Print Production document -BY SARAH

UNIVERSITY OF HERTINGHAM- ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT

To: Mrs A Garner- Head of Administration

From: Sarah Andrew

Date: 04.02.2012

I am researching three printed products for this occasion. Posters, Invitations for award winners and VIPs and Programme sheets for all guests.

I have investigated into digital printing, as it is cheap and quick to use. Digital printing is quite modern and has many benefits, like you can make changes after made.  This printing has good quality, too. The printing is cheaper than Intaglio printing which is highly expensive.

For making the programmes, Offset Litho printing is to be used. Offset Litho is suitable for a large number of prints. This method has a better quality of colour and sharper images and is also much faster (can do up to 18000 sheets per hour). In digital printing streaks along solid colour can occur- where Offset Litho does not do this- Offset uses liquid inks that are absorbed into uncoated stock.

Letterpress will be used to make the Invitations as this will make them look elegant and attractive. Letterpress is used frequently for invitations, especially for formal occasions. I recommend this as it also doesn’t make the text look ‘casual’ and could be easily done with machines or by hand. This is not the most expensive, although not the cheapest, form of printing. 

Letterpress printing was the standard method of printing for approximately 500 years prior to offset printing taking the reins in the twentieth century.  Letterpress printing is the ‘relief’ printing of text and images using a press with movable type or plates, in which a reversed, raised surface is inked and then pressed into a sheet of paper. (Letterpress is the oldest form of printing.) 

At roughly £4.00 each for 1 colour letterpress with a matching envelope, paying for 40 for the award winners would be roughly £160. 25 2-coloured invites with matching envelopes would cost £5 each, so the cost of all would be £125. The total cost for ALL invites (and envelopes) will be £285, which is more than half of the budget.

To summarise, Litho production for programmes will be about £60, Letterpress would come to roughly £285, and the posters would be (for mass production, slightly lower costs than singally) £45 for 30 high-quality poster prints. This all comes to roughly £400, about £100 under budget. I recommend these as then the money could be used elsewhere.