ColorFX Printer Tour

A couple weeks ago, Laura and I took a tour of the ColorFX printer facility in Des Moines. I have been in contact with some employees of this printer because they are helping us print our Plans Book for the Advertising Capstone. Just in these few weeks, I have learned a lot about what it takes to have something professionally printed. I had to request for estimates from several places, and also keep in contact with people there to figure out how to go about the process of actually giving them the files to print. In order to make sure I knew exactly what I was getting myself into, I wanted to actually see where they print everything, so my contact at ColorFX gladly offered to give Laura and I a tour. We were able to see all of the different areas where the different printing steps take place. The first area we saw was where the employees receive the files and look them over on screen before sending it over to have them printed. The most interesting part was when we were taken into the big warehouse spaces where the big printers are. At the time of our visit, they were in the process of printing a mailer for Mediacom, so they had thousands of those being printed while we were there. The actual process of printing it was so fast. We saw how the sheets of paper would feed into one end, and then go through each of the four colors one at a time, and then eventually make their way to another part of the machine to be cut and folded. One thing I learned while I was there is that if there is a gloss or metallic element on the print, it is added as a fifth ink in addition to the regular CMYK. Another interesting part of the tour was seeing a special type of printing machine that is fed the paper from a giant roll rather than individual sheets. This makes the whole process move more quickly and efficiently, which also gives ColorFX an advantage over their competitors. Overall it was a very interesting and insightful tour, and I now have a greater appreciation for everything that printers do!

Business card I received after the tour from the contact I have at ColorFX