Color Printing Choices

The design and production work of your desktop publishing project is nearly finished, and it's almost time to get it printed. So how do you know which printer to use? Is the local quickie print franchise the best place to get the job done? Or should you look elsewhere? Can the shop deal with your Windows files or do they only want to see Mac stuff?

One printer can't do it all. While there are many similarities in the processes involved, there are great differences in the equipment used. The shop that specializes in business card printing, for instance, is rarely the one you'll turn to for printing plastic shopping bags. This is because business cards, like most commercial print jobs, are run with offset lithographic equipment (offset or litho, for short). Most plastic bag printing, on the other hand, uses flexographic equipment (or flexo).

Your local quick print shop might be the best place to get the job done. Or it might be the worst ...

Find a Color Printing House That Works for You, continued