Many businesses rely on commercial printing services to produce materials for internal and public consumption. If your business has commercial printing needs, you should maximize the benefits by doing the following things.

Create Specific Versions of Every Item

A business will usually need several types of print products. Rather than trying to shoehorn your digital files into a bunch of varying physical print formats, you should create versions for each medium.

For example, you should have a version of your logo that will work for label printing. The logo may have to be a reduced version. For example, a 2-word logo that uses the whole name could probably visually compress to a stylized version of the first letters of the words in the name to will fit on the label. Conversely, you might have a bigger version for use on boxes.

Know the Printer's Digital Formats

Talk with someone at the commercial printing company to learn which digital formats they use. Beyond editing software and file types, you should also learn which color profiles they use. Where possible, try to align your setup with theirs.

Ask for copies of the color profiles and printing templates so you can quickly adopt their norms. This will make it much easier to produce files, email them to the printer, and get back proofs. Once you and the commercial printing team get a feel for this process, you'll be able to get into production much sooner.

Develop a Catalog of Regular Items

Most firms with commercial printing needs will have to do multiple production runs. Ideally, you can leave the files for those items with the commercial printing services provider. Whenever you need a new run, you can just order them up based on the existing files. Some customers do this often enough that printing businesses number the products so people can order them quickly.

Simplicity

Many printed items don't need to be overly complex. Whenever possible, limit or eliminate the use of color. Also, don't use less common paper formats. Printing companies have to charge more for less common products so try not to request them more often than necessary.

Volume

Buying in bulk will almost always save you some money. If you know you're going to need hundreds or thousands of copies of a product, such as a collection of job application forms, ask for a large run. Store the excess and use them for months or years to come.

For more information, contact a commercial printing service in your area.