For most companies any form of colour printing in-house for either personal or business organisations can be not only pricey but can only provide amateurish results. In particular if even duplicates are required then before you know it the ink cartridge will be run down and can cost a small fortune to replace. This frustration is heightened even further when it’s just a single colour cartridge, which is needed, and your machine refuses to print without it even if the colour (usually yellow) is required but you don’t even have any yellow on the page.

Small run or single sheet printing on a standard desktop inkjet or colour laser printer is fine, but try printing a booklet or even a business cards and this is when suddenly it doesn’t seem like a good idea. It’s just not at all practical or even affordable to do this type of in-house printing and look remotely professional.

At this point its best to turn to the professionals, who will offer to either print your items using either digital or litho printing services. The machines used for printing in full colour these days are superb, digital printing has come such a long way and is nearly as good as litho. Digital printing does have some small setbacks when it comes to very faint architectural lines used on a technical drawing for example but it’s a fantastic solution for short run printing. When you only need a few copies then it by far out ways litho printing, which only comes into its own with quantities of 500 or more.

Litho printing is what is normally known as ‘traditional printing‘ the most well-known form of printing services and it is offering its solutions for 100’s of years. The name ‘offset litho’ takes its name from the printing technology which includes getting the print to ‘offset’ from a roller to which is wrapped a plate which then material (paper) by shifting it from plate to paper.

You can expect a quality reproduction through litho printing. At present, there are many litho printing companies offering there services online at discount prices, but cheapest is not always best. All online printers are not the same. Some take a more cavalier approach to the printing services that they offer, by thinking that they can cut the corners so tight that they become the cheapest found online, these suppliers will soon become unstuck.

Quality will be compromised, and some if not most customers will be disappointed.

As with any new supplier you come across in business your aim is to find a quick and reliable company who takes you seriously and isn’t just trying to make a fast buck. Checkout their credentials beforehand, maybe they have customer testimonials on their website, these can obviously be a good starting position for checking into how genuine the supplier is, as these days its all about social networking and customer feedback. Don’t trust websites which has customer testimonials with non-descript comments and may sign off with ‘Dave from Surrey’, these don’t look at all credible. Some sites have links to the customers own website, if they are happy to display this usually means that the comment was genuine. Ask for a sample pack, this is a great way of seeing the quality of the products before you buy them. Some online printers show samples with their own graphics on them, whilst this does show the quality of the printing it doesn’t always show that they actually do this printing commercially for customers, anyone can surely print their own samples which say ‘check out our print’, but surely its best to show real life samples of customers printing, this can give you an idea of what you could achieve – its also a great way of obtaining ideas for your own design, if of course you are designing your own leaflets.

Dean Williams

Dean Williams is a design and marketing blogger working for Print-Print Limited, promoting business and building brands through quality print marketing. If you’re interested in small business promotion then please get in touch hello@print-print.co.uk