Unless you start your desired poster printing business, you still can’t imagine how trendy poster printing is! As a printing and designing company in the heart of East London, we know about the incredible demand for a same day printing service in London. Please don’t think it is significantly less demandable in the other parts of the civilised world, no! You will find people from different classes and professions rely on poster printing.
Yes, despite living in the online era, people treat this very helpful. So your enthusiasm to know how to start a poster printing business is undoubtedly wise. Let us move on.
How to Start a Poster Printing Business
To start a poster printing business, you have to learn and follow some steps. There are some logistic and strategic issues that you will need to resolve. Now jump into the core discussion to get them all!
Plan Practically
Your chosen niche is poster printing. That’s fine. Now, first of all, you have to come up with a practical plan. And this should necessarily be niche-centric. Let us make it clear through some points below. You need to –
- Set up your mission, vision, and objectives
- Select the most suitable place for having a printing shop and store
- Discover why customers are satisfied and why not
- Estimate the monthly, half-yearly, and yearly budget for production and human resource management
- Ensure the source of equipment
- Set a price for each printed product
Get Hidden Tips from the Competitors
Experience always matters. No matter how successful or experienced your competitors are, you will have many things to learn from them. They will not teach you; you will have to discover the teachings. For this, see how they do the pricing, how they meet a same-day printing order, what variations they have included in their service, what are their weaknesses, and so on!
Core Materials You Need for Poster Printing
Depending on your customer’s needs, you will have to go for card or paper, canvas, and PVC. And there are some factors you need to consider at the time of production. Let us make it clear.
Paper/Card:
You can print different types of products by card. The ideal paper types are 170gsm Silk, Gloss Art FSC, and 150gsm. This material shall let you cover a wide variety of items. If you intend to print large posters, then it would help best to choose a thick and glossy card.
Printing posters by card or paper is indeed a cost-effective solution both for printers and customers. No worries, you won’t have to compromise on quality. Instead, you can provide your clients with tremendous effects and striking designs! Else, you will find it comfortably portable while shipping. These are lightweight.
Canvas:
Canvas is a popular choice for printing promotional posters. This is ideal for indoor usage. Notably, families crave this sort of poster printing. You can come up with a bright and vivid appearance with canvas. Also, it helps create alternative effects like vintage, retro, or even a “painted” look. However, it has some drawbacks as well such as –
- It is costly
- Lacks scratch resistance
- Risk of surface damage
PVC:
It is a luxury choice in poster printing. You can earn a lot from this. PVC is available in different weights. However, for printing in bulk, you had better choose lightweight PVC. PVC is equally strong and flexible. It is more durable than paper or canvas, and can even endure bad weather.
A More about Paper Types and Durability
Depending on the requirements, you can print posters either with strong paper or vinyl. We want to recommend 170gsm poster paper for indoor posters. And if it becomes necessary to create colourful, outstanding posters, a heavier photo satin paper would help best.
On the other hand, outdoor posters need waterproof 170 gsm PVC poster paper. Otherwise, an 80 gsm fluorescent paper will suffice in short-term outdoor posters.
And let’s say your clientele needs a large number of posters. In that case, you can suggest them considering 135 gsm gloss posters. Yes, it’s inexpensive. And it lasts in the long run. Else, if your client asks you to print a visual-heavy poster, you may prioritise 190 gsm paper. This photo-centric poster paper will come up with vivid colours!
Besides, location also matters to the poster paper type. Suppose a customer needs to put posters on boards. In that case, it will be enough to get 115 gsm blue back posters. A poster with blue backing resists old posters from underneath to show up.
Learn about Poster Sizes
As a printer, it is essential to learn about poster sizes. Naturally, you will see different kinds of clients with different demands. However, here we display the popular poster printing sizes. Would you mind getting them from the table below?
| Size | Width x Height | Width x Height |
| A0 | 841 x 1189 mm | 33.1 x 46.8 inch |
| A1 | 594 x 841 mm | 23.4 x 33.1 inch |
| A2 | 420 x 594 mm | 16.5 x 23.4 inch |
| A3 | 297 x 420 mm | 11.7 x 16.5 inch |
| A4 | 210 x 297 mm | 8.3 x 11.7 inch |
| A5 | 148 x 210 mm | 5.8 x 8.3 inch |
Secure a Sound Knowledge on Methods
For poster printing, you can either opt for digital printing or litho printing. Or, you may have a combination of both printing methods. Get them downright!
Digital Poster Printing
This printing method is widely prevalent among printers and customers. Its procedure includes providing ink particles with a charge and afterward directing the charge to a specific place on the poster material. It is ideal for short-run productions.
Lithographic Poster Printing
This method involves the application of large steel plates spread with ink. If someone doesn’t worry about its expense and wants better quality than the digital poster printing method, may select. This is the best solution for high-volume poster runs. You can provide your customers with a high-quality solid colour production.
Please note that it differs from digital poster printing concerning colour format. You need to convert the selected image from RGB to CMYK. The colour format CMYK refers to the combination of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (Black).
Set up a Shop or Outsource
The best option is to have a shop of your own. It’s great if you can afford it. And you will have to apply to the authority for this. Most importantly, you have to be witty to choose its location. Generally, such a poster printing shop also includes a physical store. So it would be wise to select an area where most of the potential customers come.
Manage Your Financial Risks
It would help if you had some financial considerations to maximise the chance of progress. It would be wise to explore the acquisition opportunities or bona fide opportunities to acquire this business. For example, you may even think of buying an existing business. It will provide you with an established customer base. How is that? In that case, you can most benefit from their documented financial histories.
And as a start-up, it’s pretty normal to lack the world marketing experience. So you may also rely on a printing franchiser. It will present make your brand highly recognizable, reducing marketing and branding deficiencies.
Prioritise Online Store
Look, the Global Commercial Printing Market is going to reach $472.35 or £348.66 billion by the end of 2026. And we can reasonably assume that online-based deals and transactions will be a big reason for this. So in this era of e-commerce business, it would help if you ensured an online store. Yes, apart from or without a physical store, you should emphasise online store your poster printing business. We are here to recommend the top e-commerce platforms for your business. These are –
- Shopify
- BIGCOMMERCE
- Woo commerce
- Magento
- PrestaShop
Regarding the Choice of Business Structure
No matter you go for the online or offline business model, you have to choose a legal structure. For this, you need to register. You can do it even online. Depending on your business’s mission and financial condition, you may choose any of the business structures. These are as follows:
- Sole proprietorship
- Partnership
- Corporation
- Limited liability company (LLC)
To Wrap Up
Now you can better understand how to start a poster printing business. You also know the possibilities to succeed and the risks of a fall. Now it’s time to start the journey. No worries about the risk factors! Unless you face the risk factors, you can’t enjoy this printing business even! Anyway, this is a generous effort from Print Britannia. We wish you all the best!
FAQ
Question: What program should I use for my poster?
Answer: Well, you can use Power point, Word, Excel Microsoft Power point, Word, and Excel for this. Also, one can rely on poster graphics software applications like InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. You have to save your file as a PDF.
Question: What resolution do I need for a 24×36 print?
Answer: You will need 5400×3600 pixels.
Question: Question: What is the best way for setting up my Power point file?
Answer: Allow us to assume that you use Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2010. In that case, please go to the File menu and select “Page Setup”. Then click Design tab at the top and then on the “Page Setup” button. Under “Slides Sized for:” choose “Custom”. Afterward, set the page size to the same size you need as your poster. That’s it!
Question: What is the best resolution for printing posters?
Answer: The ideal resolution of each image is 150-300 dpi (or pixels per inch).
