Three Affordable Printing Tips that You can Use

By: Adan Ines
Submitted: 2008-09-04 14:03:05
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Printing has become an invaluable tool when it comes to company or product marketing, advertising and branding. A huge amount of money is invested in making these materials in order to help yourr business maintain or build an image. However without the proper planning, you may invest a lot of money in your marketing materials yet the results may not come.

That is why having affordable printing materials is important. You need to have cost effective materials that helps you in selling your products.

Here are three affordable printing tips that will help you save on your budget:

Tip 1: Choose the right printing technique and method
The right printing technique is the key if you want to save money in producing your prints. here are some of the more common types of printing techniques:

Flexography is used mainly when you want to print packaging materials like labels, tape, bags, boxes, banners and the like. The advantage that flexography have over other printing methods is that it uses a wider range of inks that is water based and not oil based. Since these inks have low viscosity, they dry much faster.

Gravure printing is typically used for high quality printing – meaning you want to produce prints with very intricate details, patterns and colors. You can produce materials with very fine images and colors. However, the main drawback of this method is that the equipment used is more expensive as compare to the other printing methods – leading to more expensive prints

Screen-printing should be used only when you want to print on fabrics. And while digital printers can offer the same service, screen printing is more affordable and the quality is almost the same.

The offset method and digital printing are used in commercial printing with offset printers handling bulk orders and the digital printers handle short run prints.

Tip 2: Ink and color use
The number of ink and colors that you use is directly proportional to the cost of your prints. that is why it is very important for you to plan your designs ahead in order to maximize the use of colors and save on your ink costs. Also, unless you have a big budget, stay away from custom, metallic and pantone inks.

Tip 3: Available substrates
Just like the ink that you use, the substrate also influences how your prints cost. Paper is the substrate most commonly used when you want your print materials done. It is also one of the cheapest materials that you can use. However, you need to vary the substrates that you use when you have different purposes. For example, when you plan to create outdoor posters or banners, you maybe tempted to print on paper since the cost is relatively low. But you do need to keep in mind that since you are planning to use them outdoor, you need to have something sturdy and you need a material that will last for a long time like vinyl. Paper can only last a short time until the elements like wind, sunlight and rain will wear them down and destroy them. You’ll eventually have to print another batch of copies to replace the ones destroyed. Vinyl on the other hand may seem more expensive at first, but being a more sturdy and yet flexible materials makes you posters withstand a barrage of elements – saving you a lot of money in the long run.

Article source: Expert Articles