by Jacques Di Salvia

Promoting your company’s products and services by using postcards as the medium is a very cost effective way to reach your potential customer base. Postcards offer two of the biggest advantages such as cost and convenience.

The real meaning of success in any promotional campaign is to be able to reach the targeted sectors of the market. In this instance, the quality of the printed postcards plays an integral part in the success of the campaign. Therefore, if your design and information is not of a very high standard then it is more than likely that your output will reflect that too. The success of your campaign also relies on the output and so if the printing machine that is used does not print in high-resolution graphics then all of your efforts will seem to have been wasted.

Earlier, postcards used to get printed only in offset presses, but advancement of printing technology and introduction of digital presses have changed the scenario. Digital presses offer more flexibilities and options without sacrificing on quality. You can choose from the wide range of design template as per your choice and merge your mailing list with the design to be printed in the final postcards.

Today, there are quite a few digital printer manufacturers who offer different features and attachments in their digital presses. Global leaders like hp, Canon, or Kodak produce machines capable of delivering high-quality prints. These machines have sophisticated systems for paper transfer and printing. The entire operations are controlled electronically via a control panel.

The paper that is used to print the postcards is referred to as the stock. It comes in various finishes and thickness such as; a matte, gloss or pear finish. Most printing machines can print up to A3-sized paper. The speed at which it prints is around 4000 sheets of A4 sized paper per hour using four other colors. If it is printing in black and white then the quantity is 16000 copies using A4 sheets.

The Internet can be used to download your postcard design and by using the control panel you can view the output on the monitor. Being placed in the printer queue one right after the other is a way to prioritize printing jobs.

Both sides of a postcard can be printed simultaneously if you wish to save time printing them. A main feature of these types of printing machines is the variable data because it has the ability to make each printed postcard look like it was customized and is unique from all others. Now you can see why digital printing has become popular in the postcard printing business.

Cutting and trimming the postcard is the final step in giving the postcard a particular shape after it has been printed. If you would like to add some additional affects then it may go to the other departments like embossing, UV varnishing and leafing. Although digital printing is a preference for most when utilizing the variable data printing method offset printing is still a favourite for long run jobs.

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