The business card shop - business cards design, printing Australia

Is Print Dead? [Infographic]

Reposted from Sketchee

We all know the newspaper industry has been hit long before the economic downturn of 2009.  We were curious as to how the industry is doing as a whole: What parts of the industry have the most growth?  Where are the jobs?  Is employment falling?  How do books, magazines and newspapers compare with "new media"?

Here's some stats showing a few of the more interesting sectors packaged with some editoral illustration.

Alas, business card printing industry will remain strong, however mediums used to print on may change.

News

• Influential Power of Print [Infographic] 8 months ago
• Period Table of Typefaces [Infographic] 8 months ago
• How Would You Like Your Graphic Design? [infographic] 10 months ago
• The Psychology of Color [Infographic] 1 year ago
• Is Print Dead? [Infographic] 1 year ago
• Fresh business cards & logos designed by the business card shop 1 year ago
• Environmental benefits of Waterless business card printing 1 year ago
• 48 hour shipping for all business cards. 1 year ago
• What is Waterless Printing? 1 year ago
• the business card shop rocks for your next business cards 1 year ago
• It just gets better! 2 years ago
• Environmentaly friendly business cards 2 years ago
• 10 year price freeze on business cards 2 years ago
• the business card shop website is live! 2 years ago

Help:

• FAQ: Card offer

  The business card shop standard offer is for:

  1000 Double sided, full colour plus matt or gloss celloglaze on 420 gsm stock for $196. inc. gst and delivery. This service has a 7 day turn-around, delivered to your door anywhere in Australia.

  Can I get the business card shop to design my new business cards?

  Yes, the business card shop's creative team have many years experience in designing business cards of distinction. Once the general brief and guidelines are set we get to work on creating the media required which is presented for your consideration and approval. If further changes are required the business card shop offers 2 revisions to the artwork. If further revisions or options are required another design fee will be negociated.
  

  How long does it take for the business card shop to create business card artwork?

  Generally it takes 1-2 days for the average card design. If there are special requirements such as illustrations to be incorporated into the design it may take a few days longer for the artwork to be completed and approved. It depends on what is involved, though 90% of card designs are done within 48 hours of placing an order.

  If I supply my own artwork, what are the accepted file formats?

  All print work must be submitted in press ready PDF (Portable Document Format). If this is not achievable then the business card shop will charge a $35.00 conversion fee to convert most file formats including .eps, .psd, .ai files.

  How long does it take to get my business cards after placing an order?

  If you are placing an order with finished artwork you can expect to receive your cards within 7 days. Our average is 5 days. If the business card shop is commissioned to create artwork design you will received your cards within 7 days from your artwork approval and sign off.

  When and how do I have to pay for my printing?

  All print  work must be paid for upon placement of the print order. Printed materials are delivered directly to your door. the business card shop uses the Paypal payment gateway. You do not need a PayPal account to pay and we accept all major credit cards.

  
  
• FAQ: Design & Layout
  Here are a few commonly asked questions about the business card shop design services.


  
  Can I get the business card shop to design my new print collateral's?

  Yes. macdaddy's creative team have many years experience in designing advertising, office and promotional collateral's of distinction. Once the general brief and guidelines are set by the client we set to work on creating the media required which is presented to our clients for consideration and approval. If further changes are required macdaddy offers 2 revisions to the artwork.
  If I supply my own artwork, what file format do they have to be?

  All print work must be submitted in press ready PDF (Portable Document Formate). If this is not achievable then macdaddy will charge a $45.00 conversion fee to convert most file formats including .eps, .psd, .ai files.
  What's the deal with Bleed?         

  Bleed is a printing term used for images or graphics that extend beyond the edge of the paper that get trimmed off. As printing presses cannot print all the way to the edge of a sheet of paper, designers add a small excess amount of artwork on each edge. This makes the printed material larger than the desired final size of the work. After printing, this excess printed material is trimmed off, giving the ‘finished work’ the appearance of being printed all the way to the edge of the paper. With a bleed it is impossible to get a white border because the image overlaps the trim edge. Always run through this check list to make sure you will get your job back as quickly as possible:
  
1. 3mm bleed outside trim edge.

  2. Borders, logos, text and important information 3mm inside trim edge.
  
  
  
  3. Document sized to finished card size (including bleed) OR crop marks added.
  
And Resolution means what?    

  The term resolution is mainly used to describe the sharpness and clarity of an image. The resolution indicates the number of dots per inch. A ‘300 dpi’ printer can print 300 distinct dots in a line that is 1 inch long, which means 90,000 dots per square inch. Higher resolutions mean that more pixels are used to create the image, resulting in a crisper, cleaner image. For printing, it is recommended that a minimum of 300dpi applies to all images to ensure they reproduce clearly. Furthermore, the dimensions of an image determine the size it will print, while the resolution determines the clarity.
  
• FAQ: Print

  What is Offset /Lithography printing?

  Offset lithography is the most commonly used commercial printing process for the bulk of desktop publishing on paper. Offset lithography is used on both sheet-fed and web offset presses. The three primary differences in offset printing and desktop printing (such as inkjet and laser) are the colors of ink and the way the ink is placed on the paper as well as the type of machinery used to accomplish the task. To reproduce full-color photographic images, typical printing presses use 4 colors of ink. The four inks are placed on the paper in layers of dots that combine to create the illusion of many more colors. CMYK refers to the 4 ink colors used by the printing press. C is cyan (blue), M is magenta (red), Y is yellow, and K is black, the key plate or keyline color. A mistake often made when submitting artwork for 4-color printing is not converting the images to the CMYK color space. This is needed so that the file can be separated into the four colors  so that a separate printing plate can be made for each of the colors.

  What is Web offset printing?

  First of all, no, web presses don’t have anything to do with the internet. Web presses are used to print large quantities (thousands of copies) of magazines, newspapers or catalogs. This process is used for mass-producing prints because a web offset press can run much, much faster than ordinary sheet-fed offset presses, while still delivering excellent quality. Also, web presses can typically handle several colors of ink at the same time. These extra color capabilities are usually used for varnishes. 
If it sounds like your print job calls for a web press then please discuss this option with us..

  What's the Difference between Direct-to-Plate and Digital Printing?

  In direct-to-plate printing, the printing plate is made directly from the computer file, thus eliminating the need for film. Producing film is expensive and time consuming, which is why direct-to-plate printing has become so popular for low-quantity jobs.
Like direct-to-plate printing, digital printing eliminates the need for film by using computer files. However, digital printing goes one step further by creating prints directly from the computer file and therefore taking the plates out of the equation as well. This makes the digital printing process more similar to color photocopying than to traditional printing.
Digital printing is ideal for lower-quantity and customized needs, but can only print CMYK images and files. Like photocopying, however, the price-per-piece tends to be the same.

  What is CMYK colour?

  CMYK Colour stands for Cyan , Magenta , Yellow and Black . These four inks are used in printing, from your desktop inkjet printer to printing presses they need to mix these basic colour together to form the colour spectrum that you see on the final piece. This spectrum of colour is called a subtractive colour spectrum, which means that you have to subtract colours to get white (or the colour of the paper).

   

  CMYK is the only way to print on a press, so when you are creating your piece to be printed you need to have all colour art work and images in CMYK or unexpected problems will appear. This could cause delays because of extra system time. Unfortunately because of the different spectrums between RGB and CMYK you might not match some colours that you see on screen.

  What is RGB colour?

  RGB colour is an additive colour system. What this means is that the colours , and are used to form a variety of colours. If you add an equal amount of red light, green light and blue light you will get white light. This is the colour system that your computer monitor displays and even when you are watching TV, the pictures are being displayed in a RGB colour mode.

  What is SPOT colour?

  Spot colours are premade inks that can be used instead of, or in addition to CMYK process colour inks. A spot colour is usually a PMS (Pantone Matching System ® ) colour designated by a number and whether or not the ink is to be printed on specific stock. For example Pantone 123 CVC is used for coated stock and Pantone 281 CVU is used for uncoated stocks.

  When printing spot colours each colour needs its own plate on the press. Spot colours are mainly used in one to three colour jobs. If you are using four spot colours you may as well make it a CMYK job (unless the colours are absolutely specific to the content). CMYK printing is far cheaper than four spot colours.

Colour RGB vs CMYK
  
  A typical printing press uses four colours of ink to create full-colour photographic images. The four inks are placed on the paper in layers of dots that combine to create the illusion of many more colours. CMYK, also known as “four-colour process” or simply “process” colour, refers to the four ink colours used by the printing press. C is cyan (blue), M is magenta (red), Y is yellow, and K is black, the key plate or keyline colour. Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black are called subtractive colours. Combining them all gives the colour black. Subtracting one or more of these colours will yield any other colour. When combined in various percentages, these four inks will create an entire spectrum of colours.

In many instances, computers use a different colour model called RGB (Red-Green-Blue) and are displayed with light. This tends to give a very bright, high contrast image. The full colour printing process uses CMYK and puts transparent ink on paper.

  In printed materials, the light combination of RGB cannot be directly reproduced; so computer-generated images must be converted to the CMYK equivalent in ink colours. In RGB, the convergence of the three primary additive colours produces white. In CMYK, the convergence of the three primary subtractive colours produces black.

In RGB, the overlapping of additive colours (red, green and blue) results in subtractive colours (cyan, magenta and yellow). In CMYK, the overlapping of subtractive colours (cyan, magenta and yellow) results in additive colours (red, green and blue). Additionally, the colours in RGB are much brighter than the colours in CMYK. It is possible to attain a much larger percentage of the visible spectrum with RGB, which is due to the fact that RGB uses transmitted light while CMYK uses reflected light.

The best way to print your desired colour is to purchase a colour guide or colour combination book that gives you CMYK mixtures and shows how they will appear printed. Click here to find a full range of Pantone products we offer at great prices.

What is Gang Printing?

  When you get similar printing jobs done on the same sheet of paper, it is known as gang run printing. Gang run printing utilises the buying power of multiple consumers who all want top quality printing at good rates. The process is cost-effective for customers, as they only have to pay for the percentage of the sheet utilised by them.

Usually when you get full colour printing done, the print job cost is attributed to fixed costs of setting up the job on the printing press. However in the case of gang run print jobs, many different printing jobs can absorb these fixed costs. Therefore it reduces the overall printing costs.

The only drawback of gang run printing is its incapability to control the ink thickness for the neighbouring images. Unfortunately, there is very little control over colour variations that have occurred during the gang run printing process. The best result that can be achieved is an average colour of every different piece that is printed on the sheet.

• File types accepted
  WHAT FORMAT/S CAN I SUPPLY MY ARTWORK IN?
  
  Press ready PDF format
  CMYK mode
  Created outlines on all fonts
  300dpi
  Crop marks set at: 90 x 55mm with min 3mm bleed beyond all edges
  Include colour bars
  Seperate files for front and back
  
  Note: submitting the following files types will incure a $35 conversion fee to produce press ready PDF's.
  
  TIF format- flattened
  CMYK mode
  300dpi
  Crop marks set at: 90 x 55mm with min 3mm bleed beyond all edges
  Seperate files for front and back
  
  EPS format
  CMYK mode
  Created outlines on all fonts
  300dpi
  Crop marks set at: 90 x 55mm with min 3mm bleed beyond all edges
  Include colour bars
  Seperate files for front and back
  
• Terms & Conditions

  Conditions of Purchase
   
  Confirmation
  We will confirm receipt of your order and payment by email. All items displayed in the shop are in stock but may temporarily become unavailable before your order is received. If the item you have ordered is sold out and no longer in production, we will refund your payment immediately. If it is sold out but still in production we will advise you when it will be in stock and offer to place the item on back-order.
  
  Shipping
  We aim to ship your order immediately after it is produced. We do not charge for shipping within Australia. A courier will deliver your order and someone will need to be in attendance to receive the goods. We can provide a tracking number and contact details for you to monitor delivery. We will deliver your order to the address you specify and will rely on the register of the delivery agent we use as conclusive evidence of delivery.  You must take responsibility for providing an address that will enable delivery to be made within normal business hours. We accept no liability for loss or damage after delivery has been made.
  
  Exchange & returns
  We will refund the price or exchange any product that does not match your order or if it is faulty. If the item you receive has a fault, you may return it to us for a full refund or reproduction provided you notify us immediately by email giving reasonable detail of your claim and return the item to us of receipt in its original condition and packaging.
  
  If the product has a fault, provided you notify us when you discover the fault, have taken good care of the product and return it to us in original condition, we will reproduce or refund your purchase.
   
  Taxes
  Our price is inclusive of GST for sales within Australia but exclusive of all other domestic or foreign taxes. You are responsible for paying any customs or excise duties, sales taxes or fees, if any, imposed by any taxing authority outside of Australia.  
  
  Liability
  Our maximum liability to you is limited to the price of the product ordered and we do not accept any liability whatsoever for any consequential loss related to the sale of our products. We will meet our own costs for sending an exchanged item to you if we have made an error or we accept that the item is faulty but you must deliver any returned item to us at your cost and risk.
  
  Law
  The governing law of each contract of sale and any other legal obligation between us is the state and federal laws of the place in which our business is located being the state of New South Wales, Australia.

• Disclamer

  Every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this the business card shop publication is accurate. However the author expressly disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose. the author does not warrant or make any representations regarding the use or the results of the use of the information provided within the publication in terms of its correctness, accuracy, reliability, or otherwise.

  No oral or written information or advice given by the author shall create a warranty or in any way increase the scope of this warranty. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so the above exclusion may not apply to you.

• Privacy Policy
  We respect the privacy of all personal information you provide to us. We only collect such information as is necessary for us and our business partners to effectively service our business relationship with you.
  
  The personal information we collect comes from registration and order forms and is generally limited to billing and delivery addresses and contact details. We also retain details of your purchases online and your password in password-protected areas.
  
  The information we gather is held securely whether in physical or electronic form. We will not use or disclose your personal information other than for the purposes detailed above and if we wish to do so we will ask for your consent.
  
  We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is not misused, lost or subject to unauthorised access or use. We will also take action as required to destroy or permanently de-identify any personal information about you that we no longer require.
  
  You have a right to access the personal information that we hold about you. We will at your request take all reasonable steps to provide you with a copy of the information we hold about you and to correct any information, which you find to be inaccurate. Should we be entitled to deny you access and or refuse to correct your personal information, we will provide you with reasons that will be based on the grounds provided by the Privacy Act 1988.
  
  This privacy statement does not address the information practices of any other website. For example where you access this website through a link from another site or where you use a link from this site to another, your personal information may be subject to the practices and policies of that other site.
   
  All requests for access to personal information should be made to the Manager by email, post or phone as detailed on our Contact page.
  
  We may amend this privacy statement as our business requirements or the law changes. Any changes to this privacy statement will be updated on spacecandy.com.au.
  
  Please contact us by email or telephone if you have any queries in relation to our privacy statement or you believe that your privacy has been breached.