If you need to get four color printing done there is more to consider than just the cost. Another important consideration is the actual time it takes to get the printing done as well. This is especially crucial if you have a deadline or other time constraints placed upon you. If you want to have the ability to offer handouts for some kind of presentation that you are doing. If you have a presentation to give at a larger sized auditorium, many times the use of PowerPoint may not work just due to the distance that some of the participants may be from the screen.
If you wait until the last minute a local printer will rip your head off for a last minute print job, what I mean is they will charge you a hefty fee for rushing it. This is one of the reasons you should always have your own printing station at your home office, so that you can do it yourself in an emergency.
Another issue you have to deal with when you are under a deadline is not having the proper time to proof the end product which could lead to major embarrassment. You could end up with a product that has missing pages, improper binding, and poor color quality.
As I alluded to above, it can be very advantageous to have the facilities to be able to do the printing and binding yourself instead of having to order the job done. There are many local printers who offer these services but you don’t want to have to rely on them in a bind if you have never used them before. Another issue with doing them yourself is the time factor. If you don’t have an assistant or two that can help you bind the printed pages in a professional manner you are still doomed.
The best possible solution is to use a local printer for some smaller jobs a few times and see how they handle it, and then give them a larger order with plenty of time to proof the end product when you get it back. If you do this then you will know what to expect and also know the quality of their work. Any company should be willing to stand behind their product like this, so if you cant get this money back guarantee or some other type of agreement, then you probably should not order your printouts from that company, but use someone else instead.
Even though the process is officially called four color printing there will really be thousands of colors in the end product. The process uses tiny dots called pixels that actually blend together to fool your eyes to seeing more colors than there really are. It doesn’t matter that the colors aren’t really there, it is the appearance that matters.
