Printer Relationships Equal Greater Satisfaction

posted by: chelsea

Issues with the quality of printed work is a nightmare for graphic designers in the print industry. You've worked hard on your creative design for a client and you want a hardcopy to showcase how great it can be. But more often than not, the client may run off digital copies at some unknown budget printer that puts your work to shame. Colours aren't right, gradients are banded, and all your hard work is comprimised. How do you get around this? Build a relationship with a printer! Having one good-quality printer to deal with each time allows you to get the results you expect, so there will be no surprises for you or the client. It's also a great way to establish pricing discounts. An article below from Leanne McNutt illustrates it great.

Building a Relationship with your Printer - By Leanne McNutt

A professor once said to me, "It is extremely important as a Graphic Designer to form a good relationship with a printer." At that time I didn't fully understand why it was so important. Of course now I know it's about respect and teamwork. Let me explain.

When first starting out in the field you may assume that all you need to do to get something printed is save your file to a disk or attach it to an email and get it to a printer, right? If something doesn't output the way you expected it to, you will without doubt blame your printer because you believe that once it is in their hands, it is their responsibility to output the job correctly. See where I am going with this?

We as designers should want to get in contact with our service bureau and learn how they need us to prepare our files for print. This helps insure that the job is done accurately and with as few flaws as possible. This will help you in many ways. For instance, you send a file to be printed and the printer is having font issues. Instead of assuming it is something that they should be able to fix, realize that the problem could be on your end and try to help troubleshoot the file to help find where the problem lies. In the end, your printer wants the same as you do - a job well done!

The better relationship you have with your printer, the smoother your job will run. Not because the printer likes you, but because you have taken the time to learn what they need from you. You will work together as a team and that will make all the difference in the world when you are having your job output.

Source - graphicdesignforum.com