The Steps of Printing Greeting Cards at Rhino Digital
It’s another day like any other at Rhino Digital. A client is stopping by to pick up their greeting card order. They happily leave with their cards in hand ready to distribute them. But wait, how did their order get to this point. Was it magic, like the Internet? Here are behind-the-scene steps to fulfilling a greeting card order at Rhino Digital Printing.
1. Submit order: The first step is for the client to stop in, call or email us a greeting card request. If it is a repeat order we pull the print files from our archives of all previous orders. However if it is the first time the client is printing with us then they may stop in our shop to get a “feel” for paper stocks and see print samples for quality. Or we can mail them a printed proof to accomplish the same thing.
2. Quote: For custom card orders, we quote using the specs of the job such as size, paper stock, single vs. double, and quantity. Once the quote is approved the client sends us their print ready files.
3. Prep file: Upon receiving the file from the client our pre-press team looks over the file to make sure they will print well. They are then set up for printing including crops and bleeds.
4. Print proof: Once the press sheet is set up the file is sent to our digital press-operator, who prints out a sample of the file. Pre-press then compares and adjusts the printed sample to what we see on our color-calibrated monitors. Then the printed sheets go to our bindery department, which scores and cuts them to size.
5. Proof: After the sheets are cut and scored, the client is contacted to view the proof. This is the point when adjustments are made such as changing the paper stock or adjusting colors. There is no charge for proofing unless the client wants to make changes and see more than one set of proofs.
6. Print order: If the proof is approved without changes then our pre-press operator prints the rest of the job from the same file used the first time.
7. Bindery: After the sheets are printed for the whole job they are once again taken to bindery for cutting, scoring and folding. The finished job is then boxed up for the client.
8. Invoice: When the job is finished being boxed, the client is notified that their job is ready for pick up and an invoice is created according to the quote that was provided earlier.
9. Payment: Upon picking up the job, the client pays for the order and happily leaves with their new cards. The files are then archived for ease of re-ordering. And that is how a greeting card order is done from start to finish.
Contact Rhino Digital Printing today to get started on your greeting card order.
Image by Jessica Soleil of A Little Sun,”Super Pickle”. Printed by Rhino Digital.