When you're designing a brochure printing run for your custom printing service to produce (or any other kind of publication, for that matter), one of the first decisions you must make, along with format, size, and paper, is what ink colors you will use. First to mind often are the process colors and PMS colors. But you needn't stop here. Be creative. Reach beyond the norm. Here are some options.
If you ask him (or her), your paper merchant or custom printing vendor will give you what's called a “paper dummy” of your job. It is an unprinted version of your project on the exact paper stock you plan to use. It has been folded, bound, and trimmed to the exact dimensions of your custom printing job. It will weigh exactly what an individual copy of your brochure, book, or flyer will weigh. Your business printing service or paper merchant will provide this as a free service. Here are some situations in which you might want to request one.
I recently wrote a blog entry about a client who had produced a short, saddle-stitched booklet with an uncoated “Sand” (essentially beige) cover stock and white text stock. Things hadn't gone as well as expected between the book printer and the client.
Digital large format printing has taken an increasingly prominent role in the fine arts.
I was both pleased and a bit surprised to see at a recent art league show in Rehoboth, Delaware, just how much of a foothold inkjet printing has taken in the market for fine art prints. It is also becoming accepted as a valid artistic tool by the artists themselves.
A client recently contacted me regarding a book printing job, a perfect-bound textbook for high school students. The 312-page book has black-only ink for the text, while the cover is 4-color plus one PMS ink. The online printing company manufacturing this book for my client has recently installed a new virtual proofing system called Rampage Remote.