PrintingNews.com

Having 'the right tool for the right job' is always important—but even more so in the printing business. The right process for the right application can make or break a project and even a client relationship. And while the processes used on fine art, direct mail, wide format, and office and business stationery are well known, the factors affecting such decisions can be many and varied.

Indeed, matching processes to applications in general can at times prove to be more art than science, suggests Paul Lilienthal, president of Pictura Graphics in Minneapolis, "and it depends on your unique circumstances. We may have a smaller promotional-type piece that is large quantity."

Pictura might now take that on, he says, "which we never used to do because now we can find somehow, some way to make it work. That's the beauty with digital: We can move it around through various processes and find a way to make it work. Sometimes we use photographic, sometimes we use inkjet. It's just a little bit more flexible nowadays than it used to be."

"The choices being made aren't necessarily the choices of the printers; they're the choices of the customers," notes Gavin Jordan-Smith, VP Commercial Print & Prepress, Xerox Corp., "and it's how the application is driving it and what its use is. Do you need it turned around in hours as opposed to days? Where is it going to go? Is it going to be outside? Inside? What kind of durability do you want it to have? What is the function of the piece itself?"

At the end of the day, he points out, "the customer creating the piece is really the person who is telling the printer how to print it."

Cost must "always" be factored in, no matter the application, says Jordan-Smith. "You find the cheapest possible way to maximize the sheet so you don't have to trim off too much waste. Cost is the definitive driving factor in every job."

There are, Jordan-Smith adds, a number of factors "irrespective of the type of equipment that a pressman or print shop would consider while running a job." Cost is one of them. "How much can you charge for a job could be another. There are so many factors you have to consider in terms of understanding where the crossover is." Beyond that, there is "an awful lot of decision making when it comes to cost based on your own overhead."

Digital "has gotten much better over the years and is closer to the quality you're going to get via offset, flexo, or gravure.''