Boston Print Buyers - Margie's Print Tips

Margie Dana

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Although we love printers, paper reps, mailing specialists and other suppliers, they aren't eligible for membership. We welcome your inquiries about sponsorship.

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Upcoming Boston Print Buyers Event - June 14^th

The Revolution in Printing & Proofing

Registration is open for our June 14th dinner program, sponsored by
Eastman Kodak and Integrated Color Solutions, Inc.

When:	Wednesday, June 14th, 6 - 8:30 pm
Where:	Millennium Bostonian Hotel, Boston, MA
What:	Cocktails, networking, dinner, program and a trivia contest.
Cost:	$20 for Members; $50 for Nonmembers

Boston Print Buyers presents a very special June event. A panel of experts will enlighten us about new methodologies that help ensure color fidelity in your printed products.

Why Should Buyers Care About GRACoL?

Listen to prepress consultant Ron Ellis:

"GRACoL 7 is a popular standard that will help you deliver high-quality jobs that can be printed by a number of print vendors. GRACoL 7 helps you see what you'll get during the creative process and helps you deliver the final result through use of GRACoL-certified printers. Remove the unknown, improve your quality, and find printers who can deliver for you with GRACoL 7."

Bottom line?
Improve your quality and expand your choice of vendors with GRACoL 7.

Our panel includes:

Nick Patrissi - Moderator, Senior Manager Marketing Customer Development, Graphic Communications Group, Eastman Kodak.
John Dunn, Corporate Accounts Group Production Director,XPEDX.
Gerald Gerlach, Integrity Graphics; co-chair of GRACol.
Dianne Kennedy, Vice President, Publishing Technologies, IDEAlliance.
Michele Laird-Williams, Director of Print Media, Kodak's Graphic Communications Group.
John P. Sweeney, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Integrated Color Solutions, Inc.

For program details, the bios of our impressive panel and to register, visit our event page.

Special Guests from China: a delegation of senior print executives from China will be in attendance.

Global Paper Sizes

Two weeks ago, this column tackled Paper Sizes and Weights: U.S. vs. the World? In it, I referenced a web site of a firm in Tokyo: Editorial and Design Services. This week they sent me a new link to a site page that has tons of helpful information on International Paper Sizes. Check it out: www.edsebooks.com/paper.

BPB Sponsor Directory

Take a look! The BPB Directory offers firms a unique online presence for their prospective customers. Interested? Visit our sponsor information page for details.

If You Don't Have a Web Site, You Don't Exist.

by Margie Dana, Boston Print Buyers

[Print this article ]

Did I get your attention? I hope so. I'm talking to printing companies.

The first thing I do when someone mentions a printer that I've never heard of is the same thing every potential customer does: I Google it. If I have your city and state, or simply the state, I'm golden. That is, if you HAVE a site.

Forget the yellow pages. Today, you need a web site no matter how small it is. Even if you only have a single, solitary, temporary page while your site is under construction, please give me information that matters.

Are you a commercial printer? What kind?
Are you an online e-commerce printer?
Are you a printer/mailing house/fulfillment firm?
Are you a web printer?
Are you a prepress house?
Where are you located?
What's your phone number?
What's your email address?
What's your specialty?
Who do you serve?
Can you give me someone's name? One person I can contact if I'm in desperate need of your services?

You think I'm joking? Quite often I come across one-page temporary sites that tell me next to nothing. Why bother?

Here's another question: is the name of your company a dead giveaway to what you do or sell?

If it's "Joe's Printing Company," it's a start.

If it's "Massachusetts Color," well, I haven't a clue. Are you a decorator? A painter? A tanning specialist?

If it's "Madison Avenue Graphics," are you a design firm? An artist? An illustrator?

If you don't have the word "printer" or "printing" in your corporate name, you could be lots of things. For Pete's sake, give me a snappy and memorable tag line that makes it clear.

Competition in the printing industry is fierce. Because more and more customers are using the Internet to find and pre-screen you, you need a web site.

If one slender and temporary home page is shouldering the burden of promoting you on the Web, it has to tell every visitor, at a glance, what you do and why they should care.

Comments? Talk to me at .

Guest Contributor

If you want to be a Guest Contributor (and think you can cut it!), email me at

Click here for our guidelines.

Career Opportunities:

New position listed this week for Creative Services Supervisor for the John Hancock Funds in Boston.

Creative Services Supervisor for John Hancock, Boston, MA
Color Coordinator for Appleseed's in Beverly, MA.
Graphic Design Project Manager for tpg creative in Boston, MA.

Visit our Job Bank for details.

Members of Boston Print Buyers can post jobs for Free!

About Margie Dana

Clients hire me to write. Sometimes it's about printing; sometimes, it's not. Web sites, brochures, articles, direct mail campaigns… you name it; I write it. I've posted new writing samples on my website.

That's not all. I deliver energetic and memorable presentations about the print buyer/printer relationship. Call 617-730-5951 for more information or look at the speaking page on our website.