What Does “Flattened,” “Outlined,” or “Embedded Fonts” Mean in Print Files

Why Can’t My Printer Edit My PDF?

One of the most common questions we hear at JET Print and Mail is:

“Why can’t you just change the text in my PDF?”

The answer usually comes down to how the original designer prepared the file.

Depending on how a PDF or artwork file was exported, the text may no longer exist as editable text. Instead, it may have been flattened, converted to outlines, or saved with embedded fonts.

Understanding these terms can save time, reduce design costs, and help you provide the right files for future projects.

What Is Live Text?

Before discussing the different file types, it’s helpful to understand live text.

Live text is exactly what it sounds like, text that remains editable within the original design software, such as Adobe Illustrator or Adobe InDesign.

With live text you can easily:

Correct spelling
Change pricing
Update dates
Replace names
Change fonts
Resize or restyle text

This is the ideal format for files that may require future revisions.

What Does It Mean to Flatten a Print File?

Flattening combines multiple layers of artwork into a single layer or image.

This is commonly done when:

Saving artwork for compatibility
Exporting older PDF versions
Merging transparency effects
Creating image-based graphics

Although the artwork still prints correctly, the individual design elements—including text—are no longer separate objects.

Think of it like this:

Imagine a layered cake.

Each layer represents text, logos, images, and graphics.

Flattening is like blending the entire cake into a smoothie. Everything is still there—but you can no longer separate the individual ingredients.

Can flattened text be edited?

Usually, no.

The text often becomes part of the overall artwork, requiring it to be recreated instead of simply edited.

What Are Outlined Fonts?

Converting text to outlines (sometimes called curves) changes every letter into vector artwork.

Instead of storing the word:

JET PRINT

the software converts every letter into individual vector shapes made from anchor points and paths.

The letters still look identical, but they are no longer actual text.

Why designers outline fonts

Professional designers frequently convert fonts to outlines because it:

Prevents font substitution
Eliminates missing font errors
Ensures artwork prints exactly as designed
Improves consistency across different computers

The downside

Once text has been outlined, you cannot simply highlight it and type something new.

Changing:

2026

2027

requires rebuilding those characters rather than editing the original text.

What Are Embedded Fonts?

Embedding fonts works differently.

Instead of converting letters into artwork, the font information is included inside the PDF.

This allows another computer—or your commercial printer—to display the document correctly without owning the original font.

Fully Embedded Fonts

A fully embedded font generally allows:

Correct printing
Searchable text
Selectable text

Depending on the software and licensing restrictions, editing may still be possible.

Subset Embedded Fonts

Many PDFs use subset embedding.

Rather than including the complete font, only the characters used in the document are embedded.

This reduces file size but often limits editing because missing letters aren’t available.

Why Can’t My Printer Edit My PDF?

When a client sends a PDF and asks for revisions, here’s what we might find:

File Type	Can It Print?	Can It Be Easily Edited?
Live Text	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Embedded Fonts	✅ Yes	Sometimes
Subset Embedded Fonts	✅ Yes	Often Limited
Outlined Fonts	✅ Yes	❌ No
Flattened Artwork	✅ Yes	❌ No

If the original designer converted text to outlines or flattened the artwork, the text simply no longer exists as editable text.

At that point, the only solution is to recreate the affected portions of the design.

Why Printers Ask for the Original Design Files

When possible, your printer will request the original:

Adobe InDesign (.INDD)
Adobe Illustrator (.AI)
Adobe Photoshop (.PSD)

These files contain:

Live text
Editable layers
Linked images
Color settings
Original fonts
Production settings

Making changes to these files is significantly faster and more cost-effective than rebuilding artwork from a flattened PDF.

Best Practices for Future Print Projects

If you anticipate making updates later, follow these recommendations:

Keep a copy of the original design file.
Save an editable version before outlining fonts.
Archive all linked images and fonts with your project.
Supply your printer with both the original artwork and a print-ready PDF.
Ask your printer how they’d prefer files to be prepared before beginning a project.

These simple steps can save hours of production time and prevent unnecessary redesign costs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can outlined fonts be converted back into editable text?

No. Once text has been converted to outlines, it becomes vector artwork. It must be recreated to become editable again. More Outline FAQ’s

Why do designers outline fonts?

Outlining fonts prevents font substitution and ensures the printed piece appears exactly as designed, regardless of which fonts are installed on another computer.

Are embedded fonts editable?

Sometimes. Fully embedded fonts may remain editable depending on the software and font licensing, while subset embedded fonts often cannot be edited. Deeper Dive on Embedding

Why do printers request the original Illustrator or InDesign file?

Original production files contain live text and editable layers, allowing changes to be made quickly without rebuilding artwork. If Canva is your only option here are some tips

Should I always provide a PDF to my printer?

Yes. A print-ready PDF is excellent for production, but keeping the original editable file ensures future revisions can be made efficiently.

Trust JET Print and Mail With Your Print Production

At JET Print and Mail, we work with Denver marketing teams, designers, and businesses every day to ensure print files are prepared correctly before they go to press.

Whether you need help troubleshooting a PDF, preparing artwork for commercial printing, or updating an existing project, our prepress experts can help you avoid costly production delays and ensure your printed materials look exactly as intended.

Need help preparing a print-ready file? JET Print and Mail today to speak with our experienced print production team.

Print Design

Eco-Friendly Printing: How to Go Green with Your Direct Mail Campaigns

Direct mail remains a powerful tool for businesses to connect with their audiences, but as concerns about environmental sustainability grow, marketers are rethinking their printing practices. Today, it’s possible to run effective direct mail campaigns while reducing your environmental footprint. By incorporating sustainable printing practices, eco-conscious materials, and thoughtful strategies, you can align your marketing efforts with your company’s commitment to the planet.

Here’s how you can go green with your direct mail campaigns and make a positive impact.

Why Go Green with Direct Mail?

Sustainability isn’t just a trend—it’s a responsibility. Consumers are increasingly favoring businesses that prioritize eco-friendly practices. By implementing green initiatives into your direct mail campaigns, you can:

Reduce Waste: Minimize the use of resources and ensure your campaigns don’t contribute to landfills.
Enhance Brand Image: Show your customers that you care about the environment, which can build trust and loyalty.
Attract Eco-Conscious Consumers: Appeal to a growing segment of the market that values sustainability.

Partnering with a company like JET Print and Mail, known for its expertise in managing direct mail campaigns, can make it easier to adopt eco-friendly practices without sacrificing effectiveness.

Choose Sustainable Materials

The materials you use in your direct mail pieces play a significant role in the environmental impact of your campaign. Opt for these eco-friendly alternatives:

Recycled Paper: Use paper that is made from post-consumer waste to reduce the need for virgin resources.
FSC-Certified Paper: The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certifies paper sourced from responsibly managed forests.
Soy-Based Inks: Unlike petroleum-based inks, soy-based inks are biodegradable and emit fewer volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
Compostable Packaging: If your mail requires envelopes or additional packaging, use compostable materials that break down naturally.

We can guide you in selecting the right materials to ensure your campaigns are both impactful and sustainable.

Optimize Design for Minimal Waste

An eco-friendly campaign starts with thoughtful design. Reducing unnecessary elements can save resources and costs. Here are a few tips:

Keep It Simple: Use clean, minimalistic designs that require less ink and paper.
Right-Size Your Mailers: Choose sizes and formats that minimize paper waste while still delivering your message effectively.
Double-Sided Printing: Maximize the use of space by printing on both sides of the paper.
Avoid Glossy Coatings: While visually appealing, glossy coatings make paper harder to recycle. Opt for matte finishes instead.

With our expertise in design and campaign execution, we can help you create mailers that look great while staying environmentally conscious.

Reduce Unnecessary Mailings

One of the simplest ways to go green is by reducing the number of unnecessary mail pieces. This can be achieved through:

Targeted Mailing Lists: Work with JET Print and Mail to ensure your mailing list is up-to-date and accurate, eliminating duplicates and invalid addresses.
Segmenting Your Audience: Send mail only to those most likely to engage with your message, minimizing waste and maximizing ROI.
Opt-Out Options: Provide recipients with an easy way to opt out of future mailings if they prefer.

Incorporate Digital Elements

Combining print and digital strategies can enhance engagement while reducing waste. For example:

QR Codes: Direct recipients to a website or landing page for more information, reducing the need for lengthy printed content.
PURLs (Personalized URLs): Create unique web pages for recipients to interact with your brand, cutting down on printed material.
Email Follow-Ups: Supplement your direct mail campaign with email communications to reinforce your message.

These hybrid approaches allow you to maintain a personal touch while minimizing the environmental impact.

Educate Your Audience

Share your commitment to sustainability by including eco-friendly messaging in your mailers. For example:

Highlight that your mailers are printed on recycled paper or use soy-based inks.
Include a recycling symbol with instructions on how recipients can recycle the mailer.
Share a brief note about your company’s sustainability initiatives.

When you work with JET Print and Mail, you can seamlessly integrate these messages into your campaigns to enhance their impact.

Measure and Improve

Tracking the success of your eco-friendly direct mail campaign is crucial for continuous improvement. Analyze metrics like response rates, ROI, and feedback from recipients. Work with us to identify areas for optimization and explore new ways to reduce your environmental footprint.

Last Thoughts

Going green with your direct mail campaigns doesn’t mean compromising on effectiveness. By choosing sustainable materials, optimizing your design, and leveraging green printing practices, you can achieve your marketing goals while caring for the planet. Contact us and start your journey toward sustainable direct mail today. Make a difference for your business and the environment!

Digital Printing & Personalization: Your New Secret Weapon

Personalized digital printing can boost your conversion rate and build a more loyal customer base. In today’s tech-saturated marketing landscape, prospects are increasingly receptive to printed materials. Delivered via direct mail, in-person engagement, or a combination of both, these tailored prints enhance brand awareness and positively impact your bottom line.

In today’s blog, discover how personalized digital printing can support your small business, whether B2C or B2B.

How a Small Business Can Use Digital Printing

We call digital printing a secret weapon because it is so versatile. With a variety of printing materials, fonts, and colors, businesses are limited only by their imaginations. Digital printing techniques can be used with:

Direct mail postcards
Custom printed calendars
Promotional brochures
Product catalogs
Promotional items
Menus
Newsletters
Door hangers
Signs
Reports
Business cards
Informational one sheets
And more

What truly brings digital printing to life is that each item can be customized (your brand colors, fonts and logos) as well as personalized (your customer or prospective client’s name or company name). Imagine the reaction of a high value client who receives a custom bag with their company logo or a coffee mug with their name or picture on it.

This is the power of today’s digital printing technology and its ability to customize and personalize one item or thousands.

Why Personalization Matters

When we talk about the ability to personalize printed materials, you may be wondering why that matters. Every day consumers are bombarded with marketing and advertising messages. Emails, banner ads, retargeted ads on social media, billboards and text ads means they are reached in every way. Consider how much time an average American spends on their smartphone, laptops, computers, TVs and tablets. If not looking at a digital screen, they may be commuting or even sitting at an event full of sponsors and signs.

When a person goes to their mailbox (and studies show more than 50% of Americans have a daily habit of doing so), the tangible nature of mail with their name on it, jumps out. They pause for a moment and interact with the printed piece. When a business uses high quality, engaging design, and personalization, the customer feels an attachment to it. Beyond their name, additional information that is relevant to them, increases the chance for converting them into a more loyal customer.

Some examples of this additional personalization include order history related topics (discounts, new product/cross sale), a birthday or anniversary greeting, or information they have actively requested.

Easy Personalized Digital Printing

In a concept Forbes described as “extreme personalized marketing”, a business sent an email recommending new products based on past purchase history to a customer. They combined this with the consumer’s local weather forecast (using the power of Big Data) to create a very personalized message, making it very likely to convert.

To give another example, imagine these two scenarios and which would have more appeal:

A postcard offering a 10% discount store wide addressed to “Valued Customer”
A postcard offering a 10% discount on the newest, trending color of a sweater you purchased last fall addressed to your specific name

While the first option may get your attention because in general you like the store, the second option is more likely to get you to go to the website to shop for that sweater (and maybe an accessory to pair with it). Time and again studies have proven this and it is exactly why businesses spend money to retarget consumers with relevant, timely and personalized ads.

The Internet of Things (IoT) makes it easier than ever to track consumer behavior and interests and gather data (aka Big Data) for extreme personalization. New Mover Direct Mail campaigns are an example of this in action. A resident can receive a mail piece with their name and directions to the closest urgent care, doggy day care, or restaurant (as examples) in their new neighborhood.

Companies with the capability to design, print, and mail create turnkey solutions for personalized digital printing and therefore bring a tremendous value to businesses.

JET Print and Mail Solutions

Unsure how to leverage digital printing and extreme personalization in your business? We can help. Our experienced printing professionals help with ideas, design, product sourcing, list creation, printing, mailing, and more.

If you can imagine it, we can make recommendations to meet your budget, and create solutions for fun, engaging promotional mailers and products to exceed your goals. Contact us today to learn more about how you can build your business with personalization and digital printing.

Overcoming Digital Fatigue: Turning Ordinary Mail into Memorable Brand Experiences

Just as an email’s subject line is crucial for grabbing attention, the envelope of a traditional mail piece plays a pivotal role: it needs to be compelling enough to be opened, read, and acted upon.

Notifications from emails, chats, and message boards bombard us all day long. Each of them wants our attention, creating a digital overload. Many people have found ways to quickly sort through the noise with filters, disabling notifications, and mass deletions. When the email or notification isn’t opened, the message isn’t delivered. If an offer isn’t read, the conversion can’t happen.

This is part of the reason why email marketing can have a low conversion rate – people simply are overwhelmed and not engaging. However, research shows that integrating print with digital campaigns can substantially boost conversion rates. Unlike digital interactions, the tactile experience of opening an envelope elevates ordinary mail into a powerful, memorable brand experience.

Creating Engagement

The tangible nature of mail forces engagement. Unless someone stands next to their mailbox and swipes all the contents right into a trashcan, they will interact with the piece in some way. When mail is personalized, fun, and relevant to the recipient, that engagement is practically guaranteed.

Personalized.

Using the recipient’s correct name is important. This includes not sending mail to someone deceased or no longer at the address. That could be traumatizing or, at best, dropped into the trash. A good list is critical to prevent wasted money and is part of the work of the direct mail provider.

Fun.

Using different size envelopes, different paper textures, vibrant colors, or interactive elements all add to the interest of an envelope. We will talk more about this in a bit.

Relevant.

Mail that speaks very directly to an interest of the recipient also increases engagement. Consider how you personally interact with mail. When you receive a card on your birthday, or receive something you ordered, you tear it open. When you get mail that gives you coupons or special information from a company you want to do business with, you clip it or go online for more.

Custom envelopes can be a game changer when it comes to personalized, fun, and relevant mail pieces. When done well, they ignite curiosity and invite the recipient to open it – often with a much bigger payoff than opening an email.

The Power of Custom Envelopes

Several business benefits can be found in custom envelopes. They become an essential component of branding and communication by incorporating and enhancing your company’s colors, design elements, and logo. Every mail piece is an extension of your business brand and therefore makes it stand out in the mailbox.

When your custom envelope lands in the recipient’s hands, because its unique design, it is memorable. This increases the chance of conversion because it connects to them differently than standard mail, and especially more than just another email. Custom envelopes also offer the flexibility to vary the weight, size, color or message for more interest.

Well-designed custom envelopes communicate professionalism. The design is appealing, with an attention to detail and this delivers a lasting impression that enhances credibility. Adding a personal touch fosters relationships.

The Process for Creating Custom Envelopes

Like many things in life, we can take envelopes for granted. There are so many available options, and the blend of these are what make them both practical and impactful. Consider:

Size
Folds & Glue
Color
Paper texture & thickness
Windows

Each one of these components will change not just the appearance, but the interest of the piece. For example, consider how differently these two experiences could be:

An oversized envelope that opens on the side for a card to slide out, revealing text as it is pulled. The envelope is high-quality and white with specs of color, like flower petals may have been pressed into it. A company who sells wedding dresses has engaged the recipient excited for their big day with this custom style.

A square, black envelope arrives with a stamped embossed logo. The customer recognizes the signature look of their favorite store’s color and brand. They open it to discover a birthday greeting and gift certificate to the store.

In both cases, the retailer has captured their branding and connected with the recipient in a very special and memorable way.

Envelope Converting

The process of creating custom envelopes involves choosing paper, size, folds and glue area. It is used when a customer’s branding needs can’t be met with standard stock envelopes.

The companies who manufacture the unique styles are called envelope converters and they create the personalized, branded envelopes that align with the desired messaging needs of the customer, including those for businesses, non-profits, and political campaigns.

The technology needed to produce large quantities of branded, custom envelopes must be easy and efficient in order to keep costs low for those wanting to increase open and response rates from the mailers, and maintain a positive ROI (return on investment).

Making an Impression with Branded Envelopes

Transform ordinary communications into memorable experiences with these suggestions:

Start with branded envelopes that feature your brand colors, logo and tagline.
Personalize the pieces using variable data printing (a good list) to grab their attention and make them feel valued.
Incorporate different sizes, shapes and textures in your campaign pieces to help them stand out.
Use professionally designed graphics aligned with your brand to make your pieces visually appealing and engaging.
Consider foil stamping, embossing, coating and other visual and tactile finishes to enhance your brand story.
Don’t be afraid to use offers or promotional messages on the envelope itself to entice recipients to open and learn more.
QR codes on the envelope also increase engagement and open the opportunity for digital rebranding, immediate conversion, and tons more information than can often be included in a mailer.

Envelope Design Assistance

JET Print and Mail can not only be your envelope converter, we can curate a direct mail list, allowing us to be your one-stop shop for designing, printing and mailing your direct mail campaign.

Our mailing experts know what it takes to meet specific branding and marketing objectives for:

Custom envelopes
Post cards
Direct mail letters
Promotional mailers
And more

Dedicated to the highest standards of quality, we ensure every envelope and mail piece meets your expectations for creating your lasting impression, but also the demands of the USPS. Our competitive pricing offers cost-effective solutions without compromising quality. Our quick turnaround times meet your deadlines for efficient delivery of mail when you need them, for the highest impact and return on investment.

Whether large quantities or small batch, we ensure top-quality manufacturing of your custom envelopes that leave the positive impression that reflects your professionalism and brand identity.

Envelopes and Direct Mail

By using custom envelopes strategically in your direct mail campaign, you transform ordinary communications into compelling marketing tools. The envelopes enhance your brand image, capture customer attention, increase engagement, and set you apart from not only your competitors, but other mail. This can lead to improved direct mail conversions and a stronger brand presence.

With the cluster and chaos of digital noise, the tactile world of print is a refreshing and welcome change of pace.

If you are ready to learn more, contact us today to work with a designer and get inspired to transform ordinary mail into a memorable brand experience.

High Quality Printing: Offset Printing, Giclee or Lithography?

If you’re seeking consistent, high-quality printing results, offset printing might be the ideal solution for you. Whether you want to elevate your photography portfolio, print fine art on canvas, or reproduce artwork, offset printing is an excellent option.

Used for decades, this versatile and popular method, combined with modern technology, is more effective than ever for creating large amounts of high-quality printing.

In this article, we will answer:

What offset printing is
What are the differences between offset printing and other methods
Who uses offset printing
The history and methodology of offset printing

What is Offset Printing?

Offered by professional printing companies, offset printing produces high quality printing known for its vibrant colors and fine details. It is ideal for printing large quantities, but it can be used to print a single product as well.

In traditional printing, ink is applied directly to the product or paper. This isn’t true with offset printing. Instead, ink is applied to a rubber blanket first, a process known for over two hundred years as lithography.

Digital Printing Versus Offset Printing

Materials: Digital is often limited to synthetic materials and certain paper types; offset is available on a wider variety, including canvas, newsprint, and magazine paper.

Quality: Digital has a lower quality image than offset printing. This is the primary reason artists and businesses with the desire for high quality images choose offset over digital printing.

Cost: Digital costs less per unit for smaller runs (less than 500); offset costs less per unit for large print runs.

Technology: Digital printing requires a digital press and ink applied directly to the material; offset uses rollers and printing plates.

Turnaround time: Digital offers faster turnaround times and lower set up costs; offset requires set-up of the unique printing plates, which can take a bit longer.

Giclee Versus Offset Printing

Materials: Because it uses digital printing methods, it is mostly used on canvas or paper.

Quality: Like offset printing, it produces vivid details and intense colors. This makes it a go-to for recreating an original work of fine art.

Cost: Can be used to create a single piece, unlike other forms of printing, which can be cost effective.

Technology: Giclee is an ultra-high-resolution digital printing technique that uses printers and archival ink to spray the image onto the material.

Turnaround Time: Faster turnaround time than offset printing.

Lithography Versus Offset Printing

We won’t repeat the pattern here like the ones above because… lithography and offset printing are one in the same! The words can be used interchangeably.

Who Uses Offset Printing?

In general, offset printing is used by artists, publishers, advertisers, photographers, and businesses worldwide.

Artists can reproduce artwork to create high quality prints of fine art on canvas or posters.

Publishers, advertisers, and photographers use it to create high quality images in newspapers, magazines, books, catalogs, and more.

Small businesses use offset printing when they want sharp images, usually reproductions of product photographs for banners, sales materials, packaging, and more.

The History of Offset Printing

You may be surprised to know the process has existed for over 200 years and has modernized with mechanization. In its early days, it revolutionized the printing industry by making printing higher quality, quicker, and more affordable than ever before.

Prior to offset printing, printing involved significant pressure being placed on paper from the plate, and limited paper types could handle it. Because of this, the industry began testing different ways to transfer ink from a printing plate onto paper.

An American printer by the name of Washington Rubel created the first offset plate in 1903. He used a rubber roller to transfer ink from the plate, rather than the old, direct contact method. This produced a higher quality image and allowed for a wider variety of paper types.

Offset printing, also called lithography, continued to improve, making it one of the best printing solutions today for detailed, vibrant printing.

The Offset Printing Process

Today, the first step in the process starts digitally, then additional time and effort is needed to set up the plates that will produce the high-quality images.

Step 1: Prepare the Image

The digitally prepared image is transferred onto a metal printing plate. Usually made of aluminum, it has a slightly raised image of what it will output.

Step 2: Treat the Plate

To prevent the ink from sticking to them, the image’s negative spaces on the plate are covered with a water-repellant treatment.

Step 3: Ink Transfer

Once mounted on the plate cylinder, the plate rotates as the press runs through several ink rollers, applying ink to them. This then transfers ink onto a blanket cylinder, or rubber roller as it is also called.

This rubber roller is larger than the plate cylinder to help it distribute the ink evenly. This creates the higher-quality prints this process is known for. The material being printed passes between the blanket cylinder and an impression cylinder.

Step 4: Ink Application

The ink is applied to the printing surface. The material is often glossy photo paper, canvas, cardboard or a variety of paper types. Only the raised image areas transfer the ink to the chosen printing material.

Why Should I Choose Offset Printing?

Your imagination is really the only limit when it comes to offset printing. The most common uses are:

Brochures / Flyers
Books / Magazines
Catalogs
Banners / Posters
Postcards / Direct Mail
Product packaging
Art duplication

And to summarize, here are the reasons why to choose offset printing:

Color accuracy – four color printing process delivers consistent results
High quality – capturing the finest details and clear, sharp, vibrant images
Quality – long-lasting inks resistant to fading makes it a worthwhile investment
Cost effective – great for large runs on various materials unlike other methods

Do you have a project that lithograph or offset printing can shine brightly in vivid colors and crisp details? We’re is here to help you with your large and small printing needs. Contact us today to discuss options, ideas, and printing strategies specific to your project.

Tips for Creating an Effective Brochure for your Business

Creating a powerful brochure can significantly boost brand visibility, enhance perception, and drive sales for your business or organization. To achieve this, it’s essential to focus on several key elements beyond just selecting images and arranging content.

Small businesses, listen up! These 5 tips will help you create business brochures that capture eyes and sales.

Using Brochures for B2B Marketing

Marketing your business to other businesses with a printed brochure is effective, even in today’s digital age. A website can incorporate design elements and utilize specific landing pages, but a brochure makes sure the right information gets into the right hands at the right time.

Marketing professionals can quickly and easily share information that is relevant, by placing a brochure in the hands of a prospect. When they hold a high-quality, well-designed brochure, it gives a tangible message about your business that digital marketing can’t.

Five Tips to Make Your Business Brochure Stand Out

Brochure Tip 1: Know Your Goal

What do you want your brochure to accomplish? The brochures can be customized to specific sectors of business and goals to add value to your marketing efforts and prospects.

Will it be used to target a specific prospect type? For example, will it be used to build a new sector of business, and therefore only focus on that? Or, will it be used for a certain job title type prospect who has needs or pain points different than others?

Will it be used to provide support after a sale is made? For example, in the form of instructions for a product’s use, to leave a review, support team contact process, or more.

Is it to recruit employees? Will it highlight high level information about the company and focus on the opportunities that are important to job candidates?

Is it to communicate with investors? Will it focus on the benefits of giving and the results of those gifts? What story can it tell to gain interest and support?

These all have different desired outcomes, and these should inform the design and message. Marketing professionals can help with capturing the design and a printing company will provide the quality of the brochure to drive the desired outcomes.

Brochure Tip 2: Use Quality, Professional Grade Paper

Cardstock and professional grade paper should live up to your design. Quality conveys the standards of your brand and therefore is critical to use in your brochure.

Paper comes in a variety of textures, colors, sheens and thickness. Each element can add interest and engagement. Consider the look and feel of the brochure and be sure to match it to your brand’s style guide.

Business Brochure Tip 3: Chose a Fold Style to Match Your Goal

Like professional grade paper, a fold style can set apart your brochure or destroy the message. Don’t squish content between folds. Likewise, creating too many sections to fill takes away from the design and message as well.

Folds create a new section of the brochure and you can use this to break up content visually. Give yourself enough folds to communicate what you want without cluttering the design or wasting space. Both these can leave the brochure looking unprofessional and dilute your brand or message.

Consider if a 2-fold, 3-fold, or 4-fold style will work best for your project.

Brochure Tip 4: Use a Well-Placed Call to Action

It can be easy to forget a call to action in your brochure, but like every piece of marketing, it needs one. Of course, the action should be in line with your goals.

Next, position it on the brochure where readers are most likely to see and read it, then take action. The action could be visiting a website, calling for a quote, filling out an application or making a donation. Make it easy as well, such as using a QR code.

Be straightforward and clear in your ask. Be sure to include how taking action benefits them. The purpose of the brochure should be clearly communicated.

Business Brochure Tip 5: Stay Consistent with Your Brand

Your new brochure may focus on a specific goal, but it also needs to be an extension of your brand. Whether focusing on a new product or promotion, information or instruction, they should reflect the same style that is found already in your marketing.

Consider your brand colors, values, fonts and other stylistic or emotional connections customers expect from your business. Confusing your audience with designs that don’t align with other messaging and packaging, will detract from your overall goal of building deeper relationships. If it isn’t clear that they are interacting with your brand, the brochure will fail to deliver.

Professional Brochures from JET Print and Mail

Designing the perfect brochure takes experience and know-how. These five tips will create a solid foundation, and the next step is to partner with a company who can design and print what you have in mind. Let our professional marketing team fine tune your design, and ensure your message is clear in order to reach your goal.

To get a quote for your next business brochure, and to learn more about design, including folds, professional quality printing and more, contact JET today.

8 Advantages of Outsourcing Fulfillment for Your Online Business

Have an online business and are overwhelmed with order fulfillment? Can’t keep up with your orders which means you can’t grow? What more time for marketing and customer service?

This article shares 8 reasons to consider outsourcing fulfillment and how it works, giving several options and examples. It shares lots of information about choosing the right provider for your needs as well. If you haven’t considered outsourcing, or aren’t sure if it’s a right fit for your online business, this article will help give you some context and information to decide for yourself.

Should Your Business Outsource Order Fulfillment?

Order fulfillment is one of the most important, and complicated, aspects of running a product-based business. This article answers: what is a 3PL, what is their role, and when to consider using them.

If you run an ecommerce store or product-based company, this robust article is worth the read. Learn about some of the ways order fulfillment is successfully used to scale up businesses ready to move shipping tasks out of their garage.

12 Postcard Marketing Mistakes

Direct mail campaigns have been an affordable way for businesses to increase brand awareness, build customer loyalty and gain new patrons. The ease of implementation and affordability make it very attractive and accessible to small businesses as well.

However, mistakes can kill the return on investment, and therefore should be avoided, which is what this educational piece offers its readers. Check it out before you build your campaign and your success rate will jump.

Learn more here.

Marketing Postcard Mistakes

7 Advantages of hiring professional printing services for business

Small businesses rely on printing for everything from promotional flyers to customer communication and internal documents. It’s a necessity, but could you benefit from using an outsourced professional printing service?

There are certainly advantages to doing so and this blog shares 7 key reasons to examine and consider. If you are tired of poor quality and wasted time, this is a good resource to spend some attention on.