Print Image Blog

2009 Calendars

A new product we are producing this year is a calendar in a CD case.

This consists of 14 pages printed full colour. We can put in your company logo etc. The cover page which is shown above for our calendar, 12 months and a page with public holidays and school terms.
The good news is that we print these in small batches with a minimum of 20.
The cost is:
20 R48.00 each
50 R33.00 each
100 R30.00 each
This excludes VAT. If want VAT inclusive price contact me.
There is a design and setup fee which is based on time and materials but is normally about R200.

The stock used is a 200GSM gloss board, and packed in a sturdy CD case then shrinkwrapped. Photos to be supplied.

Email me with your questions or post them here.

What new and classic branded items can you give your customers for year end gifts?

The classic first:

Calendars – A blog was done last year on this and it is still valid LINK

Christmas cards or sometime known as seasonal cards. Here we can do short runs as we have invested in the equipment to make this possible and we crease the cards not score them.To explain when you fold board (generally any stock heavier than 160 GSM is classed as board) it needs to be either scored or creased so it will fold in a straight line with no cracking.

This is what the the board is squeezed between to form the crease

Now with creasing it is more gentle on the board compared to scoring which can cut into the board  sometimes. So we produce professional looking cards in small quantities. Our digital printer is suited to do shortruns.

Mousepads – These are unique and different. Click here to go our webpage. We have done these as calendars week planners, or whatever you imagine.

Paper Blocks – We print your brand on these items generally as a light print or a “watermark” these are great items

Pads – Are a great handout and we do pads from A7 up to A2 deskpads. The A7 are great for putting in your pockets and and handbags.  A7 is 74mm x 105mm.

Other ideas are bookmarks gift tags postcards any other ideas?

Email me for any questions or price requests!

OK… The graphic designer does not get your drift, so you take the plunge and you are going to do your own print design.

Here are some of the biggest design mistakes you should avoid:

1. When doing a business card always print it out actual size. A 4 pt. font size is hard to read!
2. Always design with a safe cutting/folding margin in mind, these are there for good reasons.
3. How do we print to the edge of the page? Simple we don’t. We print on oversized paper and cut it after printing. The print over the edge of the finished piece is called a bleed… design with that in mind.
4. We don’t print RGB, that is the colour model used for screen display. Talk to us to ask what colour model to use. CMYK is commonly used for full colour printing or spot colours. Ask before you start the design.
   

   A tent (triangle) calendar

5. 100c 100m 100y 100k is not a valid colour, please show me which printing process lays down an ink coverage of 400%. Ask us about what is the correct rich black. Ask me why. DTP programme designers should not allow this as a option.  Rich black is specified differently for different types of printing so please check with us first.
6. The width called hairline is not a valid width and should be banned from all DTP programmes! Either use none or the next widest, because each print driver outputs it differently.
7. White or “knocked out” text should be done in bold or a bold font used. When you have a thin white line you get actual and optical closing of those lines so don’t use it.
8. In South Africa the standard size of business cards is 50mm x 90mm finished and klaar. The other sizes belong to other countries.
9. Although the Americans use “letter” size, we use the ISO “A” sizes. The common size is A4, “letter ” size should only be used in America and not in South Africa.
10. Most times less is more, and especially if you design your own artwork remember it will always be work in progress.
11. Only use one document or file for multipage prints… please don’t give us a file for each page, and we will impose. If you want business cards, we just want the front and back and not imposed. Each printshop will run a job differently especially for imposition.

Ask us how the artwork must be submitted and we will be happy to tell you.

While this will seem as not being customer friendly they are guidelines to make our interaction as fruitful as possible. If you have comments, no matter what side of the fence, let me know and I will change the post.

Presentation Folders are one best ways to showcase your company. The main drawbacks of presentation folders are:

• They take too long to produce.
• They cost too much.
• You have to order more than you need.

Our answer to this is Kwikfolders developed to overcome the drawbacks. We print these in full colour on our digital printer which ensures the quick turnaround and lower costs as we only print what is ordered. We also start from 10 folders and have even printed up to 700 for a customer.

There is a break even quantity of 500 between digital and litho printing, but litho printing takes 2 – 3 weeks to produce due the methods used. With our unique method the longest part of the process is normally setting up and approving the artwork.

email me for more information.

Ian Franks Ph 011 447 3133

We have just installed our QM 46.

This is what Heidelberg says about the Press.

“The Printmaster QM 46 is ideally suited for small-format offset printing. You can be confident that you are investing in reliable technology that meets all your requirements. The market is facing ever greater challenges – more jobs in shorter runs, increasing customer expectations despite falling prices, and classical small-format items with special colors. The Printmaster QM 46 helps you to profitably fulfill all these expectations. Particularly for one or two-color commercial jobs that have to be turned around in minimum time, it provides ideal conditions for ensuring outstanding print quality, from business cards all the way up to A3 (20-inch) posters.”

It is a modern press which makes our turnaround and quality even better. Want to see this modern press in action? Order your 2 colour printing from us and come and watch us print it. Just let me know when placing the order so this can be scheduled. The print productivity has improved so that we now need more work to keep this press busy. Coupled with with inline numbering and perforating it has improved the turnaround of NCR books.

The hype Heidelberg has around this press is true and we are now doing jobs in house that we had to send out before. We still have our single colour AB Dick press so our capacity has increased to better serve our customers.

Ian Franks Ph 011 447 3133

This is from the Time website.

May I Offer You My Calling Card?

Examples of business cards

“In the 1800s, there was a certain logic–and a cool distance–to the formal calling card. Those who were part of, or sought a place among, the social élite would deliver a card with their name engraved on it to someone’s home to request a visit. But now that you can IM, e-mail or text pretty much anyone immediately, the Victorian practice seems laughably outmoded, right? Not so, according to a growing number of enthusiasts reviving the old-fashioned social-networking tool. “Is it technology fatigue? A colorful way of branding yourself? We’re not sure,” says Peter Hopkins of Crane & Co., where sales of the cards have doubled in the past two years. “But the demand is clear. They are our fastest-growing item.”

For a flagging stationery industry, calling cards–essentially nonbusiness business cards–have brought a welcome dose of energy. Some are teenier than standard business cards, others much bigger, and many come in bright colors that seem anything but stodgy. Amongthe buyers: playdate-seeking parents eager for a sane way to exchange contact info, retirees who miss having business cards to hand out read more ……………Time Article

Now what I am looking for is whether this would work in South Africa.

Just think about how a prospective employer would respond to a business card with only your personal details and not your current business details. I have done short run cards before when people are between jobs but never thought of this as a growing market,for other people like mums and students.

I have done a Blog on Business Cards which gives you the low down on business cards.

Let me have your comments or email  me. ian at printimage dot co dot za

What are the worst fonts for you to use and read. For me it is is Wedding Text followed by Comic Sans.

This was inspired by a blog from a New Zealand based company. Worst Fonts
Fonts are the messenger and not the message they should be easy on the eye and appropriate. You should not use Comic Sans in any business publications, and wedding text should only maybe be used for a few words in a wedding invite if really needed.

Does this look like serious money.

What is your worst font and why?

Now we can offer the service of rounding the corners on business cards printed by us.

Normally you have to die cut to  get rounded corners on printing which is a time consuming and expensive process, we have just bought a corner rounder which rounds the corners perfectly. For more information of business cards look at a previous blog “Almost everything about business cards” .

The cost of this is R75 plus VAT for 250 cards, for a very distinctive cards

We print and publish 4 different logbooks.
Our best seller is the runner’s logbook. We have a cyclists logbook as well but these are in limited supply.

These logbooks keep track of a runner’s training.

The main features are:

• 12 monthly log charts.
• Ability to track 4 different heart rates.
• Graphs in the middle to plot your trends.
• Back page for all your personal records.
• Summary of previous years training.
• You can start using the logbook at any time in the year.
• Coaches can use the comments column for a training programme.

These have been used since 2000 are available from our shop and The Runner Group shops. The cost is just R15.00 per book. We can customise the covers for your club or company at a nominal cost. This is ideal for runners training for the Comrades Marathon.

More info can be found here. Logbook page

This is a printed item with a difference. A mousepad made from a pad of paper. As a believer in this product have even registered a Trade Mark “Rite ‘n Roll”

What it is a pad of paper padded on 2 sides so that the edges don’t curl. A heavier than normal paper is used. This is litho printed so we can print this in your colours according to your companies specifications. This is then finished by putting double sided tape on the bottom and then shrink wrapping each mousepad. This then gives each mousepad a glossy look and finishes off the product perfectly.

We produce them in 2 different sizes Normal size (215 x 180mm) and A5 size (210 x 148mm). The A5 size is perfect for posting as it fits perfectly into a C5 envelope for posting to your customers.

Ideas for printing on these include calendars, month planners note pads etc. The uses are only limited by your imagination.

Why would this be used?

The desks are getting smaller then we put on a computer on them with a screen and a keyboard. Then because we all use a mouse so guess what the surface the mouse is on is always clear thus whatever is underneath it is always clear and gets seen again and again (subliminal).

The link to our main webpage is HERE

Who thinks this is an idea with a difference any comments?