urgent print vendor needed! for white ink, pre-addressed envelopes
December 19, 2024 11:10 AM
Can you recommend a print shop (ideally one you have personally worked with!) I am in my own special circle of printing hell. I have been fighting for weeks with envelopes.com on two (relatively straightforward!) orders of pre-addressed envelope printing. Complicating factors: we need WHITE ink on navy envelopes (and a few other finicky things). More snowflakes inside
Essentials:
- for a corporate new years card sendout
- one order is 550 recipients. the other order is 50 recipients.
- the asset files I have are all pre-formatted with our exact typography (ie I have one 550 page file and one 50 page file)
- all 600 envelopes will be sent to my company's HQ / no need for mailing services
Non-Negotiables:
- MUST be [5x7" / 5.25 x 7.25 " / A7] navy envelopes and high quality (ideally 32 lb) paper
- MUST be white ink (this, IMO, is the hardest thing to find. I know of a ton of good print vendors who can do non-white-ink colors. but white has been tough to find)
- MUST offer printing on the back flap as well.
- MUST be able to ship to our HQ within the next week / received by week of Jan 6
- MUST be willing to send me a multi-page proof before printing.
- total budget: $1500 or under (could stretch this if absolutely necessary)
Flexible / Ideally:
- Vendor does not need to be in US
- Vendor could be corporate, on etsy, or a single person, just needs to take Visa or Mastercard and do the above
- Not super picky about the exact shade of navy (ex. "ink blue", "midnight blue", "cadet blue" etc. prob all fine, but "cobalt", "sky", "peacock" would not work)
- Could be flexible on paper weight if needed
- Ideally envelopes would be "peel and seal" (the kind that doesn't require water or licking to seal)
Context (aka my trauma)
- Envelopes.com has made a series of absolutely unacceptable errors in many, many repeated attempts to generate straightforward proofs and we have run out of time to address them
If you have the spoons to vet any of the above specifics, I would GREATLY greatly appreciate it. But I will also accept just throwing websites at me that I can peruse for my own research. THANK YOU
Essentials:
- for a corporate new years card sendout
- one order is 550 recipients. the other order is 50 recipients.
- the asset files I have are all pre-formatted with our exact typography (ie I have one 550 page file and one 50 page file)
- all 600 envelopes will be sent to my company's HQ / no need for mailing services
Non-Negotiables:
- MUST be [5x7" / 5.25 x 7.25 " / A7] navy envelopes and high quality (ideally 32 lb) paper
- MUST be white ink (this, IMO, is the hardest thing to find. I know of a ton of good print vendors who can do non-white-ink colors. but white has been tough to find)
- MUST offer printing on the back flap as well.
- MUST be able to ship to our HQ within the next week / received by week of Jan 6
- MUST be willing to send me a multi-page proof before printing.
- total budget: $1500 or under (could stretch this if absolutely necessary)
Flexible / Ideally:
- Vendor does not need to be in US
- Vendor could be corporate, on etsy, or a single person, just needs to take Visa or Mastercard and do the above
- Not super picky about the exact shade of navy (ex. "ink blue", "midnight blue", "cadet blue" etc. prob all fine, but "cobalt", "sky", "peacock" would not work)
- Could be flexible on paper weight if needed
- Ideally envelopes would be "peel and seal" (the kind that doesn't require water or licking to seal)
Context (aka my trauma)
- Envelopes.com has made a series of absolutely unacceptable errors in many, many repeated attempts to generate straightforward proofs and we have run out of time to address them
If you have the spoons to vet any of the above specifics, I would GREATLY greatly appreciate it. But I will also accept just throwing websites at me that I can peruse for my own research. THANK YOU
Apologies, I haven't used these folks but here are three leads: CatPrint, Kattone, and Gold Image Printing.
posted by gregr at 11:32 AM on December 19
posted by gregr at 11:32 AM on December 19
Printing is one of those things where if you want something standard online is great, but any significant customization and it really helps to work with someone local. I would find whatever Minuteman Press is near you and give them a call. Each one operates somewhat independently but they have shared facilities to do specialty inks, bindings, etc. As you might guess from the name, turnaround is typically (though not always) rapid.
posted by wnissen at 1:28 PM on December 19
posted by wnissen at 1:28 PM on December 19
I had a great experience using CatPrint, including proofs and rush shipping. They will do two sided navy A7 for $1.64 per. They also offer white ink. If you want to call and confirm they can do white ink on envelopes, they have good customer service with real people.
posted by umwelt at 1:28 PM on December 19
posted by umwelt at 1:28 PM on December 19
another wrinkle, internally the deliver-by date was just moved UP to Jan 2 (mental health? who needs it! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
sooooooo in the end we are going with this vendor mostly likely because turnaround time is quicker for label printing than direct-printing everywhere we've been able to hear back from so far.
wnissen, agreed, local is ALWAYS my preference but so far no one local does white ink. I will bookmark all these suggestions incl. minuteman for the future. welcome to further suggestions too even though my use-case is done.
posted by seemoorglass at 2:14 PM on December 19
sooooooo in the end we are going with this vendor mostly likely because turnaround time is quicker for label printing than direct-printing everywhere we've been able to hear back from so far.
wnissen, agreed, local is ALWAYS my preference but so far no one local does white ink. I will bookmark all these suggestions incl. minuteman for the future. welcome to further suggestions too even though my use-case is done.
posted by seemoorglass at 2:14 PM on December 19
Good luck with the shipping: USPS really does not like light print on a dark background, and you may be hit by a non-machinable surcharge
posted by scruss at 6:56 PM on December 19
posted by scruss at 6:56 PM on December 19
It’s my company’s 4th time doing a dark envelope with white printing, and I have indeed seen evidence that USPS is not super happy with that combo. I do not have final say in the design / product selection at this time, so white on navy it is.
posted by seemoorglass at 8:13 PM on December 19
posted by seemoorglass at 8:13 PM on December 19
Updating with archival info if anyone needs it in the future:
- we were able to find an Etsy vendor who does white ink on clear labels with super-fast turnaround time - Poplar Print on Etsy and are very happy with the results and price!
- her husband owns a full-service print press who helped out with the order - Peerless Printing Company - and based on our positive experience, we are going to use them in the future for direct white ink print jobs.
- the print vendor we used previously had shut down and became Kattone (as suggested above by a mefite!) and we were happy with them, so I can recommend them. They are located in Australia, so for us not ideal, but we were happy with the product.
posted by seemoorglass at 11:10 AM on December 31
- we were able to find an Etsy vendor who does white ink on clear labels with super-fast turnaround time - Poplar Print on Etsy and are very happy with the results and price!
- her husband owns a full-service print press who helped out with the order - Peerless Printing Company - and based on our positive experience, we are going to use them in the future for direct white ink print jobs.
- the print vendor we used previously had shut down and became Kattone (as suggested above by a mefite!) and we were happy with them, so I can recommend them. They are located in Australia, so for us not ideal, but we were happy with the product.
posted by seemoorglass at 11:10 AM on December 31
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I see Zazzle has what you want but I have never ordered from them.
https://www.zazzle.com/s/a7+navy+blue+envelope
posted by memoryindustries at 11:31 AM on December 19