Not All Printers In Edinburgh Can Print What You May Need

When you need printing services in Edinburgh you are, to some extent, spoiled for choice since there are quite a few printers dotted about the city. At least, it might appear that you are spoiled for choice, but it rather depends on what it is that you want printed.

Quite a number of printers are one-man businesses, and there is nothing wrong with that, but they simply won't have the equipment needed to print a lot of things. Sure, if you need 500 invoices or a letterhead or business cards, they can probably handle that, but can they produce a roll-up banner for your annual general meeting? Probably not.

You might be something of an artist and have decided to sell T-shirts because you have some great ideas for slogans and motifs. T-shirts can be very profitable, and you can easily set up a shop on the internet on Shopify or a similar platform. However, you need a printer capable of printing the T-shirts for you, and that requires a particular machine that most printers don't possess. What if you also want to sell mugs with a printed message on them? Again, very profitable, but you need the right printer.

Suppose you need to print outdoor signs on aluminium, glass, or foamboard for your new estate agency? Once again you are going to have to do a bit of research to find a printer who can do this.

So yes, there are a lot of printers in Edinburgh, but not all of them can print everything you need.

Printing In Edinburgh Is Not Going Out Of Fashion

With the rise and rise of the internet today, and the tremendous amount of advertising on it, one might be forgiven for thinking that ordinary old printing is going the way of the dinosaurs. After all, people don't use printed invoices any more as they send them by email. People don't write letters as much as they used to because it is quicker and easier to send an email, and you save the cost of a printed letterhead.

However, although some things may be done on the internet, printing in Edinburgh is alive and well and is not going away any time soon. Just think about when you pop into your local supermarket: there is printing everywhere. There is even more printing at Christmas with Christmas messages, and printed decorations hanging from the ceiling and around every post. The card shops are full of Christmas and New Year cards – every last one of them printed – and any minute now it will be Valentine's Day cards. 

Pop into the pub for a drink, and what do you see? Posters advertising special offers for Christmas drinks, Christmas quizzes, and the New Year's Eve party – all printed.

Suppose you want to buy a T-shirt with a slogan or message on it? It has to be printed by a T-shirt printers in Edinburgh. Buy a new pair of jeans, and it has the manufacturer's label on it – often printed on to leather.

So while one or two things may have changed with the arrival of the internet, printing is going to be here for a long time.

How Your Printer Can Help You In The Party Season

Christmas and the New Year are approaching and with them the party season. Now is the time to start planning your party, and that is going to require printing services in Edinburgh.

To begin with, you will need party invitations, and a well printed invitation is a must. Your printer can help you with custom designed invitations and can now use variable data printing in order to add the invitee's name and address to each of the envelopes that you will use to send them. This can be a real timesaver rather than typing and printing off each envelope on a home printer, or worse still sitting down and writing them all out by hand.

Then you might need printed menus - only a small quantity of course – place cards, and party favours. You might also want banners to decorate the venue, and some Edinburgh printers are capable of producing banners and flags up to 10 metres long or more!

Then how about making your own Christmas crackers? Yes, you can do that. Most of the things that you need to make Christmas crackers can be purchased at arts and crafts stores, and your printer can print your own joke cards to go inside them. You could even have them personalised.

But it doesn't stop there. Why not have printed champagne flutes with decorations upon them in order to welcome in 2019? When it's time for that last-minute countdown to midnight, your guests can all raise them together before joining hands in a circle for Auld Lang Syne.

Finding An Edinburgh Printer Who Can Do Everything You Need Is Not Always Easy

There are quite a number of printing companies in Edinburgh, some of them very big, some of them small, some of them which have been around for years, and others which only started up last month.

However, a lot of them only do certain work and may not be able to produce everything you need. For instance, if you are a student and need your thesis printed and bound, not all printers will be able to do that. Maybe you want to jump on the bandwagon of t-shirt printing which can be a very profitable business whether you run it part time or full time. Either way, you will need a t-shirt printers in Edinburgh, and by no means all printers can print t-shirts. Equally, you might want to print and sell mugs, which is another profitable line.

Possibly you are an architect and need wide format printing of designs, plans, and drawings, and many small printers will not be able to do this. Maybe you need a roll up banner stand for a conference you are presenting or perhaps you need labels and vinyl stickers which can be used outdoors.

You can begin to see where this is going. There are very few companies who do printing in Edinburgh who can print everything you might need, and some of them are very restricted in their operations. This is why, when looking online for a printing company, you should try to find one that has been established many years and has the capacity to print everything you could ever require.

Edinburgh Printers Can Produce A Huge Range Of Items

If you are looking for printing services in Edinburgh, you only need to run a search on Google and you will find many pages of them. Some of them are only small businesses, but you will find others that can print a vast range of different items, and what’s more, some of the printers offer a same day service for many products. This is ideal if you are a university student and you need to get your thesis printed and bound in a hurry.

When we think of printing, we have a tendency to think of something on a sheet of paper, or a book. However, today some printers can print on anything at all including things such as mugs, t-shirts, badges, flags, huge great outdoor banners, passport photos – in fact you can get almost anything that you can think of printed. This can set your imagination going: suppose your daughter is returning from university with a doctorate? You could have a banner printed and stretch it across your front garden in order to welcome her home. Now that would definitely make it a day to remember.

If you have a retail shop, you could make much more use of posters in the window. You can use them to promote all sorts of different things – special offers, sales, new lines that have just arrived, and much more. It is just a question of being a bit creative, coming up with an idea for a design, and then taking it to the printer to have it produced.

Designing And Selling T-Shirts Can Be Profitable

If you are a creative type of individual, you may very well like to try your hand at designing t-shirts. It is a fact that t-shirts sell by the hundreds of thousands: if you go online and look at a business such as Etsy and search for t-shirts they have over 250 pages of them, and there are 16 designs on every page! That’s over 4,000 t-shirts on one website alone. 

So, yes, designing and selling t-shirts can be a very profitable enterprise, and there are several t-shirt printers in Edinburgh who can print your t-shirts for you. However, there are some things to bear in mind. If a great design just comes into your head that’s one thing, but more often than not you will find it isn’t quite that simple. You can sketch your basic idea on paper, then perhaps create some variations. Go for a walk. Sleep on it. Then do it again the next day until you know you have got it right.

You need to think about your market too. Who is your customer? Young? Old? Male? Female? When it comes down to it, you are designing a piece of clothing that someone is going to wear so you need to understand your target market.

Some of the best-selling designs are in a simple format and use subtle humour. You also need to choose your colours with care, and you can find plenty of good tutorials about Photoshop to help you with them so that you can create a great-selling t-shirt with the help of t-shirt printing in Edinburgh.

Why is signage so important?

The quality of your services or products won’t matter if you can't come up with innovative marketing strategies. And even though it feels old school, good business signage in edinburgh is an efficient and cost effective form of advertisement.

According to a FedEx survey, about 76% of consumers patronized a business they had never visited before based simply on its signs. This means that you are missing out on a lot of first-time customers and brand exposure if you don’t currently use signs.

Here are the tops reasons why signage is still important today.

Increase your brand exposure
Having a visible, high quality sign helps make your company stand out from the crowd. This increases your brand exposure and the chances of getting a hold of new customers.

Helps you save costs
One of the most cost-effective marketing strategies you can make is investing in signs. The initial investment may be substantial, but that is just a one-off payment needed for the sign makers in edinburgh to install it. And in return your business gets advertised 24 hours a day, all year round.

Serve as silent salesperson
An outdoor sign is a salesperson working for your company all day long. To make the signage effective, ensure the design is unique. You should also include your logo to reinforce your brand and recognition. This helps to serve as a primary link between you and your customers.

Serve as a guidepost
If the outdoor sign you exhibit is unique, it attracts people's attention and serves as a landmark. This differentiates your business from others in that area and automatically gives you the edge. Your business becomes the first point of recognition for tourists and newcomers.

Often, people ignore small and medium scale businesses. But with a properly designed external sign, this will no longer be a problem. Invest in professional signage now and help plant the seed for potential sales.

How to choose the best T-shirt printer

While some t-shirts are unisex, many of them are gender specific. If you are a business owner, you may need marketing for your products using promotional t-shirts. Here are some tips on how to choose the best t-shirt printer.

Great Customer Service

This should be a no-brainer but if you have ever called the local pizza store to make a complaint, then you will know that bad customer service is very frustrating. The same thing applies to t-shirt printing.
 It is important to choose t-shirt printers in edinburgh with awesome customer service. How fast do they respond to issues and complaints raised by clients? A good choice should be a company that listens to the clients and helps them work out customer issues on time.

Portfolio

It is always in your best interest to be on the lookout for an experienced t-shirt printer. They are more likely to have the tools needed to help you achieve your goals. The best way to confirm a potential printer's experience is by looking at their portfolio.

When checking their portfolio, take note of the quality and designs of the t-shirts. They should have a healthy catalogue that consists of t-shirts, vests and sweats. You should also take note of the length of time the company takes to deliver client requests.


Realistic expectations

As well as offering you immense value for money, a good t-shirt printer should help in adjusting your budget and expectations. They should give you information about how printing in edinburgh techniques work and their limitations. Sometimes, it is impossible to produce exactly what you requested, but it should be very close. Remember that a good company won't send a garment to be printed before the client approves the visual. Make sure you always get a chance to review the design.

Using Signs To Promote Your Business

Signs are everywhere. You can’t go to the end of your road without seeing a sign – with the name of the road on it. Signs are used for giving directions and for giving instructions, such as “no parking” signs or signs directing you to the parking meter payment point.

However, signs used for business purposes, while still signage in Edinburgh, are used to attract custom. Some signs are what are known as privilege signs which is a retail store sign provided by a manufacturer with the manufacturer’s branding on it. So you might see a pub with the name of the brewery next to the pub name. Coca-Cola uses a lot of privilege signs such as you might see at your local newsagents/convenience store.

Sign makers in Edinburgh also make a lot of signs for High Street businesses. You may want an elegant and stylish sign for your business or you may want something bold that will dominate your competition, or perhaps a combination of the two. If you need a sign for your business, you really need to sit down and discuss the various options with a sign maker. These companies make a considerable amount of signs – some do nothing else – and accordingly they have a lot of experience of what works and what doesn’t.

Of course, if your business is not on the High Street, but down a side street hidden from view, you can use signage to direct people to you. Some businesses may have a High Street position, but be prepared to rent you space on a side wall for the purpose. 

The Right Material To Use For Roller Banners

There is a very large market for roller banners of all types and the list of suppliers is almost endless. Indeed, if you search for “roller banners” on Google you get over 41 million results. Not only that, they are also unbelievably cheap. On eBay you can pick up a roller banner for under £30.

That’s fine if you only want to use it once for a particular meeting or fair. But if you want it for long term use then one of these cheap banner printers in Edinburgh is probably not where you should look.

The reason for this is that these cheap banners are printed on PVC. The actual frames are mass produced and cost very little, so the additional cost is in the printing. However, there are some problems with PVC, not the least of which is that it frays at the edges making it unusable. In theory it should be turned over at the edges in order to avoid fraying, but this is not possible because it’s a roller banner.

PVC also folds and curves easily which means that your banner can lose shape making it harder to read your message. Furthermore, it is sensitive to heat, so if you use it outside in the sun curving is even more likely.

Roller banner printing in Edinburgh should be done using a material which stays flat. This is an anti-curl material which will display your message the way you want it - so that people can read it. It’s a bit more expensive, but you will be able to use it for years.