Postcards are perhaps the most cost effective means of promoting your company and the products and services your company offers to your prospective customers. The biggest advantages of postcards are two ‘C’s – Cost and Convenience.
For any promotional campaign to be successful it must penetrate directly into the targeted portion of the marketplace. The quality of the printed postcards is an essential element. As the saying goes, ‘garbage in – garbage out’ so, therefore, you want to be sure that your input and processing requirements will produce the highest quality of output. One of the factors that are eminent to the quality of your output is the postcard-printing machine. Your design and the value of the paper that is used for the printing process can be of the highest standards but if the printing machine is incapable of printing in high-resolution graphics then your project may have a setback.
In the past, postcard printing was done mostly on offset presses but as technology advanced they now use digital presses. These newer presses are more flexible and can provide you with more options without sacrificing the quality of the printing process. There are a variety of design templates for you to choose from and the program supports merging your mailing lists with the design for the final print.
Today, there are quite a few digital printer manufacturers who offer different features and attachments in their digital presses. Global leaders like hp, Canon, or Kodak produce machines capable of delivering high-quality prints. These machines have sophisticated systems for paper transfer and printing. The entire operations are controlled electronically via a control panel.
The paper that is used to print the postcards is referred to as the stock. It comes in various finishes and thickness such as; a matte, gloss or pear finish. Most printing machines can print up to A3-sized paper. The speed at which it prints is around 4000 sheets of A4 sized paper per hour using four other colors. If it is printing in black and white then the quantity is 16000 copies using A4 sheets.
The Internet can be used to download your postcard design and by using the control panel you can view the output on the monitor. Being placed in the printer queue one right after the other is a way to prioritize printing jobs.
Many postcards printing machines offer the option of both side printing at one go that delivers the finished postcards at a lesser turn around time. Variable data printing is the most powerful feature of these printing machines. These digital presses can make each and every postcard customized and unique. That is why digital printing is gaining growing acceptance in postcards printing segment.
In order to give the printed postcard a shape to match the style of the design the postcards are cut and trimmed. In addition, when adding other affects like UV varnishing, embossing and leafing, these procedures will be done in another area of the printing process. Most people prefer digital printing for short jobs and still like to use the offset printing method for longer print jobs.
