First, professional jobs require a good deal of typesetting and document creation. You also need the results of your hard work to be exact. That last thing you need is for the marketing materials you created to make your company look incompetent or messy. You want them to help your company.

At some point in the future you’ll probably have some pretty tough deadlines, even if you’ve left yourself several weeks to complete the print job. So make sure you find a company that can properly handle last-minute changes and rush jobs.

Your professional print jobs should be utilizing the highest quality paper and ink out there. However, you’ll only find them with professional printing companies. Your local copy center could probably order the paper for you, but they won’t have the right ink. They also won’t have any relationships established with vendors and commercial printing equipment suppliers in order to get you the best prices. So stick with a company that has experience.

Any company that is well-established in the industry should have employees who also realize that part of their job is customer service. They need to not only provide high-quality products, but also make your experience as easy as possible throughout the entire printing process.

As you can probably tell, finding the right printing service may not be as easy as you though. It’s not like driving by and seeing a copy center that can print you off some flyers for your local garage sale. So make sure you look for a company that can work with you to create quality, professional printed products using the methods you require. Use a commercial printing dealer directory or commercial printing dealer locator if you have to. There are plenty out there. Also make sure they already have established relationships with vendors so that you can get the best prices around.

Brightness

In the world of commercial printing, “brightness” refers to how much light is reflected off of the paper. Brightness values range on a scale from 0-100, 100 being the brightest. The important thing to remember is that the brightness mainly affects the vibrancy of your colors. And DO NOT confuse brightness with whiteness. Whiteness refers to the shade (cream, beige, gray) of the paper and has little or nothing to do with the brightness. So just ask yourself – how bright do I want my colors to be?

Weight

The weight of paper is based on how much 500 sheets of paper weighs in pounds. If 500 sheets of paper weighs 80 pounds, then the paper would be referred to as 80# paper. Even though this may seem quite precise, it’s still not an exact science. You’ll still need to treat weight as a rough estimate until you are able to actually examine the paper yourself. For example, 80# paper is a pretty standard paper for flyers or brochures. But just because that’s the standard, it might not be right for your project. Be sure and ask your printer and by all means – ask for paper samples.

Coating

Coating or coated paper refers to a film that is put on the paper that improves or negates how light reflects off the paper. The coating can be applied either on both sides or only on one side of the paper. A very common type of coating is gloss, or glossy paper. It’s used for pictures and any other graphics that you really want to stand out. A matte coating will do the opposite – it will make the image more dull and stand out less.

Now that you’ve got a better idea of brightness, weight and coating, you should be a little better equipped to deal with the commercial printing today.

The fact is, when a person sees a printed ad in the newspaper or in a magazine, he or she reads it and it registers and produces much better results than any other type of ad. The same goes with other printed materials like brochures or flyers. What a person sees on a flyer is more likely to register than an ad he or she runs across on the internet. It’s important to remember that the goal of advertising is to produce actual results in a cost-effective manner.

This is where the benefits of commercial printing come into play in your business. TV, radio, internet ads may reach more people, but they’re also MUCH more expensive to produce. And even though people see them, they just don’t register as well as printed media does. Printed advertising tends to hold people’s attention far better.

All companies know how important a continuous marketing program is, and printed media and advertising should be a major part of it. Sure, it’s easy and relatively cheap to run a small ad in the newspaper or on the internet once in a while, but the fact is that it’s not going to produce the results that you’d get from having a beautiful custom-printed insert ad in the same newspaper. Even better is a well-designed and functional brochure that people can take home with them.

One of the biggest problems with so many types of advertising, like in the newspaper or on the internet, is that people have become so accustomed to seeing them that now they simply pass right over them. But with custom printed media, they have to look at it and hold it for a bit to at least figure out what it’s for. They might even read it a bit, even if they plan on throwing it in the garbage can. However, during that short amount of time it’s going to subconsciously register in their minds and have a certain measurable effect. Even a small effect is better than nothing at all.

Commercially printed materials are incredibly important, especially today in a world of digital media. Don’t underestimate the importance of still utilizing printed advertising materials.

Your strengths will always be in your expertise. If you’re a plumber, plumbing is your strong point. Why waste your time doing tasks that have nothing to do with your business and expertise. By taking advantages of a commercial printer, you’ll no longer have to worry about how to get it done, just how much it costs.

2. They’ll do a better job

Just as you do what you do for a living, so do commercial printers. They know what issues can arise and exactly how to take care of them. And if you want, most have design studios that can assist in improving your designs too, making the final product even better.

3. You’ll save money

Just like you save money from buying bulk in stores, you’ll usually save money with commercial printers because they deal with large quantities too. They’re able to get print supplies cheaper than you can, and can therefore do the same job for less than you could do it for. Granted, you MIGHT be able to do it cheaper if you spend your own time and efforts doing it yourself, but how much was your time really worth? If you’d invested that time into your business and other projects, how much could you have earned? The commercial printing competition out there is also pretty stiff, so you should be able to get decent prices pretty much anywhere you go.

4. You’ll have better options

Chances are, your commercial printer will have a huge variety of printing options to cater to all types of projects and businesses. Want something printed on plastic or metal? Or perhaps a slot inside a brochure to hold a business card? Chances are, your printer will be able to tackle any job you hand over.

5. You’ll get direct delivery

Pretty much any well-established printer will deliver projects directly to you or your client’s location. Isn’t it great when you can do a job well, get it printed up, and have it delivered right at your doorstep?

These are just five important things you should consider when thinking about moving toward commercial printing. There’s more to think about, but these will give you a great start.

The printing industry has a language of its own, with its own lingo. This short guide will help you with the basics and hopefully make the transition a little easier:

RGB vs CMYK

RGB stands for the colors red, green, and blue. This is a reference to the primary colors of light. Computer monitors, TV screens and projectors display images in RGB color mode.

CMYK stands for the colors cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (K). This is a reference to the primary colors of pigment or ink. Most of the time, when something is printed professionally, it is probably printed in CMYK color mode.

An important fact to remember is that these two formats are NOT compatible with each other. In order to go from your computer monitor to paper, or vice versa, the original color mode must be converted to the other.

Image Resolution

This is a term you’re probably familiar with. Image resolution is how many dots per inch make up an image, whether on your monitor or on paper. Both computer displays and printers display or create images by reproducing colors one tiny dot at a time. These are pixels on your monitor, or dots on a printed piece. Computers display images at around 72 dots per inch (dpi), while professionally created prints are produced at much higher quality, at 300 dpi or greater.

Why is this important to remember? Because you could not take a small image off the internet, enlarge it on your computer, and attempt to print it. You’d end up with a very fuzzy and distorted image that lacked any sense of clarity. For the best results, you’d want to prepare your file at an original color depth of 300 dpi. You probably don’t need to go any higher than 300 dpi, and if you can avoid it, you shouldn’t go any lower than 150 dpi.

Bleed

A bleed is the area around the edges of your page that will probably be cut off. Why might you want to include a bleed? If you want your pictures or graphics to go all the way to the edge of the paper, you’re going to need a bleed. There’s probably no company out there that can cut each paper exactly right every time. So you’ll want to include about a 1/8” to 1/4″ bleed around the edges. Ensure that no important or relevant text or graphics is included in this area. Before “going to press,” you’ll probably want to ask your printing company how much bleed would be acceptable

There’s a lot more to learn in the world of commercial printing, but these printing basics should give you a pretty good start.

The fairly new concept of commercial printing is the process of going from artwork to a piece of paper or card stock. Most companies today use a form of offset printing that transfers to paper four separate colors to make the final color image. These colors are cyan, magenta, yellow, and black; also known in the industry as CMYK.

So what is the definition of commercial printing? The overall process of printing is actually quite simply and it hasn’t changed much over the last 100 years. It begins with aluminum plates that are created (pressed out) from the artwork. Most of the time there is one plate for each of the four CMYK colors. Each plate is then wrapped around large cylinders that allow the ink to fill up the cut or pressed out shape of the aluminum plate. Ink is then poured into the cutout and then transferred to a rubber roller. This roller is called the blanket cylinder, which is used to let the paper roll within to retrieve the right level of ink. And finally, the impression cylinder is a roller that pushes the paper along the process at around 10,000 sheets per hours to absorb the necessary amount of ink. There are four presses – one for each of the four colors. As the paper moves along each press, it retrieves one color at a time and eventually ends up in a heated area, where the paper can dry before printing on the back side.

To sum up the process, commercial printing involves determining the proper levels of water and ink for each color. The aluminum plate determines how much ink the paper can absorb, and the rollers press the image onto the paper, one at a time.

Commercial printing has many advantages over standard desktop printing. It can create professional and outstanding results that many people can use and enjoy. Many, if not most, companies utilize this form of professional printing. The key, however, is to ask your printer the right questions and understand how their process works. Chances are, CMYK offset commercial printing will be the best method for you to print amazing marketing materials.