Sunday, August 3, 2008

Printers Ideal for Postcard printing

By Jacques Di Salvia


Postcards are perhaps the most cost effective means of promoting your company and the products and services your company offers to your prospective customers. The biggest advantages of postcards are two 'C's - Cost and Convenience.

For any promotional campaign to be successful it must penetrate directly into the targeted portion of the marketplace. The quality of the printed postcards is an essential element. As the saying goes, 'garbage in - garbage out' so, therefore, you want to be sure that your input and processing requirements will produce the highest quality of output. One of the factors that are eminent to the quality of your output is the postcard-printing machine. Your design and the value of the paper that is used for the printing process can be of the highest standards but if the printing machine is incapable of printing in high-resolution graphics then your project may have a setback.

Offset presses were used in the past when printing postcards but nowadays more and more printing companies use digital presses. They like the flexibility and options that the machines provide and the output is of the highest quality. From the many design templates to the ability of merging your mailing lists with the design are just two of the primary benefits when using a digital press.

There are many features offered by digital printer manufacturers for their digital presses. High-quality prints are always produced on machines from global leaders like Kodak, hp and Canon. Their sophisticated systems incorporate paper transfer and printing technology. All of these operations are handled through a control panel electronically.

Different stocks of Gloss, Matte, and Pearl finish and of varied thickness (GSM) can be used for printing. All machines are capable of printing up to A3-sized papers. The printing speed is usually around 4000 sheets of A4 sized paper per hour for four different colors (CMYK) printing and 16000 copies of A4 sheets for black and white printing.

You can download your postcard design directly from the Internet and it can be seen on the monitor located in the control panel. The print jobs can be prioritized by placing the jobs in queue and based on priority.

If you are looking for a quick turnaround time when it comes to printing your postcards, some printing machines can print on both sides of the postcards. The most powerful of all printing features is the variable data. They have the ability to create customized and unique postcards. For this reason, digital printing is overtaking the marketplace when it comes to postcard printing.

Cutting and trimming the postcard is the final step in giving the postcard a particular shape after it has been printed. If you would like to add some additional affects then it may go to the other departments like embossing, UV varnishing and leafing. Although digital printing is a preference for most when utilizing the variable data printing method offset printing is still a favourite for long run jobs.

About the Author:

No comments: