So you've got your beautifully designed leaflet emailed to you from the graphic designer, then you realise you need to ask a print house to print it... HELP!
A lot of graphic designers are happy to help you with getting a print quote or will even do it all for you. However, if you want to do it yourself or even just want to understand the quote your printer has sent through, then read my guide below which explains what it all means. Lets break the quote down into each element the printer will need to know and what the most common choices are. QUANTITY It sounds obvious but you will need to tell the printer exactly how many copies you want. The quantity you want will make a difference to the type of print process used and subsequently the cost of your print job. SIZE First you need to know how big your final artwork needs to be. If you've already got your artwork from the designer then you should already know this. If not, these are the most common paper sizes:
The above sizes are by no means exhaustive but are the most common sizes used. You can technically have any size and shape of paper you want but sticking to the above sizes will keep your print costs down due to the way the printer will fit them on the press. PAGE COUNT How many pages that will make up the publication. If it's just a leaflet then you will just need to tell the printer if it's single sided or double sided. If you have more pages then it will be what are call printers pairs. All this means is every booklet or brochure must have a page count that is divisible by four as the pages are in pairs and each leaf have two sides. STOCK Stock is just the word printers use for paper type. While there are lots of different types of paper in different thicknesses, for now I will just explain the basics. The first part is to decide what finish you'd like on the paper. The basic types are:
Once you have chosen the finish of the paper you need to decide on the thickness. Paper is measure in GSM (grams per square metre):
After reading this you will now hopefully have a better idea of what to ask for when getting a print quote. If in doubt, don't be afraid to ask the printer. They want you business and should be happy to help!
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AuthorMalcolm Roberts is a Worcestershire based graphic designer, blogger and lover of all things creative. Archives
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