How long does printing really take?

It’s a great question!

Often when people place print orders, what happens beyond them pressing ‘order’ is a mystery…

People seem to have the perception that all we do is take a file and press ‘print’ on the printer and voila!

But there is so much more to it than that when making custom prints.

So let’s step through a little life cycle of a print order …

Putting all of the initial quoting and questions components aside.

1. When you place a print order, our team receives it and one of our sales staff members will create a client folder for you and save all of your order information into there for safe keeping.
   

2. This order information is then added to our production board, so our team can keep track of your print order throughout the stages of the print process.
   

3. Following this, your artwork files OR design brief will be sent to our friendly and experienced design team, who will either pre-press or create your custom design.
   

4. If it is being pre-pressed our team will review your artwork and ensure it is print-ready (to read more about pre-press – check out our recent blog) Once it is complete, our sales staff member will then send your artwork & order information to our production team to commence printing. If you were having us create the artwork for you We will then supply you with a proof for you to review.
   

5. This step may take some time depending on your feedback for the design proof. There may be some back and forth until we get your design just right.
   

6. Once the artwork has been approved, we then send your artwork and order information to the production team – however, that is ONLY when it is formally approved.
   

7. Once production has received the artwork and your order details, they will ‘RIP’ the design and queue it after any current jobs we have running. What does RIP mean? It stands for Raster Image Processor and is simply the process of our digital computer talking to the printing machine to ensure your artwork will be printed correctly (ie. To scale, with the correct colour settings, at the correct speed, cut in the correct places and cater for any special finishes). It will convert your file to a raster or bitmap file so that the printer can understand. (For more Information - What is a RIP? | Raster Image Processor Software for Printing (rolanddg.eu))
   

8. When it is your order’s turn, the print will be go through the machine.
   

9. Your order then enters the FINISHING STAGE! The production team will then take the print and apply any special finishes to it (depending on what you requested/required) – Eg. Laminations, eyelets, hemming, stitching pockets and so on…
   

10. Once your order has been finished, one of our team members packs your order and either notifies you for collection OR books your courier shipment to have the parcel collected and delivered to you.
    

11. Once your print order is with the courier, the turnaround time is dependent on the shipment booked with the couriers. But we always aim to get it to you as quickly as we can!
    

12. And voila you receive your order and (hopefully) love it! Which we are pretty sure you will 😊

You can see there are a lot more steps that go into the process of our custom printing and design, than just ‘File > Print’

The design component itself can take up a decent amount of time. That’s why it’s always important to leave PLENTY of time if you require prints for events or functions.

We hate letting customers down or not being able to meet deadlines but the reality is, there are lots of steps that have to be taken to ensure our customers receive the highest quality that we can produce.

We hope you enjoyed this little ‘behind the scenes’ sneak peek into our business workflow and the magic that happens to get you your order!