Printing Solutions

Print

Create the right communications for your audience.

The communications choice with the best value is the one that meets your budget, effectively delivers your message, and gets there on time.

Balmar has you covered.

Offset Printing

Balmar offers offset printing solutions for stationery through annual reports and long-run books. Direct-to-plate pre-press and high-quality digital proofing save time and money. Our complete in-house bindery services eliminate delays and control product quality through the finishing process.

Balmar's blend of sophisticated digital front-end technology with a broad range of offset press capabilities allows you to leverage the economy and quality of offset from your desktop.

For quantities best-suited to offset printing technology, Balmar’s two full-service production facilities operate three shifts to provide premium-quality printed products. Balmar's offset capabilities support the full range of run lengths, complexity, and sheet sizes - from business cards to long-run publications. We utilize the latest direct-to-plate technology from both Creo and Agfa to streamline the pre-press workflow - saving time and reducing cost. Using Creo's Staccato screening technology enables Balmar to produce offset printed images that closely approximate continuous tone resolution and far surpass the quality possible with conventional screening technologies. Our range of presses includes:

1 & 2-color web press (ideal for long-run book work!)
Large format 2, 5, & 6-color sheet-fed perfecting presses with in-line aqueous coating
Small format 1, 2, & 4-color sheet-fed presses
To complement our offset capacity, we provide complete in-house bindery and finishing services, including die-cutting and foil stamping. We've built our production support services to handle your print project from start to finish.

The Blending of Digital and Offset

As an early adopter of print-on-demand technology (circa 1990), Balmar has grown around the understanding that digital and offset print production are not diametrically opposed solutions to print communications. Rather, they represent complementary parts of a continuum of production options that provide flexibility for our clients.

There are unique benefits to both digital and offset print options. But the real value lies in the skillful blending of the two. With the increasing demand for shorter runs and shorter schedules at marketable price points, digital print has certainly found its own niche. But our clients are combining customized digital covers and inserts with offset printed books to elevate the end-product to something with dramatically enhanced value - at very economical unit prices. It just might be time to re-think some of your traditional assumptions about printing. Ask us about how to get started.

Balmar Offset Printing

Utilizing the latest Prinergy digital pre-press technology from Creo allows us to automate and simplify prepress processes, including proofing. Prinergy’s Prepare enables clients to automatically pre-flight files for print-readiness while Insite offers a highly automated and customized file transfer process that places print-ready PDFs directly into our pre-press workflow and quickly renders rasterized PDF proofs online.

Balmar also uses Creo’s Staccato screening technology to render offset printed materials that rival continuous tone images for clarity and resolution and surpass the ability of conventional screening technologies.

Our Range of Presses Include:

1 & 2 Color, uncoated full-size web press with in-line folder (ideal for long-run book work)
Large Format (full and half-sheet size) 2, 5, & 6-color sheet-fed perfecting presses with in-line aqueous coating
Small Format, 1, 2, & 4-color sheet-fed presses (including our 4-color waterless press)

Typical offset printed products include:

Annual reports
Booklets and books
Calendars
Catalogues and directories
Contract deliverables
Corporate identity packages
Newsletters
Pocket folders
Postcards
Posters
Product data and sell sheets
Product packaging

Complementing our extensive offset capacity, we provide in-house bindery and finishing services that allow us to control the vast majority of projects completely in-house.

Digital Printing

High-speed, high-quality monochrome and color digital print systems provide cost-effective alternatives to offset printing for on-demand work, shorter runs, or tighter turnaround times. Our on-line finishing reduces bindery costs and delivery times.

In 1990, Balmar was a "beta" adopter of print-on-demand technology and we have never looked back. Today, we blend our traditional offset and our digital print capabilities to support the evolving communications needs of our customers - and their customers.

Balmar uses the latest front-end technology and high-volume digital print engines to support the short-run black & white and color production needs of our customers. Using Xerox^® 6000 series print engines equipped with Xerox's PDF-based Freeflow^® workflow, our 24-hour digital print operations can produce well over 1 million black & white pages a day. With full-variable data capability, customized or personalized pieces can be generated to communicate with an audience of one.

Our digital color production options make use of the latest technologies to produce cost-effective, high-quality color products with the ability to add new levels of customization that will deliver a unique message to each reader.

By using a range of digital color options, Balmar can tailor solutions that fit the specific need and budget for each project. The Indigo 5000 (7-color) and NexPress 2100, as well as the 4-color, waterless DirectPress 5634, give you choices that other digital print providers cannot. Our array of digital color devices supports a broad range of paper sizes, weights, and finishes and can provide exact PMS color matches when needed. Today, digital color is the right solution for short-run color needs - the right quality, the right turnaround, and the right price.

Balmar Digital Print

Digital printing is a cost-effective and less environmentally invasive method for producing a wide variety of short-run or quick turnaround color and black & white documents when offset printing is not a cost-effective alternative. It is also the only method for producing customized or personalized one-to-one communications.

Using high-speed 600 dpi Xerox^® 6000 series print engines equipped with Xerox's PDF-based Freeflow^® workflow for black & white digital printing, Balmar can produce well over 1 million impressions a day in our three-shift operation.

Balmar uses Xerox, HP Indigo, and Kodak NexPress print engines to produce digital color documents in sizes up to 12" x 18" on a wide range of paper stocks. Using up to 7 colors, we provide offset quality and accurate color matching for short-run applications when offset printing is not the right solution.

Typical Digital B&W Applications

Training documentation/manuals
Proposals (including tabs and foldouts)
Conference materials
Surveys
Programs and directories
Presentation handouts
Contract deliverables
Booklets and catalogs
Newsletters, press releases, and price lists

Typical Digital Color Applications

Data sheets
Postcards and direct marketing packages
Brochures
Signage/posters
Books and book covers
Board books
Media Kits
Certification materials
Business cards
Presentation handouts

Balmar offers unmatched capacity, 24-hour-a-day operations, complete bindery and finishing options, and variable data print alternatives for personalized communications - all combined with our extraordinary commitment to quality and customer service.

Bindery

The power of customization, personalization, or versioning is often the right solution to create uniquely targeted documents for your audience. Balmar is ready to design, print, finish, and distribute variable data documents driven by your data.

A strong finish is an asset in any endeavor, and this is particularly true for printing. Balmar offers its customers a worry-free “under one roof” production solution that includes a full range of finishing options.

Our full-service print production facilities offer a complete line of in-house binding and finishing options that include:

Folding
Scoring
Perforation
Numbering
Padding
Saddlestitching
Perfect binding
GBC, plastic coil, and wir-o book binding
GBC Diameter Guide (PDF)
Index tabbing and lamination
Full-sheet lamination
Die-cutting
Foil stamping
Embossing
Collating
Drilling
Shrinkwrapping
Hand assembly

Balmar has tailored its finishing capabilities to support the demands of both short-run digitally printed products and longer-run traditional offset print projects. Our services range from large-scale, in-line book binding solutions to hand finishing of custom pieces.

Photo Examples of Common Binding Methods

Case
Side Stitch
Screw & Post
Comb
Spiral
Double-Loop Wire
Ring
Tape Binding

Balmar Bindery & Finishing

A strong finish is an asset in any endeavor, and this is particularly true for printing. Balmar has tailored its finishing capabilities to support the demands of both short-run digitally printed products and longer-run traditional offset print projects. Our services range from large-scale, in-line book binding solutions to hand finishing of custom pieces.

Our two full-service print production facilities offer a complete line of in-house scalable bindery and finishing services that include:

In-line finishing for digital and web printing
Mechanical and hand bindery services
Saddlestitching
Perfect binding
Plasticoil
Wiro
GBC
Die-cutting, foil stamping, and embossing
Index tabbing and lamination
Folding, scoring, and perforation
UV coating
Padding, numbering, and lamination

Our array of in-house finishing options allows us to support a wide range of products. It also enables us to control product quality and delivery timeframes without relying on outside vendors.