Commercial Printing Help

In a day of digital TV and satellite, the internet, and radio, can printed media still be an effective form of advertising today? Absolutely! The importance of printed materials cannot be underestimated. Printed advertising is still one of the most effective forms of advertising available.

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.

Take a moment to think of all the printed materials you encounter every day. The list could be extensive: billboards, brochures, direct mailers, business cards, flyers, etc. These printed materials come in all different sizes, thicknesses, colors, and all types of creative designs. But how did all of these things come about? How did they go from an idea, to a design, to the final product? You’ll find out below.

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.