Using MICR Toner For Printing Checks

Businesses have discovered that it's far more convenient and less expensive to print their own business checks. In order to be processed by a bank or financial institution, however, the checks' routing numbers and the company's bank account must be printed using MICR toner. This toner is magnetically enhanced and must be used to print authentic checks. Only a certain area of the printed check must be printed with MICR ink. Checks must also feature the font designated by the Federal Reserve for routing and account information to be valid.

Buying and Using MICR Toner

MICR toner can be purchased from online stores or other venues that specialize in selling printers and this type of toner. Many businesses that print their own checks designate a single printer loaded with MICR ink for check printing. Otherwise, a business wastes this specialized toner if they print items other than checks. Of course, the cartridge can simply be switched when checks need to be printed. It's essential to use MICR ink as checks will not be valid without it and is "a way to help prevent fraudulent alteration of documents" (Source: TROY Group). Banks will not process checks without MICR ink and they may even charge a fee for having to reject invalid checks.

The Benefits of Printing Your Own Checks

Many businesses find it convenient to print their own checks. They can print the amounts of checks they need as soon as they need them. They can also save money on printing costs by printing their own check stock. In addition, businesses like to print their own checks so they can customize them with their logo. So long as the check conforms to legal requirements (i.e. MICR toner), it can be processed by banks.

More Information about MICR Toner

MICR toner can be applied to plain white check stock or colored checks. It will also work on check paper enhanced with security features like watermarks. MICR ink works with a wide array of laser printers including popular models from brands like HP, Lexmark, Ricoh, and Canon (1). Because this toner is easy to procure and easy to use, many businesses make it a rule of thumb to keep it on hand for check printing. For businesses that use a lot of checks, this is an economical route to go. Even if you don't need to print checks in bulk, "you can swap the regular toner cartridge in a printer that produces regular office output with the specialized cartridge that contains magnetic toner to imprint small batches of checks when you need them" (2).

Some businesses have opted to choose MICR ink with secure features. For instance, if someone tries to alter the routing number or account chemically, the printed check toner changes to red. Check fraud continues to be a significant problem faced by financial institutions and businesses. Security features like this help to decrease the potential for fraud. 

Obtaining and using MICR ink is easy and convenient. Many businesses find that printing their own checks is the only way to go. They can avoid waiting weeks for needed checks to be printed and can securely print and design their own checks for use. If you have additional questions about using MICR toner, your toner vendor will be able to discuss your questions and concerns in depth.

Effective Tips For Postcard, Designing and Printing

Eye-catchy and one needn't open it to read what is written on it. There is no necessity for envelopes that would actually attract the clients to open and see what is inside it. A good customized card would stand apart from the rest of the marketing materials and would reach the message to the customers on time. It can be called a way to attract the customer to either call the company or visit the website which would further lead to sales. They don't have any lengthy set of words that would be boring to the customers. 

They are really short and crisp, and deliver the message in a sentence or two. But, many people find designing a proper postcard as a gargantuan task as they don't know the tips and shortcuts that they can utilize to design them. Though printing them is less difficult and needs proper care and attention, still it is not an unmanageable task. If you want to print a postcard for professional or business purpose, then you must hire a professional custom postcard printing services.

But, while designing and printing customized postcards certain things should be followed.

Tips and Tricks for Better Custom Postcard Designing and Printing

The custom postcards should be visually appealing to the customers. If the custom postcards are printed in full color with stunning and attractive images. But simple, relevant photograph will not fulfill the purpose. The audience should be able to relate to the images and the information you are trying to tell them.

•  These can be called one of the best marketing tools which reach the audience directly taking your message. Moreover, it brings in the positive branding about the product or services you are selling. Try to keep the message unique which should start out in the crowd. If you are not able to do it personally approach a professional who would do it.

•  The words used in the custom postcards should be short, crisp and at the same time attractive. A one-liner is more than enough.

•  Use different fonts, colors and patterns of texts on the card. A headline and a call-to-action by-line would be more prominent.

•  Leave sufficient white spaces. Without it the whole card would look cluttered.

•  Don't leave the address-side completely blank. There should be something really striking that would make the customers turn and read. The address side the first side actually the customer looks into and they should find a reason to turn to the other side.

•  Do not try to close the deal. The card should be in such a way that the prospective customer should call you or visit your website for further queries.

•  Use a cordial and friendly tone and not a demanding or ordering tone, as for most of the people postcards are just personal notes sent from family and friends. So it should be informal and fun-filled. 

How to Choose Printing On Binders And Print

How you can print on binders? printing on binders has the capacity of adding professionalism to a school project or business presentation. Printing directly on a binder is possible with special machines which some companies can only afford. However, there are templates that can be downloaded online for insertion into a binder and these inserts will go into the sleeves along the spine and on its front and back.

You should buy a binder and take note of the spine size which can be one, two or three inches. You should ensure that it has clear plastic along the spine as well as the rest of the cover. Spine inserts can be purchased or printed on regular paper and cut to fit.

You can find templates that can be easily downloaded online. Thereafter, you should go ahead to pick the template of your choice as there are different templates with various sizes and styles of cover inserts as well as spine inserts. It is important to read the details of each template before downloading anyone of them. As soon as you start the downloading process, a message will appear that will ask whether you want to open or save the file. You should choose save and the file will be downloaded to your computer and properly saved there.

Open the file that you have saved on your computer and if you will like to customize the template by adding texts or images to it, you should not hesitate to do so. Send the file to the printer in order to get the hard copy of the binder insert out. The insert should be appropriately cut and placed under the clear plastic of your binder.

It is very important to make use of original binders so that the insert will fit in appropriately. You can get great deals online where you can purchase at wholesale prices without going through any middleman. You only need to conduct some simple searches and you will discover vendors that are ready to sell at take-away prices.

Getting quality and cheap product online is not a child's play but if you are able to discover a reliable vendor, you are in for a great deal. There are many online resources that can be used to determine a reliable vendor like forum and review sites, testimonials of past customers as well as the antecedents of the vendor in the business. Putting all these together will assist you in getting a good binder that you can print on and save.

Calendar Printing Project

The most obvious fact to pay attention to is that every calendar is a time-sensitive product with a built-in distribution deadline. For a standard 2014 calendar, if your calendar is not in the end user's hands before January 1, 2014, they may already have found an alternative. For a non-standard calendar that deadline may be sooner (eg., a school-year calendar needs to be in the user's hands close to the start of school if it is going to be useful to them). Working backwards from this absolute deadline can give you a good timeline for the entire project.

Calendar printing can be broken down into four activities: planning, production, marketing, and distribution. Since we are working backwards, we'll start with distribution.

Distributing your Printed Calendars

How are you getting your calendars into the end user's hands? Are you giving them away? If so, then it should be relatively straight-forward to figure out the distribution logistics and determine by what date you will need to have calendars in hand. Or maybe you are mailing them out to your customers or members; in that case you just need to make sure you allow enough time for inserting into envelopes, adding a cover letter, addressing and mailing. Or consider having the printer or a local mail house handle mailing the calendars - it will probably be cheaper and easier for you. Just make sure you find out from the printer or mail house how much extra time they will need and factor it in.

If, on the other hand, you plan to print a calendar and sell it, either as a nonprofit fundraiser or as a profit-making venture, then distribution is a little more complicated. How much time you need for sales depends on your sales strategy. Are you selling at a local festival or other event? If so, then that gives you a deadline, but keep in mind that you'll be better off if you can sell at multiple events, in case attendance or sales at one event are not what you expect. Or maybe you are having volunteers sell calendars to friends and family or door-to-door. If so, you should allow at least two weeks, and preferably up to four weeks, since volunteers all have their own different schedules, and some will need reminders and encouragement.

Calendars make great Christmas gifts. If that is part of your sales plan, then remember that if you make your calendar available the week before Christmas, many people will already have finished much of their Christmas shopping. If you can start selling right after Thanksgiving, however, then you can catch the early shoppers as well as the last-minute gift-buyers. Of course giving yourself even more sales time is always a good idea. Many of our most successful fundraisers begin selling the calendars as early as September.

Are you selling calendars online? (We can help with that!) If so, then you will need to allow for shipping time. That means that for Christmas gifts, you will want to have most of your calendars sold by about December 15th, otherwise your buyers will have to pay for expedited shipping. You need to allow enough time for people to find your calendar online, so you would probably want to have your calendar available for sale online by about mid-November.

Or maybe your are selling calendars in retail locations. If so, talk to your retailers early. You will probably find out that they prefer to have their Christmas merchandise in hand by the 1st of September or even sooner. That way they can keep shelves full as they remove Summer items. Chain retailers such as the major booksellers may want calendars in hand as soon as July, so that they can warehouse them and distribute them to their own locations. Also, check with retailers about packaging and labeling requirements - they may need your calendars to be shrink-wrapped and to include ISBN bar codes.

 Marketing Your Calendar

If you print a calendar that you plan to sell, you should be sure to develop and implement a solid marketing plan. Marketing does not have to add to the overall duration of the calendar project - you can and should begin marketing during the planning and production stages of the project. However, if you wait to start marketing until you have the calendars in hand, then you will need to allow at least a few extra weeks, maybe more, for your marketing message to reach the intended audience and motivate them to buy.

Calendar Print Production

The production phase of a calendar printing project starts when you hand off all of the images, text, logos, advertising, etc. to the printer, and the printer turns it into calendar artwork for you to approve and then puts it on the press and delivers to you the finished product. Make sure you talk to your printer early on to fins out how long this takes. In our case at Year box, it is usually about three weeks (sometimes sooner if you have a particular deadline). If you anticipate last-minute changes or additions, or if you will be proofing by committee, then you should probably allow a little extra time - maybe a month in total - for production.

The Calendar Planning Stage

The calendar printing planning stage includes everything that comes before the hand off to the printer. Some planning items will take time. First and foremost, assemble a team. The more people who invest their time in your calendar the more successful it will be. You will need to gather artwork. If you have photos already and you just need to sort through them, that's great. If you need to solicit photos or hold a photo or art contest (we can help with that!), then you will need to allow extra time for that. A contest may need time to run as well as time to market so that you have adequate participation. You also need to gather everything else that goes in the calendar, possibly including date information, captions, logos, mission statement, letter from the director/president/minister, etc.

Will your calendar include advertising? If so, then you will need to make sure that someone (or better yet a team) contacts businesses to sell them advertising space and collects advertising artwork from them. Sometimes advertising artwork is as simple as a business card, but other times it can take longer than expected to collect all the advertising artwork. Make sure you allow plenty of time for this.

So, how soon should you start working on it if you need to print a calendar that is customized to your specifications? That all depends. If you have everything ready for your printer and distribution will be a simple hand-out, then three to four weeks lead time may be sufficient. If, however, you have to assemble a team, collect photos and text, sell advertising, plan a marketing campaign, organize sales teams, and/or place calendars in retail stores, then you'll need to work backwards and figure out how much time you really need.