by Chloe Mahendra-Fuji, Print Diva
Hi! I’m Chloe! I have been working on a bunch of print jobs that have complicated set ups and an interesting set of finishing requirements. Some of the pieces need complete perforations and others need to be finished as book blocks even though they aren’t technically books – more like supersized magalogs.
As I’ve been working through cataloging the requirements I wanted to really understand my options. If you read through my recent adventures you know that on another job I got caught by my lack of understanding of high-speed inkjet technology, and I don’t want to get caught like that again. So my plan was to ask all of the printers I want to work with for print samples so I can see their options and their finishing quality. I thought it was a reasonable request. It turns out to be harder than I thought.
For my magalogs, I was looking for different binding ideas so I checked with a few of the places recommended to me and some places I have worked with before. I thought sewn book blocks would be cool. I had seen a demonstration at a trade fair earlier this year and for the magalog I thought this would provide durability. I am still sure that it will, but so far no one I have asked for an actual production sample has gotten one to me. I’ve seen non-production samples, but I really want to see something that went through the entire workflow and met another customer’s requirement. Maybe I’m asking too much?
When it comes to the perfing, I have a job that wants different perforations on each page of the job to accommodate coupons, ID cards, and an information card. It is a really cool application! I showed it to four printers and they all wanted me to make the perforation areas the same size and on the same location on the page – and that would just kill the things that make this application stand out. I asked for print samples of works they have done, and everyone came back with the same thing. But I know I saw something called variable perforation where it changed on each page at a trade fair, so I am off on the hunt!
The moral to this story is to gather as many print samples as you can at the trade fairs so that when you have a project that needs some zing you can remember which vendor sells the equipment. I’m thawing out my notes from the Spring shows and next week I’ll be tracking my way back to the cool stuff I saw!
Watch this space for more from the life of a Print Diva!
Chloe Mahendra-Fuji practices the fine arts of design critique, content creation and editing, and communication consulting. She has decades of experience working in online content delivery, print delivery, and content development.
Connect with Chloe: @ChloePrintDiva / ChloePrintDiva@gmail.com
