By Jason Clark

As promotion tools, brochures have never failed to register an impact on clients' minds. They can be distributed like pamphlets or mailed at clients' addresses, or can just be stacked in retail outlets for clients to take with them. The need to have brochures printed has led to the rise of a segment of the printing services business, which specially caters to brochures. Developments like digital technology, graphic design tools, and the internet have greatly changed the traditional style of brochure printing.

Until just a few years back, computers were hardly involved in the brochure printing process, which took several days, working with film negatives or plate-making machines and required multiple test prints, rounds of fine tuning etc. Even design options were restricted, with the printers doing the majority of the design tasks and only the most elementary input coming from the client.

These days, the client himself can do the whole designing on a computer, and the brochures can be created in a much lesser timeframe than they could be some just a few years ago. Technology has progressed far enough to make round the clock printing possible, enabling any quantity of prints to be delivered to the customer within a single day.

It is important to keep in mind that brochure printing entails not just the imprint of ink on paper, but design, content and formatting too. With the advent of digital technology, printing companies have begun to offer a range of advantages to the customers in this area, like high resolution colour printing, multiple options in complex formats and designs, and impressive packages on content-building.

Amongst the several advanced alternatives provided by printing services firms, digital brochures and full-colour brochures are most in demand. These are generally appropriate for brochures which will be in use from medium to long-term. Vibrant and eye-catching but concise brochures are best for short-term circulation in massive volumes, which are printed through a restricted print run. To develop such brochures, the best method to go for is off-set printing, as a large quantity of prints can be created in a short time span, though it takes a little more time for all the preparations in this technique.

Along with the enhancement in the standard of printing, ancillary services are now provided by most brochure printing companies as well. Direct mailing, distribution and design are some of these additional services.

The internet has initiated a client-centric approach of brochure printing, with customers now placing bulk orders with firms online and selecting colours, designs and layouts for their brochure by working on their own computers. Thus, brochure printing has come a long way in a comparatively short time, and the pace of advancements does not seem to be slowing down at all.

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