Which press your job goes on.
- 01
Quantity Separates Digital From Offset
Digital has no setup, so fifty costs about fifty times one. Offset needs plates and a make ready before a single good sheet appears, then runs very fast and very cheap. Somewhere in the low thousands the lines cross, and we work that point out per job.
- 02
The Material Rules Processes Out
Paper and board take offset and digital. Fabric, glass, metal, acrylic and wood do not, and they need screen or UV printing. Tell us the substrate first, because it eliminates more options than anything else.
- 03
Size Decides Sheet or Roll
Anything up to about a metre comes off a sheet fed press. Beyond that it is roll fed large format, which is a different machine, a different ink and a different resolution. A banner and a brochure have almost nothing in common mechanically.
- 04
Durability Points at the Ink
Indoor paper work needs no resistance at all. Something going outdoors, getting washed or handled daily needs ink that bonds into the surface instead of sitting on it, which moves the job toward screen, UV or solvent inks with a laminate over them.
- 05
One Job Can Use Two Processes
A product launch might have offset brochures, digital personalised invitations, large format banners and UV printed acrylic signs. These are four presses and one deadline, and sequencing them is most of what production planning actually is.
- 06
Specified Before Anything Is Priced
We ask for quantity, material, finished size and where it ends up before quoting, since a price without those four answers is a guess at which press it lands on.
Where we will tell you no is a process that technically works and makes no sense. Screen printing two hundred sheets, or digitally printing fifty thousand, can both be done and both waste your money. We would rather lose the job than quote the wrong machine.
Start with print production, offset printing, or digital printing.
