Flyer Press Q&A's

When we at FlyerPress print anything, we want it to look as good as possible. Most print jobs include images somewhere along the way, and making sure they look crisp when printed is a top priority.

Resolution of images is measured in DPI, Dots Per Inch. The typical resolution for images on your computer for viewing on the screen, be it on a website or document, is 72 dpi. This is fine for its purpose, but if you were to print them out on lithographic printing presses, like ours at FlyerPress, they would appear ‘blocky’ and pixelated. to keep them looking as sharp as possible, we only use images of 300 dpi or greater, that’s over 4 times as many dots per inch. We use professional image editing software to inspect,  and edit if necessary, all images before they are set ready for print.

If you have any questions, either comment below or pop us an email and we will help you where we can.

Lithography, or just ‘litho’ as it’s often referred, is perhaps the most common method of printing onto paper. Both CMYK and Spot colour can be used. CMYK is the name given to printing 4 colours, namely Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, all coming together to display the image.  Spot colour uses specific Pantone colours. The process for litho can be daunting and drawn out, it involves many steps, which each have their own dependancies and can be expensive if they are not conducted professionally. First of all, there’s the Laying out process, which is PC based.

Printing presses use large plates to transfer the image to paper, the most com­mon in the UK is B2 size, which is slightly larger than A2. In order to make max­-mum usage of the paper and plate, several items can be ‘ganged up’ on one plate. This can be incredibly complex for a designer to get his/her head around, let alone do it. Luckily, most printers do this for you.

Next up is the films. In litho printing, film is produced from your pdf or AI file on an image setter and then a metal printing plate is made from that. There needs to be a dif ferent plate produced for every colour used. So, in a CMYK job, that’s 4 plates for every full colour page. You can see how things can become expens ive if there’s a typo?

Then we have proofs. Once the films are made, proofs are produced by the printers to give to the designers to check and sign-off so the plates can be produced. These proofs are colour accurate, but can be expens ive. Many production managers and designers still want to see proofs made with films despite the rise of technology such as ‘Direct to Press’ printing which cuts out the produc tion of films and goes straight to plates.

Once the proofs are signed off, the plates are made and the print ing begins.

When would you use Lithography for your printing?

Advantages

• Superior quality
• Availibility
• Cost effective for large print runs
• Wide variety of paper stocks to print on

Disadvantages

• Can be expensive
• Lead time and turn around
• Expensive to rectify mistakes

How does it work?

Off set Lithography is a bit weird. It uses the repulsion of oil and water to transfer the image to the paper. The plates are chemically treated to accept oil based inks, and repel water, on the image areas and the opposite happens with non image areas.

A plate first contacts rollers of a clean solution or water and then is inked by other rollers. The oil-based ink ‘sticks’ to the image area. The image is then trans­ferred from the plate to a rubber blanket. The rubber blanket then transfers the image onto the paper’s surface. This is why it’s called ‘off set’, because the plate never actu ally touches the paper.

Vector graphics is the term given to Graphics or artwork that have be generated using mathematical or geometric shapes programs like Adobe illustrator. They are very good at producing such graphics. The advantages of creating vectored graphics is that the file sizes as usually a lot smaller and the print quality is so much higher then pixel generated artwork graphics. Other advantages are scaling of artwork, you can scale the artwork can size as vectored graphics are mathematical there for you will retain the quality of the print. Other items like fonts work in the same way.

File  types associated with Vectored graphics are .AI .EPS .PDF

This is a common question, and it turns out that the answer is anything but concise.

It is a common misconception that flyers are a cheap, mass produced, low quality product, bringing details of a local event. They are often used to promote, restaurants, barbers, car dealerships.

A printed leaflet is more often regarded as a higher quality product, maybe heavier paper weight, mayber full colour, printed both sides.  Many people regard a leaflet as a larger version of a flyer, with a flyer being maybe A6, and a leaflet being A4 or A5.

There is no real clear cut answer and these terms are largely used as synonyms.  In short, at flyer press we find out from you the customer what you want printed.  What size and weight would you like, Full colour, single or double sided, designed in-house or will you supply the artwork?

In essence, the leaflet vs flyer debate is never going to give a concise definition to either, so for clear answers to your printing needs visit http://www.flyerpress.co.uk

I thought I would put some information together about the common mistakes that people make when designing their own leaflets or flyers. Many people look at their leaflet design from their own point of view and don’t think about the person that will be receiving it. I have seen so may designs where people have put down information that is not relevant to anyone but themselves, I thought it would be a good idea to list a few helpful points when designing a leaflet. Depending on the type of use and the market you are aiming at, slightly different rules will apply, for this example; “A small high street shop with a sale”

1) Put your message at the top, such as ” up to %50 Sale Now On”

2) Make the font for you message readable not to small or to fancy

3) Use coulours that do not clash such as red and blue, some people can’t see certain colours, especially when right next to each other

4) Next some images of the style of clothes you are selling. If the sale is a good or particularly large one, show some sample prices this will get people interested

5) Include some more text such as “hurry while stocks last”. This is a good unique selling point (USP) as people will feel the need to react quickly to the leaflet.

6) A small map or picture is generally a good idea, showing the shop and its location, so people will have no problems finding their way to you.

7) Don’t make the address and phone number to big, because if people need this information they will look for it. You don’t want to have the address and phone number to stand out too much, as it will distract people from the impact of the main message.

So many people put the phone number at the top of the page and have few or no USP’s. Remember: keep it simple. When someone sees the leaflet they will only look at it for about 2 seconds, before they dismiss it. The trick is to capture their attention and play on there emotions immediately.

This is a very brief  guide on design, but it’s a good start for beginners.

Hope this helps and  I would love to hear from you about your experiences, with or without the use of this guide!

Flyerpress – A New age of Print

Flyer Press was established in October 2005 to provide printing services to the series of Flyer magazines. Since then we have grown the business from employing 1 member of staff to a stage where we run state of the art equipment including 2 lithographic presses, and a Duplo 5000 collating machine, and employ 9 members of staff from the immediate Felixstowe area that see to the day-to-day running of all aspects of quotes, design, print, finish and delivery.

“We have a very talented workforce, each member of the team has their own vital role to play.  We have expanded the team over the last 5 years to a stage where we are able to offer exceptional customer service and exceed customer expectation time and time again”

Mark Fitchett, Director, Flyer Press Ltd

As a company we pride ourselves on the advice we give to all customers irrespective of the amount of money they spend with us.  We use our expertise and experience from over a combined 60yr span to offer all of our customers the best marketing and design advice.  We make sure you get the most for your money and more importantly, the right product with the correct marketing message behind it. This will give you the best chance of success.

At Flyer Press Ltd we are able to offer the complete package to our customers from marketing advice to distribution, from leaflet design to glossy colour brochures, from single colour print to full colour with numerous finishes and special effects.   So, if your needs are a publication, catalogue or  brochure designed and printed, or just some new business cards our team is at hand to help.

We have recently expanded the business to include Web Design.  We have updated the www.flyerpress.co.uk website to reflect our new intentions of online e-commerce and are putting SEO techniques learnt over the past few years into practise.  Why not log onto www.flyerpress.co.uk to see the products we can offer, and how easy it is to use your already designed artwork to print your flyers, leaflets and booklets?  We have managed to match the majority of very competitive web prices and can offer every customer the opportunity for Flyer Press to design your print or for the customer to upload their own print ready designs.  www.flyerpress.co.uk hosts a plethora of information on the printing process and on print ready artwork, why not check out the website and see how competitive the prices are?

The inception of a web designer at flyer press is really going to boost the overall package that the customer receives.  This will now mean that any job undertaken by FlyerPress will be completely dealt with in house.

“Every customer will now see the benefit of an easier and less intrusive way of supplying artwork to flyerpress.  In effect we have published our prices on the website so customers can pre-order products using the most widely available payment methods online and see an actual cost for the job they want, delivered to their door.”

Jon Trotter, MD Flyer Press Ltd

Today we have been lucky enough to design a custom A5 leaflet on 130gsm paper for the servicing arm of this business.  we have designed a full colour leaflet to the customers specification, using our inhouse artwork design team.  At www.flyerpress.co.uk we are able to cater for the artistic design of anything that the customer wants.  In this example we have used a fully vectored image of a Renault Megane.  This will print crisply and look great in full colour on a 130gsm paper.

Welcome to Flyer Press Ltd

Here you will find quality print just a click or a call away

If you need help with design or artwork please see our in-depth help pages, if you are unsure please do email or call us; we will only be too glad to help!

www.flyerpress.co.uk