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DC full-service design studio and print shop

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equipment

May 25, 2016 By Tom Gimer

130 lb cover stock printing now easy

Our new Konica 1085 digital press takes printing on heavy cover stock to the next level. This new machine prints 130# cover stock (130lb, 130 pound, 350gsm) on both sides, fast. For some people, 130# cover is overkill for a business card. Others like their cards very thick. You know which camp you’re in.

What this means is that with KKP you can have 130lb double sided full color business cards printed faster than you can say “thick business cards please”. Yes, this is a same day service here. You need your thick business cards yesterday? They’re ready, pick ’em up already. Try asking FedEx Office or Staples for this and after the initial blank stare they’ll figure out how to get them to you in about a week! Pretenders!

Give us a call to get pricing, or you can also find these in our online shop.

Related posts you might like:

  1. A few things about business card printing
  2. Saddle-stitched booklets are beautiful yet economical
  3. Outsourcing vs. printing in-house

Filed Under: Print Tagged With: equipment, media

April 17, 2016 By Tom Gimer

Coming soon: Three Knife Trimmer

The days of manually trimming one edge at a time to create full bleed books and booklets is about to end. We’re expecting delivery of a three knife trimmer later this month!

I have a feeling our phone will be ringing a bit more… with some of these calls being from other local printers. There aren’t many of these devices in the area.

Stay tuned!

Related posts you might like:

  1. What is a bleed?
  2. We have a variety of equipment in our shop to produce and finish jobs
  3. Tip: how to set up for bleeds

Filed Under: Print, Misc Tagged With: binding, equipment, finishing

January 22, 2016 By Tom Gimer

New Equipment: Triumph 5560 Programmable Cutter

We don’t announce every new piece of equipment we buy, but this particular acquisition is too neat to put into service without at least mentioning it in a blog post and highlighting how it improves our workflow and the quality of our finished products.

triumph-5560Over the holidays we were happy to welcome the newest piece of finishing equipment in our shop — a Triumph 5560 programmable paper cutter. Perhaps you saw it going into our building in Cady’s Alley via crane on 12/21! This cutter makes finishing perfectly cut pieces so much easier. And while of course we’ve had nice paper cutters over the years, this one is quiet an upgrade. Have a look to the right and you’ll notice a few special things about this cutter. First, and foremost, it’s highly programmable. The electronic display not only allows us to input and save custom jobs with multiple automatic cuts; it also shows the exact dimension of each cut right down to hundredths of an inch. That’s incredibly precise, by the way. Next, you’ll notice there is no retractable safety glass on this cutter. The Triumph 5560 actually has sensors which prevent the blade from coming down while hands or anything are near, so no glass is necessary. This speeds up the cutting process immensely. The blade itself is an incredible display of quality, machined cutting prowess. And with the red LED optical cutting line you can see in the photo, there’s never a doubt that the next cut will be right on the mark.

So when you need invitations cut to precisely fit into envelopes, or menus that have to be a special size to fit into sleeves, or anything that must be cut EXACTLY to size, give us a call.

Related posts you might like:

  1. New Year, New Equipment
  2. We have a variety of equipment in our shop to produce and finish jobs
  3. New equipment: Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS c7000

Filed Under: Design, Print, Misc Tagged With: equipment, finishing

March 11, 2014 By Tom Gimer

Same Day Perfect Binding

We used to send batches of books out to be perfect bound by a vendor in the Maryland suburbs. Outsourcing the binding added at least 2 days to our turnaround times. It’s hard to be “fast” when you have to depend on third parties, and the delay actually ended up costing us a bunch of potential work.

One of the drawbacks of perfect binding is the machines are usually quite large. So when Duplo introduced the DB-280 perfect binder (a compact yet powerful perfect binding machine), it made us think hard about adding perfect binding to the lineup of finishing/bindery services we offer in-house.

perfect-bindingWe’re pleased to report that professional perfect binding is now available right here at our DC shop. Books can be up to 1.6″ thick (approx. 400 sheets). And we can make perfect bound books in various sizes — really anything between 1.97″ x 3.15″ (tiny) and 12.6″ x 15.75″ (huge).

Coil and comb binding are great binding methods for showing off presentations because the materials can be opened flat and displayed in full. But when you think of a book, what comes to mind is pages held together with glue in the spine. This new unit of ours produces good ol’ fashioned books! It also does tape binding and padding, by the way.

Since we now do perfect binding on-site, we can print books on demand — yes, printed and bound on the same day they are ordered. If you are an author looking to print on an as-needed basis, or if you want to keep a small inventory on hand for immediate delivery, definitely give us a call. As a bonus to our customers, perfect binding is faster and cheaper than both coil and comb binding.

We now need to spread the word to our business and association clients about this new service. Will you help us? Thanks in advance.

Comments or questions about perfect binding? Use the comments below.

Related posts you might like:

  1. We offer 2 methods of binding here
  2. New equipment: Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS c7000
  3. We have a variety of equipment in our shop to produce and finish jobs

Filed Under: Print, Misc Tagged With: binding, equipment, finishing

November 26, 2013 By Tom Gimer

Things to know when color is really important

Most of our customers aren’t particularly picky about matching colors. As long as their logo prints close to navy blue or periwinkle, or whatever color they use, they are generally happy. However, some clients are extremely concerned about matching colors perfectly — every time their logo (or whatever the important element is) is printed it must look exactly like the last batch of prints, and the one before that, and so on. This post is for these folks.

A client came to us about a year ago with a job that another printer was unable to complete to her satisfaction. This happens to us a lot, and for various reasons, but in this case it was due to a color issue. The other printer could not get the client’s logo to print with the right pink. Frustrated, she took the project elsewhere. When she came to us, she told us what had happened. Her logo, which was a central element on all of her marketing collateral — business cards, gift cards, and labels — was not printing consistently. Sometimes the pink she wanted was too red, on other prints it was too dark or too light. She had a sample in hand that she wanted us to match. We figured out right away that this was a client who was extremely concerned about color matching.

Having customers who are very sensitive to color issues is totally fine with us, it just requires more work and extra steps to get their projects perfect.

So we spent a couple of hours working to match pieces printed on one of our digital presses with the hardcopy sample she had provided. Since her business cards and gift cards were going to be printed on the same material — she selected a smooth, bright-white cardstock — we could use the same art for those and be confident that the colors would match. The labels were a different story, however, because she had already bought the stock she wanted to use for those. Her labels were white, but more of an eggshell white. And they were glossy. Since the color and type of the material used can affect how colors print significantly, we ended up having to adjust her label art a fair amount to get the labels to print colors which adequately matched those on the cards.

OK so what’s the point of this post? It’s not that color matching requires additional time and energy. There is more. Here’s what you need to know when color is really important to you:

1. Different machines print colors differently

Sure, digital presses all use the CMYK color model, but a file will print differently from one press to the next. If color matching is important to a client and we know it, we use the same press every time we print a job for that client. This should get noted in the client file so future jobs are printed properly. Some of our clients actually ask us to use a particular machine to print their jobs when they make an order.

2. The same machine can print colors differently over time

Sad, but true. Digital presses need to be monitored and cared for properly to keep them running well. We use a process called “calibration” to make sure our presses print colors consistently. This is done on on a set schedule throughout the month, but it is also done when we print on particular stocks and also when colors don’t seem to be printing correctly. Using a test sheet and a color measuring device we can see when either the Cyan, Magenta, Yellow or Black have gotten “out of whack” (for lack of a better phrase). Calibrating our presses is usually enough to get them printing accurate colors again. Sometimes we need to revert back to the last calibration settings to get things printing right.

3. Color issues must be addressed every time a job is printed

Because of the points raised above, the process of color matching must be undertaken every time the job is printed. Even when printing on the same machine, after it has been properly calibrated, you still need to confirm that the colors are printing to the client’s satisfaction. This requires visual inspection of a hardcopy proof. If you’ve read our blog before you know we often stress the importance of seeing and approving a hardcopy. This is especially true when colors are important to you.

So when colors are really important, plan for extra design and setup time, as well as some extra time out of your schedule to perform the inspection, to help make sure the job prints right.

Related posts you might like:

  1. 3 things you’ll need to decide about your print project
  2. The top 3 reasons your file is not camera ready
  3. Proofs. Who needs them?

Filed Under: Design, Print Tagged With: equipment, graphics, settings, tips

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KKP | Kwik Kopy Printing

1111 34th St, NW
Washington, DC 20007
202 362-8399 (phone)
202 664-1313 (fax)

info@kkpdc.com

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