DC full-service design studio and print shop
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!
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.
Over 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.
I heard you guys are fast, but can you do same day business cards?
Yes, we can do same day business cards. This is actually a fairly common request.
So why do you need cards so fast? Maybe you just started a new business. Perhaps you just found out there is a big networking event tonight. Maybe you just discovered your box of cards is empty! Or it could be you just confirmed an important meeting with a potential client. Why you need cards so fast really doesn’t matter to us. What does matter is you need business cards, and right away.
Well, you’re in luck because these types of jobs are our bread and butter! We design, print and cut business cards (among other things) right here in our DC shop, so same day business cards are a fairly easy thing for us to get done.
Many people are less than thrilled when they receive business cards ordered from online vendors. It is much easier to create a business card you are happy with when you do business with a local business. Here are a couple of reasons. There are so many paper stocks out there, you really need to see and feel the options in person. If you come in select the right paper stock for your artwork, you’ll definitely be happier with how your business cards turn out. Also, font sizes and colors are easy to mess up when ordering online, so viewing a hard-copy proof before your job is printed is a simple way to avoid that disappointment.
We can cut cards in special sizes and can even finish them with rounded corners. Yes, all on the same day.
Questions about any of this? Contact us!
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.
We’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.
We get a lot of calls about business card design and printing. Since the same issues and questions come up all the time, we thought we’d outline some of the more common ones. Here are some things you will find helpful when it comes time to get business cards designed and/or printed, as well as information about business card design and printing in DC generally.
You’ll need to choose a size for your business card. A standard U.S. business card is 2 inches by 3.5 inches, but yours can be whatever size you want it to be. Some of the neatest cards we’ve seen over the years aren’t standard size, but it really depends on your purpose whether to go against the grain and choose a different size.
You’ll need to decide on a paper stock. Our “basic” stock is a white 80lb smooth cover (216gsm), but we keep many different cover stocks on hand. If you want a card with texture, we have laid, linen and wove covers. We also carry gloss and matte coated cover stocks in various weights. The lightest cover stock we carry is 65lb (176gsm). The heaviest is 130lb (350gsm). My favorite? 100lb Cougar white smooth. It’s simple, attractive and sturdy. As far as colors go, we stock mostly white and off-white papers (there are many different off-white colors) but can quickly get our hands on whatever color and weight you may need. Many people are surprised to learn that full bleed cards with solid backgrounds are often printed on white cover stock, not colored paper.
You’ll need to decide on color or black printing. If your art is to be printed in any color other than black, even the tiniest bit of color, it is considered full color at our shop. And pricing is higher for color vs. black & white. For 2 sided cards you can do both sides in color, both in black, or have one sided printed in color and the other black.
Whether your cards are single or double sided affects pricing. If you’re on a tight budget, go with single sided printing. If you’ve got a lot of information to convey, you may need both sides.
Most people prefer flat printing, but we also offer raised printing (thermography). With raised printing you are more limited with respect to colors as well as the detail of your imagery on the final product. It also takes a little longer to print with raised ink.
If your business cards have bleeds, this affects pricing because it affects how much paper is used as well as the amount of time and effort needed to cut them. Our bleed settings are .125″ for bleed and trim areas — please add 1/8″ extensions and keep important elements 1/8″ away from the trim area. Not sure what I’m talking about or how to set up your file? Call us.
Business cards are usually a 1-day turnaround (2-3 days for raised printing), but when necessary we can speed up the process. If you need business cards printed on the same day as you order them, you’ll want to send us your art as early in the day as possible. If you need cards designed and printed, it is even more important to get started right away.
If you need your business card designed, our fee for setting up a basic business card (text layout) is $30. For more complicated design work our hourly graphics rate is $120.
Since there are a lot of variables, it is best to call us or submit an estimate request form with your project details. We’ll need answers to all of the above issues! Generally speaking, the more business cards you buy, the less you pay. And there are price breaks as you buy more cards. We can print as few as 100 but for your best pricing, order more than that — try 250/500/1000+.
