Thursday, January 21, 2010

Recent Developments In Brochure Printing

By Merry Lyn Clark

As marketing tools, brochures have never been unsuccessful in registering an impact on clients' minds. They can be kept on store counters, distributed to spread the word about a company, or even posted to potential customers. The need to have printed brochures has led to the rise of a segment of the printing services business, which specially caters to brochures. There have been many radical transformations in brochure printing in recent decades and the internet along with digital technologies is fuelling many of them.

Before computers were used for the task, brochure printing involved a whole lot of elaborate and laborious tasks like numerous rounds of test printing, making adjustments, getting film negatives, and making use of plate-making tools. Even design choices were limited, with the printers doing the bulk of the design jobs and only the most basic input coming from the customer.

Nowadays, the customer himself can do the entire designing on a computer, and the brochures can be created in a much lesser timeframe than they could be some years ago. With technology progressing rapidly, immediate printing of a large number of brochures and their quick delivery within a day's time has become possible.

One should not forget that brochure printing involves careful consideration of features like content, design and layout. With the introduction of digital technology, printing companies have begun to provide a clutch of benefits to the clients in this area, like high resolution colour printing, multiple choices in complex formats and designs, and smart packages on content-building.

Amongst the many advanced options provided by printing services firms, digital brochures and full-colour brochures are the most popular. Such brochures are fit to be distributed for a medium or longer period of time. But when it comes to brochure distribution in large volume, but for a restricted time span, then dazzling but concise brochures that have a brief print run fit the bill perfectly. The traditional technique of off-set printing is still well suited for such brochures, as bulk prints within a short time is achievable, though making of brochures takes more time in this process.

Nowadays brochure printing firms also provide supplementary services besides guaranteeing superior quality of prints for their clients. These include circulation, direct mailing, formatting, and many more.

The internet has initiated a client-centric approach of brochure printing, with clients now placing bulk orders with companies online and selecting colours, designs and layouts for their brochure on their own computer screen. Therefore, brochure printing has transformed a lot in recent times, and is about to experience even more radical changes in the coming years.

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