The Gangrun Printing Process

Once we receive your artwork, our pre-press department will check your files to make sure they follow our file submission guidelines for best printing results.

Our billing department will then contact you to collect your payment and shipping information, which is necessary to process your order.

When the prepress department gives us a thumbs up on your artwork, you will be charged and the most important part of the process will begin.

Your files along with those of several of our other customers are placed on a large sheet of paper ranging from 12"x18" to 25"x38" in a process called "gangrun printing." This process is what makes it so easy for us to have your job done quickly at such low prices, while preserving the overall quality of your artwork.

After the "gangrun" or sheet is filled with customer artwork, the files are transferred to "plates." Each color in the 4 color printing process (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black - better known as CMYK) requires it's own plate. Each color can range from 0 - 100%, giving us the ability to printing more than 1,000,000 different colors. Since the "gangrun" is filled with various pieces of artwork from different customers, the process does not always allow from 100% accurate color, however, with special attention to detail our pressman calibrate colors for the best overall color output of each job on the run. Once satisfied, printing begins.

Once the printing is completed, the "gangrun" sheets are placed on a palette for drying so that ink does not transfer or smudge from one sheet to the other. Once dried, our cutting machine operators begin cutting each job off of the "gangrun" sheets as accurately as possible. Because of the sometimes complex layout of the jobs cuts are not always 100% accurate. It is possible that because of slight movements of paper some pieces may not be exactly like others, although the differences are mostly unnoticeable.

After the cutting is complete, your jobs is placed in it's box and prepared for shipping, delivery or pick up. This process takes 24 - 48 hours from 5PM on the day your order is processed. This timeframe does not include shipping or extended services like, graphic design, die cutting, folding, etc.