Talking to the Printer

        In previous posts, Printing Options and Printing Time, we discussed the printing of a magazine. I would like to briefly revisit this as it is becoming the time of year when you should be talking to your printer in preparation for your magazine.

        I suggest talking to a printer at the beginning of your layout process so that you can avoid problems later on. If you take the time to layout a beautiful magazine only to find out that you can’t afford it you will be upset, to say the least. When you talk to a printer they can bring their experience to the table to help you problem solve. In our magazine, last year, we found that by making our page size 7 1/4 inches2 instead of the 8 inches2 we were originally going with, the printer saved us money because he could print 24 pages per signature (12 pages on each side) instead of the standard 16 pages (8 pages on each side). This allowed us to do a full 4 color magazine. If we hadn’t talked to the printer we would have had serious decisions to make before we went to press.

        Now, for those of you who may not be able to go to the printers, you may still want to talk with a printer. They may be able to help you with some tips and tricks (If they help you pay them back by giving them a free listing in your patrons list, or a thank you in the acknowledgments). In the past a different printer actually bound the magazine for us, but we printed the guts. You never know what they might be able to help with.

Printing Time

So we have gotten to the time of year when the printer comes around. I would be interested to here from you how your magazine is printed. Do you do it yourself? Do you use an Internet printer? Do you use a local printer?
Our philosophy (The advisers) is to use a local printer. We feel it is important to keep our business in the area. In the past, we have had problems with a local printer, only to have another local printer come to our rescue. After that company was bought out we found another local print shop and we are now working with them for a second year.
We met with our account representative from the printer last evening. He came to the school to talk with us. We outlined our ideas with the rep and looked at samples. I cannot tell you how important it is to be able to have a face to face. We were able to see and touch actual samples of the cover stock and text stock that we wanted to use in this years mag. We were able to talk about the paper size and the colors we wanted to use.
The other benefit that we found, with our present printer, is the technological aspect of printing. We are able to work on our file in Adobe InDesign CS at school, burn it on a CD and send it to them. They pull it into their system and we have a proof in a few days. Now it's gotten better! The have an FTP site that we can upload the file to! That means that when we are finished we send it to their server and they pull it down. The amount of time that this saves us, from even two years ago, is staggering. Going from printing our magazine completely ourselves, to sending the file electronically, in less than three years?!

Find a printer that will talk to you. Better yet find a printer that will sit down and show you printing and paper samples. The printer has probably done this for a while and can help you with problems as they arise.