From The Rock

Brochures have always been one of the most essential marketing tools for any business. They can be distributed by hand or by mail to clients, or can just be kept on cash counters of stores. As a result, a massive section of the printing services industry has come up to address the needs of this market. There have been many revolutionary transformations in brochure printing in recent decades and the internet along with digital techniques is ushering many of them.

Until just a few years back, computers were hardly involved in the brochure printing process, which took a lot of days, working with film negatives or plate-making machines and required multiple test prints, rounds of fine tuning etc. Even in design, the clients could not offer detailed suggestions and the printers mostly shouldered the design task, working with a limited set of pre decided formats.

Nowadays, the customer from his office can himself format the brochure and transfer it online to the printing company, and he also doesn’t have to wait for days for the end product to be delivered to him. Technology has progressed far enough to make round the clock printing possible, enabling any quantity of prints to be delivered to the client within a single day.

One must not forget that brochure printing entails cautious consideration of features like content, design and formatting. The digitisation of the printing process has revolutionised these aspects, providing a range of options, including higher quality full-colour printing, advanced and complex layout choices, and content-building packages.

Amongst the many advanced choices provided by printing services providers, digital brochures and full-colour brochures are the most popular. Such brochures are meant for circulation for medium or longer periods of time. Any content for short-term bulk use is best promoted through the use of eye catching, colourful, but brief brochures, which have only a limited print run. Off-set printing, which is a comparatively older method, is still very popular for these brochures as even though it takes a longer time to make the brochures, a huge number of brochures can be printed at one go.

Ancillary services are now offered by a lot of printing service companies in addition to the quality improvements in the prints. Direct mailing, distribution and design are some of these extra services.

The internet has radically changed the scenario, with clients now using websites of printing companies and placing online orders after selecting designs and colour specifications from the comfort of their office. Therefore, brochure printing has changed a lot in a relatively short time, and the rate of advancements is showing no signs of slowing down.