The quantity you need shouldn't determine your brochure's quality.
For years, commercial printing came with a fairly big trade-off. If you wanted a beautiful, high-end brochure printed on coated stock with rich color, sharp images, and consistent reproduction, larger quantities often made the most economic sense. If you only needed 50, 100, or 250 copies, the options were limited. That is changing.
One of the biggest shifts we're seeing in commercial printing is a move toward smaller, more targeted print quantities. Clients don't necessarily want 5,000 brochures anymore. They may want 100 today, another 150 next week with updated information. Even when they order 100, their expectations for print quality haven't changed.
In many cases, they still want premium paper, sharp images, fine detail, and nearly color-critical reproduction. That market shift is one reason Hatteras has invested in the AccurioJet KM-1 digital press for brochure printing.
Our decision to invest in the KM-1 wasn't simply about adding another digital press. It was about responding to the way our customers are buying print.
Traditional offset printing remains an excellent choice for many projects, particularly at higher quantities. But offset doesn't always make sense when a customer needs only 50, 100, or a few hundred pieces.
At the same time, customers increasingly expect short-run digital printing to deliver the quality they associate with offset printing.
The KM-1 helps bridge that gap.
Its technology allows us to produce high-quality, short-run commercial printing with strong color reproduction on a broad range of substrates, including coated and synthetic stocks. That makes it particularly well suited for projects where quantities are small, but expectations are high.
For us, the investment reflects where we believe the print market is heading: shorter runs, more versions, more frequent updates, and increasingly targeted communications.
Information changes quickly. Prices change. Products change. Employees change. Programs change. Inventory changes. Regulations change. Branding changes. Printing thousands of brochures because the unit price is lower doesn't necessarily save money if hundreds or thousands of those pieces eventually become outdated and are thrown away.
With short-run brochure printing, organizations can print what they need now and produce additional quantities when they're actually needed. This can be particularly useful for businesses that frequently update their marketing materials or only need brochures for a specific audience, location, sales presentation, event, or campaign. Smaller inventories also mean less obsolete material and less waste.
The paper or substrate used is an important part of how a brochure looks and feels. Thicker coated stocks are commonly used for high-end brochures because their smooth surface can help photography, graphics, and color appear crisp and vibrant. Historically, some premium coated stock and synthetic substrate projects were either better suited to offset production or couldn't be printed digitally at all. Newer digital printing technology like the KM-1 press has greatly expanded the options available.
Historically, and for much of my career, commercial printing was built around longer production runs. Today, customers are becoming much more intentional about how much they print. They want fewer pieces. They want more versions. They want the ability to update content more frequently. They want less waste. But they don't want those smaller quantities to look less professional.
That's ultimately why we invested in the KM-1. We believe the future of commercial printing isn't simply about printing more. It's about having the technology to produce the right quantity and quality for the right audience.
Whether your brochure printing project needs 50,000 copies or 50, Hatteras can tackle either. We would love to have you in for a tour to see our facility and new press. Feel free to email me at bzbozen@4hatteras.com to schedule a day and time.