Hey all,
i am a new committee member of a car club and have been given the job of printing off 200 car passes. they will be of post card size and in colour. my laser printer only prints in monotone, i have looked into getting a colour laser printer but they don't say if they can print on card. The card needs to be of post card thickness really or they will feel to flimsy. Is there any other options out there i.e. printing firms or printers known to print on card ok?
Cheers
Steve
a cheap Lexmark inkjet will print in colour on card for about £30 just make sure the printer is a top feed, or failing that buy coloured card and print in black over them
Most laser printers will print on card but you might have to feed each sheet manually if the card is too thick.
I use a Xerox Phaser 8400 colour laser to print on card and it works fine.
Cheers - ETV
I have a colour laser printer; 180 g/m2 card feeds through the printer okay and prints, but the toner isn't very good at sticking to the card surface. Perhaps I am using the wrong card, or a fixer spray would help.
I would suggest single-side printing 2 cards on an A4 sheet of paper, guillotining down to A5, fold in half to A6 (and thus achieving a double-sided result), then using laminator pouches.
If you get a batch done on paper at your local colour photocopying shop you can then run them through your mono printer individually to personalise each pass (if this is needed) and laminate the pass, and be able to issue individual passes without having to get expenses payments every time.
For such a small quantity, colour printing is likely to be prohibitively expensive, but there are specialist promotional postcard printers (try ebay) or even the likes of Jessops will print photos onto postcards - although you then usually get the "post card" reverse.
Owain
Print on to sticky labels then stick the labels to card .You'll need a guillotine tho'
Stuart
My Canon IP5000 will print on reasonable thickness. The thing to look for is a straight through path for the card.
For example my printer has a bottom tray that will bend the paper around a roller and back out again. Card in this would wreck the machine. The top back feeder is just slightly angled and the card only slightly bent for printing.
As someone else said a simple printer is a few pounds and check the feed goes almost straight through.
I have used several printers over the years and I have only found one that baulked at printing on card. Mind you, the card was _very_ thick though. All photo printers accept card up to about 300 grams which should be adequate for your purpose.
For a colour laser printer that will cost about £200-00 I would suggest you find your local small print shop and ask them how they want the data presented to them and how much it would cost for a print run that will cover 200 post card sized pieces. In the past, I have created a flier for the local Scouts and asked the print shop to produce it on their computer, as they use Page Maker and I was not prepared to learn it just for a small one off run.
You could always have the cards printed on A4 card and cut them out yourself.
HTH
Dave
He could prepare his artwork as a jpg file and print it on a digital photo workstation at a supermarket.
DG
If these are going to get a lot of continuous use, then printing onto paper and laminating them could be a good solution.
Laminating machines and consumables are pretty inexpensive.
Many colour inkjet printers will accept card provided it isn't too thick - maybe up to 250g/sm. Some have a special slot which provides a straight path without having to wrap round a roller.
Are these things going to be subjected to the weather? The problem with using an inkjet printer is that the ink will run if it gets wet.
I would be inclined to print them on good quality paper, and then laminate them. That avoids having to print on card, provides the necessary rigidity - and makes them reasonably weather-proof. You should be able to print 3 on an A4 sheet, then laminate it - and finally cut it into 3 postcard-sized pieces.
But stupid prices for the ink!
That's a good idea, I was thinking of doing that using Bonusprint for business cards. Full colour, glossy, inexpensive. Just a little careful cutting involved.
That was going to be my suggestion.
No...print 3 on an A4 sheet, cut into 3 postcard-sized pieces, and laminate. You want a laminate-only border all round (a) to keep it waterproof (b) because the only real adherence is laminate-to-laminate.
Don't bother with DIY. Go to
Used these people for years - you can't go wrong with them.
R.P.McMurphy mumbled
Print them on normal paper and laminate them
-- zaax
The best solution for printing on card stock is a Xerox Phaser. You can expect to shell out a few hundred to a thousand for one of these printers. On the good side it produces excellent quality photographic reproduction on plain paper and card and Xerox used to demonstrate the printers printing onto metal, card and even toilet paper.
If you can't run to that, then the Epson 2100/2400 series of printers have a stright through paper path and can print on very heavy material. I print folders for a client using a 2100 and the paper is 320gsm folded in half and the printer copes fine. I use the "CD" setting designed printing on CD to get the paper into the printer, line it up with printhead, close the paper handling lever to its heavy material setting and print - problem free. Cost of printer was about £300 IIRC.
Alternatively print on paper and then laminate it to make it more rigid and durable.
Only if you buy originals. This is a DIY group, so the obvious solution is a refill kit, which costs a few pounds per refill.
You can get A4 sized sheets that contain a number of microperforated postcards, which is generally easier than trying to print onto individual postcards.
Mine works quite happily on 210gm/m, but it is an office model printer. As others have said, the important thing is a straight through paper path. Thicker materials do not like going around tight bends. Laser has the advantange over inkjet in that the ink will not run if it gets wet, for example due to condensation inside the car.
Almost any local print company will do a good job for you, but I am not sure that a 200 piece colour run is going to be economic. However, if the passes are only required for one event and you will want more passes for other events, an option would be a much larger print run in full colour, with event specific information added, as required, on your monochrome laser printer.
If the passes are intended to be for permanent use, then laminating, as suggested by others, would be a better option. It does, however, add to the cost, so, depending upon club finances, it may not be suitable for ephemeral items. The Brother Coollaminator has the option of a self adhesive laminate, which I use a lot for making notices. If you feed the paper in face down, you can stick the laminate on the inside of a window, for it to be read from the outside.
Colin Bignell
Most mono lasers will top out at about 160gsm and that is not really that stiff. Some of the colour ones will do better but are a fair bit more expensive. Inkjets will often handle photo paper at up to 280gsm which probably is stiff enough for what you want.
A Canon pixmar 4200 is pretty flexible on paper handling and is cheap to re ink as well. I would suggest avoiding the low end ink jets as the running costs are silly.
You may find it cheaper to take the job to a local print shop however.
Lots of places will take camera ready copy as a PDF these days. (in fact much of the print industry uses PDF for final delivery of content)
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