Acceptable error margin for printers - bleed

[Benjamin]

OK so I got my bus cards printed. First time they came out with the image shifted up by almost 2mm (image on the right hand side below). Obviously this kind of ruined the design as the coloured strips at the top and bottom are supposed to be even. Eventually the printers reprinted, saying that is was some problem with InDesign which they've fixed now. The next result is definitely better (on the left) but it's still not totally even. What I'm wondering is, how perfect can I expect it to be? Does anyone have experience with this that can give some advice? Should I push them again (given that now it's only out by less than 1 mm I think).

When we supply graphics with a bleed (in this case 3mm) presumably this is to allow for some positioning error, so how much is reasonable?

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Om Namah Shivaya

[casedsgn]

I'm assuming you're sending your files to a digital printer...the large color shifts between the two cards is a dead giveaway. I've had the same problem when printing cards through a digital house. Color shifts were horrible..some were too green, some were too red, etc. and the trim was all over the place. When I questioned my printer about it, he said it was just the nature of the beast and you get what you pay for. I couldn't believe it!! Maybe it was just the guys I was dealing with, but it left such a bad taste in my mouth I'd have a hard time sending cards to a digital printer ever again.

I think defjoe & kool work with digital presses...maybe they have some answers.

[Kool]

I don't but the bad trim is another dead givaway because most digital presses don't sheet to sheet register worth a damn. Get them offset printed. If you want a reference to a great online printer PM me.

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[Benjamin]

OK that's interesting. They were really cheap and colour quality is good (the colour fluctuations were because I changed the colours myself slightly on the rerun). They charged £35 for 100 full-colour, matt laminated. But the trimming problem is really annoying. So what is an offset printer?

http://www.jackfruitdesign.com/
Om Namah Shivaya

[3howards]

any press that's not digital. any self-respecting commercial printer would not sell crap work like that. clients that look for graphic designers shop around for the one the fits their needs best, i'd advise the same for you. make sure you look at samples that they've produced and don't choose a printer based only on the cost. you can find a good one without having to pay an arm and a leg, but not pennies.

i wouldn't complain about the quality if you were looking at getting them done for cheap. you get what you pay for.

[Allen Harkleroad]

hmm, i would think it was the printer themselves not doing a good job. THe local printer i use here has never once given me flawed work, everything is ALWAYS like the rpoof i send them (usuaily in PDF format). Try anther printer next time and ask them what amount of bleed the require for that type of work.

Allen


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[Jason Fraker]

Color copiers have come pretty n the last 5 or so years, but they still shift from sheet to sheet, and most of them still use that awful fuser oil to give everything a crappy sheen. The color matching capabilities and sheer print quality, however, are fabulous. I will say this: the problem could be with your printer's cutter. Some print shops still use the 7 million ton cutter they bought in 1947 which was long before the days of measuring 2 or 3 places after the zero, and laser guided cutting. Today's cutters rock, but they're very expensive and the old ones still work pretty well because you constantly replace the blade and the rest of it's so well built that it just doesn't break that often.

So another question to ask your next printer is when they bought their cutter...

-Jason

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[defjoe]

the color shift is definetly the printer. One toner might have been getting low. could be a few things. Maybe they just calibrated it on the 2nd batch.

the bleed shift is a problem with the actual machine. the damn thing shakes so much. But it doesn't have the control of the paper like an offset does. Looks to me that it is a cheap machine.

it might be a case of you get what you did pay for. sorry to say. It's not right but it is reality.

'I will become the most powerful Jedi ever!'

[Benjamin]

As I said, I changed the colours myself on the artwork to make them a bit brighter.

I spoke to the printers today. They said they don't do precision cutting on individual sheets, they cut a great thick stack at once and this could be the problem. Looks like you guys are right, you get what you pay for. So I suppose it's not really to do with whether the printing is digital or not, more to do with the cutting equipment? Anyway, at least I'm learning something.

http://www.jackfruitdesign.com/
Om Namah Shivaya