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Postcards are perhaps the most cost effective means of promoting your company and the products and services your company offers to your prospective customers. The biggest advantages of postcards are two ‘C’s - Cost and Convenience.

But the essence of any promotional campaign is the reach and the penetration level to the targeted segment of the market. The quality of the printed postcards plays a very important role in that. It is needless to mention that quality output depends on the quality inputs and the processing of the inputs. Thus, postcard-printing machine is one of the key factors, which determine quality of the postcard and the success of the campaign as well. You may have selected the best of designs and paper on which the design is going to get printed, but if the printing machine is not capable of printing high-resolution graphics then the end result may lead to disappointment.

Offset presses were used in the past when printing postcards but nowadays more and more printing companies use digital presses. They like the flexibility and options that the machines provide and the output is of the highest quality. From the many design templates to the ability of merging your mailing lists with the design are just two of the primary benefits when using a digital press.

Digital printer manufactures offer various features and attachments in their digital presses. Canon, hp and Kodak are leaders in this field because their machines deliver high-quality prints every time. Their machines are built in such a way to accommodate paper transfer and printing. All of the operations are simply controlled electronically by a control panel.

The paper that is used to print the postcards is referred to as the stock. It comes in various finishes and thickness such as; a matte, gloss or pear finish. Most printing machines can print up to A3-sized paper. The speed at which it prints is around 4000 sheets of A4 sized paper per hour using four other colors. If it is printing in black and white then the quantity is 16000 copies using A4 sheets.

You can download your postcard design directly from the Internet and it can be seen on the monitor located in the control panel. The print jobs can be prioritized by placing the jobs in queue and based on priority.

If you are looking for a quick turnaround time when it comes to printing your postcards, some printing machines can print on both sides of the postcards. The most powerful of all printing features is the variable data. They have the ability to create customized and unique postcards. For this reason, digital printing is overtaking the marketplace when it comes to postcard printing.

In order to give the printed postcard a shape to match the style of the design the postcards are cut and trimmed. In addition, when adding other affects like UV varnishing, embossing and leafing, these procedures will be done in another area of the printing process. Most people prefer digital printing for short jobs and still like to use the offset printing method for longer print jobs.