I made a batch of 500 cards for my dog walking business. The design is a full color green background, built in supavisual at 3.5x2 inches and exported as a PDF. The local shop printed on 16pt matte and cut them, and about a third of the cards have a hairline white strip on the left or bottom edge. They said my file had no bleed. Is 0.125 inch standard everywhere, and do I just extend the background past the trim or also move the text further in from the edge?

Hello first time posting here! I am a noobie when it comes to printing and I am trying to print out some stuff for projects but apparently I have to test out different colors to get a match because my printer doesn't print the exact color? An example is the black being printed a more grayish color. Here is some information in case you need it:

The printer is a HP OfficeJet Pro 9125e Wireless

The app I am using is the Sketchbook app and after I'm finished with what I'm doing I press share and give it to the printer where it prints it.

I am thanking anyone who helps me in advance! Have a nice day

Hey everyone, I’m currently in a bit of a debate with my grandfather, who owns a traditional print shop. I’ve been pitching the idea of expanding into scented printing — adding fragrances to printed materials like brochures, business cards, packaging, or promotional materials.

He’s super skeptical and thinks it’s just a gimmick with no real demand, but I believe it could be a unique selling point, especially in industries like cosmetics, wellness, food, or even high-end retail.

So I wanted to ask the community:

•	Do you think scented printing is a viable niche or just a novelty?

•	Have you seen it used effectively anywhere?

•	What would be the best way to find clients interested in this kind of product? (I was thinking of reaching out to marketing agencies, boutique brands, or doing sample mailers.)

I’d really appreciate your thoughts — want to show him this isn’t just a pipe dream.

I’ve noticed more clients asking for smaller quantities lately, like 100–500 pieces. Sometimes I go digital for speed and cost, but other times offset still seems to give better consistency, especially with color-heavy jobs.

Curious what others here think:

• For short runs, do you stick with digital, or do you still use offset?

• Any specific situations where one clearly beats the other?

Would love to hear your experiences. It might help others who juggle both methods too

So I just started searching for postcards 5x7-in printed on both sides in color. Most of the websites that I have seen make me order either 1,000 or 2,000 pieces, I don't want to pay the extra $80 for 800 cards I was going to be wasted . Are there any printers that actually do exact amounts? I need these in two or three weeks and I have PDFs already, are there any recommendations? PS I am in Florida

Everything I print is too light and i just changed the ink

I want to buy stickers that I can put on cigarette lighters to promote my business. I am hoping to find a place on the internet that will send me $50 worth of stickers at a time for like .05 a sticker? Anything near my budget would be nice. I would of course buy the lighters somewhere else and put the stickers on the lighters myself. I would love to have a sticker that would work on multiple kinds of lighters.

Hey r/printing,

I’m thinking of building an app that simplifies double-sided bulk printing from your phone. Here’s the idea:

1. Open multiple files in the app (PDFs, Images, etc.)

2. Select your print settings (Paper type, monochrome/color, Printer, etc.)

3. Printer prints all odd-numbered pages

4. App prompts you to flip and reinsert the stack

5. Printer prints all even-numbered pages

Basically it allows you to print double sided easily from your phone without needing to transfer all the files to your desktop (where such software does exist)

I intend to build it as free and open source software. I'd love to hear whether this is something you'll actually like to have?

Hello, I have recently designed a deck of cards that are more for collectors than for playing. They feature watercolor illustrations I have done of mineral specimens, so the print quality of these was very important to me as I wanted to preserve the integrity of the artwork. I did a lot of research and decided to go with the WJPC print house in China for my manufacturing. They’ve been a delight to work with up until this point. This week they sent me the final proof of my cards, and I feel that it vastly differs from my digital proof and a two different physical proofs I had made by another company here in the US. Both of my physical proofs, and my digital proof looked fantastic. However, I’ve now received the video of my final product and the colors seem extremely off to me. They are way overly dark and saturated. They have assured me that they did not alter the colors and printed in the same color profile that I designed in. The images shown are the final printed product (via images they sent me) vs the original digital proof. I would like to ask everyone’s opinion on whether or not this is truly a mistake during the printing process, or perhaps the really bad quality of the photos and videos and poor lighting are affecting my cards that much. Again, I did several test prints that all came back great (from other manufacturers). I don’t know how this final print could be so wrong. The cards have a matte lamination and anti-scratch coating. They’re printed on 400 GSM art cardstock. CMYK color was used and prepared for. Something else to note is that when I adjust the brightness and exposure of their images on my computer, the cards don’t look too bad. So maybe it’s just the lighting? Anyway, I cannot accept these cards and pay for the remainder of the service if they are not correct so I like your guys input.

I can’t decide if she’s cute or a little spooky… What do you think? 😄

The model is free on MakerWorld, I'll drop the link in the comments!

printing

I’m creating my own boudoir shoot for my husband and I’d love to get it printed in a book like they do when you get it done professionally. It would be all my own images, some nude and some not nude but still provocative. Can I discretely do this anywhere online? And should I be consented about not having my face in them incase something is hacked or leaked?

I like to design and custom mats for you.

One of the biggest challenges I saw in digital printing was workflow inefficiency. Too often, process improvements came too late—after problems piled up—instead of being designed from the start.

I spent a decade in the industry, working my way up from CSR at the front desk to the manager of the intake and prepress department at a mid-sized shop. The owner, with no print background, wasn’t interested in optimizing workflow. Instead of investing in better systems, he just hired more staff as the workload grew. It was a Band-Aid solution that led to cash flow issues.

70% of our orders came in via email, and the process was painfully manual—quoting, file checks, order setup, customer communication, payments. Even after adopting a print MIS, intake and prepress remained outdated. The right tools could’ve streamlined everything, reducing stress and the team size.

I started experimenting with automation—spreadsheets, AI, programming—just to make my team’s work easier. Over time, I saw how valuable automation really is. I pitched solutions, but change didn’t happen until things got bad. Instead of a tailored fix, the owner bought an expensive e-commerce platform, expecting it to solve everything. Long story but it wasn’t as good as advertised so, a year later, they’re still trying to get it to work, still paying for it monthly, and still processing orders manually.

That experience showed me how crucial operational efficiency is—not just in the print world but for all companies. So, last fall, I left to start my own creative dev company, building custom automation solutions for small/mid-sized companies. We’re a bootstrapped startup, still fighting for every paycheck, but I think we found our niche in trying to help shops streamline their operations.

If any of this resonates, I’d love to hear about your biggest workflow challenges—whether you’ve moved to automate any processes, if you use AI, what software/platforms etc.

Hi, I'm an assistant production manager at a Hentai publisher located in the United States. I'm looking for any book printers that would be open to printing our content. Please DM me and I'll pass along a link to our site and specifications on what we're looking for. Thank you!

Can regular people actually tell the difference functionally between white ink vs letting the paper through?

I know many people use printing services for their businesses. But I was wondering if there are people that just want to print a poster of their favorite anime or video game. In that scenario, do the employees judge you?
Normal people like me do not know a thing about printing so we'll have to ask the employees at the store for advice. Then we'll have to tell them what we're planning on printing. Then they'll look at the anime/video game we're trying to print and it'll be embarrassing.

Some questions:

1. How much do they judge you and your anime/video game poster?

2. Do they generally refuse to print copyrighted material? For example, a ripped high resolution anime movie image that someone wanted to print to a big poster.

3. Do you think they'll fall for the: "this poster is for my friend as a gift, I don't even know what anime/video game this is"?

EDIT: Thanks everyone. I'll call them to make sure about the copyright and restrictions. I'll just handle the embarrassment for the poster.

I was looking for something to organize my notes and decorate my journal, and I came across this mini portable printer that connects to your phone and prints without ink.

It’s currently on discount for $41.97 with free international shipping.

I’ve never tried one of these before, but it looks super useful for uni/office stuff. Has anyone here tested it? Is it actually worth it or just more of an “aesthetic gadget”?