It depends on how complex the job is. The shop completes the large majority of estimates within 24 hours.

Estimates are valid for 30 days. After that the shop will need to re-do the estimate, because paper and material costs change.

You can email or call, but the quote form is faster: it asks for everything the estimator needs, so nothing gets missed and there is less back and forth.

Reply to approve it, or order through the shop's storefront: add the estimate to your cart, upload your files and check out. Nothing goes to press until you approve a proof.

Yes. Standard products such as business cards, letterhead, envelopes and NCR forms can be ordered directly on the storefront. Custom sizes, numbering and larger runs are quoted.

Offset printing transfers the inked image from a plate to a rubber blanket and then to the paper. Combined with lithography, which relies on oil and water repelling each other, the plate's image area takes ink from the rollers while the non-printing area takes a film of water and stays ink-free.

Consistently sharp, clean images and type; it works on a wide range of surfaces including paper, cloth, metal, plastic and rough stocks; the price per piece drops as quantity rises; and it can reproduce Pantone (PMS) colors accurately, where digital presses simulate them from four process colors.

Digital printing prints the data and images directly from the computer onto paper, with no plates.

Lower cost on short runs once setup is counted, faster turnaround, variable data (names, numbers or versions that change piece to piece), more accurate proofing, and less waste: it uses dry ink or toner with no VOC emissions from the ink and much shorter setup.

It ranges from almost nothing to significant. Most photos and text reproduce well on the shop's high-end digital press. Jobs with large areas of solid color look much better on offset, so the shop cannot promise offset quality on every short-run digital job.

Choose offset when quality is the top concern, for higher volumes (more than about 250 business cards or 1,000 brochures), for paper thicker than 14 pt, or for a finished size larger than 12 x 18 inches. Choose digital when you need it in under about five business days, for lower volumes, or when you need variable data. Not sure? Ask, and the shop will recommend one.

Offset presses print well on almost any paper. For digital work the shop recommends ChorusArt and Astrolite 100PC.

Digital printing uses dry ink or toner with no VOC emissions from the ink and wastes much less paper during setup, so it is usually the greener choice for short runs.

Yes. To reduce press wash-ups and VOCs, the shop prefers process inks where they will do the job, so ask if your color must be an exact Pantone match.

Yes, if you order one. The shop provides a soft proof by email, or a hard proof for color-critical jobs, shipped overnight. For color-critical work, ask for the hard proof.

A 1-up, press-ready PDF with crop marks and bleed. The file setup guide walks through it step by step.

Short lines printed outside the page that show where the sheet is cut to the finished size.

No. Any design program adds them when you export a PDF, as long as the document size equals the trim size. A 3.5 x 2 inch business card should be a 3.5 x 2 inch document.

No. The shop's workflow imposes files automatically. A file you impose yourself usually has to be taken apart and redone.

If anything in your design touches the edge of the page, extend it past the edge so the cut lands in color. That overhang is the bleed; 0.125 inch on each side is standard.

No. RGB to CMYK conversion is done automatically in the shop's workflow.

300 dpi at the size they will print.

No. For your security, the shop's storefront does not keep credit card information on file. Never send card numbers through the quote form.

Your details are used to answer your request and serve your order. They are not sold or shared for advertising. The privacy notice lists exactly who handles them.

OnlineCommercialPrinting.com is the online ordering desk of Commercial Printing Services (Tatman, Inc.), 815 N Central Ave, Connersville, Indiana, a print house that has been printing for more than 50 years.