Anyone printing Note Cards? What printer are you using?

[Krittah]

I'm looking to speed up my note card production, and hoping someone here will have a good printer suggestion on how to do this.

I'm hoping to just print standard letter sized paper, with a thick card stock or fine art paper preferably. I want the image quality to be excellent, but also hoping it will print kinda quick with edge printing.

So far I've come up with the Canon image Prograf Pro-1000. The quality looks to be great plus it will handle photography, so that's a bonus. But it's a little slow for printing a few hundred sheets at a time.
Anyone have a suggestion on a better printer for this type of work?

And for reference, I'm currently producing note cards with my HP Latex 115, which involves a ton of trimming and takes forever. I'm hoping a small printer can just print a 8.5x11" paper, then I can make one cut down the middle of the whole stack, and finally put them all through a creaser.

Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I print them on my $80 brother laser printer.

 

[Krittah]

I print them on my $80 brother laser printer.

I feel like that would look terrible, which printer do you have? The $80 type printers I've had in the past definitely didn't have the print quality I'm hoping for.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Honestly, what are you doing?

 

[Boudica]

Honestly, what are you doing?

Nothing sign related. Recipie cards for grandma's recipie collection? Or place cards for cousin Millie's baby shower.

 

[petepaz]

probably want to look in to a smaller uv printer but speed could be an issue.
i have heard good things on the new roland uv printers. we have an LEJ-640 and it's been a work horse but no speed demon. quality is good and would be fine for what you want to do.
it can print roll and rigid media
definitely worth looking in to

 

[gnubler]

Sounds like an artist trying to sell their own notecards.
I would, and do, outsource printing like that to a trade printer. Consolidate a big order all at once rather than onesie twosie orders. You'll spend too much time trimming and scoring if doing it by hand, making it not worth it.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

Look up printers in your area and spend an hour or two talking to them about how much it would cost to print your notecards. There are no reasons to be printing notecards on a wide format machine unless you need exposure to a wider color gamut.

If you came into my shop, I'd suggest either Lynx 100# cover (Accent or Cougar are similar commodity sheets), or use something higher end like Superfine, Lettra, or an middle of the road sheet like Via Smooth Pure White. Most cards are 100# cover. Give your printer files with 1/8" bleeds and he'll be able to do anything you need him to. Cards should be $1.00 - $2.50 per piece depending on size, stock and quantity ordered. Blank envelopes $.25 - $.50 per piece depending on which paper you choose.

This is coming from a person that does digital and offset printing and has stepped into the wide format arena, and I would never print our anything smaller than 12 x 18" on our wide format machine.

 

[Greg Kelm]

What is your volume? I run a lot of 100# cover on our Fuji jpress. Might be able to help unless it’s just a few here and there.

 

[MDKAOD]

I offer fine art notecards to my clients, we use a Canon 1000 and a cheap scoring machine. I don't love the process, but the customers who buy them seem very happy with.

 

[garyroy]

That Canon 1000 has 12 different inksets in it, doesn't it?
That must cost some $$$$ to feed in ink.
The quality should be fantastic.

 

[Krittah]

Thanks for all the suggestions y'all!
Yes, my wife and I are artist and been selling these on the side at local art markets and local shops.
Currently printing a hundred or so at a time, with many different images and constantly expanding our design catalog.
Definitely considering outsourcing the printing, but would like to keep the work in house if reasonable.
My current setup with the Latex printer is definitely to much work, but my wife keeps selling them, my eyes roll, and here I go again; trimming, creasing, folding, packaging... lol!
Thanks for the paper suggestion, much appreciated as well. Currently using a fine art matte paper, PhotoArt 230 by Magic/Dietzgen, that's not available in sheets and probably not the best thing for cards anyway.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

but would like to keep the work in house if reasonable.

There is almost no way you are producing them for less $ than outsourcing them to a digital printer. If you have other work that you are putting aside to get these done, you are losing money. Just because you can produce something with your own equipment does not mean it is not cheaper just to have someone else with specialized equipment and workflows produce it for ultra cheap and still mark it up and sell it to you for less than your *realized* cost of producing them in house is.

 

[KY_Graphics_Gal]

That is my main type of business. I do digital printing and only do signs as an extra in my business. I run a Ricoh Pro C5100 Series with a Fiery so the print quality is excellent, but the machine costs around 40K so that's not feasible for small batch printing like you are talking about. For quantities over 50 we only charge $0.75 each for quarter page foldover notecards 4/0 and that includes A2 envelopes. I would definitely use a small print shop like us to do your prints as it would be much cheaper than buying all of the equipment.

 

[Stacey K]

You can send them to Signs365. They print on a large sheet of paper so you get 9 cards for $2.00. You can use a bleed, they cut them apart and you can still have the fun of folding at your leisure. I just ordered some glossy post card type handouts, they turned out really nice and the customer was very impressed with the quality. Just a suggestion!

 

[caribmike]

I have used Navitor for many years but we have a huge commercial print reselling business and sell thousands of Note Cards every year.

 

[gnubler]

You can send them to Signs365. They print on a large sheet of paper so you get 9 cards for $2.00. You can use a bleed, they cut them apart and you can still have the fun of folding at your leisure. I just ordered some glossy post card type handouts, they turned out really nice and the customer was very impressed with the quality. Just a suggestion!

I always forget they print on plain paper. 99% of my orders with them are adhesive vinyl.

Were your prints high enough resolution for crisp text?

 

[Stacey K]

I always forget they print on plain paper. 99% of my orders with them are adhesive vinyl.

Were your prints high enough resolution for crisp text?

Yes they were! I didn't keep a sample but it was glossy and on thicker stock like business card stock. Glossy on both sides. The customer was very happy. The nice thing is fast arrival. I had them in 48 hours. I ordered a few items from them on that paper when I don't need high quantities. I got some flyers a couple times when I only needed like 25.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

Yes they were! I didn't keep a sample but it was glossy and on thicker stock like business card stock. Glossy on both sides. The customer was very happy. The nice thing is fast arrival. I had them in 48 hours. I ordered a few items from them on that paper when I don't need high quantities. I got some flyers a couple times when I only needed like 25.

It's honestly probably a bit better to support a local printer for this person. Creative way to use an online printer for sure.

 

[Stacey K]

It's honestly probably a bit better to support a local printer for this person. Creative way to use an online printer for sure.

I agree, unfortunately we are in a rural area so the closest is about 30 minutes away. I tried using him a couple times but he's not very responsive. I typically avoid these projects unless it's for a good customer.