At Newman Thomson we truly believe in sustainable print, we are FSC® certified, a not for profit organisation focussed on the welfare of the worlds forests. We are also ISO 14001 certified which recognises our commitment to conform with all environmental laws and regulations and actively work to minimise the environmental impact of all current and future activities and processes, reduce energy use and promote environmentally considerate practices throughout our supplier chain. 

It’s not just about badges and certificates though, we’ve switched virtually all of our lighting from incandescent to LED, saving a vast amount of energy, and reducing wastage. We’ve switched to processesless plating, virtually eliminating the need for harmful chemicals, and reducing water usage. We no longer use paper hand towels or electric hand dryers, we use continuous towel rolls which are collected and recycled. Our vending machines only use paper cups, not plastics. We could go on, but you can always read more on our environmental page.

2. Choose the right paper

This sounds like an obvious point, but it is one that is often overlooked. The range of environmentally friendly papers is growing continuously. As a rule, try to avoid glossy stocks, as these can cause issues with recycling. The most environmentally aware choice would be an uncoated stock, which as the name suggests, doesn’t have any form of coating on it.

We offer fully recycled, part recycled, and FSC® papers, as well as carbon balanced papers which allow you to offset the amount of carbon dioxide created during the production process.

3. Try to avoid glues and plastics where possible

Whilst you might not know it, the application of glue to a product, can render it un-recyclable. If you need to affix items to your printed products try and think about using different methods, such as slits, or tabs. One of our design team loves making challenging die cutter guides, so if you need a hand, just get in touch.

4. Use print on demand

Why print way more than you need of something? With the developments in the web to print landscape it’s now easier than ever to simply print what you want, in the quantity you want, when you want. No more throwing away out of date publications, no more over ordering. What’s more, due to it’s nature, print on demand work is virtually always printed on digital presses, which are far more environmentally friendly than their litho counterparts. No metal plates needed, no harsh chemicals to clean presses, considerably more energy efficient, in fact our 3 HP Indigo digital presses themselves were all produced in a Carbon Neutral production process.

5. Add value without environmental cost

Perhaps you want to create a glitzy event invite, and had been considering using a glitter or something similar to give it impact, neither glitter, nor the glue used to apply it are terribly good for the environment, so why not consider something that not only looks better, but doesn’t have a negative impact like embossing, or die cutting?

6. Recycle any surplus print

If you do have any left over print from previous jobs which are surplus to requirements, then let us know at the time of placing your next order, and we’ll pick it up and bring it back to our plant for recycling. That way, the product gets recycled, and it saves an unnecessary journey as our transport partners are in and out of our place every day. Not only will your product have been printed on recycled stock, it will then be being recycled again, now that is sustainable print.

7. Do your research

Find out what market you are aiming for and tailor your product to them as much as possible, whilst the ‘scatter gun’ approach to marketing used to be the only way, it ends up very wasteful and therefore not very cost effective, or good for the environment.

What would you rather be handed? A lightweight glossy thin generic flyer, or a high end stock with beautiful finishing and perhaps even personalisation (simple with digital print).

So whilst on the face of it you may be paying the same for less, if you consider that a lot of your cheap marketing materials will be going straight in the bin (and not the recycling bin as they’re on gloss) the higher end stuff which you’ve carefully targeted to the correct audience will be gaining traction and working harder and more efficiently for you. You’ll have also used less paper and energy to create it. Everyones a winner!

8. Check, check and check again.

Again, this may sound like an obvious one, but probably the easiest way to reduce environmental impact of your jobs, is to eliminate errors. One small typo could double the size of your job, thus doubling the environmental impact and of course the cost. Before going to press, have several people check over the job, ideally some who have no involvement with the job as they will be more likely to spot any errors that could be missed by over familiarity with the project.

9. Don’t encapsulate

If you have a job that you want to used in a hard environment, instead of going for the old fashioned method of encapsulation which uses all manner of glues and plastics, why not look at using a synthetic paper such as Agfa’s Synaps material, which is waterproof, tear proof, UV stable and of course recyclable. Less processes are involved as it’s printed on in a similar fashion to paper, as opposed to using the printer, then the guillotine, then the encapsulation machine, then the guillotine again.

10. Sticking around

There was a time when all stickers featured non-recyclable adhesives, and as such were (regardless of what stock was used) non-recyclable, we can now source FSC® approved stickers with biodegradable adhesives, so a sticky problem, has now been alleviated.

If you’d like to discuss any other aspects of sustainable print, please either drop us an email to info@newmanthomson.co.uk, or give us a call on 01444 480700

The post 10 ways to ensure you’re using sustainable print first appeared on Newman Thomson.

UK-based print provider, Newman Thomson, produces a wide variety of magazines, brochures, publications, pharmaceutical documents and point-of-sale materials. When the company wanted to future-proof their business by streamlining the workflow of its print orders to drive efficiencies and simplify the process for customers, they turned to web-to-print and purchased XMPie PersonalEffect StoreFlow with its built-in VDP features and an end-to-end Adobe InDesign workflow.

“XMPie PersonalEffect StoreFlow gives us everything we need in a web-to-print system.  We didn’t need countless add-ons or extra development time to tailor the system to fit our needs.” said James Vaisey, Marketing and Web to Print Manager, Newman Thomson. “For us, it was critical to have an all-in-one system that could simplify existing workflow processes, support growing business needs, have constantly evolving functionality, and that seamlessly integrates with Adobe InDesign and our MIS system.  XMPie’s solution does all of that, and so much more.”

Before selecting PersonalEffect StoreFlow, Newman Thomson’s workflow consisted of customers placing orders directly with their account managers, who processed the jobs in the Management Information System (MIS) and handled the artwork for pre-press. From there, the production and dispatch team would complete the order. With XMPie’s help, the company has streamlined many of the intermediary touchpoints that once burdened the efficiency of the process. Newman Thomson also uses Xerox FreeFlow Core to automate and integrate the processing of print jobs – from file preparation to final production.

“We have a wide spectrum of customers, from the ‘walk-in’ customer wanting 500 business cards, 1500 letterheads and a pull up banner for their start-up business, all the way through to multinational conglomerates ordering complex data-driven documents,” Vaisey added.  “I think XMPie has a place for each one of those, it turns a walk-in who previously would have required a fair amount of time/input versus profit return, into a very efficient quick turnaround job. Conversely, a multinational can feel safe in the knowledge that all the artwork is securely locked down, that the job will be consistent, and the time and cost spent on designing and checking would be vastly reduced on both the client side and our side.”

Newman Thomson not only made an investment in a web-to-print solution, but an investment in the future of its business. They currently serve a range of clients – from small businesses to large enterprises – and their new web-to-print system will allow them to offer services to a whole new set of clients that they have previously not been able to target. They now have a powerful new sales tool in their arsenal to help them stand out from the crowd.

“XMPie gives us the means to go into a client meeting with something that makes us stand out and show that we can save our clients time and money,” said Vaisey. “Trust is a valuable commodity in the business landscape and giving customers the ability to effectively and easily buy print and other products while simultaneously looking after their branding helps build and nurture that trust for a long business relationship.”

To find out more about what our web to print system can do for you (hint: It’s a lot more than business cards and letterheads, we can add 3rd party supplier products, live chat and offer stock management solutions) then either give us a call on 01444 480 700, or drop an email to sales@newmanthomson.co.uk

The post Newman Thomson Amps up Capabilities with XMPie Web-to-Print System first appeared on Newman Thomson.

The post Firepower increased with second SRA3 Digital Printing HP Indigo first appeared on Newman Thomson.

One other thing regarding colours to consider is that of black, for text a single colour black is perfectly fine. However if you are looking to use large areas of black a single colour black can appear a bit ‘greyish’ in hue, a common solution here is to use what’s known as a rich black, or 4 colour black. As the name would suggest, this is where a 100% K black is enhanced by the addition of the other 3 print colours. The usual CMYK breakdown for a rich black is C-50% M-50% Y-50% and K-100%.

PMS Colours, PMS is the abbrevation for Pantone Matching System. Simply put, the PMS is a way of guaranteeing the appearance of a colour over a variety of materials. Commonly used by very large brands who are represented across the globe, the PMS allows you to ensure continuity by rendering your chosen colour, identically, no matter where it is, what material it is on, or what process has been used to produce it. For example, Ford use Pantone 294C in their famous blue oval logo, this ensures that the specific blue is replicated exactly the same across the world, and across any materials (signage, print, clothing etc.) in which it features. However, most brands probably don’t need that sort of colour control (which can be fairly expensive), and a traditional CMYK breakdown will suffice. As always, if you want any more info regarding this or any other area of printing, do please get in touch, collectively we have centuries (probably) worth of knowledge which we’ll gladly impart.

The infographic below details what the main differences are between CMYK, RGB and Pantone colours:

Credit for original infographic to thelogocompany.net

The post Print colour profiles explained first appeared on Newman Thomson.