Making your own flyers and business cards seems like a terrific way to save money on marketing, especially when you contrast the cost of doing it yourself with the amount you must set aside for professional printing. However, the output of a printing press may not match the results you get from desktop technology, and the output devices most organisations employ may result in identification materials and brochures that cannot withstand the demands of handling and mailing. Furthermore, desktop technology is unable to print full-bleed pages with content that reaches the paper’s cut edges.
Laser
For materials that require exceptional water resistance and friction resistance, laser-based devices are the first option. Identity documents, capability brochures, and other printed materials need to be durable enough to withstand handling, postal processing, and other physical strains. The results of laser printing are more durable than those of other options because laser printing uses intense heat to fuse toner into the surface of its output material. The reproduction of images via laser printing exhibits some drawbacks. These devices use small dots to provide continuous-tone material, but because they only support one dot size for rendering visual detail, the accuracy of their reproduction may be limited. In contrast, due of their capability for high resolution, laser printers produce excellent typographic text.
Inkjet
Inkjet printers offer excellent results when your identification and capability papers include photographic content since they rely on variable-sized bits of ink sprayed from tiny nozzles. The nature of ink renders it more susceptible to environmental stresses than the heat-set output of a laser device would be, even if some inkjet device types can create output that is almost water-resistant. Inkjets can also produce fuzzy type, which makes for a less-than-stellar impression in a collection of marketing materials for a business. Inkjet hardware may not be economically feasible as a mass-production output medium due to the expense of ink cartridges.
Strong Ink
Solid ink printers, like laser printers, image a complete page at once, allowing them to print pages more quickly than conventional inkjet printers. However, their photo output can be less lifelike than that of inkjet machines. This hardware prints vibrant, brilliant colours that make a suitable choice for charts and graphs. Because these machines employ heat and their wax-based ink has a lower melting point than laser printers, they produce results that are more susceptible to environmental factors. Furthermore, abrasion and friction damage from solid ink output can occur.
Options Besides
You might have success printing your identity and marketing materials on non-traditional hardware depending on the type of business you run and the image you want to project. For these kinds of pieces, design firms frequently stray from the norm. They may combine desktop printer output with rubber stamps, experiment with dot matrix printers, or use larger scans of printed characters as artwork. Take your designs in high-resolution PDF file to a rapid printer who can output them on a colour copier with results that are nearly identical to those of a printing press if you want higher print quality than your own technology can produce.
