Looking for a comp card printer... JUST printer

[waple]

I've looked at about 20 sites that advertise comp cards (those 5.5"x8.5" two-sided cards that have model's photos and stats) but every single one advertises they do touch-ups, use their templates, etc. I have my own templates and design my own cards, so I want to find a printer that will simply print what I send them, preferably at a lower price than I've seen, since they wouldn't be doing any retouching, etc.

Anyone know of a place?

[Take12]

I'd grab the local Yellow Pages and call the nearest printers with that question, waple.

Where are you?

[tfiorda]

Look in the back of any photograhy magazine. You'll see at least three 'gang' style printers that will accept your artwork and send it to print for a fairly resonable price. The one that comes to mind immediately is 4over.com. You'll need to put your artwork in their print template but all that is doing is making sure your file will print properly. They will not change your work.

Hope this helps,

Tony...

[Danlphot]

I use printingforless.com . . .good prices, quality, service and turn-around. You can upload your file from a number of popular DTP programs and get a pdf proof in a matter of hours.

Dan

[waple]

Take12 - I'm in Marietta, GA. The printers I've used in the past for brochures, newsletters, etc, have typically been MUCH more expensive than sending my work on an online place. I think we saved about 60% or more by going from our normal printer to postcardpress.com.

Tfiorda, I'll look in some of my mags, thanks. The backs are usually the secions I skip over. What do you mean by "gang"?

Dan, I looked at printingforless.com but their minimum is 500. I should have specified that I'm looking for small runs, like 25 or 50. I want to be able to supply comp cards to the models I photograph as a service, and I can't afford to spend a lot on these things.

[Take12]

Originally Posted by waple

[...] I looked at printingforless.com but their minimum is 500. I should have specified that I'm looking for small runs, like 25 or 50. I want to be able to supply comp cards to the models I photograph as a service, and I can't afford to spend a lot on these things.

With minuscule runs like that I would see if it could be worth my while to print 'm myself. It could be done on any halfway decent printer. For starters it would save a lot of time! Time = money! And if you then also find a paper and an ink supplier at good prices you'd save even more.

[tfiorda]

Waple,

Gang printing means your job in inline with many other jobs coming off the press at the same time. Nothing wrong with this except the quality can fade a bit, but I am tough on my printers.

I also agree with Take12 in that with those short-short runs, it is probably better to print them yourself. The printers I pointed you to have the minium you've already seen. They do short runs but I think they add to the price.

Typically, a local printer will set up your job and then run it on a specific press. Then they would change the plates and do another one, cleaning the press in between. Generally this allows for the greatest control of color and quality. The gang printers cannot do this, as the plates are really computer controlled and they don't have the same control over colors, contrast and such because the press needs to be set up to do the best job for all jobs being sent to it. (Hope that made sense.)

I had a brochure printed by a printer in Cumming (yes, I'm in Roswell!) in a 5000 quantity. He was able to give me a piece price much better than the local short run guys. They usually print magazines and inserts and such. However, the Hanemule 6 color press was all mine on that run and we even had to change the colors going on the paper to make sure that the skin tones were just right. So even with the big printers, I was able to have the whole press as opposed to the 'gang' printers where my job might have been number 254 of 500 going to that press.

Tony...

[waple]

Ah, we we're just down the street from eachother.

I'm not sure if I'd be able to print these myself. I've never actually seen, in person, a comp card, but I'm assuming they're somewhat stiff and not sure how easilly they'd go through a printer. I've seen these called "extended postcards" on some sites and postcards are pretty thick. Also, they're gloss or coated on both sides.

[Jon]

4 Color USA - America's Premier Full Color Discount Printer
They do all my card printing, both business and comp cards.

Edit: Umm...All I typed in was the web address for 4cusa.com - not sure where the rest of that came from...

[Tallphotographer]

I use A Commercial Printing Company based in Toronto whose clients reach out to Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver. We offer Design & Printing.High quality headshots & comp cards, best price with fast and easy ordering options from leading comp card & headsho they are geat for headshots and compcards. The compcard printer is on a 6 colour Indigo system. The quality is photographic