Print marquee at Kinko's?

[More Cowbell]

I need a fairly small marquee for my son's mini-cab (18.5" x 5") so I just want it done cheaply and quickly. If I go to Kinko's with a file to print, what should I have it printed on? White paper? Heavier card stock? Transparency plastic? It will be rear lit by a fluorescent light so I want it to light up well. Any experiences out there?

[leapinlew]

Backlit transparency.

It's $15 a square foot. If it overflows into 2 square feet they'll try to charge you another $15 but don't let them - they can break it down to actual print.

[Jeff AMN]

How are they for printing CP overlays? What's the recommended method?

[am_monkee]

i went to kinkos last week to check out prices for a cocktail underlay. the charge was going to be 85 bucks w/ one side laminated. granted, i live in nyc, but i thought the price was ridiculous, so i contacted scott at mamemarquees and ordered through him-for HALF the price and much better quality. i don't know about cp overlays, but i really don't think kinkos is the better option (economically or quality-wise). just my two cents.

[ahofle]

Another vote for Scott and Mamemarquees.com.  He is very competent (easily handles custom requests) and the quality of his work is excellent.

[Crowquill]

I'm not always Kinko's biggest supporter, but I do work there. I'm one of the production guys that runs the giant inkjet. The Deskjet really does do some nice prints.

The "back-lit" material works best for the marquee. It's $15/sq ft, but all of the old pricing states that there is a $25 minimum charge that they may enforce. This is what my marquee is printed on.

The "indoor banner/polypropylene" option would work well also, but the material is more opaque. Colors will be washed out a bit due to the white background material, but you should get decent results. It's $7/sq ft at most stores.

With the dimensions you stated it'll only be 1 square foot.

It's $15 a square foot. If it overflows into 2 square feet they'll try to charge you another $15 but don't let them - they can break it down to actual print.

With the new POS system that started in October of 2005, there is no way to enter in a partial square foot. We enter in the dimensions of the print, and the computer does the math and charges by the full square footage.

[leapinlew]

I agree - Scott is the way to go with most of our needs, but for the marquee - I've been pretty happy with the backlit vinyl.

[More Cowbell]

I was hoping to save some money by going through Kinko's but it appears that it will cost close to the same thing as going through Scott (assuming $25 minimum). Thanks for the input all around.

[mccoy178]

I'm sure Bart will be happy no matter what route you go, but only fools don't choose Scott.

[btp2k2]

yeah, don't bother with Kinkos....I had several marquees printed at Kinkos, and had Scott redo every single one of them....they just don't look good at all. Scott's work is top notch the first time, every time.

[leapinlew]

I had 4 marquees printed at Kinkos. I would say it's the only thing they can do right. Not one of them was over $25. Heres a couple of them:





Heres my buddies:

[leapinlew]

I should clarify...

I'm not anti-mamemarquees or anything. I just think Kinkos does a decent job printing marquees on backlit vinyl and the price is right. But, I've never been forced to pay a minimum of $25. My multi-williams marquee cost me $10. (or right around there)

[am_monkee]

i'm actually impressed by how good those marquees look. maybe those are the exception...

[More Cowbell]

Hmmmm....
Maybe I'll go get a quote from Kinko's. Now I  just need some marquee art...

[Aurich]

I will never use anything but Scott's Ultimate Marquee again.

[FrizzleFried]

I  have one of Scott's regular marquee material and one of Scott's Ultimar marquee material.  While both came out nice,  I would recommend the Ultimate material 10 fold over the regular...it is just much more durable....almost like "plastic"...