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We are looking for a digital business card printer. We still use litho and it just isn’t flexible enough for our needs. We want to set up a template that gives us a variety of options for the reverse of the card, as we like to use that space to showcase our original imagery, and have a standard front with variable fields for the individual’s details. We want to be able to order them online on an on-demand basis (and proof them at point of order too) rather than waiting to do a bulk order. We are, however, very quality conscious so it needs to be a good printer.
‘L’, via email

Here are a few suggestions: Precision Printing offers this sort of service and would set up a web-to-print portal for you based on your card requirements. There would be a template for the words part, and then the variable images could be either: uploadable by individuals, selected from a gallery, chosen according to a set of parameters imposed by a brand manager at your end, or somesuch. Basically, whatever you want. The cards would be printed on the latest HP Indigo digital presses, used for photobooks among other things so the quality should be good. But of course, get them to send some samples so you can see what they’re producing. Orders wouldn’t need to be batched. Three days is their normal SLA for turnaround times, but it could be 24 hours if required. Normally there’s a set-up charge to create the bespoke portal according to your requirements, but this could be rolled into the cost of the card depending on volumes. The best person to speak to is Beverley Butler, business development manager: 0845 606 4001. Equally, 1st Byte has a similarly clever e-commerce platform allowing it to offer a web-to-print, on-demand business card service that’s used by corporate clients with global offices. Last but not least, Continuous Design offers a tailored business stationery service that we at PrintWeek use for our cards.

Fantastic plastic #2
Two additions to the new and improved ‘litho printing on to plastic’ list: Windles (01844 201683) and Fingerprintfo+ (01707 322996), which I’m informed has perfected a method of doing it without the need to go UV by using special inks. Thanks, respectively, to David Timoni and Doug McBride for getting in touch with this info.

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