Production Printers: The Basics of Print Finishing

09 Feb Production Printers: The Basics of Print Finishing

Many of our clients require excellent production printers for their mass printing businesses, and a consideration that is just as important for production printing as a quality machine, is print finishing. In this article we examine what print finishing is, and why it’s so important.

What is Print Finishing?

Print finishing refers to enhancements and adjustments performed on printed products after printing. It is a broad term that typically refers to any alterations to the print after printing has been completed. Sometimes this can be done inline, which means that it occurs before prints are off the press, and other times it can be offline – after the print has come off the press. There are numerous kinds of print finishes and which is used will depend on the printed product.

Types of Print Finishing

• Cutting: Some businesses use a trimmer for small items, while others use a guillotine to cut larger prints, but this is a common finishing option used in prints where images need to be cropped or specific sizes are cut, such as with business cards.

• Scoring: This involves creasing paper and is done for two reasons. First, it makes folding easier and second, it provides a neater and more uniform fold.

• Laminating: A procedure whereby a clear, thick plastic film is used to entirely cover printed material to protect it from various things such as stains, folding, tearing, etc.

• Folding: This is the automation of folding a variety of printed materials, from brochures to cards. It is quicker and more accurate than having humans fold these items.

• Embossing and debossing: This is when a printed surface is either raised (embossing) or depressed (debossing) to create a sleek-looking image.

• Perforating: This is the process of punching a number of tiny holes into paper so that it can be removed or torn off easily. One will find this frequently with exam pads and invoice booklets, for example.

• Binding: This term covers a range of finishing options that typically refer to the activity of tying more than one sheet of printed materials together. It could be as simple as stapling a couple sheets of paper together, to more complex stitching or ring binding processes, for example.

At DocX, whatever your needs, we supply superb, top-of –the-range Xerox production printers so that our clients deliver exceptional quality with each print to their own clients. We also offer managed print services which enable businesses to focus on other aspects of their business, leaving the printing and copying to us.

Image credit: gildenburgh.co.uk/page/?pid=21