Things,Watch,For,When,Printing business, insurance Things to Watch For When Printing Online

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In a lot of ways, online printing has helped to save the print industry by putting customers directly in touch with the production of print materials… Sites like VistaPrint.com provide easy to understand user interfaces that make it simple and cheap to put in an order and have it delivered to your door. They even provide templates and a design function that allows you to create your own print materials before you check out.But if you look around on the internet, you’ll find thousands of consumer reports against sites like VistaPrint.com. The list consists of anything from late delivery complaints to double-charged credit cards, and some people seem down-right angry at the way they’ve been treated. Like Mikeo of Tokyo Japan; who ordered 100 cards and 100 envelopes 3 weeks ago. He finally received his cards last week, but his envelopes were not included in the package, and he still hasn’t been able to get a hold of customer service to resolve the issue. I hear stories like this all the time, and it’s the price a lot of people pay for the appearance of bulk convenience.So, I’ve put together a few things to watch out for when taking your print job to an online print company. Hopefully this can help you stay out of situations like David of Dublin Ireland; who was duped into thinking he was getting 1/2 off on his postcard order, just to find out “standard shipping” took 21 days. If he needed them any sooner, shipping rates STARTED at $20 for 7-10 day delivery, and grew exponentially. This is the fine print you need to watch for and when all is said and done, these are the complications that will have you printing local more often than not.1.    If the price is too good to be true, it’s not true.First of all: most online print shops make their money off of shipping. They lure you in with an amazing price that blows everyone out of the water. “Wow! $14 for 1,000 business cards? Sign me up!”This is exactly the response they’re looking for, and exactly the kind of thinking you should avoid. If these companies are anything, they’re marketing geniuses, and they know just the right number to put out there to make you drop everything you’re doing to click. Once you do, they lead you through a string of flashy pages, taking little bits of information from you here and there as they go. And by the time you see the full amount with shipping included (usually not so astonishing), you’ve already given them way more personal information than they need. So even when you decide it’s NOT worth it, they have still gotten something from you, and will use you for every penny you’re worth. This means spam to your email address, and sometimes your info being sold to lead generators for cold-calling and more spam. Keep in mind, your click is very powerful, and even your interest in their company makes them money. Don’t fall for it.2.    Talk to a customer service representative.This is something you see less and less of. People will put off contacting an online print shop at all costs unless there’s a problem, and by the time they’re on hold they realize too late that they’re being passed around a phone cue. In every reputable print shop I’ve ever dealt with, I have an assigned customer service rep that handles all my orders. This means I can call her(or him) anytime I need anything. Whether I need an estimate for a potentially complicated order, or someone watching my proofs to make sure they don’t run with a typo. A customer service rep you call on by name will always have your best interests in mind and is well worth the couple bucks Vista saves by cutting them out completely. If you are ever considering printing online, call the company’s phone number and see if you can talk to a rep personally. They will help you set up an order to fit your businesses needs, and if anything does go wrong you can call them to complain. Customer service reps at good print shops will make it a priority to resolve your issue right then without passing you off to anyone else. They have your back as well as the tools to make your job run smoothly. Most print shops do really well keeping you in the loop via email, so a call isn’t necessary after the first order. Just make sure you’re dealing with a real person and not an automated message designed to seem like one. You’ll thank me later.3.    Prepare your files.For those of you who use Photoshop , Illustrator, or any other design software for your print materials, you’ll want to make sure you’re uploading the correct files. A lot of online printers charge a fee of up to $100 for data handling if your files are not formatted correctly, and you can be subject to hourly fees even if you’ve decided to back out. So there’s that, or they could simply not care and run the job as is, leaving your project looking unprofessional over a very small data discrepancy. This is another part of their fine print: “Not responsible for file format errors or design flaws”The things to keep in mind are:Make sure your color mode is set to “CMYK” and not “RGB”. Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black are the colors used to print a robust, high quality piece in a modern print shop. Always know where to find this in your editing software because if you don’t, your colors will come out flat and dull at your expense. The conversion from RGB to CMYK looks terrible, so don’t risk it. Start with CMYK format from the beginning!Create your file at 300dpi (dots per inch) resolution or higher. This comes up when you select FileàNew in most image editing software, along with the dimensions of the piece. Web standard is only 72dpi and some programs default to this, so make sure you know where to look and how to change it. Printing at any resolution below 300dpi looks pixely and grainy, and I don’t mean in the hip, retro 8-bit way. I mean in the lame, unprofessional newbie way. So have your eye on this. You should also make sure you’ve selected “inches” when you create your piece dimensions to avoid any size errors.Always allow 1/4 inch bleed. Cutting machines can be imperfect, and the last thing you want is a word cut off in the process. This means keep text and important images a good distance away from the edges. A good way to do this is design your piece like normal (say you’re doing a 4x6 postcard… Design your file at 4”x6”) and increase the canvas size by 1/4” height and width when you are through (which would give you a 4.25” x 6.25” file). That way no matter how close you got to the edges during your design, there will still be plenty of bleed room to cut clean. Also, if you are using solid colors or images for a background, make sure they go all the way to the edge of your file. It’s the worst when your image is JUST barely 4”x6” and you end up with little bits of white border where the machine’s cut was off. This can be fixed by making sure that extra 1/4” is added before sending the file. When exporting, you always have a lot of file format choices, and defining which one is “standard” depends on who you’re talking to. When I send in graphics I like to use .jpg files because I’ve had the least hassle with them. PDFs need fonts attached with them and GIFs seem to save differently on every editor. So try to stick with something simple like a .jpeg. Always keep the original file saved somewhere too (the one with the layers and text). Last minute changes are the name of the game in this business and there’s no telling when you’ll need to scoot that one word just a little to the left. A .jpg is a flattened image which means there are no layers, making editing out of the question.Places like Vista won’t check your work like a good customer service rep will. They just want to get you through the payment gateway, no matter what your experience ends up being… So you might end up with a big box of garbage you have to pay for if you’re not careful.4.    Protect your identity.Over and over again I hear stories of fraud and identity theft happening on the internet. Everyone is out for a buck, and if you’re not watching yours, it’s as good as gone. Exercise intelligent online spending habits by only dealing with secure and reputable sites. Always clear your internet history/cookies after using your credit card, and NEVER enter any card or bank info into something that looks too good to be true. Not for credit checks, or loan approval, or someone who wants to wire you a million dollars. It’s a scam and it’s not true. All they want is your card number.And while places like VistaPrint.com haven’t been caught practicing direct unethical business techniques like this, it’s only because they are smarter and have other ways of getting your money. So always watch yourself and your bank statement when it comes to security. Donna of Wildwood Florida was charged $70.00 by her bank when VistaPrint.com over-drafted her account with a “membership” fee she never knowingly authorized. And Gary of Chantilly Virginia was charged $12.95/month for over a year because of a “low-cost printing club” checkbox that was automatically checked when he put in his business card order. These are the things that happen when people are whisked away by the lights and promises of the internet.The truth is, Donna shouldn’t have been buying online if her checking account was so low, and Gary should have looked to see what the checkbox said. Neither of them really has any legal grounds against the company at all. And this is just the way companies like VistaPrint.com like it. They are not responsible for anything you choose to do on their site, which means they are not responsible for giving you back your money. Watch out for this. It bleeds over into every crack of e-commerce, and the more you know the better.In closing, I’m not trying to scare anyone out of using online printers such as VistaPrint.com. If I was, I would be out of business because most of my customer base comes from the internet. However, knowing the difference between a good company and a good LOOKING company is impossible without a little bit of research. You need to use common sense, and also understand that at the end of the day, the print shop up the street could have printed your cards for you in the amount of time it took to read this article. Usually for about the same price or cheaper than Vista when you add shipping. Food for thought.