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There are many types of folding, some of which have more than one name. Here is a good cheat-sheet to help understand the basic folds:
Accordian Fold or Z-Fold: Both are similar, but the Accordian fold is typically referenced when there is more than 2 folds per page.
Half Fold: Simply stated, this is folding a page in half.
Trifold or Letter Fold: This has two folds with the panels folded towards the same side of the page.
French Fold or Cross Fold: This is basically two Half Folds.
Double Parallel Fold: This is a way folding the page within itself.
Gate Fold: As the name would suggest, this fold allows a person to open a page like two gates.
Barrel Fold: This is like a Letter Fold, but with three folds.
Then there’s Ben Folds…..just kidding.
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Reprographics is the reproduction and duplication of documents, written materials, drawings, designs, etc., by any process making use of light rays or photographic means, including offset printing, microfilming, photography, office duplicating, and the like (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=reprography).
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Some clients may have heard a broker or printer mention an iGen in the past, along with many other names in the industry. An iGen, or what is currently known as the iGen3, is a digital printing press (http://www.xerox.com/digital-printing/digital-printing-press/color-printing/xerox-igen3-110-90/enus.html).
Orginally, the iGen was meant for copy shops, that were consistantly running upwards of 5 color copiers at a time, and were looking to consolidate. That said, the iGen has a reputation of being a souped-up color copier, but with fast speeds, no set up (which means no minimum quantities), and better quality print than a copier.
With these attributes, the iGen has become a very popular solution for short-run (less than 1000 units) print and variable data (personalized printing) projects. Real Estate firms and Title agencies love this print offering, because these sort of companies are based off the individual, and individuals don’t necessarily have the money to dish out for large-quantity print work. At the same time, the competitive nature of their businesses does not give them time to wait 3-5 days for a print job. The iGen has become a great solution for these situations.
The iGen is most commonly used to print brochures, books, flyers, postcards, newsletters, catalogs, manuals, Point of Purchase materials, sell sheets and more.
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www.IHeartPrint.com just made mention (http://www.iheartprint.com/2008/01/03/lang_en-my-5-print-related-thoughts-for-2008-lang_en/) of ProjectCenter’s blog (projectcenter.wordpress.com), saying that that companies like ProjectCenter “are proving that it’s worth [it] to share knowledge and engage conversations”.
ProjectCenter would like to thank www.IHeartPrint.com for this compliment.
We would also like to thank others (i.e. www.unioncopy.com) that have been sharing our posts to the public. We really appreciate your help.
As always, we greatly welcome your comments on our blog, and hope you will take the time to do so.
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ProjectCenter recently bidded on a project that included a request for 1500 units of one-sided color flyers (4/0, if you like). The prospect had stated that they just wanted them to be copier quality, which suggested that they were trying to save money. In this situation, the client would be better off taking the flyers to an offset press. To exemplify the difference in cost, these options were quoted to the client (pricing not exact):
Offset: 2500 units (some offset presses will only allow certain quantities, such as 1000, 2500, 5000, etc.)- $400
Copier: 1500 units (ProjectCenter has a .45 per color copy special for January)- $700
As one can see, not only is there a major price difference, but a client can get more units and the paper stock is much better (offset offers 100lb Gloss Book vs. copy paper).
The only drawbacks in this situation are time and quantity limits. Offset presses can take anywhere from 3-7 days to process, while copy work can typically be done the same day, and as stated above, a lot of offset press printers will only allow certain tiers in ordered quantities.
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Some may have seen television commercials by a large national copy company (rhymes with Plinko’s), offering a .45 per color copy special. Some ProjectCenter clients took their projects over to this copy provider, and the result was not impressive in their opinion. This is what they had to say (paraphrased):
“They use low-quality thin paper that you can literally see through. If you want the normal paper, it costs more.”
“They use a low-quality wax-based copier, and it looks horrible.”
Adage: You get what you pay for.
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This is a simple posting to help people understand the basic difference in charges, when comparing color and black & white copier printing.
Currently, the typical retail charge for color is about .88 (88 cents) per 8.5 x 11 page. The typical retail charge for black & white is .10 (10 cents) per 8.5 x 11 page.
To be clear, these charges are estimates. Each service provider charges what they feel is appropriate for their business. It could lower in price, it could be higher in price.
Hope this helps our readers……
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Some viewers of this blog have been specifically looking for information on copier click charges. Click charges pertain to an agreement where a copier vendor charges a slight amount per copy, in order to service the machine and/or have it on a lease. This is a customary practice.
The charges vary depending on the business (are you ‘print for page’ [reseller] or an end user?), but also depend on what the copier sales guy/gal can get away with. Let’s face it, they are in the business of making money. For this reason, click charges WILL NEVER BE PUBLISHED by the industry.
Only by luck, and the graciousness of the community, will one be able to find this information.
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Once in awhile, a client will create artwork that incorporates a color called gold. Unfortunately, gold is simply not a color and it cannot even come close to resembling the real thing, which is a material.
When an art piece is printed with gold, clients will often be disappointed in the end result- the gold color looking more like a mustard color. The only true way of accomplishing a gold color on a printed piece is to incorporate foiling. Foil is just as one would imagine- a foil material that is pressed on to a printed piece of work.
The likelihood that someone would use foil for something like a newsletter is very slim, because it can be an expensive service. Foiling is usually used for business cards, since they are smaller in size and foil sticks better to cardstock.
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When artwork goes all the way to the edge of a document, it is called a full-bleed piece. Full-bleed product in the world of the offset printing industry is very common, because the tools and machinery are made to accommodate this task.
The method by which this is accomplished is by making the artwork slighty bigger than the actual size. This slightly oversized artwork is then printed on oversized paper, and then the piece is cut down to actual size, leaving no border.
Unlike offset printing, copiers are not necessarily made to handle full-bleed projects. Yes, it can be done by printing on an oversized piece of paper and cutting it down, but a problem still exists. Copiers have what is known as a registration, which is a calculation as to where the artwork is placed on the page. Unfortunately, this registration changes all the time, because of the way a copier is made. The combination of rollers, drums, page thickness, paper stock and temparature all contribute to where the artwork lands on the page, which can slightly change with each and every page. So, when one goes to print on the other side of a double-sided project, they will find that the two pieces of artwork are not exactly lined up front to back.
When this issue happens, a client needs to accept the shortcomings of a copy job, or move the project to the offset printing option. There really are no other alternatives.
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Clients sometimes request their booklets or flyer packets to be corner stapled. For the purposes of cost, this is a fine option. For purposes of presentation, corner stapling is not suggested.
For a more professional looking piece, a client should consider other binding methods, such as tape binding, comb binding, velo binding, coil binding, saddle stitch, etc. These options offer a more presentable look for marketing materials.
Here are some images of each option:
When a company is promoting .35 a color copy, keep in mind two things: (1) It is only for a limited time; (2) 35 cents only includes single-sided documents (double the price for dual-sided copy work).
Some folks confuse offset printing with copier printing, meaning clients that are doing a copy job sometimes feel the price of service should trend downward when less color is used. Pricing according to the number of colors printed is a model that is used in offset printing (i.e. a 2-color project costs less than a 3-color project).
Copiers work on a per-click model. Everytime a service provider prints an impression (one side of an 8.5 x 11 page), they are charged a click, and each click costs a contracted amount of money (usually cents). Regardless, of how much toner is being used or not used, the click charge remains the same. Thus, service providers usually have a low and high range of what they are willing to charge per impression, but the price does not change based on what color is being used.
The low range tends to be around .39 per copy, but that price is misleading because it is based on each impression (single side), so a client would need to double that price for double-sided documents. Also, that price is usually a temporary loss leader anyway. The high range is typically around .88, and this does not matter if it is a single-sided document or double-sided document, so a client ends up spending more than they need to if they are printing single-sided documents.
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When does it make sense, in terms of pricing, to print my flyers on offset press?
This post explores when the quantities of color copy work and offset press match up in the total price. Keep in mind, the pricing is very general and is based on the pricing ProjectCenter offers to its clients.
Description of materials:
Copier- 8.5 x 11 regular color copy paper
Offset- 8.5 x 11 100lb Gloss Book
390 single-sided, or 240 double-sided Copy = 100 Offset
615 single-sided, or 375 double-sided Copy = 250 Offset
660 single-sided, or 405 double-sided Copy = 500 Offset
715 single-sided, or 450 double-sided Copy = 1000 Offset
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Common logic would suggest that having the outside of a booklet printed on 100lb gloss cover, and printing the inside pages on gloss text, would be a good idea . Clients want to do this to differentiate the cover from the internal pages. Be aware that there is an issue with that, if the service provider is running a project on a copier.
If you are doing a basic fold and saddle stitch process, the artwork will tend to crack when the 100lb gloss cover page is folded. This is because of the combination of the way a copier prints to a page (more on this in a future post), and the thickness of the stock.
The good news is that artwork tends to be designed to proactively differentiate the cover from the internal pages anyway. If that is not enough, then consider printing the cover in color and the internal pages in black & white. Or use a different binding option altogether, such as spiral plastic coil, comb bind, etc.
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Sometimes there are marketing clients that like to replicate a dollar bill as part of their marketing piece. One has to be very careful as to how close the artwork matches the actual dollar bill. If it is too close of a match, a copy machine will literally lock up, and a service manager needs to come out to unlock the machine.
The suggestion would be to make the artwork look like a cartoon (’funny money’) version of the real dollar.
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