On printing via Blurb’s PDF to Book: Part 2
July 1st, 2009
, originally uploaded by .
Key: R20090612-133201
As I , I uploaded two PDFs of my SoFoBoMo book to Blurb to try and utilize their new PDF to Book service. Yesterday I got back an email that directed me to their web site, and reporting that the PDFs were not the proper size. I checked the size tonight using the Document Properties of the Mac version of Adobe Acrobat Reader, assuming that would give me as accurate information as any. Sure enough, the sizes were wrong. Turns out I had made an assumption about the function of the “trim box” parameters on the PDF/X-3 export dialog under Scribus. I had assumed that Scribus would add some extra trim (defined by the L, R, T, B parameters) to the exported document. Uh-uh. The document gets exported as the size you defined in the Document Setup. Ok, makes sense, I guess. These trim parameters must just set some metadata in the exported PDF.
So, back into Scribus I go to adjust the size by a smidgen larger and wider in both the cover and the book. Fortunately, I’m getting real good at this now, because it’s mindless work. Only you can’t be completely unmindful of it, or you will make a mistake and have to go through it all again. Now I’m even more tempted to try the TeX layout!
This time it only took 15 minutes or so of tweaking and then two more PDFs were wending their way up to Blurb. This time the “preflight check” was very fast, and in a matter of a couple minutes I got back another email saying that the text PDF was ok, but the cover was still off. I checked it again and it was the right size. I hazarded a guess that maybe with the extra blank pages at the front and back that Blurb throws in that I needed to make it a smidgen wider, so I widened it by .01 inch, regenerated the PDF and uploaded that and the same text block PDF back up to Blurb. Bingo! 2 minutes later the preflight check passed for page count, PDF/X-3 compliance, size and image resolution. “Your book is ready to be ordered”. A couple of clicks later and my order was confirmed. Priority mail, “3-5 business days”.
Let’s see, add about 3-4 days for Hawaii… I should have part 3 of this report up in about a week, give or take a little, when the book is in my hands.
autre…
July 1st, 2009
Troy Lovegates – Print Fundraiser Sale
Each print is a 12″x13″ hand printed, two colored, linoleum cut. Printed on 100% cotton somerset velvet paper and signed and numbered, only one hundred are up for sale for $100.00 USD shipping included anywhere in the world.
[Troy Lovegates]
The Szejbach entrepreneurial gene
July 1st, 2009
Babs Young, Cub Reporter, was having breakfast at Sonny’s one day and followed her nose to a hot tip. Chris and Sonny’s daughter Cori was showing every sign of following in the family’s entrepreneurial footsteps. Babs provided some mysterious visuals and left it to me to fill in the details.
Meet Cori (Szejbach) Balentine. She and her husband Brad just moved their home-based printing business, Cobra Printing, into the Schoolhouse Gifts building in Torch Lake Village. They do custom screen printing and embroidery for mom-and-pop businesses and community organizations around the region. Logo ball caps, wine glasses imprinted with the names of the bride and groom, coffee mugs and car decals, Torch Lake sweatshirts–if you can imagine it they can create it, and they have no minimum order. “We’ll make one of something if you want us to,” says Cori. “We understand what it’s like to be a small seasonal business like my mom and dad’s.” She digs through her files and pulls out embroidery samples to show me. “We haven’t done any advertising at all so far. It’s all been word of mouth.”
Cori will be at the Schoolhouse on Tuesdays and Fridays all summer, selling gifts in the front, turning out print jobs in the back. Her clients call on her cellphone and email their logos and design ideas. Her office is a milk crate filled with manila envelopes, the classic Very Small Business filing system. Her printing equipment is set up in the back, next to a playroom for her daughter Addie. There’s a fenced back yard, so the family dogs come along, too. “This sure beats the basement workshop at our house,” Cori laughs as she looks around the light-filled gift shop.
Let's show her how we print shirts
Printing is a sideline for the Balentines—Cori is an RN at Munson and Brad has a Frito Lay route in Leelanau County. They thought it would be something Brad would work on during the winter when his delivery route is slow. Ironically, they discovered that demand for their service goes up in the summer just like everything else in northern Michigan. That’s OK. They’re young and energetic and they’re building something of their own. “I think having your own business is in my family’s genes,” says Cori.
Ah yes. That brings me to another Szejbach story.
Tom Vranich scooped me in the pages of the Elk Rapids News last week. He reported that Matt and Lisa Claflin had released the world’s very first known Petoskey Stone Puzzle, and that it was for sale that very day at Sonny’s Torch Lake Market and other fine emporia. I do not mind being scooped on matters of Elk Rapids politics or Whitewater Township shenanigans, but Lisa is another Szejbach daughter. Being bested at my own favorite breakfast table is unbearable. So here, in case you missed that corner of the ERN last week, is the infamous puzzle, which is quite nice. It’s made in the U.S. and printed in soy inks on recycled cardboard and the picture speaks to everyone who’s ever walked Grand Traverse Bay. I cannot imagine why no one ever made one of these before, but now Matt and Lisa and their have a lock on the genre, and good on them.
How To Set Up Your Printer In Ubuntu
June 30th, 2009
Or, how to print effectively without any hassles in Ubuntu.
Step 1] Boot Ubuntu
Step 2] Make sure your printer is connected (via USB) and switched on
Step 3] Have two glasses of water
Step 4] Watch TV for five minutes
Step 5] Return to your terminal and start printing.
That’s it. No spoolsv problems, nothing. Ubuntu will notify about low-ink and out of paper problems. It also reads .pdfs and .docs, so there is no question of incompatibility anyway.
New designs launched in IML
June 30th, 2009
The VWP and Puriclean range of cleaning products have been re-launched in in-mould labelled tamper evident plastic pots. The simple but bold design stands out against the white pot giving strong consumer appeal. In mould labelling has replaced conventional printing on our range of tamper evident plastic pots as it has greater visual appeal using the full range of colours and more flexibility in production and distributiuon.
The 120ml and 520ml tamper evident plastic pots used for the VWP and Puriclean products are ideally suited for the cleaner steriliser concentrate which has a wide range of applications in both the domestic and export markets.
For more information call us on 01795 479 000.
Letterpress Rules OK
June 30th, 2009
My father was a printer. And he was all letterpress. He would have used machines like this Original Heidelberg, although his two were probably older.
Original Heidelberg
Letterpress printing with movable type is one of the classic technologies that was invented in the Middle Ages by .
Movable Type
I spent most of my childhood in that printing works in Wood Green. I used to set the type for all sorts of letterheads, posters and brochures, but perhaps my biggest claim to fame, is that I used to do all of the handbills for the Dunlop tennis tournaments, that were held all over the UK in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Sadly, I do not have one of those handbills. If anybody has one, I’d love a photocopy.
I also learned to read and write with poster letters. These are of course backwards and you’d think that it would have caused me to have some sort of reading and writing problem. I suppose it may be one of the reasons for my atrocious handwriting in that I learned that printing, computers or typing is much better from an early age, but it did give me a strong mental alacrity in turning images through 180 degrees.
My father also had one of the oldest proofing presses, I’ve ever seen, but sadly there are no images of it.
Proofing Press
This one is from about 1850 and was at least fifty years younger than my father’s. His probably ended up in a scrapyard, when a museum would have been a better bet. Printing museums are rather thin on the ground and there isn’t even one in Heidelberg! Although I did find a whole section in one in Belarus.
Wartime Printing in Belarus
My father’s letterpress business died.
Offset litho technology was coming in and because of the bizarre purchase tax system in operation in the 1950s and 1960s, it was cheaper for companies to do their own printing. Tax on plain paper was zero, but if it was printed it was 66%, so work it out for yourself. VAT would have solved the problem.
But now letterpress is coming back and like the printer who provided the pictures in this note, it is doing well.
There is nothing like the feel of a properly printed card or letterhead! And you can do so many clever things with a proper printing machine, like score, number, decolate and perforate.
“Spending on advertising is huge…”
June 30th, 2009
Spending on advertising is huge. It is estimated that worldwide companies spend over $400 billion dollars advertising each year. Most companies large or small, rely on marketing to create customer interest. For some business, little advertising may be done. Instead money is spent on other promotions such as personal selling through a sales team. For others, advertising may consist of an occasional advertisement in the local newspaper. Before you begin any marketing campaign you should find out an essential fact about your advertising and promoting efforts. Are my efforts for this marketing campaign worth the time and the money involved? Your cost can be measured monetarily, while your benefits can be an immediate return or long term benefit. Below is a list of ways to do print advertising and the costs and benefits of each.
- Placing ads in newspapers, magazines or other publications
Monetary cost: ranges from free to $50,000 Time cost: varies, depending on if your are creating your own ad Benefits: No one can predict if an ad will work or not. - Bookmarks/flyers/give aways Monetary cost: ranges from free and up, depends on Benefits: having something to give to someone during a conference or promotion setting is important; this reinforces your business but doesn’t necessarily mean they will purchase something from you.
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Postcards and letters Monetary cost: between 35 and 85 cents each to print and send Time cost: depends on how much of the printing and mailing you are doing yourself Benefits: alerts audience to new services, products or other information about your company and reinforces your business
Before you begin any printing advertising you may want to do a cost benefit analysis. A cost benefit analysis is done to determine how well, or how poorly, a planned action will turn out. Although a cost benefit analysis can be used for almost anything, it is most commonly done on financial questions. Since the cost benefit analysis relies on the addition of positive factors and the subtraction of negative ones to determine a net result, it is also known as running the numbers. A cost benefit analysis finds, quantifies, and adds all the positive factors. These are the benefits. Then it identifies, quantifies, and subtracts all the negatives, the costs. The difference between the two indicates whether the planned action is advisable. The real trick to doing a cost benefit analysis well is making sure you include all the costs and all the benefits and properly quantify them. You may have to try different things and figure out what works best for your business and what doesn’t. Adjust your time and money accordingly.
Managing Limited Edition Printmaking
June 30th, 2009
Our various touchpoints:
425.481.4900
Our Graphic Design Studio
425.481.4900
18002 Bothell-Everett Hwy Suite 6,
Mill Creek, WA 98012
At the intersection of 180th Street SE and Bothell-Everett Hwy
At the border of Mill Creek and Bothell
Across from the 7-Eleven, Silver Dollar Casino and the new Bartell’s Drug Store
Specialties:
Digital Color Graphics (Large/Wide Format)
Business Cards, Brochures
Labels, Decals, Stickers
Tradeshow, Convention, Exhibit Displays
Vehicle, Fleet, Equipment, Product Graphics
Magnetic Materials
Banners
Window Graphics
Ready To Apply (RTA) Graphics
Dimensional Letters
Monument Signs
Construction Signs
Real Estate Signs
Retail Signs
Point Of Purchase (POP) Signs
A-Boards
Electronic Reader Boards
Directory Way-finding Systems
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Signage
Received a “Thank You” card in the mail last week that excited me. Please check out the brief video I made in regards to it.
My excitement spilled over into adding it as a discussion point I had with varies print industry people. Many of them also agreed it had some potential. As Social Media (SM) grows it becomes harder and harder to keep up with and filter out the noise that it generates. In fact at this point the noise of SM is at a roar level. That simple Thank You card coupled with SM had a very profound impact and most importantly, it made me LOOK at the website and possibly become a buyer on that site.
Sitting in Dallas last week with Joe Polanco from PIA-MidAmerica helped further expand on this SM noise. By the time we finished 2 beers and a nice conversation the tag line “The more noise social media creates the more clarity print provides” had been formed.
Dont get me wrong I am a huge fan of SM and think it is an extremely valuable tool in many ways. It is the combining of the two that I find interesting. It is similar to how I look at things like Google AdWords. The first few results in a search doesnt mean legitimacy in my mind, it can also mean someone that is good at getting top rankings for key words, but otherwise not having much value. Thus as many people do, I look at the paid for advertising as a solid option.
The coupling of the two mediums is a strong fit. What better way to filter out the noise than to receive a card in response to something connected with on SM. In fact it is a barrier of entry as the printed piece costs a small amount of money to send and thus acts a good filter from spammers and others that just use free communication tools aggressively, but have a product that has no value or limited value.
Better filters will certainly come soon for SM and like all things the adaptation of the new tools will need to be assessed and relooking at the value proposition of print will need to happen.
Brian