Christmas time is coming and it’s time to start thinking about getting those Christmas cards printed out. So many options to go over: should we do them ourselves? Send them to a print company and have them do it? What kind of format? Large-format? Offset printing? You never really know how much goes into sending off a Christmas card until you actually do one.
It’s not just Christmas cards that we print these days. Now that all photographs are taken digitally we can either keep them on our phones or cameras or send them to a company. It’s not very expensive but unless you are planning on printing multiple pictures it really seems pointless to go all the way to the store for one picture. Some people just buy gloss paper and colored ink and make their own pictures at home from their printer, if it’s just one or two.
What about 3D printing? It seems like you can basically print anything now. This means that you can print out a three dimensional solid object from a digital image.
You can even make things like globes and popcorn boxes from a regular printer. Just fold the sides up to make the shape that you want.
Now you don’t even have to buy certain kinds of paper. You could design graph paper and lined paper or even music staff paper and other kinds from your home printer. You could even make a protractor if you really wanted to. Just put some card stock in your printer, create the image on your computer and there you go.
Even games can be printed. Board games like Monopoly, playing cards and even scrabble. You could also make toys like roads for miniature cars or towns.
The most obvious items you can print out at home would be essays, letters, stencils, moving box labels, etc.
Flyers and paper coupons aren’t altogether obsolete either. 76% of small businesses say they still use both physical items and digital methods to communicate with potential buyers. Promotional calendars still work as well as lots of people still use them for every month of the year. Car wraps are another thing companies can design and use to advertise. Many people say this is a very unique advertising method and they do pay attention to it. Lastly, on the business side of printing, business cards are still acceptable physical forms of communication.
So printing isn’t just limited to the obvious things. You can literally almost get anything from your home. Instead of ordering something online and waiting for it to be shipped to you. Depending on what it is you could have it right then and there. Do not underestimate the convenience of 24 hour printing when you just don’t want to mess with it yourself because it can be a little complicated and time-consuming depending on what it is you were printing.
What other things can you think of that can be printed?
