I think it’s sad that we live in a Wal-Mart culture. Cheaper, bigger, and faster seems to be the way we’re headed a lot of the time. One place I see this philosophy a lot is in when it comes to talking to clients about printing. Just like graphic design, you can always find a cheaper printer. Why pay a local printer when you can go to cheapassprintingpalace.com and get it for a 1/3 the price? And in all fairness, some of these online printers have decent quality.

There are a few problems with this approach. For starters, with the majority of these online printers, your proof is a PDF. Which is ironic because most of the time we’re sending them a PDF in the first place. There is a big difference between a hard copy and a PDF. I guarantee your colors are off, what you see on the screen is not what it’s really going to look like. I’ve yet to have a client who has a calibrated monitor. So, if they goof up and print the colors poorly, there is really nothing you can do about it. Also, having a tangible, well-printed proof gives you a much better idea of the design of a piece. A good proofing desktop printer is calibrated, tested, well-maintained, and often checked for accuracy. These are a lot cheaper than they used to be, but they’re still $4k at the bottom end of the spectrum. Seeing a proof in person is so much better; you can see how it folds, how the front of the piece draws your eye versus the back (a three-panel brochure is all flat on your monitor), etc.

My other major bitch about online printers is the paper. Paper is a big part of a project. Good print designers, certainly those of us who started in print, drool over paper as much as we do fonts and a nice, crisp, new set of color books. You can take the same design, print it on two different papers, and come up with a remarkably different end-product. Does the paper have a texture; is it white or ivory; is it dual-sided (red-pepper rojo on one side, pistachio green on the other); is it #80 or #130 (thick or thin cover stock)? Typically, when you get bargain-basement printing, the printers are using the cheapest paper they can find. There are exceptions (one client was quick to point out to me that printingforless has some tree-hugger happy stocks), but for the most part you don’t know what sort of paper company you’re supporting. Are they using responsible tree-farming practices? Are they bleaching their pulp (which, for the record, is far worse for the environment than using virgin fiber)?

Furthermore, printing is a lot more than just putting ink on paper. There’s embossing, die-cutting, foil-stamping, custom ink colors, etc. There is so much more you can do to a print than just printing it.

All of the above are quality-based reasons why you should seriously consider a local printer, but maybe an even bigger reason is ethical in nature. That’s great that you’re using recycled paper, but if you had it shipped from India, it’s not quite green anymore. Besides that, the people who own and operate these print shops are your neighbors and friends. Very few printers are price gouging. They are making a living doing a craft that takes years of practice to be competent at (let alone good at). Some of these people are really masters at what they do, printing is a complex trade and considerably harder to perfect than you’d think. When you go to a local printer, you’re a person, not a job ticket. My printer has saved me thousands of dollars in re-run fees by catching silly mistakes they caught when they were pre-flighting the job. It’s not part of their job, they don’t get paid for it, but they’ve saved my ass more than I’ll ever admit.

I’m not saying every job should go to a local printer, sometimes it makes sense to go online — postcards, throw-away cut sheets, etc., but I would strongly suggest you stay local for the majority of your work. Taking it a step further, go in with your designer to proof your stuff. Meet your printer, learn about their operation, thank them for a job well-done, and tell your colleagues about them.