Printer for Calendars

[smo]

We are looking for a digital printer to produce personal calendars.

We require excellent print quality (photo like!) and the same from quality and colour reproduction.

The product is generally in tiny runs, 13 pages, all different generally each calendar is a one off although runs of upto 25 do come through (so 25 sets of 13 different pages)

What would you guys recommend we use to print these???

 

[UberTech]

What do you think your monthly volume would be?

 

[smo]

Approx 150-200 calendars a day (average) between september and january, very few outside this time.

 

[Keith]

Wow. Did I do my math right? 200 calendars a day x 30 days = 6000 calendars per month x 7 sheets of 12x18 4/4 = 84,000 clicks per month. That's a lot of calendars. I'm assuming they're going to be 8.5x11 finished size with bleed. Are they going to be saddlestiched? Card stock cover? Coated paper? Inline or offline finishing?

 

[smo]

Er....quite possibly!

It could be 42000 clicks if we print 2 up and guilotine, or 84000 if single sheet - ive not worked out "how" they would be printed yet as currently we subcontract the actual printing to a 3rd party (we are printers ourselves but in totally different market sector and equipment)

We are having so many problems with the current setup we are seriously considering bringing it in-house, this would increase the products we can offer and ulimately increase control over the jobs/quality/colour etc.

The calendars are wire bound, some products we offer are folded/creased though so that needs to be a consideration too although because of the complexity id imagine offline is probably better??

I think the biggest hurdle we have is finding software that can be automated to take the images and data, put them all into a template, allow a preview and then print it...hundreds of times over!!!

 

[X33]

Contact Xerox and ask for the Photo Applications Specialist.

They can provide you for an end-to-end solution; from a website that received images from your customer, sw that puts all together in templates, automated RIPs, printing and finishin including hole punching for wire binding.

 

[smo]

X33 - is that the same in the UK?

 

[X33]

X33 - is that the same in the UK?

it should be

 

[Predisposed]

Best Quality Digital for you calendars

Best Quality Digital for you calendars

Find someone who has a HP 7000 indigo, the quality is fantastic and very consistent. We currently use several companies that have the 7000 and we have no quality issues, (and we produce sheet-fed litho via heidelbergs). We will be installing our first HP7000 in 3 weeks time so we can bring more work in.

 

[smo]

With my limited knowledge of the indigo i have a feeling it might be overkill, we simply dont have the space, experience or money for an indigo altho we would love to have one!

 

[ShortRunMagazines]

If you can afford it, I'd go with the Xerox DC5000. I worked on one a while back and it was a dream (warning, if you get the CREO you MUST profile it with High GCR to reduce the builds, if you don't the get the 3D look real easily!!!) KM's are good when they work, but hard as hell to keep the color the same page to page and day to day.

I'll wave my usual $0.02 charge...

 

[smo]

Thanks for the input, very interesting to know as our current supplier uses DC12's amongst others

 

[dgraves]

We could take care of all of your needs with digital printing, binding and an online application to post images/type to your calendars. Contact me offline for more information. We have been in business since 1941.

 

[smo]

We could take care of all of your needs with digital printing, binding and an online application to post images/type to your calendars. Contact me offline for more information. We have been in business since 1941.

The problem with this is you are in the US, and we are UK based!

I'm still looking into this - even getting hold of Xerox is proving tricky at the moment.

 

[michaels]

For this large run you might also get in touch with print24. Here is a direct link go their calendar section.

Good Luck

 

[ZeeBees]

would think the indigo would definitely be overkill, we ran about that many last winter on a konica with inline saddle stitching, worked good, but konica needed a lot of service to keep running correctly. Something modern on the smallish side would probably suit your needs. We like the color and maintenance free-er service of the canon imagerunner. much better than the konica. xerox's are nice. would recommend you go to the dealer directly, preferably not just a local rep.
you'll want to decide whether to do them saddle stitched or wire bound. compare inline options as you'll probably want the machine to do most of the heavy lifting. if you don't have 3 side trimming, you'll want to get an offline cutter. don't forget a good punch to hang the calendars on the wall.
creo would be faster for multiple rips, but we're getting used to the fiery now.

 

[Robbie101]

We use a KM 5500 and it does a wonderful job on ours.