At Flyer Press we are offering FREE Marketing Consultations with our MD Jonathan Trotter. Jonathan has been involved in most media areas for over 10 years now. Jonathan has given hundreds of businesses advice on tried and tested methods and has seen his businesses grow. How does he do it? Simple. He advises different businesses to use medias that will benefit them. He uses local businesses to provide services, and he keeps it all in-house. There are no middle men making huge mark-ups on your work, just a simple philosophy of providing the best resources at the best price to achieve the best outcome.

Dont delay, call Jonathan on 01394 283371 now to secure your FREE Marketing Consultation.

Paper weight and thickness may have little or no noticable effect on printed image quality. However, heavier, thicker papers feel more substantial and can lend visual weight to a project.
Heavy weight paper can lend an aura of importance and seriousness not found in flimsier products. This is especially true in business cards. Often thin paper screams cheap desktop printing even without the telltale perforations from some perforated business cards papers.

Thicker papers hold up well when there is heavy ink coverage. For full color photos from your desktop, thicker inkjet photo papers are best. However, some desktop printers may not handle thicker papers well, especially if the printer doesn’t have a straight paper path.

For desktop and offset printing choose a paper that “feels” right to you and will work with your desktop printer or the commercial printing process you choose.

GSM or Grammes Per Square Metre is the measurement used when weighing paper sheet sizes. Although any weight of paper can be used for any printed item, there are generally a few unwritten guidelines we follow in order to make sure the finished product is suitable for its purpose.

For example, if you printed a business card onto a low-gsm paper it will feel flimsy and most probably give a negative view of your company. On the other hand you wouldn’t want to print an A2 poster onto a high-gsm paper stock either. It would certainly feel good quality but it wouldn’t be practical, the posters heavy weight would cost more in delivery and there is a greater chance of it falling down as well as being more bulky for transportation purposes.

Therefore there are general guidelines when printing these types of standard items, of course these are not set in stone and the application of paper weight to each item needs to be considered for every print project. Below are some standard print items and the gms weights used:

Corporate 24 page brochure – anything between 170gsm – 300gsm, an important point to remember is that the more pages printed onto a heavy stock increases the chances of the pages springing open and the brochure not laying flat.

Oversized A4 company literature folder – between 350gsm – 400gsm, folders are used to contain many different items whether datasheets, product sheets, note pads, invoices or proposals and as such need to be strong and study. A lightweight paper stock would simply fall apart under the stress.

Business cards – either 350gsm – 400gsm, business cards are generally your first introduction to a potential client and need to express your company and values suitably. To a customer, a flimsy lightweight business card, might be a reflection of your company and quality of your product or service.

A4 datasheet/insert sheet – between 170gsm – 250gsm, a datasheet promotes your company/products and can be presented within folders, presentation wallets or literature dispensers (possibly at an exhibition) and is generally of a medium-weight feel.

This is especially important when choosing specialist paper stocks. Due to the way papers are manufactured, the fibres in some paper stocks are not as compacted as they are in others, even though their sheet-weight may be the same, some papers will appear to be thicker than others. Whatever the printed item and whatever its purpose is, each project needs to be considered carefully and the correct paper stock decided upon. Paper samples are always available and if necessary mock-ups can also be supplied to get a real feel for the finished item.

Feel free to call Flyer Press on 01394 283371 to discuss your requirements for print. Dont forget we also offer a full FREE marketing advice service with our MD Jonathan Trotter – An offer not to be missed!

A varnish is a liquid coating applied to a printed surface (for example the outside of a presentation folder) to add a clear glossy, matte, satin, or neutral finish.

Varnishing, also referred to as Coating or Sealing, can be carried out ‘online’ (the varnish is applied directly (within seconds) after the ink is put on the paper), or ‘offline’ by a separate machine, some time after printing.

There are various kinds of varnish that can be applied to printing, but all share some common characteristics:

•A varnish increases colour absorption and speeds up the drying process.
•By ‘locking in’ in the ink under a protective coat, the varnish helps to prevent the ink rubbing off when the paper is subjected to handling.
•Varnishes are used most frequently, and succesfully on coated papers.

These are the major types of varnishing available:

Gloss Varnishing

A gloss varnish is often used to enhance the appearance of printed photographs in brochures or flyers, as the coating reflects back the light and makes colours appear richer and more vivid. A gloss coating can add impact to your print, especially in sales or promotional material, where optimum presentation of images is paramount.

Matte Varnishing

A matte (or matt – the spellings are interchangeable) varnish gives the printed surface a non-glossy, smooth look. This type of seal is sometimes considered to ‘soften’ the appearance of a printed image. Small text in a leaflet or booklet is easier to read on a surface coated with matt vanish as the coating scatters the light, reducing glare.

Silk / Satin Varnishing

Naturally enough, this coating represents the ‘middle ground’ between the two above, being neither as glossy as a true gloss, nor as subtle as a matt.

Machine Sealing

A machine seal is a basic, and virtually invisible coating applied to a printed item by the printer. It does not affect the appearance of the job, but as it ‘seals’ the ink under a protective coat, the printer need not wait so long for the job to be dry enough to handle. It is often used when producing fast turnaround printing such as leaflets on matt and satin (silk) papers, as inks dry more slowly on these materials.

At Flyerpress we often seal work for people, mainly on lumi or claro papers though as they have less chalk in them that the more porous papers that are used for headed paper for example.

We have recently been asked to print wedding stationary for a good customer of Flyer Press. This i feel leads quite nicely to a wedding stationary master class.

There are many different costly effects that can be added to wedding stationary like embossing, block foiling and spot UV Varnishing. Whilst these effects do look amazing, to get that exqisite final product, there are many cheaper ways of achieving it.

Firstly, choose your colours, i would recommend using a white card or variation of, and a single colour (with multiple shades if neccessary) in conjunction with black text. Remember that your guests will need to be able to read the invitations so whilst a scripted and serifed font looks good, it makes the text difficult to read.

An insert always looks good if it is a single colour, so consider an extra sheet of paper in your invites, order of service, thank you cards etc. Try to keep all your text to the centre of the page, and either centre the text or fully justify it. We imagine the A5 page in 3 columns and try to use the central one only, sometimes though, you have to go a little out of this guide.

Another little thing that looks really good is crisp swirly lines, that direct your attention to the content of the page, try to keep these either in your chosen colour, or in black. Alternatively, depending on the colours you have chosen, and for example if your wedding colours are purple or lilac, a silver oftens brings the page to life.

The art of good wedding stationary is to introduce and continue a theme. Something that makes all your printing, whether it be table tent cards, orders of service, invitations or thank you cards, is a sense of belonging, continued throughout your end products, something that makes them all look part of a set.

For handy AI templates for this kind of thing, all ready and set for Flyer Press to print, please contact alex@flyerpress.co.uk or call on 01394 283371.