Laser Printing

QUICK LINKSSUGGESTED READINGS
LASER PRINTING BASICSCOLOR MANAGEMENT BASICS
BORDERS & BLEEDCOLOR MANAGEMENT - Adobe Apps
COLOR SETTINGS & ACCURACYLinkedIn Learning: Color Management
CUTTING & ALIGNMENT
MEDIA WE STOCK
CUSTOMER SUPPLIED MEDIA
FINISHING OPTIONS

 

WHAT IS LASER PRINTING

Laser printing is an electrostatic digital printing process. It produces high-quality text and graphics (and moderate-quality photographs) by repeatedly passing a laser beam back and forth over a negatively charged cylinder called a “drum” to define a differentially charged image. The drum then selectively collects electrically charged powdered ink (toner), and transfers the image to paper, which is then heated in order to permanently fuse the text, imagery, or both, to the paper. 

Video – Canon Imagepress Series Technology

  • Laser printing is an affordable, fast, toner based printing process that uses different sized sheets of paper
  • Great for Prints, Posters, Cards, Brochures, and Book Printing
  • We offer both Color & B&W printing (B&W printing is cheaper)
  • Single or Double Sided printing is available
  • Sheet Sizes Available: 8.5×11″, 11×17″, 12×18″, 13×19″ (Maximum size available)
  • We offer a variety of colors, finishes, and thicknesses of papers, as well as vellum, transparency, and label paper. Papers are listed online, samples are available in person, see the Digital Storefront for pricing and availability
  • Most orders are ready within 24 hours (M-F only)
  • Must save as a PDF (use PDFx1a preset & change color settings to Coated Gracol 2006)
  • Free proofs are NOT available, order 1 sheet or 1 copy to proof your designs
  • Laser printing is not archival, it is intended as an affordable printing method short to medium term uses. Exposure to water, heat, or light can hasten the paper yellowing or tonor degradation

 

Borders & Bleed

 

  • By default all prints will have a 0.2″ white border on all sides
  • Full-Bleed/Borderless printing is achieved by adding 0.125″ of bleed in your design, then saving with the bleed area and crop marks included in your PDF file, printing on the next sheet size up to account for the crop marks and bleed area, then select ‘Cut to Crop’ during ordering and we will print and cut to your crop marks. We can only cut orders of 10 copies or more.
  • ‘Fit to Media’ can be selected during paper type selection and the design will be scale to fill the paper size without cutting anything off

 

Color Settings & Accuracy

 

  • The Laser printer uses Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black toner (CMYK)
  • Toner has a slight glossy finish
  • Due to the nature of color laser printing, colors will shift throughout the day and from day to day. We are unable to exactly match prints made at separate times
  • Not all colors and gradients are able to be printed using the laser printers, to get the closest possible color we recommend to save your PDF using the X1a preset and using the Output Profile: Coated GraCol 2006
  • If you are unhappy with the results of your prints for any reason please bring back your prints and email us with detailed information about the problems

 

Cutting & Alignment

  • We do our best to align double sided prints
  • Crop marks and at least 10 copies with the same cut size are needed for bulk cutting
  • Our tolerance for cutting and alignment is 1/16″ which means it can be off by that much in either direction
  • For best alignment we recommend adding crop marks when saving your file
  • If you are unhappy with the results of your prints for any reason please bring back your prints and email us with detailed information about the problems

 

Customer Supplied Media

  • We can accept customer supplied paper under certain circumstances
  • We recommend having your media type approved before you buy anything. Email us a link to the paper specifications and include a short blurb about your project and what kind of printing you want to do
  • You can also bring your paper to the lab directly for approval during business hours (9am-5pm, otherwise leave it in the pick up cabinet labeled with your name & email us
  • When submitting the order online choose ‘Customer Supplied Paper’ as the Media type
  • We will need to test the paper once you place the order, we recommend giving us extra paper in case of jams as well
  • If you paper is damaged during printing we will only offer a reprint on the closest paper the Service Bureau offers

 

Finishing Options

  • We offer Folding (fold in half along long edge or tri-crease of standard sheet sizes), Stapling, Cutting (10 sheet minimum, crop marks needed), Lamination (max size 11×17″),  & Hole Punching

PRICING and order quotes please use the Digital Storefront. 

 

 

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