There are many ways to print postcards; how do you know which is the best process for you? Taking speed, affordability, and convenience into consideration, here are four types of bulk postcard printing service you can choose from, and the benefits you can get from each type.

Postcard Printing Services: Four Types and Their Benefits

Digital

Digital printing is basically inkjet printing; you can do this with your own office or home printer, except that with a printing company you get the additional benefit of having a pre-press department proof your designs and ensure the best possible print quality. Your postcards are printed digitally when you order them in quantities between 50 and 200. The benefits of digital printing are:

• Short run printing – When setup costs are included, digital printing provides lower per unit costs for short print runs than offset printing.
• Quick turnaround times – Many of the mechanical steps involved in offset printing are eliminated in digital printing. Once you’ve approved the final proof and settled your balance, printing can start immediately.
• Variable data printing – By using information from a database or external file, text and graphics can be changed on each piece without stopping or slowing down the press. This will let you print different recipient names and addresses on a single postcard print run.

Digital Room, by the way, doesn’t print postcards in quantities between 200 and 500. This is because the cost of printing 500 postcards on offset press will be cheaper than printing more than 200 postcards digitally. Aside from making sure you get the most affordable deal possible, we also calibrate our digital printers on a daily basis so we can guarantee you a color accuracy of 95%.

Offset

Offset printing or offset lithography is the process of burning the desired print image onto a plate, then transferring (or offsetting) it to a rubber blanket, and finally applying it onto the printing surface. This process is based on the repulsion of oil and water. The image to be printed gets ink from ink rollers. The non-printing areas attract a water-based film, keeping them ink-free.

With offset printing, you can print in large quantities from 500 to 100,000. The benefits of offset printing are:

• Consistent high image quality – Unlike digital printing, where the colors may fade somewhat with each succeeding piece, offset printing ensures that the colors on the last prints are as vibrant as on the first ones.
• Additional coating options – When you choose to have your postcards printed digitally, you will get them printed on glossy card stock by default. When you print them offset, though, you can choose among glossy, matte, and uncoated card stocks.
• Lower cost per unit – We’ve mentioned previously that when you include setup costs, digital printing provides lower per unit costs than offset printing for short print runs. When printing in large quantities with offset printing, though, the unit cost goes down as the quantity goes up.

Color

Whether you choose digital or offset printing for your postcards, they will be printed in CMYK, or using color combinations of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black or key (hence the K). This is why we require our clients to convert their files to the CMYK color space; this way they will be able to see how the colors will differ from when they worked in the RGB color space, and make adjustments if necessary.

You can choose to have your postcards printed on just one side or both sides. For full color printing on one side, you can specify whether you want the other side to be white or black. In case you prefer to have a monochrome postcard design, standard full color printing prices still apply.

Custom

There are several ways you can customize your postcards on Digital Room:

• Sizes – Aside from the six standard postcard sizes we have available, you can also specify your own custom size, ranging from 4″ up to 11″ a side.
• Design – Aside from creating your postcard design on your computer, you can also create it from scratch on our website using our online design tool. We also have galleries of templates you can build your design from, most of which you will not be able to find anywhere else since we make them ourselves.
• Card Stocks – On the Postcards order page, you have three card stock options at most: sturdy 14 pt. ones, either glossy or matte, or a recycled, uncoated 13 pt. stock. On our UPage though, additional card stocks you can choose from are slimmer, 10 pt. glossy and matte stocks, as well as a high-gloss, UV-coated 14. pt stock.

Print your own postcards now! Promote events, products and even family gatherings with cost-effective and customizable postcards from DigitalRoom.com. For more information regarding mailing and other postcard printing specifications, you can subscribe to the DigitalRoom.com blog today or visit our website.