Reads Design & Print

Not gonna use their service anymore.
Using the self service printers means you are charged for the printer is not working properly. It printed out empty papers, even the sales person didn’t know why, and I got CHARGED for it.
The printer wasn’t set to basic settings and I have to be the specialist who check the printers before print and set it to basic. I don’t even understand why there are any sales person then. And of course I got charged for those prints too.
And just small things that the printer shut down a couple of times (I wanted to print 30 pages)… Their customer strategy is terrible.

Every time I went to this place I had problems. The quality for poster’s colors are high quality, but the service there is terrible, you wait a long time, several time they forgot to print one pages of my folder or last time the end of very pages didn’t print.
So good point the location and the quality
Bad point the service and the price is high too.

Fiz um cartão de aniversário para uma pessoa muito especial, mas não sabia onde imprimir com a qualidade que merecia. Foi ai que surgiu a indicação da READS por alguém que conhece Dublin como ninguém, a CM da cidade.
Atendimento de primeira e preço bom. Ótima localização, ao lado da Trinity College. Não oferecem variedade em tipos e gramaturas de papel, mas disseram que eu podia levar o meu (gostei da flexibilidade). A qualidade da impressão é ok (segue uma foto dos prints que fiz).

Although this place is a bit pricey compared to having things printed online at places like vista print, Reads was the cheapest place I could find in the city for business cards. I particularly liked that I could design my business card using their website, use my own logo, and not have to go through a physical person. I do, however, really wish they had more design options on their website. The only reason that I did not go with an online printing company this time, was because I needed the business cards faster than they could printed and mailed to me. My business cards were ready in less than 48 hours. I wasn’t going to be in town that day (a thursday) and asked if I could come in over the next few days. I was told that was no problem at all.
When I did finally get in on the following Monday to pick them up, I have to admit I found it a little difficult to identify where their front door was. there were a few areas with a door open from the footpath that said «staff only.» But, eventually I navigated my way to the entrance, was quickly helped, and my cards were given to me.
Before a book launch I also had a few posters printed here, they were very helpf ul and informative in terms of helping me pick the correct size and number I would need. All in all big fan!

Reads print and design are perfectly located in the city centre on Nassau street. Easy walk in service with friendly staff, however the busy, open work space atmosphere is a bit intimidating. For designers I highly recommend that you double an triple check your work before payment because they don’t make a habit of letting you know if anything turns out not exact to your files submitted.

! DONT VISIT HERE FOR ANY OF YOUR PRINTING NEEDS !
Sub-​Standard printing enterprise. The premises is very clustered, messy and untidy with an array of clutter lying around their offices, JUST like their flagship stationary store facing Trinity. Staff-​members are no better with a huge lack of manners and empathy. Especially the international staff-​members who have poor English.
Their «Ticket Number» Queuing system is unbelievably slow. I was number 1 in the line and was waiting over 30 minutes just to see a printer. (Now this is 5 days before xmas) With only one printer active and around seven desktops inactive. Just goes to show you their standards.
I still haven’t even reached the worst part of my experience. I was hoping to print a personal xmas card. And when I was seen to. The printer sits in his chair expecting the customer to stand over his shoulder. Using outdated, slow and in-​effecive Windows XP desktops with archaic software, he plugs my Pen-​Drive into his USB port. I saved my document as a PDF and the printer displays a template of my work. OVER 80% of the photos I saved on the card would not display on his software.
They aren’t even equipped with Adobe Photoshop or let alone a program that would display my work fully. He didn’t go out of his way either to fix my problem and just expected me to print my card half finished.
To solve my problem I went into a new modern Fujifilm Printing store on O’Connell Street spacious, clean and a friendly diligent staff member who bent over backwards to get my card printed. Equipped with CS6 Photoshop, including a 10% student discount and had my card printed in five minutes. Contrasting to the diabolical service at Reads.

Aargh! A cluttered, disorganized office store is like an untended garden. Sure, you may eventually find what you need, but only after unnecessarily expending way too much time and effort.
Although, it looked empty, service here was ridiculously slow, and I had to assert myself to get help with a quick and simple task. Once I finally got assistance, the employee was certainly nice and got the job done, but It shouldn’t have been nearly so difficult.
This place needs a major overhaul and managerial rethink, starting with the name (Shouldn’t Reads [sic] have an apostrophe? How could one possibly trust them to get a job involving spelling or other design details right?). The store should also be cleared out, straightened up, and neatened. Multiple queues should be consolidated. One or more employees should be dedicated to said queue/​reception and others devoted to performing copy and print tasks, instead of employees running back and forth between receiving customers in the shop, answering the phone, and carrying out print/​design services.
Any reasonable competitor would likely bankrupt this business. The FedEx Kinko’s office stores in the states do it right (and could be a model and worth a field trip for Reads’ management). Unfortunately, Reads doesn’t.

Pricey and slow, but the friendly staff get the job done I suppose.
Had a 250page PDF file that needed printing (black and white) and binding together in the cheapest possible way (no way was a staple going through that bad-​boy) and heard that Reads do a 10% student discount — great, I thought.
Went in at 10am, no queue, but didn’t get out of there til 10:55 — I was in no rush, and wouldn’t have minded heading off and coming to pick it up later, but the guy said it would just take a «few» minutes and said I’d best wait. Note to self, ALWAYS ask how many «a few» is in situations like these.
Eventually got my «cheaply» bound wad given to me… it cost the best part of 20quid (WITH student discount). I often tend to work in pints when working out the value of things… and I certainly wouldn’t be happy swapping 4 and a half pints for this pile of faded A4, put it that way!
But, like many companies in Dublin, Reads pretty much has the monopoly on its business niche; yes it’s cheaper than other places (like Snap), but that doesn’t mean it offers good value.
I’ll use Reads again, but only as there’s nowhere else to go!

If I was to write this review a few months ago it probably would have barely got three stars. But since they implemented a new queuing system it has dissipated what used to be a very stressful process.
Centrally located. Street parking off Molesworth street and there is a parking garage around there too.
It’s still insanely expensive to get stuff printed in the Republic of Ireland but that’s not the fault of the printers. For the passport to Rathmines event to be in full colour I was quoted something insane like over € 500 for 200 of them whereas my colleague in the UK got them all colour for about 100 pounds. Something is very wrong in this little country, it’s like everything is against small businesses.
Email your work ahead as you don’t have to queue then.

I used to be biased about the quality of the printing in Reads. Probably because I hate the graphic design and the poor printing for their own stuff… Anyway I gave them a chance and got a small run of my business cards. Got them for cheaper than they quoted me on the phone (42e for 100 doublesided laminated matt and glossy cards).
Very impressed by the speed, the quality of the printing and the colour precision (as a photographer i’m quite particular about having the exact colour as my file was). One off-​note is that the cards were not ready at the time I was told they were so someone did a bit of a rushed job in cutting them, some have slightly rough edges… but I will come back certainly !
They do a great job with binding too as well, especially large documents that other places wouldn’t accept or do such a good job on.

There’s heavy competition in town amongst the print houses –and Read’s is right in the fray. Now, don’t get this all-​n-​all printing place confused with the mucky bookshop up the street (no doubt related but I’ll let this stand on its own), Read’s is a professional printing outfit that’s making the most of this very central location in the Setanta Centre.
Of course once done you’ll need to arrange your own couriers, and the sales material ominously states that a «handling fee may apply», which in my experience is a tacked on charge for resizing provided artwork using Adobe. But, none the less their price for 100 single side 4/​C business cards starts at an affordable € 20.58 … not counting the VAT, art submission or re-​print fees.
Still, it’s on my radar and in my budget, giving Read’s a solid advantage.