Whether you want a flier or a brochure to publicize your products and services, wish to communicate with other people through a newsletter or in-house magazine or want to publish a magazine as a commercial prospect, printing is the technology that becomes the most essential factor. Commercial printing is a highly technical task and most people, not familiar with the processes, are easily overwhelmed by the many parameters involved. Printing is not just putting words on paper. It involves the choice of text design, images (either photographs or graphics or a combination of both), the quality of paper the final output is produced on as also the packaging in terms of folding, lamination or binding.

To ensure that the end product is of the same quality as you had desired, the various stages of the printing process must be understood. The first is what is referred to as pre-press and this involves the assemblage of text, graphics, illustrations and photographs that you want printed. With computers now working as desktop publishing systems, it is possible to choose the style and design of your document(s) and the same can be transferred to a printer or handed over to a commercial printing agency for reproduction in mass volume. For example, if you need to publish 10,000 copies of your newsletter, you obviously cannot use your personal printer to do so.

Production is the second step wherein the project is run on a printing press using printing plates, paper and ink. In more complex jobs that are also expensive, this is the stage when the printer provides a sample of the final unfolded product that is known as a press proof. This must be read and checked for accuracy before the final go-ahead is given for the printing of all copies to take place. The final step is the post-press stage that happens after the ink has dried. The printer then collates, folds, trims and binds the pages to create the finished product as per the originally conceived and approved design.

The other factors that need to be studied to understand commercial printing solutions include the quality of paper suitable for the project, color combinations available and the type of printer that will print the job. Printers specialize in many niches. Like in continuous-form materials which are needed for purchase orders and invoices. Or maybe, newspapers, books, inserts, postcards. There are also different printing methods such as offset lithography or gravure printing, each of such suitable for the specific nature of the project.