Current Usage of Desktop Publishing Technology for

Producing Communication Material

The NC Administration Class;

Gabrielle Roy, Ashley MacDonald, Kirsty Blackmore,

Robert Keil & Declan Hall

What is commercial printing?

What is in-house printing?

Commercial printing is the

process of taking art work

and transferring that work

onto a piece of paper, card,

clothing, mugs etc.

In-house printing is managed and

operated by a company’s own

personnel.

In-house printing is becoming

increasingly popular as people find it

may be cheaper, quicker or a more

flexible way to produce their work.

MZAfrica.com, (2015), Commercial%20printing.jpg [ONLINE]. Available at: http://mzafrica.com/

Images/Commercial%20printing.jpg [Accessed 05 June 15].

Ricoh, (2015), pid862.jpg [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.ricoh-ap.com/products/cat7/img/

pid862.jpg [Accessed 05 June 15].

COMMERCIAL PRINTING

ADVANTAGES:

More variety of options to choose from in terms of

finishes, paper etc.

More professional than most in-house printing

services

Experienced specialists

Fewer mistakes due to having experienced specialists

More specialist equipment

Quality—better quality of finished product

Cost effective for large numbers e.g. 100 business

cards from Vista print is £4.99

DISADVANTAGES:

More expensive than in-house printing

Time consuming

Smaller market—Students may not be able to afford it

IN-HOUSE PRINTING

ADVANTAGES:

Cheaper

Quick & accessible to anyone

Equipment-consistent

More smaller/local business

DISADVANTAGES:

Time consuming

No specialist

Limited with finishes

Quality

More expensive than commercial printing e.g. 100

business cards from Viking Direct is £12.59

THESE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF THE TYPES OF DOCUMENTS THAT ARE CREATED USING IN-HOUSE AND COMMERCIAL PRINTERS:

IN-HOUSE PRINTERS COMMERCIAL PRINTERS

Annual Reports

Advice Booklets

Appointment Cards

Binders

Booklets

Business cards

Calendars

Menus

Company Brochures

Billboards

Business cards

Leaflets

Photo-posters

Christmas cards

Canvas

T-Shirts

Mugs

Menus

Booklets

Calendars

Mouse Mats

Commercial printing

The equipment used for commercial printing is more

specialised and expensive due to the high quality and

volume of the publications they produce.

Through communication with Lochaber Embroidery And

Printing we confirmed that they use the following

equipment. We have listed a small variety of them

below.

Offset Litho Process

Colour Digital Process

Digital Copy Printing Process

Letterpress Process

Silk Screen Process

In-house printing

The equipment used for in-house printing is less

specialised but more suited for large quantities of

printing.

Through communication with The West Highland College

we confirmed that they use the following equipment for

in-house printing.

Ricoh Colour Printer—MP C2051

Ricoh Aficio —MP 5000

Commercial printing

WHAT SOFTWARE DO THEY USE TO DESIGN THE

DOCUMENTS?

QUARKXPRESS 2015

Corel PaintShop ® Pro

CorelDraw ® Graphics Suite

Adobe Illustrator CC

Adobe Photoshop

Microsoft Publisher

IN-HOUSE PRINTING

WHAT SOFTWARE DO THEY USE TO DESIGN THE

DOCUMENTS?

Adobe Photoshop

Microsoft Word Processor

Microsoft Publisher

Microsoft Excel

Multi-media publishing

Multimedia publishing is presenting multimedia works

that have been authored and produced by a multimedia

artist or video editor. The basic five Elements of

Multimedia are Text, Images, Audio, Animation, and

Video, and are most commonly published to the world

wide web.

HARDWARE USED FOR MULTI-MEDIA PUBLISHING:

Computer—PC/Apple Mac

Digital camera

Video recorder

SOFTWARE USED BY DESIGNERS FOR WEBSITE DESIGN

IN MULTI-MEDIA PUBLISHING:

WordPress (For website publishing)

WordPress is often used by many companies i.e. EBay as

it is free and easy to use.

It is a web software which you can use to create highly

functional websites or blogs.

Cont.

Issuu (For E-Books)

Issuu is a digital publishing platform that makes it simple

to publish and share your publications online

EXPLAIN THE PUBLISHING METHODS USED FOR

ELECTRONIC MEDIA

Gather information

Design Brief

Create design specification

Compile information

Proof publication

Print or publish

references

Printing Services Scotland (2015) Our Services. From:

www.printingservicesscotland.com/our-services.Accessed

28.05.2015

Word Press (2005) Word Press. From: wordpress.com/

website Accessed 28.05.2015

Issuu (2015) About Issuu. From: issuu.com/about Accessed

28.05.2015

Web Savvy (2009-2015) Website Design. From: www.web-

savvy-marketing.com/website-design Accessed 28.05.2015

Printing Service Scotland. From: scottishprint@aol.com.

Research Project. Accessed 11.05.2015

WiseGeek(2003-2015) What is a commercial printer. From:

www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-commercial-printer Accessed

28.05.2015

UHI WHC. From: Cheryl.Macrae.whc@uhi.ac.uk Assistance

on in-house printing questions. Accessed 30.04.2015