps and bounds, providing options for large format signage, point of purchase displays, fleet and vehicle graphics, window graphics, backlit displays, and packaging.
I've been receiving a lot of direct mail custom envelopes with large windows recently, and I'm intrigued. The windows run almost from one side of the envelope to the other. Compared to the small address windows I'm used to, these look like plate-glass windows.
In an earlier blog posting, I noted that a client of mine who had produced a directory of non-profit educational organizations was having problems with the polybagging material in which the print books sent to subscribers had been wrapped.
In most cases, you have two options for printing multi-signature publications and books. The first is sheetfed offset custom printing. In this case, sheets of printing paper are fed one at a time into a small to mid-sized press. In most cases, you print one side of the sheet (sending it through four or more ink units) and then air dry the sheets. Once the ink has dried, you re-feed the press sheets into the press to print the opposite side of the paper. (In some cases, on “perfecting” presses, you can print both sides of the sheet in one pass, but this is not always an option.)
I learned a new phrase yesterday: “clamshell packaging.” So I did some research, and I checked out the online photos. I saw a vast expanse of commercial printing opportunities within the arena of packaging, including medical supplies like gauze pads in blister packs with printed peel-off lids, and pharmaceutical samples in fold-over blister packs that allow you to push a pill out of the packaging through the printed foil cover. I saw hardware supplies (screws, for instance) in plastic clamshell packages with fold-over lids. I even saw hamburgers in printed cardboard or cellulose clamshell packages.