In today’s competitive economy, data-driven, personalized marketing holds a powerful influence. However, is it necessary to your company’s overall goal? Isn’t it easier to mail generic offers at a lower cost, yielding the same results?
Category: Print
Information about general printing practices
Three Tips to Boost the “Cool” Factor of Your Designs
Fashionable. Admirable. Timeless.
If you were to define cool, what words would you use?
Cool is just . . . cool.
In some sense, even describing what makes something cool can diminish its appeal. But in print and design, nothing is more appealing than cool.
5 Elements of Stunning Letterhead Design
Personalized mail is a special commodity these days, especially something that looks smart or sophisticated.
Everyone agrees that there’s a huge difference between a typed letter on a bland white page and one aligned smartly on a beautifully designed letterhead.
We’ve Come a LONG way!
As we grow ever closer to our 100th anniversary of continuous operation, it’s always fun to get a glimpse into our history!
This video from the National Museum of Industrial History in Bethlehem, PA explains how Otto Mergenthaler and his invention “The Linotype Machine” revolutionized the printing and publishing industries in the early part of last century.
PrintWorks was originally founded in 1924 as Bonekemper Typesetting in Lansdale, PA as an independent typesetting firm. The Bonekemper team ran three shifts typesetting newspapers, books and other documents for print companies in the northeast, and was the largest type house outside of a major city in North America at the time.
We had two of these machines until 2001 when our last hot type client, a greeting card company, ceased operations. We typeset thousands of lines of these hot metal slugs each year during the Christmas season until the technology was replaced by digital printing in the early 2000’s.
We’ve seen a lot of change through the years, and we have come a LONG way! We embrace change and understand that we must continually adapt to the ever changing needs of the marketplace.
Equipment and technology comes and goes but there is one thing that never waivers: our commitment to you, our customer. A simple commitment reflected in our mission statement:
We deliver creative Print & Marketing Solutions that make our clients successful. We keep our promises, provide creative solutions, and achieve our client’s goals.
Read more about our Mission, Vision and Values on our website: PrintWorks Values
In the meantime, enjoy learning a little about what makes our business so cool!
Trade Show Do’s and Don’ts
ETIQUETTE TIPS FOR TRADE SHOWS
The most important part of any trade show or business event is how your staff presents themselves to potential buyers. Here are a few etiquette tips for trade shows and other business events:
How to Choose the Right Paper for your Print Project
The right paper truly can make a huge difference in any project.
After taking the time to create a beautifully designed file and getting it ready for print, you want to make sure you don’t ruin it by choosing the wrong paper.
But with so many types of paper to choose from, it isn’t always the easiest decision.
Elements such as brightness, opacity, weight, and finish, are just a few of the many qualities that go into printing paper.
So let’s dive in to each and give you a better understanding of how to choose the right paper for your next print project.
Brightness
Brightness is simply the paper’s ability to reflect light.
The higher the brightness is, the clearer the images will appear when they are printed on it.
However, keep in mind that brightness and color are not the same thing.
The important thing to know about brightness is that it directly affects the readability of the print.
High brightness emphasizes the contracts between both the light and dark hues, where low brightness can sometimes create a blurred effect.
Another important thing to remember is that brightness and whiteness are not synonymous either.
For example, a paper that has a blueish-white hue will actually appear whiter than a paper that is pure white, even if they both have the same brightness level.
Opacity
As opposed to brightness that reflects light, opacity is the ability for light to pass through the paper.
High opacity, a.k.a. higher density, increases the readability of the page because you won’t as easily be able to see what is on the opposite side of the page.
If one side has a large colored picture, and the other side is simply text, a page with low opacity will make the side with the text hard to read as the image will most likely be seen through the paper.
If you’re planning on printing brochures, newsletters, or even two-sided sales sheets, make sure to choose a paper with higher opacity.
Weight
Now this quality is one that confuses many.
In all honesty, when I first started working in the printing industry, the concept of weight passed right over my head.
If you’ve ever heard paper referred to as 20 lb. or 110 lb., you know exactly what I’m talking about.
For those not familiar with it like I once was, the immediate thought is “how can a sheet of paper possibly weigh over 100 pounds?”
But unlike the number you see when stepping on a scale, these
weights refer to the weight of a ream that is given to paper at its basic size.