Business cards, brochures and postcards are still a huge part of marketing in the e-world we are living in today. But how does a business find the best possible printer for their budget? A lot of businesses decide to take the route of a gang printer. But what is a gang printer and is it the best solution in today's market? The focus of this article is to educate the average consumer on the definition of a "gang printer".
The term gang printing is used because multiple jobs are "ganged" up on large sheets of paper and run all at once. The printer saves money because they can buy a larger quantity of paper at a discount which enables them to pass a better price to their consumers. Which let's face it: the more money a business can save the better right? Well not exactly and here's why...
In printing, sophisticated equipment is used to calibrate printing presses similar to how to you calibrate an average home printer, but the process is much more complex. There are a lot of printers (several in my area) where they use absolutely no calibrating equipment when "gang printing". This leads to unpredictable results because the only gauge used for matching colors by these companies are the printer's eyes, which is very, very bad (The human eye automatically compensates for casts and even the greatest printer can't beat human limitations). This causes color shifts like blues being printed more purple and other colors changing from a slight amount to extreme jumps. If you currently use a "gang printer" and have had the same job printed multiple times and the colors shifts, this is probably why.
You see, for a low-end printer to remain competitive they have to cut as many corners as possible. They often don't take the time and funds to buy and use calibration equipment because (1) it's expensive and (2) it requires a technically skilled person to run the equipment. These guys know if they can undercut the next guy by a few bucks-odds are they will get some business.
Some gang printers don't have the best folders and cutting equipment either. Remember when I said low-end printers try to save as much money as possible? Well this is another area. If you get your products and they are cut off-centered, or folded badly, it's because that particular company doesn't have a quality control department in place and it's the toss of a coin on whether or not your product gets folded and printed correctly.
So what do you do?
The first thing to do is figure out what you want. Do you care if the colors are printed incorrectly or not? If not, you can take a chance with the cheapest vendor available and experiment until you find a good fit. If you really don't care much about quality, you probably aren't going to sweat some color shifts unless you are an outfitter and your reds go to pinks.
If you care about color matching and quality, ask each printer if they use calibration equipment and if they color match. If so, request a color proof and hold them pretty tightly to the colors produced in the approved proof (not an emailed pdf proof). You may still have to shop some, but this will help narrow down the shopping some.
Also ask if they have a Quality Control department that watches cuts and folds on cards and brochures. If they do, ask them their tolerance and decide if you can deal with your folds Being off by the amount they give. No one should EVER offer perfect matching or folding, but it should be close.
The bottom line is gang printing and low-end printers are pot luck: You may get a good one and you may not.
One last BIG TIP: Never trust a print company with their turnarond times unless you get a delivery date guaranteed to you in writing. Bad gang printers use false turnaround times as an incentive to get customers. Anything over two weeks from the time the company gets your files or gets your approval should be unacceptable.
