PRINTING
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We still teach the concepts and theories behind traditional printing, but we don’t actually do any of the practical, hands-on experience with it. Bill Mikolanz, print technology instructor, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College some different devices that can do different projects like bumper stickers, outdoor banners, indoor signage mounted onto different substrates, and we also actually have digital garment printing so they can create t-shirts.”
A new communications tool Bouwer Hansen said the biggest surprise to customers, besides the portability and flexibility of what one can do with large format printing, is that it’s highly affordable. For example, it’s not uncommon to spend three or four thousand dollars on a traditional trade show display. With digital wide format, you can get an interchangeable display for under $1,000, Bouwer Hansen said. Creating vehicle wraps has always been a significant part of business for Fast Signs in Appleton, said Brauer, who indicated the cost to outfit a vehicle was about $20 per square foot back in the late 1990s. Today, that cost has decreased by half to nearly $10 to $12 per square foot, in addition to standing up to environmental elements much better than a vehicle wrap would have 15 years ago, he said. Not only has the cost of wide format printing come down, so has the cost to purchase large format printing equipment. A commercial large format printer used to cost upwards of $100,000 or so, said Peterson. Today, a printing company might be able to buy one for half that expense. Since many local printers have only entered the large format printing market in the last few years, it’s still a little too early to see just how much of a financial impact this kind of printing will have on their overall business. But printers agree it’s becoming a bigger piece of the pie every day as more customers ask for it. Mikolanz said he’s even seeing many businesses buy their own wide format printers and bring their printing back in house because of the economy of scale when it comes to large format printing. “They’re getting wide format printing machines and doing their own marketing campaigns and signage,” he said, though he cautions there are still many needs for a commercial printer. “People have to recognize if they’re doing it themselves, they have to know how to set up the files properly to print things the way they want them printed and how to choose the proper substrates. It’s not always as easy as it may seem.” Bouwer Hansen agrees: “You definitely need the software support for it. You can’t drive a wide format printer with Microsoft Office, for instance,” she said. “If you don’t design appropriately for wide format, the product is not going to look good. It’s significantly more complicated than you would think it would be.” Commercial printers’ understanding of the printing process gives them an advantage, Bouwer Hansen said, noting that most firm’s in-house designers are in tune with the idea of designing for print and often better understand of how print is
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perceived by its audience. Peterson also said it can be tricky for businesses and individuals trying to do large format print jobs on their own. “You can buy a decent size printer these days for $2,000 to $5,000 for your own large format printing use. But if they have to mount it down to board or PVC or something like that, it becomes trickier,” said Peterson. “Anybody can hit a button and send a job to a printer, but laminating it or mounting it down and finishing it off is a type of art.”
Cheryl Hentz is a freelance writer from Oshkosh with nearly 30 years of professional writing experience. In addition to individual and corporate writing, her articles cover a variety of topics including business and economic development, government and politics, family pets and animal rights, minority and women’s issues, finance and education. She can be reached at 920.426.4123, via email at cheryl.hentz@gmail.com, or through her blog at www.cherylhentz.blogspot.com. B2B Publisher Sean Fitzgerald contributed to this article.
NEW NORTH B2B l JULY 2012 l 47