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Delivery Tips

Apologies, it's been ages since my last post. I would like to post more often but there doesn't seem to be enough time in the day lately. I am trying to launch two new projects with my colleague Karl Dixon. We are trying to produce comics for the major football clubs, & educational comics for schools to aid litereracy & reading skills. Our proposal is currently under review at Westminster by the Education Minister.

Anyhow, to the point of this new post. Whilst this applies to print, it will apply to any business. Please make sure you follow health & safety rules when you load any out going goods, or arrange to pick them up yourselves.

Below is a recent example of a client who picked up a load of flyers from one of my printer suppliers.



Another bad example showing a recyling firm who picked up some paper off cuts from a printer.


Lastly, God forbid if you have to use an animal to cellect anything, please treat it with care and also remember it's load bearing capacity.

This last picture shows a old Welsh Mining company collecting some redundancy leaflets.



A joint production brough to you by "Left it on the Road Delivery Company" & "Shattered Cartons Couriers"

Hints on Paper Use

HINTS ON PAPER USE

1. For smaller leaflets, eg A4 or less, or for short runs, increasing the weight of your paper can be an inexpensive way of improving the quality of your print. Going from 115gsm to 135gsm might add less than £30 to the cost of 10,000 1/3 A4 leaflets.

PAPER PRICES
nb these are bulk purchase prices obtained from a printer who buys £15,000 of the same brand paper each month. Recommended retail prices are up to 4 times higher!

THIS IS ONLY A ROUGH GUIDE

1000 SRA2 sheets of matt Art paper:
115gsm 1000 sheets £28
130gsm 1000 sheets £32
150gsm 1000 sheets £37
170gsm 1000 sheets £42
250gsm card 1000 sheets £64
400gsm card 1000 sheets £78

From 1 sheet of SRA2 paper you can print:

1 x A2 poster or
2 x A3 posters
4 x A4 leaflets
6 x 2/3 A4 leaflets
8 x A5 leaflets
12 x 1/3 A4 leaflets
16 x A6 cards
1 x 24 page 1/3 A4 stitched booklet
1 x 16 page A5 stitched programme

1. If you were printing 100,000 24 page 1/3 A4 booklets, 115gsm would be thick enough paper for the job because the fold and bulk of the 24 pages adds strength. However, the cost of increasing to 135gsm would be £38.50 - £30 = £8 (cost difference per 1000 sheets) X 100 = £800. You should talk to your printer about possible paper cost increases and take advice about saving money by ordering your paper in bulk.

2. Specifying a particular brand (e.g.'Conqueror') usually costs you more than any equivalent that the printer has in stock. Ordering small quantities of special papers is often not possible.


3. When you are next at your Printer, see if he/she has any special papers in stock you might have at a discount. There may even be occasional opportunities for you to print small leaflets or cards on the same plate as a larger job.


4. If printing a single sheet A5 or even 2/3 A4 leaflet folded to 1/3 A4, be wary of using paper lighter than 115gsm. 135gsm - 150gsm is best if the leaflet needs to stand up in leaflet racks. Conversely, a stapled ("stitched") 1/3 A4 brochure has enough strength through the folding to allow you to use 115gsm or even 100 gsm paper.

7. Recycled paper is improving in quality all the time and getting cheaper. Why not ask your printer about recycled paper? Better still, give me a call on 01432 870528 and I can send samples on request. For coated papers, 9Lives is a good choice, as is Revive, which is however more expensive.

PRINTED AND DIGITAL PROOFS

Listed here with the most expensive and accurate at the top.

1. Traditionally, special one-off 'Machine-proofs' or 'Wet proofs' are provided from the final plates. These will look identical to the final printed job, but are expensive (approx £30 - £40 per colour) and author's corrections are charged extra - So this will mean making new plates.

2. A common compromise for four colour process work is 'cromalin' or 'matchprint' proofs. These are produced from the final films, so they are a guarantee that the content is accurate. They are also a very accurate guide for the weight of type and quite a good guide for strength of tint and colours, though the glossy finish will make colours look brighter than the final result (unless you are printing on card and adding a gloss varnish). Blacks appear very dense, and it can be a shock to see your finished print with dark grey where the black should be - designers should where possible put a tint of cyan behind the black to avoid this. Ask your printer what other inconsistencies you should be looking out for.

3. Dye Sub/Inkjet proofs - eg Scitex Iris Inkjet, Rainbow or Epson give a good idea of final colours, though some are not accurate on small type. Because these proofs can be produced direct from computer generated A/W without outputting films, it is much cheaper to make corrections than with cromalin proofs. They do not, however, guarantee that all your copy will be there on your final printed brochure, and the colour accuracy is dependent on the way the printer's computer has been set up. Dye Sub,laser and inkjet proofs have the added advantage that they are on thin enough paper to be folded to give a realistic dummy of the final brochure.

4. Colour laser proofs can also give some idea of the finished result, but again do not guarantee accuracy of colour or copy. Type can appear bolder than the finished print.

5. PDFproofs using Adobe Acrobat software are becoming the most common way of designer's showing colour visuals before hard copies are outputted. The PDF files can be emailed and read on any computer, using Adobe's free Acrobat Reader Software. The software is also included on the free CDs in monthly computer magazines. No guarantee of colour or copy.

6. If you've seen a proof other than a Cromalin or Matchprint and can't afford a wet proof, you may be concerned about last minute mistakes cropping up. You have a few options:
(a) Ask the printer to email you a corrected pdf file so that you can check that the corrections have been done; or
(b) Ask for mono laser proofs. For absolute guarantee that the changes have been done, ask for
(c) An 'ozalid'- a large blueprint from each film. or
(d) See the filmwork or plates before they are on machine. or (e) See the job 'on machine' (ie while it is being printed). But at this stage you can only change the ink colours unless you get new plates made. This is very much a last resort option.