Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Commercial Printing Service - Web Presses Vs Sheet-Fed Presses

Investing in a commercial printing service is a serious endeavor. If you end up choosing the wrong firm, then you can expect to face problems in the future. Not only will your marketing campaign flop but a hefty amount of resources will go to waste too. Hence, you'd better find a printer you can trust.
When searching for a printing company, one of the very first things you must ask about is the kind of lithography they offer. Typically, there are two types of presses you can choose from: web presses and sheet-fed presses. Both of them have their pros and cons.
Web presses are printers which use continuous rolls of paper that's why they're also called roll-feds. The images are impressed on the paper as the machine runs at very high speeds. On the other hand, sheet-fed presses are machines which print onto cut-size sheets. They don't run at high speeds like roll-feds do.
As for the color quality, sheet-fed presses offer more flexibility because they can image sheets a second time to make the colors more prominent. Both presses use different numbers of ink towers though. These towers determine the number of colors that can be used in every printing job.
Typically, a commercial printing company would ensure clients that while web presses can't run the sheet a second time, they can see to it that the quality of the images would be in no way inferior. The operators can set and re-set color registration anyway.
When it comes to stock choices, sheet-fed presses can use a wider variety including those which have heavier weights. Continuous papers are not made as thick since they are designed to run through the press speedily. If you're printing on lightweight sheets, then a web press is definitely ideal. If you want more flexibility in the paper thickness, then a sheet-fed is the better choice.
Generally, when you are hiring a commercial printing service for a small project, utilizing a sheet-fed press would do. Think about company stationery or business cards. These are relatively small jobs which may also require more varied choices in paper and colors. But, if you are eyeing to print a huge amount of materials, then you'd better opt for a web press. It can prove to be more cost-effective in the long run even if it wouldn't offer the same flexibility when it comes to the choices of papers and colors. Roughly, sheet-feds can print up to 14,000 impressions in an hour while web presses can reach over 25,000 impressions.
Finally, web presses can be programmed to fold printing projects like newspapers or magazines. Sheet-fed presses on the contrary, would necessitate additional steps offline to do the folding and the finishing.
These are the pros and cons of using sheet-fed and roll-fed printers.
Depending on what your project requires, the commercial printing service can present which option would be perfect for you. Since you already have a clue of the differences between the two, you now have a good idea of what press would work better. Listen to the printer's additional insights and weigh everything from there.

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