Find Useful Information To

Save You MONEY and TIME On Your Next Printing Project

Written By

Ira Blacker

The Book Of Great Printing TipsFrom A Printing Pro

This book is a collection of blogs I have written over a period of two years in order to help keep my clients informed and provide them with an understanding on how to get the most out of your printing jobs and at the same time reducing your costs. I hope you too find this helpful.

Ira Blacker

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INDEX 

 

                                                     GENERAL PRINTING TIPS  Page  5 

REAL ESTATE PRINTING  Page 14 

CATALOG PRINTING    Page 19 

MAGAZINE PRINTING   Page 21 

BOOK PRINTING    Page 23 

FLYER PRINTING    Page 31 

Some Answers to Questions I Have Been Asked Over The Course

FOILED AGAIN If you try to run a foil through a press it will be destroyed by the heat. Foiling is only done following printing. You cannot run foil on an offset press, inline. Foil and inks require two different types of presses, one offset and one letterpress.

SPECIALTY PAPERS FOR SPECIAL FOLKS Paper houses offer metallic gold, silver and other “cast coated stock” with many in both text and cover weight. King James is a popular brand but there are many other less expensive ones and they all print well. There are other substrates such as Mylar, foil, plastic, etc. but they are not suitable for the average offset printing press. FOUR SCORE AND SEVEN FOLDS AGO Other than point thickness, you can also take into consideration paper type. Point grade stocks are of less quality than cover grades and will more than likely require die scoring thus raising your cost to produce, thus the price to the customer. Therefore it is generally best to use a good cover grade than a C1S or C2S board. Anything over 100# gloss book (5 pt) should be scored by at least a rotary bindery score. Grain direction will also help in folding. If you fold with the grain, you will be less likely to see cracking on the fold.

3D: OLD IS NEW AGAIN The most popular form of 3D printing today is called “lenticular printing”. It is a form of printing that uses multiple images flattened into one digital file. it is somewhat similar to animation as it is created. It is not an inexpensive process.

CROMALINS, THE FILM PROOFING MEDIA OF CHOICE BACK IN THE DAY Cromalins were used as a contact proof from the film in order to show color and registration. This is also a product from DuPont, and the generic name is Match Proof or Matchprint. It is actually 3 layers of materials made by outputting from the press ripped file as separations. They are then assembled as a CMYK composite and a clear overlay is added to the top to hold all in place. It is no longer an accurate gauge as film was never quite accurate due to stretching and registration issues due to the material as compared to today’s digital offset printing where the file is burned directly to the plate by laser.

All Printing Quotes Are Not Created Equal

All printing quotes are not created equal and if your yardstick is the lowest bid, than you are making a choice based on the narrowest of criteria and you owe yourself or company better. Usually by implication, smarter companies never take the bottom quote on the assumption that in the final analysis they will get less in the way of service or quality. However, if you have the time to look at the companies that you are getting bids from and talk to the one who presented the bid to you, then you will garner more of the insight needed for your final choice.

The best deal for your company is not solely based on price. It is based on many factors and some of them are:

1-service 2-quality 3-timeliness 4-shipping and other ancillary costs 5-where do you think you can build a long term relationship The last one is very important as in all businesses as well as personal life it is also about the relationship and not just all about “the Benjamins” (money). With a good relationship there is a reason for your printer to “bend with your needs”. If you need a rush job or a more favorable price, then what is the motivation of the printer to do so? It is because the printer wants to keep you as a client. Smart printers know that it is easier to keep a customer than find a new one.

In the final analysis it is not all about the lowest bid, but about building a business relationship that you can count on. There are many commercial printers on the web offering dirt cheap prices for small run items such as business cards, flyers, etc. where you will get about as much service there as at a self serve gas station. Think about the long term when choosing a printing company as in the long term you will be getting the best deals.

The Best Ways To Save Money On A Commercial Printing Job!

The single best way to save money on a commercial printing job!!! If you were to ever ask me what is the single most way I could optimize your commercial printing project and the costs to you, I would simply answer you by saying: “Swim Downstream”. If you are a computer geek, than the similar phrase would be K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid) and one of which you would have heard before. Some of the things you can do when setting up your files for printing: Don’t over design and try to keep things simple. Stick with the format of the press. If the press has a page size of 8 3/8 x 10 7/8” as a web press, then you will want to design for that due to the fact that if the job is to print on a web printing press, the job will be more cost effective there. If you insist on a full letter size page of 8 ½ x 11” you then are forcing yourself to print on a sheet fed press, in most cases and at far greater cost to you. Understand signatures: Commercial presses print 16 pages in a signature, also called a form, and the newer high speed web presses can run 32 and even 64. If you are magazine printing, then you are selling advertising on the pages and the unit cost of a page becomes rather important to you. Therefore with magazine printing, utilizing the signature becomes very important by establishing the lowest cost per page for you. Since there is not much difference in printing 12 or 16 pages of a signature, then your cost per page is obviously less when you divide the printed pages into the cost of the printing quote you receive. Reduce the weight of the paper you utilize: Especially for longer runs, paper is a crucial cost. With web printing, paper on the larger runs, is usually about 50 percent of your printing quote cost. There is a reason why you see most magazine printing jobs run on thin paper. The costs for printing as well as that for postage are controlled by using lighter paper stocks. Avoid a separate cover if you can. Even though it is only four pages, it can dramatically add to the cost of your printing quote. Those four pages become another signature going through the press. Fewer signatures mean lower costs.

Are All Printing Companies Created Equal?

No they are not! Then how does one tell the difference? Why this company or that one? How does one judge? Well, the answer lies in several areas. Sometimes it is just the relationship has with one’s printer. Do you trust the person you are dealing with? Can you your printing company on the phone easy enough? Do you enjoy dealing with that person and is the quality of the work OK? However in these tough economic times, where every penny counts and you are trying to get the most bang for your printing buck you can, then other factors kick in. Ask yourself this question: WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME I REQUESTED A QUOTE AND THE PRINTER CAME BACK AND OFFERED BETTER SOLUTIONS TO SAVE MONEY? Probably never, as it is just not in the mind set of most printers to be that creative and do so. If you had to judge on one isolated item only, then the question I posed above may be the one most important thing that your printer can do for you and that is looking out for your interests by asking the right questions, such as clarifying the end use of the piece and/or offering money savings tips without your asking for them. Another important item is does the person you deal with at the printing company understand not only your end use but your starting point? Do they even look at your files before they go to pre press, as it just takes a minute or two? This helps to make sure you did not trip over your designing ability or lack thereof and catch major errors that if caught at pre press would have been very costly. (Example: “Thank you for catching it and saving us a massive bill.” Johnie Burch, the Sentient Magazine.

There are, of course, many other substantive issues that are also important: One good one is if the capability of the printing company. Do they have sufficient capability in order to meet your needs? If the printing company can do all “in house” when producing your work, there is not only a bit better cost but more efficiency in turning around your job and on time, with less chance of error. One of my favorite suggestions to clients is that they never split the printing and mailing if possible, as if there is an error the two different vendors may point the finger of blame at each other. With one vendor doing both, the fine finger of blame can only point one way if it was a production error and not a design fault.

Many printers will never volunteer how the job will be produced. It is a good idea to ask how so. What press will it be on? Web or sheet fed 28” sheet fed or 40” sheet fed? The answers as well as your basic understanding of how things print especially of signatures or forms will help you well along the way. If you are printing a 64 page book, with a letter size page, sheet fed presses can run 16 up on a 40” press or 12 up on a 28” press. Here the answer is obvious, 16 page forms on the larger press will run as four forms on a 40” press, but as 6 on the less efficient 28” one.

Another thing to look for is if your printer runs both web and sheet fed, and your item falls between the two press types for press efficiency, is the printer willing to price the job on each type of press in order to see which one works best for you. Also with an understanding of press forms or signatures, you can ask about what size the press is and then judge if it is even right for your job. Many printers will in essence, try to fit a ten inch foot into an eight inch shoe, so to speak, as they never want to turn down work for their particular press configuration. Ask the right questions and you will be in far better control of your work.

The Big Question In Planning Your Print Job: Where Do I Start?

OK, so you need to print your message and are confused on where to start the process. The first thing of course is to choose the type of printed piece that best can convey your message or idea(s). It could be a simple postcard, to a complex magazine or book printing. This of course is more of a marketing decision than a printing issue, and once you have decided upon it, the question again is; What is my starting point. Simple postcards aside, if your piece contains any form of bindery, from an extensive document to a complex fold or die cutting, you are always best served working “from the last stop on the train, backwards. In other words you start with the very last process for your printed piece. In this case, the caboose drives the train. You would be very unhappy if you printed your item and then found out when it goes to bindery, that it either cannot be bound or at best bound with an inferior look or bind. I have witnessed this and it does not make for a happy customer. Therefore, you must figure out what you want the final product to be and look like and plan from that backwards in the process. In order to insure that you wind up with the finished product you seek, you will want to draft out your art with the accurate width, height and in accordance with the finished, folded style you are after. You will want to make sure, especially in full color printing, that you have all printer marks, for cropping and folding and being sure that these same marks are not in your image area, but above them and out of the way. You will also want to adjust for “creep” which is what you lose or gain in panel dimensions as your piece folds. In the final analysis your panels, done correctly, are never all the same size, but are adjusted in size so that your fold is perfect and you end up with the finished size you anticipated and not some bloated and oversized version of your idea, with art from one section crossing over into the next due to a poor fold.

If you are producing a perfect bound book, consider slightly offsetting each page away from the binding edge, thus avoiding copy being tucked into the bind area. If spiral binding is being used, make sure your copy or design is not going to have holes punched through them. If you are considering any form of die cutting, or complex folds, request that your files are sent to the die cutter or bindery first for review as well as the pre press department and in advance of submitting your “print ready file” to the printer. Lastly, the best piece of advice I can offer you when starting your job is: DO IT ON PAPER FIRST! Construct a pencil drawing of your layout on paper as that can give you the quick visual concept you will need to work from in planning your printing job.

The Ten Hottest Tips On Saving Money On A Large Printing Run!

1- Use full signatures. Large commercial presses print either as a single web 16 page signature (also known as a press form) or as a double web 32 page signature. Some like our book press print 48 page signatures. When you use a complete signature, even if it means dropping four pages from your publication, you are swimming downstream and working with printing press efficiency in your favor. 2- Do not use Pantone colors in addition to CMYK inks. With the exception of a bright red, bright orange, fluorescent and metallic ink, the process CMYK inks can reproduce all other colors reasonably well. 3- Downgrade your paper on the run. The paper companies have become outrageous in their pricing, with increases regularly as well as actual paper allotments to the presses. If you drop your paper weight, (if 80# go to 70#, if 60 to 45 etc.) and drop the grade if your product permits. Papers come in grades. Grade 3 is standard, 2 being used by Tiffany Jewelers, 1 for art books and 4 or 5’s for catalog printing and mass circulation magazine printing. Grades 4 and 5 have ground wood in them making them somewhat less bright and white. 4- Stick with a self cover if you can. Running a separate cover is also a separate signature to be run on press and can add a hefty amount to your job.

5- Make sure your printer has the correct equipment in order to print your work. A high page count and high volume job will cost more on a press that can only print 16 page signatures, while one that can print double 16’s or better will be more efficient. Also the newer presses have the latest bells and whistles. A press that can handle plate changes, as ours, in 10 minutes, will be more cost effective than one that takes one to two hours for the same task. 6- Pre flight your files early. Don’t wait until the job is in and you are running out of time to deliver it. It is best if you forward a few pages so pre press can verify if you are making any mistakes or not, thus leaving you adequate time to self correct. If your files are not adequate you will pick up additional costs at pre press.

7- Provide the printing press with clarity, so that all understand what is to be done. Do not send files that include files NOT to be printed. Provide a hard copy with your work and provide your work as a PDF. Large presses charge more to output from native files. Include a “style sheet” with your files detailing what is there and also it is a good idea to have notes provided for pre press where necessary.

8- Plan your job with intelligence. Plan it from the finished piece first along with a print out dummy that is folded as you expect the final version to look. Make sure you understand how a job folds and what happens to dimensions for various panels when they fold (called “creep”) or if a periodical with lots of pages, understand that inner pages in a folded stack stick out a bit more than the outer ones. If printing a book, then you may want to make sure your margins allow for the gutter where the spine is glued. The bottom line is, without planning, you may wind up printing something that you are not happy with and may have to reprint. OK if you have the big bucks, but not many do.

9- Plan for the contingencies by being redundant. Clearly, redundancy is your best friend when printing. Do not “skate” over details. Go over everything with a fine tooth comb. It is a far better investment to spend the time in the early stages than to try and “fix it on press”, which, as the old song went “ain’t necessarily so”. It is about as good a fall back as

when they say in the music business, “we’ll fix it in the mix”. I can tell you as a veteran of that business that rarely happened. Do it right, do it right at the beginning and you will save lots of money over trying to repair or reprint in the end.

10- Use a printer that understands your needs. Many printers take your specifications, the job comes in, and they print your job and are about as helpful with your ancillary needs as an automaton. Find someone who can understand and appreciate what you are doing and can be helpful to you in pointing out the pitfalls both in advance and even if you don’t ask for help. It is a bonus if you can find someone who can understand your business model and what you are trying to accomplish who can make suggestions or corrections to your approach that may not only save you money, give you a better ROI (return on investment) and help you grow your business.

Three Key Offset Printing Tips from PBD Printing

People are many times perplexed with offset printing on how to send files to the printer as well as how to judge if they are appropriate to print the quality they seek in the end from the files they are turning in. This is not unimportant, as bad files can wreck your whole day! Plus they can wreck your wallet, the quality of the printed piece and totally kill your schedule, should you have a tight one, if the files go into the printer incorrectly.

As of this writing I will be offering some new tips and also invite the reader to pose specific questions, which as I collect them, will be the basis for some of the new blogs I write. For now, I will be my own inquisitor and pose the questions and then answer them right afterwards. 1- How can I tell if my resolution is appropriate for printing? The answer to this is one of approximation if you do not have Photoshop or a similar program which can tell you the resolution for each image as well as if it is CMYK for print or RGB for screen, or even Pantone color for an increase in your costs should it not be converted to a CMYK variant. What I suggest, which is a relative approximation, but government close, would be to view your images or layout at 400% if on a commercial offset ink press or 300% if on a digital toner press. If you see soft images and/or pixilation (bit mapping) of the images or copy, then you know you either need to go back to the drawing board or live with fuzzy printing should that be your only avenue as it is all you have to work with. 2- How do I set up a file for “printer spreads”?

Most commercial printers today, unless you have hundreds of pages, want a single document file for the booklet/magazine/catalog and if a separate cover on different paper, a second file for that and ideally as a printer spread for crossover art and trapping (melding of the dots in the two sections for a seamless blend). Sometimes for layout purposes, especially on a small digital toner press (iGen, Docucolor, Docutech) in order to print two up vs. one up for the same “click charge”, you will need to supply a “printer spread”, as the imposition of pages is more difficult on these simpler systems if making a booklet that stitches. The way to understand what a “printer’s spread” is and to create a failsafe file, by taking a pad or sheets of loose paper and create a booklet by using the amount of sheets that represent your page count (let’s say you have 32 pages for now) and put them together and fold them in half and throw a staple on the edge to keep them together. Number the first page #1, then the inside of it #2, the one on the right #3 and so on right up to #32 on the back page. You should have been using 8 sheets from the pad, as once folded a piece of paper equals 4 pages. After you have numbered the booklet, remove the staple and you will then have a series of “printer’s spreads”. You will see that the cover will have page 32 on the left and page 1 on the right. The inside of that “spread” will have page 2 on the left and page 31 on the right and so on. That mock up will dictate how you set up your files as they should be exactly the same.

3- How do I plan for a “gate folded” page or a “double gate” folded brochure? When folding any paper that meets the inside section of a brochure, such as a six page brochure of 3 panels or a “double gate folded” brochure, that first has the two outer panels of four fold in to meet and then fold again, you must create a space, usually one eight of an inch, so that the fold is smooth and does not protrude or balloon and cause creasing and a bad fold. Therefore a 6 page, finished 8.5 x 11” brochure of three panels, will

have the right side panel one eight of an inch short at the edge on its width, so it folds in short and does not create a negative effect. Why is this also important, because it allows you to control your art/layout rather than the printer, who will automatically chop off the edge like a bad circumcision? Ouch!

First Impressions Can Gain Or Lose You Clients

In real estate or in any other business, your first impression counts mightily. The first cold call, interview or brochure you send out is meant to tell people who you are and convey your message in its most positive light. How do you know it is working and that your message is getting through? Unless you are on the web and using sophisticated analytics and with ROI charts, your only way to know is that the door either opened or slammed in your face. You either successfully made your opening gambit, got the deal, the listing, the sale or you did not. With “direct mail”, or any other direct form of advertising, the rule of thumb is that you should expect a two percent return. If not your message needs an adjustment. You may not be able to control every factor at hand in acquiring new business and closing the deal, but one you can control is how you first present yourself. You would not go to a job interview in jeans and a tee shirt (OK, maybe for Apple or Zynga) so why would you do the same with your cold call, direct mail piece or any printed brochure, postcard, catalog, or media presentation. You would done your best “business attire”, and smack the best business look on your face and be ready to meet the world. It should be the same with your printed message.

OK, the above said, you may ask: “what can I do to improve my chances of opening the door, so I may entice the prospect and give myself the best shot at closing the deal”?

• Utilize quality design for your presentation. Make sure that the images are well chosen and that the layout is “user friendly” and conveying your message as you would write a story, with a beginning, middle and end.

• Utilize quality images. If you are portraying a home or product you should only use images that are showing your product to be used in the brochure, postcard or magazine that show it in the best light. Use shots either by a professional or that are professional looking. Do what top model photographers do: Shoot many, many shots, one is bound to come out the way you want.

• Make sure the images you choose are of high resolution and CMYK, which differs from the RGB system of your monitor. They should be cropped and color corrected to their best advantage.

• Most importantly, your copy should be compelling. You should be using the USP (Unique Selling Proposition), today’s language of sales. You never want to be “offering” from your perspective, but explaining the “benefits” of doing business with you or purchasing your product. Pose relevent questions that you can answer. Offer guarantees, which you may even do so by law or otherwise, but can highlight in your printed magazine or brochure.

• If your piece is going in the mail and you are mailing to more than just your own followers, use targeted lists that are easily obtained and that are based on the exact demographics of your ideal buyer. Direct mail done right is a winner.

• Utilize the best and most cost effective procedures if producing a magazine, brochure or post card by understanding how one size postcard may offer you a better postage rate than another. Understand how your cost per page for a magazine or brochure can be affected by

your final page count to be printed. Learn how you can increase your quantity by lowering your paper weights and print more for less. I hope that some or all of these suggestions are of use to you and if we can be of service to you with any or all of them, that is our wish. If you have any questions about these points or how we can be of service you are welcome to contact us directly or post them in the comments section of this blog. A reply will be promptly forthcoming.

Real Estate Printing And Direct Mail Ideas

With real estate printing, like any other, the two most important things you can generally expect from your commercial printing company are quality and price. However, there still is another thing you should be seeking, and which we excel at. That is our ability, as a unique printing and graphic design company to help you discover all of the many real estate printing avenues that can be at your disposal and help you to understand which fits your niche, wallet and overall best interests. As we have the widest range of printing capabilities from small digital presses, should you care to test market your concepts, through the sheet fed presses for your brochures and postcards, all the way up to web printing capability for your longer runs such as magazine printing or book printing. HOW CAN YOU BENEFIT ME OR MY COMPANY?

Simple, by supplying you with the widest range of real estate commercial printing services to benefit your exact marketing needs and help you win those sales and listings you seek with the finest presentation possible. Some of our capabilities are as follows:

1- BROCHURES, POSTCARDS AND MORE TO GET YOUR MESSAGE OUT

We can help you photograph, design and print for you brochures and postcards for your distribution or direct mail marketing. You will be able to receive neighborhood lists with names and address, targeted to the incomes of your potential buyers or sellers along with other pertinent demographics. We specialize in one stop shopping from the start of your direct mail printing campaign right through the post office. You may even use our postal permit at no additional charge, should you not have one of your own.

2- NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE INSERT PRINTING You can benefit both from our short run flyer or insert printing at greatly reduced pricing due to our ganging multiple jobs together, or from our long run printing ability to provide you with the thinner web paper stocks you require for newspaper or magazine inserts at very cost effective pricing.

3- DIRECT MAIL MARKETING You can benefit from our expertise in direct mail marketing, which allows us to take your message, design it, print it and mail it, using all of the postal tools at our disposal in order to guarantee you the best direct mail rates possible. We sort your files, adding the zip plus 4 append barcode and all of the postal requirements that ultimately save you money.

4- CO-MAILING SERVICES

This is a unique form of mailing that should you be printing and mailing a fair size in volume, that can reduce your postage costs beyond what you previously had experienced or even thought possible. When the job warrants, we can combine your mailing with other clients in order to gain the most favorable rates for you. 5- REAL ESTATE DIGITAL EXTRAS

We can take your print files and cost effectively do two things for you: We can take your files and create for you a CD version of your printed message, adding a splash page, that will open automatically on a PC, with our added auto.exe file, that can contain links to your web site, email, and more. It can utilize your own logo and graphics or we can custom create them for you. We can also provide you with an online version, with pages that can turn, for your magazine or brochure, so all you need do is supply a web address for your customers to go to and see your homes for sale online along with the same presentation as your printed piece. Should you care to have the presentation housed on your server, we can arrange for that for you.

These two presentations above are “digital extras” meant for the customer who is printing with us.

6- WEB DESIGN As having one of the oldest websites currently online, since 1994, we do know a thing or two about website building. We also are well versed in Search Engine Optimization, so that the site we build stands a fighting chance of being found in the search engines. While the field is much more crowded with websites today than it was when the Internet first started, you still can benefit, with our help, by having a site that is Google friendly, than having one that is not. You can also benefit from having us help you establish your brand, so that whatever visuals you create, they are done so with your brand in mind.

The Benefit Of Real Estate Magazines

A magazine depicting your homes and their descriptions is a wonderful way to get your message and listings out in a concise and compact format. When you print a magazine it allows you to continue to “brand” your image, show your homes with lots of description and features as well as display your own unique features and the benefits of dealing with you. Printing a magazine also allows you to also have a selling point when getting listings, letting your clients know that you can “go that extra mile” with a “showcase” in an upcoming issue with their property being prominently displayed. Magazines can come in a variety of sizes and page counts. The two most standard for longer web run magazine printing are 8 3/8 x 10 7/8” or 5 3/8 x 8 3/8” and commonly referred to as “digest size. The first is larger, allowing for more prominent pictorial displays and the smaller allowing for a larger page count, for close to the same money as the larger. You can have cost savings options such as using the lighter paper grades, or heavier weight if you are promoting luxury properties and want that “heft”. Standard page counts can be 8/16/24/32 and jumping in increments of 8 or 16 pages. Sixteen page jumps give you a better per page cost as a result of using the full printing signature as it goes through the press.

For cost savings features you can combine color and black and white when you print a magazine, along with coated gloss stocks and the uncoated grades of offset or even newsprint. The only catch is that you need to break up the styles of paper and inks within full signatures, 16 pages, ideally. For shorter runs, you can benefit from our sheet fed magazine printing, and if 16 pages or under and up to 5,000 copies we always have specials going on these. You can even benefit from our digital technology for printing magazines as we now have presses that rival ink in color but utilize toner on gloss stocks. I would defy you to tell the difference, as they are that close. One might easily print a “hand out magazine” running 8 or 16 pages or more in the few hundred’s with this type of new technology.

Consider getting your message out with a magazine and differentiate yourself from the many real estate postcards you see daily. Please contact us now and we would be happy to supply you with a quote for printing your magazine and can also handle your complete design and photography needs as well. You can even benefit from an online version of it once it is printed.

Great Tips For Creating A Catalog

You are tasked with creating and handling the catalog printing for your company and you are determined to do the best you can do, as maybe your next raise or even your job is contingent on this coming out well. What to do to ensure you wind up with the best catalog possible, in order to bolster your status at work. Well, here is some catalog printing food for thought, and some educated food at that.

1- Does It Have Impact? Impact is first and foremost created by the very first thing that hits the end users desk; the front cover! If the cover is weak and does not scream read me, then your catalog may languish on the end users desk for quite awhile or even hit that office basketball hoop located under the desk, the trashcan. Here is where you want to spend the most money on design and materials.

2-Is Your Cover Page Eye Candy? Design ability and sensibility come into play here. You will organize your page based on the importance of your top products and best message. Outline your one, two or three top products, by creating a clipping path around them. This removes the backgrounds from the original photos and will allow your images to pop out more, in a free floating way that calls attention to them. Add some copy that is larger and brighter, portraying either a sale or unique usage. 3- Is It Organized Clearly? When creating and printing catalogs you will want to organize your catalog so that it is easy to read and user friendly for the reader. Create sections, so that like products are all with like products. Create an index, in order to make what folks are looking for more easily found.

4- If Very Different Products Is It In Sections? Create tabs, to find sections. You can do tabbing the hard, pricey way or the easy and free way. The standard high end way is to create tabs using the same stock as the cover (so they gang together for best cost on press) and die cut, score and fold in for trimming the face. The end user pulls them out. A more upscale version of this, and very pricey, would be to leave them out and extend the cover to match their width, but this is hand labor and you may not want to go there. The free way is to create a bleed edge in a solid color, using all four screens if you can, with process printing.

5- Image Quality? Images should be clean and crisp. Save them out of Photoshop as 350 dpi for best results and whatever you do, do not size them in your document application such as Quark or InDesign, as they become too big with no gain, other than dot gain. Create little captions under each image to clearly identify it and where more info can be found. If you use many images, pick your most important to use at a larger size and then the rest closer to thumbnails. It makes the page far more interesting for your catalog. 6- Compelling Copy? This is the “lost tribe of printing”. Use compelling copy. If you cannot write great sales copy using the USP (Unique Language of Sales) which in grammatically correct and well worded English, convinces your end user of the benefits to them of your product, you have lost out on one of the most important aspects of your printed catalog. Share what you are selling, how it WILL BENEFIT the user to use your product or services.

Catalog Printing Tricks

The next time you decide to print your catalog, here are a couple of tricks to make your catalog printing more user friendly. CATALOG TABS: Rather than using costly die cut tabs that must be folded in for the final binding of your catalog printing, try marking the pages of each section on the opening edge border with a solid color. You will need to do this on both sides of the page. You can add copy to the solid with either a black overprint if a light color ink or white knock out area for copy if you are using a dark color. It is best if you change the color for each section of your catalog. During the trimming process, the blade smashes down on the trim edge and the ink bleeds over, in part, into the edge of the paper. Thus, when you look at the trim edge of your catalog, you will be able to see sections in different colors.

CATALOG BIND: If you want to go upscale with your catalog printing, then here is a trick to make your spiral or wire bind look like perfect binding. You can use a technique that is sometimes referred to as “hidden wire bind”, where you would die score the cover, folding it back behind the text and adding your wire. Once that is done, you fold the cover back over to the front. You then will wind up with a catalog printing as normal, but the spine will be covered and can have copy on it like perfect binding, and the wire will only show through at the rear edge of the spine on your catalog. Voila: the best of both worlds, wire bound catalog to lay flat and a spine to add copy on, as in perfect binding, to fit nicely on the shelf of your client.

How Do I Choose The Right Magazine Printing Company?

1- Check Their Capabilities Which press meets your needs? Not every magazine printing press has the same equipment on their floor, so first you must understand which press can best fit your requirements. You will base this on the size, page count, and quantity as well as paper stock you need for your magazine. If your quantity is low, usually if 5,000, with a page count of 64 on the average you will be best served pricewise on a 40” sheet fed magazine printing press. If the page count goes up significantly, then a modern web magazine printing press, with fast changeovers from signature to signature will most likely price better than sheet fed.

With quantities for the newbie, say 500 or less, the new digital presses, like the iGen or Canon equivalent will give you better pricing and the quality today rivals ink.

When you get away from a standard page size, you may do better on a sheet fed press, assuming the quantity is reasonable, as once you go beyond a 9 x 11” approximate size on a web press, you are into a small tab size which is a 12 page signature rather than a 16. Many times, this is less of a problem, depending on how big you go, with a sheet fed press, as they have more options for larger sheet sizes, so long as it fits on their press.

2- Do I Need Heatset Or Coldset Web Presses? The paper you chose for magazine printing, will most often determine the type of press you are best suited for. If you are using uncoated stock, such as offset or news, then pricing will be far more aggressive on a cold set web due to its lesser cost to run. If you are using gloss, matte or dull, the coated stocks, then you must be on a heatset press, which has the dryers necessary to dry the ink quickly and prevent offsetting (smearing from bottom sheet to one above it).

3- Does quality Differ Press To Press? Modern magazine printing web presses today rival sheet fed presses in quality, but if an older web press then sheet fed will give you a better quality. The heatset presses also tend to be newer and better quality than the older coldset ones thus a better result there as well as higher line screen printing. In addition the heatset press, using coated paper stock, will give you a crisper image, as the ink does not sink into the paper as with an uncoated stock. 4- Press Efficiency Means Efficiency In Cost The bottom line is this: If you take the time to understand what your choices are with magazine printing presses, then the right press, meaning the most efficient to run your job, will always give you the best cost. A press too large or too sophisticated for your job when not required will give you higher costs than you need. So be sure that you understand where your job should run based on the variables of that job and your requirements for it.

Magazine Printing Tips

With magazine printing, unlike most other forms of printing, your product is based on, among other things, the cost per page of the magazine. The reason for this is that you are selling advertising and need not just the best price per page but a consistent cost, so that your advertising rates are accurate and each page brings you in a profit.

Understand your cost per page. With magazine printing this factor is crucial and things can either boost or lower your cost of production based on the specifications you seek. The things that can affect your final production cost are size, page count and paper stock.

1- PAGE COUNT: There is a reason why you see certain consistent things in most magazines. Page count is based upon not just how many ads you can sell or how much content you have, but on how the magazine runs on press. It is most cost effective to run full signatures as an extra four pages can cost you almost as much as the next 16. 12 pages can sometimes cost more than 16 depending on the press. Run complete forms for the best per page cost to you. 2- SIZE: Size does matter. Be efficient by getting the highest page yield from the press signature. On a web press, which has less choice of paper rolls than a sheet fed press in order to accommodate a variety of sizes, page yield is crucial. A standard 8 3/8 x 10 7/8” page can yield 16 pages to a signature and a “digest” size (half page), 32. Any odd sizes much larger or in between, will yield less pages per signature thus boosting your cost per page. 3- PAPER: With low quantities in magazine printing, paper cost is less important, but with high quantity runs, the average cost of paper is half the total cost of your run. This is why you see mass run magazines using paper as thin as 32# gloss book and as low as a grade 5 with the most wood pulp in it for cost. 4- COVER: The cover is another item in magazine printing that can increase or not the cost of your publication. If you are running perfect signatures, all on the same paper and at least 45 pound weight for mailing, you are saving money over having to run a separate four page signature at press for a cover of different weight than the text.

Another important factor that can help you decide on how much production cost to incur, for example in choosing paper grades and weights, is to understand your business model. Define who your potential readership is and what your competitors are offering them. If you are printing magazines about carpenter tools, do you need as heavy a stock or as good a grade for your publication as if you were selling wedding gowns, where the pocket books is not as closely guarded? If your magazine is a direct mail piece, than understand your mailing costs. The initial bulk rate pricing is based on a weight of 3.3 ounces. Over that you move to the next level on the postage scale, so is your full color magazine over that weight or not and if so how many levels of price bumps are you over it. Controlling your postage costs can be done by choosing the correct paper weight for your publication. The lower the poundage, the lower the weight of the publication and potentially the lower your postage costs. Also if on a web press, and they offer mail processing services, note that it is much less expensive to have the web press do the mail processing as it the addressing and postage permit are added inline during the bindery process.

Short Run Book Printing Works!

With today’s newest equipment, short run book printing is not only viable due to unit pricing that can match some web press pricing, but the quality many times is superior. Generally speaking the paper grade is better than the standard stock used for book printing on a web press and if you have any dots in your file (images with screens) the digital book printing press may be even superior. The covers today also can rival an ink press if your book printer is utilizing the latest equipment by Canon or Xerox.

With the newest Canon or Xerox IGen presses, covers for printing books can be done inexpensively as well as with high quality. With book printing one also benefits by using UV coating or film lamination for durability and professional appeal. Now with the newest machines for short run book printing you can benefit with the same finishing. The equipment that produces short run text pages has been around for a while, yet there are always later generations coming to market. It is the Docutech by Xerox. Canon too makes a similar machine. The nice thing about these machines is that it not only prints but collates as the pages come off the press, thus allowing for a fairly inexpensive bindery due to the lack of need of off line collating for the single sheets used by the machine. A good tip here to save money, is always go with 50# paper rather than 60# as due to these presses using cut letter sized sheets, the 20# copy bond (same thing as 50# offset) market keeps the price down and thus a wider affordability gap between it and the 60# offset.

If with a commercial book printer, you will also have a wider variety of professional binding options. Another reason NOT to go to a press that is essentially a copy shop with upgraded equipment, is that you will benefit from the additional expertise at a commercial book printer in order to help you with any file problems, as well as any help you might need along the way.

Smart Book Printing Tips

1-Utilize The Signatures You Pay For With book printing you will have your page count rounded up to be at least 8 pages for the last signature, so rather than blanks use it to your advantage, whether for images, credits, “notes” etc. 2-Provide Correct File Types Most book printers today only want high resolution PDF files. It is more cost effective for them to RIP (process) and you will pay more if you only provide native files. Each press has different PDF requisites, so ask before sending your files. 3-Don’t Jam In Images

Size your images in Photoshop rather than doing so in your document program to “fit the image box”. You are creating a much larger file in the end and this can cause potential problems during the book printing RIP. 4-Know The Safety Area On A Page

Most book presses want 3/8ths of an inch all around for safety, as book printing presses tend to be older technology and have more jiggle than a modern heat set press. 5-Create Easy Covers

Book printing is not a science, it is a craft and things can easily go wrong. If you allow the background art to flow over the front cover, spine and back cover the book printer has more latitude in creating a pleasing end result by manipulating the cover during bindery. 6-Don’t Over Design

Remember, book printing presses tend to be older presses and the more complex you make your design, especially for the text, the harder it becomes to print. K.I.S.S.(Keep It Simple Stupid) in book printing works just as well as with computers.

Your Quick Guide To Book Printing Part 1: What YOU Can Do To Control Costs

You are writing or have completed writing your book and are now faced with getting it into production so you can either sell a whole bunch or give copies to family and friends and ask: What do I do now? What are the steps in the process?

1-Be ready to give your book printer the most economical layout to quote on. Book printing companies print on large parent sheets that are cut from fairly standard size rolls of paper on a web press (this is not relevant to short run digital book printing). Therefore you must address yield. The yield is how many pages you can print on a standard press sheet. Thus if an odd sized book you will have waste and less press efficiency, thus higher costs in printing. If you, for example have a 7 x 10” page size, you would be far better served increasing it to 8 3/8 x 10 7/8”, reducing the page count and avoiding waste. Another example would be a 6 x 9” book printing page size is less economical than if you slightly drop down to 4 3/8 x 8 3/8” as you will have more pages produced from the press form/signature.

2-If you can, become economical with your page count. Now most would not want to delete pages from their book printing endeavor as it is your story and important to you. However, if you can move around pages in the layout, where you can amalgamate them into efficient press forms, do so as it will save you money. Most book printing companies print either 32 pages for a digest sized book (half page). Therefore if you can wind up with even signatures, that is optimal, but if after you have added up all your full signatures and you have 4 more pages, that is how you spend more money and wind up with more blank pages at the back of the book, as book printers cannot usually do less than 8 pages in a form for press efficiency. 3-Make sure your files are faultless. It is less costly in book printing to pay someone to fix your files than to output files at press and then be stuck with a large bill to redo the files due to your mistakes. Make sure you have at least a 3/8” safety area around the entire image area to be printed, inclusive of titles, numbering, etc. Web printing is high speed and presses have what is called “jiggle”, so anything that is too close to the edge of the trim area may be cut off or into. Bleeds (ink to edge of paper) is not usually acceptable at book printing presses. Large areas of solid black will also not print well, so keep it light. With book printing, like computers, K.I.S.S. works best (Keep It Simple Stupid (not that you are stupid))

4-Design your cover with cross over art, so that there are no clean breaks of color, change of color or break to white (again K.I.S.S.), so that if your cover needs adjusting for the spine or otherwise, shifting things around slightly won’t make imperfections more noticeable.

Your Quick Guide To Book Printing Part 2: How To Prepare Files

1- File Types The first thing you must know about file preparations is what type of file is acceptable to the book printer in book printing. Generally speaking the answer is ONE and one only and that is a print ready PDF. This means the “printing press” settings when making a PDF and if images, all 300 dpi if on a color press and if cold set web book printing, 200 dpi maybe acceptable. This does not mean that a Quark, InDesign or Illustrator file will not be accepted by the book printer, but that you will be charged upwards of $10.00 per page as a high, if a PDF is not provided. Word to the wise; ask your book printing company what their settings are for the PDF that they will accept. Generally speaking, Microsoft Word, or other word processing files are not acceptable at all. 2- File Preparation When preparing your file for presentation to the book printer, make sure you are including folders with images, fonts and all elements that make up the complete file for your book printing project. If you are not burning to a disk and are using the internet or FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to send files you MUST first compress them with programs such as WinZip, Stuffit, or WinRar. This not only makes sending them to your book printer easier, but faster for you to upload. However, the main purpose for doing this is to protect them, especially the fonts, from corruption when sending out over the cyber waves.

3- Clear Directions Include a “style sheet” as it is called in graphic design. This is simply a text file that outlines everything you are sending to your book printer. You should have a list that has headings, such as document name, such as text.pdf or cover.pdf. Keep WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) when naming files. Rather than using some eclectic naming convention, call them what they are. Your book printer and their pre press department have never seen your work before. They do not share your familiarity with your book printing project. Therefore make it easy on them and let them swim downstream instead of having to struggle with understanding what you have provided your book printing company with. 4- Pre-Press Time

When supplying your book printing files to pre press you need to send document files that are appropriate. If you send a whole bunch of individual pages, it takes longer to RIP at pre press and can be confusing as well risking errors in the book printing process. Send two files: The cover and the text. Your text file should be a document file. Within the document are the pages, in numerical reading order.

Your Quick Guide To Book Printing Part 3: Creating The Correct PDF File

There are several ways you can create a PDF file that works for the printing press. Many book printers will have very specific requirements for their pre press department, and it is not my intent to give you a list here, but simply to provide the most general settings and procedures used for book printing.

1- What is a PDF? PDF stands for Portable Document Format. The purpose for creating a PDF is to allow one person to give to another a document, where each may not possess the same “native” application. One may have Quark Express and the other not. The PDF thus allows one person to give to the other, with dissimilar applications on their computers, a document that each can read and in many cases, especially with the latter Acrobat versions, can even edit. This is especially important for your book printing company.

2- Creating a PDF from the major graphics programs: These “native” applications that can be used in creating your files for book printing will generally have an export feature that will create the PDF usually in a print ready fashion. If you need bleeds, the most accurate way to create them, would be to set them up in the native application, so that when you go to make your PDF, you can choose “use the settings from InDesign” or similar. Programs that either “export to” or “save as”, as in Photoshop that generally provide you with this feature and that is accurate for general book printing presses are Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign all from Adobe. The latter versions will export to an Acrobat 6 file, which is good as it “flattens” the file, and can minimize any problems of objects dropping out that were linked to the native file. Corel gives you a reasonable PDF and Publisher from Microsoft less so. 3- When faced with using software that is not built to export as a PDF, such as Word or other word processing applications then you will need the Acrobat program in order to create accurate PDF’s. There are other companies who make “PDF makers” on the market and I have tried several and was not happy. In the case of using these applications which cannot export to a PDF or may do so, but with limited control of what you wind up with, you will need to use the “print to” feature on your computer and choose Adobe Acrobat as your book printer. Yourbook printer will not be happy if you give the a PDF made using default settings that have low resolution due to the fact that you made a PDF for the web but for a web book printing press. 4- When you either export or “print to” to create your PDF one thing that you must do, if you are intending to give these files to your book printer, is to choose the setting at the top box for “Press Quality, under “properties, top right corner of the box. You can further make general choices for sheet fed, web press, coated or uncoated. Your book printing company may also give you instructions to additionally choose more of the sub settings. You can use the security settings or not, I suggest not in case your book printing company needs to edit, and choose your page size. 5- You may need to “add” a size, as the default is “Letter” or 8.5 x 11, unless a size fits you under the drop down menu. When adding a size, if you do not have bleeds, than just add the size you want. If you do have bleeds, you will need to increase the dimensions in both directions to accommodate the bleeds. If your press desires ¼” for bleeds, then your image size becomes 9 x 11.5”. Thus, you make a PDF to that size or you lose those bleeds created. If you are adding crop marks and registration marks, this may increase your image area to 10 x 12.5” and you therefore need to make a PDF to that size. Under the color tag, if not color, choose black, so that you do not make a file larger than necessary.

6- I saved this one for last as if not done creates a headache for both the book printer and you. On the properties box you get after click on it, you will see five “check boxes” on the lower left. The 3rd one down reads; “Rely on system fonts only, do not use document fonts”. The program default is to have that checked. UNCHECK THAT BOX! If left checked you are severely limiting any editing for mistakes or changes that the book printer can make. Also always ask your book printing company how they want the PDF created. They will send you instructions.

Your Quick Guide To Book Printing Part 4: Which Press?

1-LONG RUN WEB PRINTING This is where you want to be for the absolute best pricing. The problem is that you must commit to minimum runs and page counts in order to rationally utilize a press the size of a freight train. The smallest run we consider on web would be 500 books with at least 80 pages, at a “trade paperback” size of 5 3/8 X 8 3/8”, in order to make it cost effective. To my knowledge, most other book printers would not start that low, and probably would consider printing a book starting with 1,000 or more. Generally speaking, unless you have screens in your file (dots from images or illustrations or even gradations), web printing is the standard in book printing with sufficient quantity. However if you do have screens, web usually has a lower line screen on the press and if this is important you may want to consider sheet fed printing from your book printer. One of the nice things about web printing, is that since much of your cost is in set ups, the run pricing gets cheaper quickly as you print more. If you have the demand that will allow you to print a book in higher quantities do so. 2-SHORT RUN DIGITAL PRINTING

Digital printing is almost a misnomer in that most modern presses today could be described as digital. In this respect digital would mean, “direct to plate” or filmless, where a digital RIP, is processing the files and the plates are burned via laser. This of course gives less distortion and better registration due to the lack of film. However, for the purpose of the discussion here, I shall refer to “digital printing” as pure digital, from RIP to paper, which is both filmless and plate-less in book printing or otherwise. Most book printers use one version or another of the Docutech from Xerox, or the similar machine from Canon. They generally run 20# bond, which is the same as 50# offset. Two book printing tips I can share with you for your book printing experience that will help you with costs:

• Use the 20#/50# as in sheeted paper, due to competing pricing from retail chains such as Staples or Office Max, where 20# bond is not only cheap, but used as a “loss leader” to bring in people to the stores. Thus there is about a 30% gap on the price differential between 20#/50# from 60# offset. Not so on a web printing press.

• The other tip is to size your book so it can print two up same page on an 8.5 x 11” standard Docutech sheet. This way you get two books printed for the price of one, as Xerox and Cannon, two of the largest manufactures of Laser Digital presses, charge a click charge for the minimal page size of 8.5 x 11”, so you may as well get a “twofer”, but you will need to set up your print files accordingly. 3-PRINT ON DEMAND (POD) While there are those companies such as Lulu who have put together a nice entry level, super short run package, most large book printing companies will not try and compete with such a low margin for so few books. However, when you start judging your unit pricing to print a book, you will think twice about printing books as one, two or three copies at a time. With respect to all the other packaged services, they too can be found with ease when you Google them. So, my advice would be to put print a book with your own package together and save.

Why Are There Blank Pages In The Back Of The Book?

Since presses print in large signatures it is important to swim downstream and work with the press equipment when printing books, magazines, catalogs or other periodicals. When finalizing your files you must keep in mind not just how many pages you end up with but how many signatures for the best pricing on the press. Odd signatures are more expensive then complete ones. Commercial presses today print in 16, double 16’s (32), 48 and 64 page signatures (the last two for smaller page sizing of books).

Web presses print on rolls and not sheets, thereby making them more anal and less able to vary on what is considered a press friendly run. Sometimes, as in magazine printing, where you are selling advertising, it can be more cost effective, thus giving you the lower pricing to add pages and sometimes 8 or 12 more pages can actually save you money due to the fact that you would be utilizing the best page count for a given press. As a result your per page price decreases and thus your advertising profit when printing magazines increases.

The bottom line is, always swim downstream when you are on a commercial printing press. In the end you save money by doing so.

Some Quick Points For Creating And Printing A Quality Flyer

1- Explain with copy and visuals the benefits of doing business with your company. Understand that you are creating a message about your product or service. Explain the benefits of your product or service. Let people know how your product or service will benefit them, how they can save money and why they should be using your product or service rather than your competitors. When you are printing flyers, offer these questions, answers and benefits to your reader, so they can chose you for the benefits you can offer them. 2- Use an eye grabbing question or statement as a caption at the top of your flyer. Ask a question that one is compelled to answer. You are not just printing flyers to show your images, but to sell your product or service. Therefore, use language that compels and sells. 3-If you cannot write compelling copy, using the “USP” and need to ask, “what is a USP”, hire a professional copy writer. 4- Use Quality Images. You have just so much space on a flyer and your impact towards making your sale is. Do not skimp on the quality of your images. If you use images that are of poor quality, your flyer will suffer for it

5- If you are printing flyers in black only, do not give your printer a file with color images as they will print dark. Convert them first in Photoshop.

6- If on an Ink press, as opposed to a digital press using toner, your file will print darker by 5-15% depending on the press, so lighten your images to compensate for this. 7- Verify the resolution of your images. They should be 300 dpi (dots per inch) and CMYK, rather than RGB. You can view your image at 400% to give you an idea as to how it will print. If you see pixels you are in trouble.

8- Try to use 100# gloss book if printing on both sides of the sheet, otherwise 70 and 80# will suffice if only printing on one.