Online printing is a very convenient service that gives a low cost solution to everyone who needs to have their business cards, custom flyers, personalized posters, brochures and any other type of print done quickly and effectively. You simply upload your files through the Internet, make your paper, color and design choices, and have your printed materials delivered to your door.
Even if you do not have previous experience with online printing, getting your prints to look exactly the way you want is simple and intuitive.
Paperstock
Some projects, like postcards and business cards, will need to be printed on thick pape (14pt). Thick paper tends to be more resistant and heavier, and also more expensive. Books, magazines and similar projects that are printed on thick paper will seem to have more pages than they actually do. The right paper thickness depends on your specific project, but as a rule of thumb, postcards, cards and brochures will need paper that is thicker than that used for newspapers and flyers.
Although in some cases this may be not true, generally speaking the thickness of a paper is directly related to its weight. The weight of a paper is defined as the weight of 500 standard-sized sheets of paper, in pounds. The main aspect of the paper that directly influences its weight is its thickness; although it’s possible to find paper that is heavier than others while being less thick (i.e. coated paper is heavier than uncoated paper, so it’s possible to find uncoated paper sheets that are both thicker and less heavy than same-sized coated sheets.) Paper thickness is measured in points, and 14 pt. is considered very heavy cover stock.
UV Coated v. Uncoated
UV Coated is a process that helps protect your final work by applying a protective layer above the already-printed job. Basically, it can be thought of as “non-colored ink”. UV Coating makes your print brighter, and it’s better when applied on coated paper (because uncoated paper will absorb most of the varnish before it dries).
The main difference between coated and uncoated paper is that uncoated paper is more porous, and thus absorbs more ink, than coated paper. This means basically two things:
Ink takes more time to dry on a coated paper sheet; and
The results will be less accurate on an uncoated paper sheet, because the ink bleeds into the paper due to its absorption, blurring the printed halftone.
Uncoated paper is usually less expensive than coated paper, which makes it a great choice for large jobs, especially if printing quality is not a very important issue. In addition, uncoated paper doesn’t irritate the eye when reading for a long time. Newspapers, books, flyers, forms and similar projects are typically printed on uncoated paper.
UV Coated papers tend to make printing jobs look more accurate and professional. Typically, coated paper is used to print business cards, brochures, postcards catalogs, and the like. There are many types of coating, depending on its brightness and texture. Matte, glossy and aqueous (water-resistant) are examples of coated paper.
Colors
CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. These are the basic colors used in four-color process printing. They are combined to produce a wide range of final colors, and, believe it or not, these four colors can accurately represent high quality, colorful images and designs such as, for example, a vivid photograph.
The way this combination works is very similar to the way an image is generated on your computer’s screen: each color is formed by mixing certain quantities of the basic colors. The main difference is that, for your PC’s monitor, the basic colors are RGB (Red-Green-Blue) instead of CMYK.
In order to effectively obtain the desired printing results, every image on your screen must be converted from the RGB color system to the CMYK color system before printing. This will ensure that the color combination will be the best possible, as the ink-mixing is calculated by your graphics software rather than the printer. RGB is less accurate than CMYK and doesn’t handle the heavy routines necessary to process and generate accurate conversions on the fly.
Bindery
Depending on the nature of your online printing project, you may consider additional processing of your printouts, to make it look more professional and more useful.
You can do several things with your pages, depending on the intended use of your print job’s results:
Binding & Stitching: Booklets, calendars, notepads and similar projects will need to have all the pages joined together. This can be done by binding (a wire-spiral joins all the pages together) or by stitching (saddle-stitching is used mostly for booklets).
Perforation: Perforation consists on making holes on the paper, to allow people to separate it easily (usually by hand). This process is used mostly for tickets, as well as coupons. The holes are usually small, and can be round holes or have a dotted-line pattern.
Hole Drilling: This process is used for sheets that are intended to be stored into folders. Typically, hole drilling are used for personal planners’ and some calendar sheets.
Die Cut: Die-cutting is a process consisting in cutting a sheet of paper into a non-standard (i.e. non-rectangular) shape. Coloring books for children are typically die-cut. Many printers like PsPrint have readily available cutting dies that you can use; or you can make your own custom one for an additional price.
Scoring & Folding: This process is usually applied to postcards and similar projects, allowing them to be folder without forming unsightly creases.
Numbering & Secure Foil: This process consists on applying a hologram or another design on the printout, as well as assigning a unique number to each sheet. This is useful to make each ticket unique and to prevent it from being copies. Secure foil and numbering is used for concert or event tickets.
