Prefer to print yourself or work through a shop?

Discussion in Office Supplies started by scottguy • Jun 5, 2014.

  1. scottguy

    scottguyNew Member

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    When I make art prints and CDs I am often faced with the question of whether I should trust myself to print them or trust a shop. On one hand, it's really nice to be able to have the control of printing it myself, especially the option to shop for my own paper and often find really good deals on something. On the other hand, however, it is often really nice to outsource the printing to a print company and let them do it all for you. It often comes out much nicer and isn't always too too expensive. Where do you draw the line? What stuff would you print on your own and what would you prefer to send to a print shop?
     
  2. H.C. Heartland

    H.C. HeartlandActive Member

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    If I am going to rain all of my colors and still am not sure it will come out right, then I just take it to a shop. For e.g. there is a website that has comic book bible pages for kids. This can be printed off and laminated. But there is so much color that the type of paper I use usually absorbs a lot of the ink, and so my ink gets drained and the product doesn't turn out looking that great. For four dollars I can have it printed professionally and laminated. It looks great afterwards and I have not used up all of my ink. Those ink cartridges are expensive too! We are not too conservative about printing out documents from home though. Black ink seems to go a long way and while we haven't really calculated it; it seems cost effective.
     
  3. 003

    003Well-Known Member

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    When I the thing that I need to be printed has to turn out neat and look like done by a pro, say for a project, a magazine project, or a brochure, and a cover, that it's not just a simple stuff that needed to be printed out in black and out, say a formal report, then I resort to a print shop who can do the job appropriately and make it appear as how I want it to be. If for the personal use, on the other hand, like a sheet music, or if I am sure I can do the job, that I know I would be able to achieve, what I want to achieve, then I do it myself. Another thing that also concerns me is the time, If I don't have a time to do the printing and much more the formatting myself, I let the print shop handle the job.