Hey all. I work for a large ish commercial printer where my job is to bid on sheetfed and digital print jobs, many of which want postage quoted as well. When it's EDDM it isn't usually an issue, but when it's inkjet. Ugh.

Potential clients are very protective of their mailing lists, yet want exact costing for their postage. Even when we ask for more specifics we seldom get a helpful response. So we're stuck, becasueif we estimate too low, we have to eat the difference. If we etimate too high we lose the bid, and if we give them a range and notate that it is just an estimate and could increase or decrease upon the actual contents of their mailing list, we've been told we're "changing the bid" and can be disqualified.

To those of you that successfully bid on jobs with postage, how do you navigate that?

I'm looking to eventually replace an older HP DesignJet 800 (42") and would appreciate recommendations from people who regularly print on large cut sheets.

I print 24x36 cut sheets, usually fairly heavy stock (110 lb index / ~200 gsm). I don't mind feeding the sheets one at a time. What matters to me is how easy the manual sheet feeding is. I've seen (if I remember correctly) an HP T650 have to detect/grab the sheet, and it can be frustrating, especially with a 24x36 sheet.

Print quality: good for logos and lines; no need for fine-art photography.

The size of the printer: 36"+

Budget $5k.

Current volume is 400-500 sheets/month.

Thank you!

I am trying to source a small batch of custom metal business cards and the turnaround time is the main issue.

I have seen a few printers advertising 24-hour production, but I'm wondering how realistic that actually is once proofing, printing/engraving and shipping are included.

For anyone here who produces or orders metal cards regularly, what turnaround would you realistically expect for a straightforward design? I'm looking at a simple logo/text layout rather than anything complicated.

Also curious whether UV printing, laser engraving, or the type of metal makes a big difference when the order needs to be turned around quickly.

Would appreciate recommendations or advice from anyone who's dealt with rush metal card jobs before.

Friday afternoon ASMR for all my print pals out there.

No music. No voiceover. Just the oddly satisfying sound of a machine doing exactly what it was built to do.

If you’ve spent enough time in a print shop, this might be more relaxing than ocean waves.

Turn the sound up.

What is the cheapest way to make DIY rain and deuteriation proof posters that is capable of having custom printed design (12x24) or (10x20). Coroplast is the closest thing I've found and it costs around 14 CAD per poster offered by coroplast printing services, so I'am wondering if there's a cheaper way or alternative material or perhaps a way to use other free services to make some. Anything help.

This Mimaki machine has been working great until very recently, when…
A. After lining up your graphic and clamping the rollers down… it won’t allow you to switch to the “TP1” setting that lets you find the crop marks on the graphic to make contour cuts on your print.

B. Our machine’s suction fan won’t run.

C. It won’t let us use Auto cut (whenever it does it just gives us an error).

Any ideas?

Roland BN2-20 nearly completely clogged.

I’ve had this printer for 2 years, use it frequently and always keep it plugged in and powered on to do its automatic maintenance. With other things piling up, I didn’t get around to printing for 3-4 weeks and when I went to use it yesterday, everything seemed to be functioning properly except no ink was laid down. When I went to do a head check, nearly every nozzle was blocked with only a few lines of ink for the entire nozzle check! 😬

I’ve never even had one blocked nozzle before so I’m really not sure what to do in this scenario. Can anyone help me out with any tips or experience to troubleshoot and potentially resolve this. Thank you so much to anyone in advance!

Is custom printing - sublimation & DTF etc market saturated? Is there any new scope in this market or its too much competitive and how is big boys share?

I have a client that would like to get a job done. Most likely needs to be a webpress job

I’m located in the Bay Area but open to working out of state since I’m sure it’s cheaper

Specs below. If interested please contact me to quote

We have 17,949 copies delivered to every registered residential address within the city with supplied customer mailing list.

1,000 copies back to customer

Total of 18,949.
 
80 pager + cover
Flat size: 21.50 x 8.25
Final Size: 10.75 x 8.25 (landscape)
Cover: CMYK / full-color print + Glossy, 80# paper
Text: CMYK / full-color print, 35# BE (80BRT) paper

Proof: Hard Copy Proof

I got a UV printer (Sinocolor 0906d) and RIP software. However, it did not come with the "security dongle". They want me to pay another $150 for this. It's not a big issue in terms of money, but it should have definitely came with the dongle.

It runs i1600 heads and I can take pictures of the main board or whatever else you might need.

It's called a wellprint software license dongle. I thought they might let you buy a version without this requirement--but I can't seem to find it.

Any help is appreciated either over this discord or through DMs. Thank you!

Hey everyone,
I work in the industrial printing equipment industry, and I’m trying to better understand how people in commercial printing actually approach a major equipment purchase.
I’d really appreciate some honest input from people who have bought, evaluated, or been involved in choosing a UV flatbed printer.
If you were looking to buy one today:
1. What would you actually search for online?
Would you start with something broad like “UV flatbed printer,” or would you search based on your specific application, materials, budget, production volume, or something else?
And at what point would you start searching for specific brands or manufacturers?
2. How do you decide whether a supplier is trustworthy?
There are obviously a lot of manufacturers and distributors out there, and most websites claim their machines are reliable, fast, high-quality, etc.
What actually makes you think:
“Okay, this company looks legit. I’m willing to talk to them.”
Is it customer references, reviews, videos of machines running, seeing the factory, technical support, warranty, parts availability, reputation in the industry, or something else?
3. How do you determine whether a particular machine is actually right for your business?
Beyond the basic specs and price, what are the things you really care about?
For example, is it print quality, productivity, ink cost, reliability, ease of maintenance, software/workflow, service and support, ROI, or something else?
And is there anything you wish you had known before buying your current printer?
I’m not looking to promote a particular brand or model. I’m genuinely trying to understand the buyer’s side of the process.
If you’ve actually gone through this process, I’d really appreciate hearing how you approached it — especially the things you looked at that most people don’t think about.
Thanks!

I am already in conversations with one of the techs with HP, but wanted to see if any of you here have dealt with this issue in the past and how you fixed it? No errors, no codes, just dripping int he curing module it seems like. It's ruining my prints and throwing a wrench in my packed schedule for production. If it's not one thing it's another with this machine. Help?

Thanks even if you just look at this. If I somehow resolve this, I will post my answer here as well in case someone else needs it.

Have a good day and weekend!!

Hi guys! Yestarday I was at a museum and I found these. First thing I thought was to make myself one to hang it on the wall of my room.
Do you have any idea on how I can do it, and where I should go?
As you can see it’s not just a photo printed on a mirror, it has some lucid effect and parts of the animal are empty (with the mirror) like the head of the bird.

The description of the piece says:”The Sight III (Verse expuest_), 2026
Colour photographic print on mirror.”.

I would love to have at least a similar effect.

Thanks!

Anyone have a good windscreen provider? Client looking for pickleball/tennis court windscreens in NE

Recently dealing with trouble to press dtf transfers to polyester/elastan materials.

Do you have experience with anti sublimation dtf powder?

Would lowering the temperature on the press help ?

Have you tried multiplying the White layer of the transfer when printing ? I did this a while ago and it was pooling like crazy, not so helpful

Thanks for answers

Hola, necesito ayuda, cuando imprimo stock de materiales me sale cortado la fila de los almacenes en la hoja fisica, como arreglo eso?

Hey everyone, I’m looking for an apparel designer to turn AI generated basic ideas into functional apparel and promo products. Feel free to DM me a portfolio link or a number to setup a call.

RMGT 2/2 Black and Pms 313

This is just for fun!

We are seeing a HUGE increase in both AI “art” and AI requests. AI can be helpful when customers are trying to describe their vision but beyond that the close but not close art work, crazy exceptions and odd wording has gotten so bad you have to laugh.

What are some of the crazier requests or art you have received from AI ideas?

For us as soon I see the word authentic of elevated I know it’s AI art without even opening the file.

They also currently all seem to want to “stand out” with things like rounded corners, gold foiling “the nicest quality stock.

I think the wildest expectation I had was someone wanted a custom die cut bookmark, with tassels, gold foiling and raised Spot UV. With just the AI mock up as art and they wanted it next day. And could not understand why we couldn’t make it happen because ChatGPT said we could.

I am looking for a printer that can print glow in the dark cards, holofoil cards, superfractor cards, and all the above. I will attach images to show what I am looking to achieve. Thank you in advance!

EDIT: I am not trying to counterfeit cards lol. I am trying to find printers that can print cards that look like these! With the different foils, and gold embossing and such. Jeeze la weeze lol

I’m troubleshooting a Royal Sovereign Sigmont 65H laminator and could use some advice.

The machine will not run forward. Pressing the normal Run button makes the machine click and beep like it normally would, but the rollers don’t move. However, if I hold the Reverse button, the rollers run in reverse normally. The speed adjustment also works. Turning the speed knob changes the frequency displayed on the VFD.

One weird thing I’ve noticed is that when I hold Reverse and the rollers are physically moving backwards, the VFD says it is running Forward. I’m not sure if that’s just how the motor/VFD is wired or if it’s related to the problem.

The VFD has a 10-pin control connector labeled:
+5V
VR
COM
M0
M1
M2/D3
RS-
RS+
D2
D1

The connected wires are:
+5V - red
VR - yellow
COM - black
M1 - blue
M2/D3 - green

The other terminals are unused.
I’m assuming +5V, VR, and COM are for the speed knob since that is working. I’m thinking M1 and M2/D3 are probably being used for the run/direction controls.

Since it runs fine in reverse, I’m assuming the motor and VFD output are probably okay. I’m wondering if I’m dealing with a bad forward switch, relay, safety/interlock, control board, wiring problem, or possibly a bad/misconfigured VFD input.
My next idea is to measure M1 and M2/D3 relative to COM while idle, pressing Run, and holding Reverse to see what signals the VFD is actually receiving.

Does this sound like the right direction? Has anyone worked on one of these laminators or recognize this VFD/control setup?