Do you ask your customer???

[kdw75]

When a customer gets a quote do you inform them about the ups and downs of digital vs offset, do you use your best judgement, or do you price it both ways?

We have some regular clients who are willing to pay for offset even when digital is much cheaper because of the quality. When a customer asks for a quote on a job that would be cheaper to run on a toner based machine how do you decide whether the quality will satisfy them?

 

[Craig]

Honestly we steer the customer in the direction that best suits their needs. If you know they would not be happy with your digital output, then don't offer it, or offer it as a lower cost alternative. Most of the time our customers don't care how the job is printed, just that it is printed in the time frame and budget they have. It's like you caring if a brown truck or white truck delivers your packages. I'm sure you don't care what color trucks brings them as long as you get them on time.

 

[kdw75]

Thanks for the reply. That is basically what we try to do. I learned that I have much higher standards than almost all of our customers. Like you said they just want it cheap and on time.

Do you inform them of both options or do you use your best judgement? When you start educating them about the the differences it can open up a can of worms.

 

[Craig]

Sometimes more information from us leads to more confusion for them, they end up looking at you like a deer in headlights! 90% of the time the method of printing is driven by quantity or deadline. I usually don't even inform the customer how it's printed.

 

[PrintMaster]

Depends on their artwork , cover your basis incase it becomes very demanding!

 

[kdw75]

I always worry that if you print something digitally they might look at it and say "What is this? I came to a print shop!" This may almost never happen, but it scares me. I also worry that you will get a copy shop reputation with someone who might later need a high quality corporate report done and the will think your not up to the job without even asking.

I probably worry too much.

 

[yourdesigns]

We have an offset and screen print press and I will make the decision based on what the art looks like. I will inform the customer of their choice if it is a tossup or if they need to make a choice between quality and color. I do prefer not to open that can of worms though since many times they start questioning after that.

 

[Craig]

I always worry that if you print something digitally they might look at it and say "What is this? I came to a print shop!" This may almost never happen, but it scares me. I also worry that you will get a copy shop reputation with someone who might later need a high quality corporate report done and the will think your not up to the job without even asking.

I probably worry too much.

Much of this depends on the equipment you have. I doubt with the production devises (not office copiers) that most "common" people could tell if it was offset or digital. We do quite a bit of trade work for other shops with 4 color presses. Much of what we print is reprints of stuff run on their presses. I have never had anyone question if the job was printed on a digital press or an offset.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

In regards to CMYK only and price/short run being the critical drivers - the only time this really came up was for letterheads that would be placed back through a laser printer, if we were printing the letterheads on a copier/network printer. If the letterheads were going to be laser overprinted, we would print them on press and explain why to the customer. Otherwise most of the customers could/did not care, as price and not colour/quality was the driving factor.


Stephen Marsh

 

[kdw75]

We are using a Xerox Color 560 and while it looks pretty good on some things there is definitely a loss of quality. After I run some stuff on it I start to think it looks pretty good. Then I see stuff on the press and realize it isn't even close. Especially when clients have small type. It is funny too but if someone sends in type that has been rasterized at 300 dpi it seems to actually improve when we make plates. I am not sure if the RIP is re-interpolating it or what. On the Xerox it just looks ok.

I have seen Shutterfly samples and they are truly amazing.

 

[MailGuru]

It really depends on your equipment and the actual print job. I don't think the Xerox 560 is what I would call a "digital color production press". We are using Xerox 8002's and most customers (even some offset trade customers) can not tell the difference between digital and offset. The print quality (2400 x 2400 dpi) is just that good, even running flat-out at 80 pages/min on 10-pt gloss. That being said, we have encountered some print jobs by graphic designers who have designed their jobs around offset, that use some colors (such as some pantones, etc.) that simply can not be achieved in digital. You can get close, but not dead-on. If it's just a typical direct mail job, it usually doesn't matter. But, if you're printing sales collateral where the branding color has to be EXACTLY dead-on, I would stay with the offset.

 

[narseman]

if someone sends in type that has been rasterized at 300 dpi it seems to actually improve when we make plates.

Text at 300 dpi will be horrible! Even at 600 dpi is not great. Text should be at minimum 1200 dpi on a digital press. For this purpose Acrobat PDFs work well as a file format. File can be processed to handle 150 dpi little graphics to 1200 dpi text, all in one. You don't have to rip everything at one dpi rate.

 

[arossetti]

We are using a Xerox Color 560 and while it looks pretty good on some things there is definitely a loss of quality. After I run some stuff on it I start to think it looks pretty good. Then I see stuff on the press and realize it isn't even close. Especially when clients have small type. It is funny too but if someone sends in type that has been rasterized at 300 dpi it seems to actually improve when we make plates. I am not sure if the RIP is re-interpolating it or what. On the Xerox it just looks ok.

I have seen Shutterfly samples and they are truly amazing.

Perfect example of office color versus production color when it comes to digital print.

 

[MailGuru]

If you don't have production-class digital, then, the answer is simple: Never give the customer a choice of digital over offset - always go with offset. If the volume is low enough, you could outsource to a shop that does have production-class digital, and, probably save money and the end result will be hard to tell if it was offset or digital. BUT, if all you have is office color - you will produce a sub-quality product for any volumes over 50 to 100 pieces.

Color digital production presses are geared for larger volume. Most have a built in Quality Control device that continually checks printed output against the original PDF and will make CMYK adjustments on the fly to make sure copy # 10,573 is just as dead-on as copy # 1.