Take a Fresh Look at Online Printing

If it has been a long time since you took a look at online printing you may be surprised at what you find. Once upon a time the best you could do was to order cheap, poorly made business cards from foreign producers. You had no idea what you would get, and whether the spelling of common words would be correct. This simply isn’t the case any more.

Today you can get a full line of printed products, from business cards to promotional materials and on to posters from the same company. Using the same printer to run all of your jobs, when possible, will insure that you have a consistency between your materials, and allows you to access some of the best deals around.

What Should You Print Online?

Unless you need your materials today, think seriously about printing everything you need for your business online. It may seem like it would be more convenient to drop by your local print shop, peruse various books of proofs and pick something, but if your time is in high demand, this is just frustrating. Furthermore, you may wait quite a while before you get your completed materials.

If you use an online printing company you will find that the process is simpler and faster. You can make use of available templates, open access graphics or load your own. Help is available from well trained professionals who understand exactly what you need to create the perfect marketing materials. Best of all, turn around can be in as little as one day – and everything comes right to your door.

Color Printing in 4/0, 4/1 or 4/4

If you haven’t made good use of color printing, this is the time to experiment. If you haven’t encountered the above abbreviations before, 4/0 means full color on the front, nothing on the back, and 4/4 means full color on both sides and 4/1 means color on the front, black on the back. How do you know which to use? Partly it is a matter of experience.

For example, if you are printing a postcard to send out as an advertising promotion, 4/1 is probably your best bet. At least consider having a bit of color on the front, even if you can’t afford full color. For a brochure, 4/4 is appropriate if you plan to hand it out, but 4/1 is better if you will use the brochure as a mailer as well. Not sure which to choose? Consult with the experts that work for your printer.

Create a Printing Master File

No matter how you print projects you should always create a master file. This file should contain your logo, your motto, any graphics you commonly use, text you want to use consistently, etc. By putting all these pieces in a convenient location you make it easy to put together projects quickly and consistently. After all, branding is about consistency between all the things you present to the public.

Printing online is smart, cost effective and frankly, kind of fun. Take some time to look around and see just how many different products are available – you will surely be pleasantly surprised.