Final Check All Spelling and Grammar: We always suggest that at least two sets of eyes on all of the copy - and that means headlines too! Believe it or not, many spelling errors occur in the headlines. For some reason, they tend to be the most overlooked pieces of copy on your piece. If possible, enlist the help of someone who has not been involved with the project to do a review of spelling. Chances are, you and your team are so familiar with the project that you may overlook something that a fresh set of eyes could catch.

Check Against the Last Round of Revisions: This ensures that you’ve sent us the final version of your file to be printed. Mistakes can happen, and it’s always possible that an old version makes it to the printer.

Bleeds: Review the entire piece, and make sure that bleeds are where they are supposed to be, and that you’ve provided enough of a bleed to print properly.

Text, photos, colors: Look closely at all components of the piece for solid coverage to ensure there are no broken up areas or unusual shading or blocking.

Positioning: Does everything look to be in place? Are images, effects, etc. appearing as you intend them to, and as they appear in your original file?

Size: Is the size correct? Are the trim marks where they should be?

In general, be sure to look at the proof as a whole to make sure it looks the way you intend it to look. When in doubt, circle your area of concern on the proof and ASK! It’s much better to ask what you may consider to be a stupid question on the front end, as opposed to assuming that it’s OK and ending up with mistakes on the finished product.

I was asked to describe the primary difference between a small commercial printer and a franichsed quick-copy type of operation.  Having been on both sides of the table, we see the real overlap occuring only with short run digital print jobs, and for printing jobs that come from a home based business.  Now that we’ve been a full service commercial printer for the last several years, we also see that the range of products and services we can offer now is much greater than what we could  offer as a franchisee.  We are able to invest in the equipment needed to expand into new areas.  In addition, the retail focus of many quick-print shops limits what they can provide because of the high cost of equipment needed in relation to the low average job size.

Kopytek sets itself apart from quick print, retail type of operations by offering a large quantity of printing with very quick turnaround.  Our new commercial printing facility in St. Louis was designed with workflow and material handling issues in mind, which allows us to turn jobs very quickly and handle large volumes of both printing and mailing projects because there is no backtracking at any point in the process, and all materials & supplies are stored right in the applicable work area.

It is true, that the printing industry has changed since we got into the business over 20 years ago - and we know that it will continue to change.  Our commitment is to being at the forefront of those changes, offering better service, more services, and quick turnaround at competitive prices.

Gavin Drake, Marketing Director for Quark, picked up on our blog post the other day regarding Quark, and he had a correction for us, which we need to explain. In our blog posting, we had included the phrase “come back to Quark” in quotation marks, implying that Quark actually stated these words in their email to us. That was not a direct quote from Quark and we stand corrected. Thank you, Gavin.

Gavin was also nice enough to include the following quote for our readers:

“I’m pleased to say that the way Quark did business in the past is history. Quark has a singular focus on delivering innovative software for its customers and transforming its culture to provide the service, support, and response customers expect. While I’m not sure that the specific phrase you refer to originated from Quark, I share the sentiment of encouraging customers who haven’t looked at QuarkXPress 8 yet, to do so, and who haven’t tried our customer service or free technical support recently to do so. And please let us know what you think.

And as for QuarkXPress 8? Having spoken with some leading printers that typically upgrade due to client demand and are this time upgrading regardless, I’m confident the productivity gains in QuarkXPress 8 justify the upgrade outside of client demand. Thanks for continuing to push us to do better. We appreciate it because it’s what drives us forward.”

I had a personal conversation with Gavin and he is well aware of some of the issues printers and designers have encountered, and he assured me of their focus on the customer, and he mentions some of those items in his quotation above.

Good luck to Quark – we hope QuarkXPress 8 is a huge success. None of us want to be left with only one software vendor. Competition will produce better software across the board.

Years ago, Quark was the only game in town. If you wanted the best software, you ran Quark. Quark was to graphic designers what Windows is to the PC; you didn’t know a graphic designer (or a printer, or an agency) without it. It had all the ‘cool tools’ and saved you hours of time.

Then a funny thing happened- Quark quit listening to its customers. Some of us were complaining about print drivers (it was difficult to set up a new printer); others didn’t like the way you created a PDF (one page at a time); and the list went on and on. But we persevered.

And then came InDesign by Adobe. Since it was an Adobe product, most of us tried it – and we liked it. It looked like Quark and felt like Quark, except Adobe listened to you. They created updates fast, and patches faster. Since they owned Acrobat, creating a PDF was a cinch! Installing it was easy, and anyone could load a printer. Over the next several years, Quark’s market share eroded, until it finally got to the point last week where we got the email.

Well, it’s too little, too late for us. So many of our clients have switched to InDesign, we don’t need to buy Quark 8 right now. We have the latest version of InDesign, though, and we like it. Our few clients who only run Quark are more than happy to save the file down a version.

Now, we’ll end up buying Quark 8, but this time we can wait for all the bugs to be worked out, and it isn’t dire that we get it right now – and that is going to cost Quark a lot of money.

The moral of the story? It’s the same old story, but it’s the one that really matters: Listen to your clients, or you may find yourself without them.

Let’s say you want to print some “play money” for a game, or you want to include a picture of a bill in an advertisement. There is a law that covers that, and it is pretty straightforward. Here’s the law:

Regulations for Reproducing U.S. Currency

PART 411 — COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS OF UNITED STATES CURRENCY

Authority: 18 U.S.C. 504; Treasury Directive Number 15-56, 58 FR 48539 (September 16, 1993)

411.1 Color illustrations authorized.

(a) Notwithstanding any provision of chapter 25 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code, authority is hereby given for the printing, publishing or importation, or the making or importation of the necessary plates or items for such printing or publishing, of color illustrations of U.S. currency provided that:

(1) The illustration be of a size less than three-fourths or more than one and one-half, in linear dimension, of each part of any matter so illustrated;

(2) The illustration be one-sided; and

(3) All negatives, plates, positives, digitized storage medium, graphic files, magnetic medium, optical storage devices, and any other thing used in the making of the illustration that contain an image of the illustration or any part thereof shall be destroyed and/or deleted or erased after their final use in accordance with this section.

The U.S. Secret Service, actually a division of the Treasury Department, is in charge of counterfeiting. If you have any further questions, you can contact their office directly.

One other interesting note—it is against the law to pass a counterfeit bill, even unknowingly. In other words, it is not ‘legal tender’ and there will be no replacement for that bill. So next time you get a large bill, check to make sure it is legitimate.

And how do you tell if a bill is legit? That’s a topic for another day!

• Act as if you are hiring a “real” employee … do a thorough interview, check references, and make sure that the freelancer you choose is someone that you’d have good communication with, and who would work well with your organization, its needs, and your culture.
• Find out if the freelancer has experience getting files ready for print … this is key in our world. Believe it or not, there are many designers out there who come up with great art. But it only does your company good if it can actually be printed. Ask pointed questions such as: What printers have you worked with? Do you have experience checking proofs or going on press checks? What problems have you run into with jobs on press? (if they say none, don’t believe it!)
• Make sure that you will own the original files after the project is complete … if your relationship with the freelancer deteriorates, or if (s)he gets hit by a bus tomorrow, you need your files. You don’t want to be stuck empty handed. Oh, and by “original files” I mean the illustrator artwork, eps files, InDesign files, or whatever program your designer used to create the design.
• Get an estimate and scope of work up-front … specify things like how many rounds of revisions are included, whether coordination with printers is included, and how you’ll handle overruns of this estimate. Working this out on the front end saves you pain on the back end.

These are just a few things to consider when working with freelance designers. There are great ones out there, and you can have a successful relationship if you have a full understanding - on the front end - of how you’ll work together.

The printing business has become so capital-intensive that the banking crisis of the last several weeks affects virtually every manufacturer, including printers. As short-term interest rates rose in response to a tightening credit policy, and banks’ reluctance to lend to each other, any manufacturing business with structured debt or a line of credit began to feel the pinch. From 9-15 to 9-18-08 the LIBOR rate (which many bonds are tied to) tripled from approximately 180 basis points (1.8%) to 540 basis points (5.4%). Every small business is feeling the effects of years of Wall Street greed, and unlike Bear Stearns and AIG, Uncle Sam isn’t coming to our rescue.

While printers produce a vastly higher quality product than 10 years ago, costs have not fallen as many thought they would. Equipment, facilities, insurance and energy continue to rise in cost faster than our clients can realize a cost savings. The client continues to get a much better product more quickly, but not at a lower price, unfortunately. Rising short-term rates are just one more obstacle for the printer, and the printers’ clients in realizing a lower-cost product. No wonder there are ½ as many printers as 10 years ago, and the ones remaining are producing larger volumes, and probably carrying more debt as a result of growing business.

After many days, a missed mail date, and a lot of money to repair the problems, we were able to sit down and actually review what caused the issues. We decided to do a brief run-down of what went wrong in order to provide our advice for avoiding this kind of trouble. Here’s the list:

Missing Images — many of the pictures that were included in the layout were not embedded in or included in the file that came to us for print. We bounced the file back to our client to have the file repackaged for print. Moral of the story, be sure you prepare files properly for print.

Missing Fonts — same problem as what happened above. The file wasn’t packaged properly for print, so many of the unique fonts for the piece were missing.

Extensive (over-extensive, to be exact) Use of Layers — There were SO MANY layers on one layout of the brochure, and wouldn’t you know it, one of the layers was corrupt. It took our pre-press department several hours to unbuild and unlock all of the layers to figure out which one was causing the trouble.

Layout — when sending a multi-page job to press, be sure to provide the printer with a mock up or PDF indicating the page order / layout. Sometimes, it isn’t clear from the way the file is built, as was the case with this piece.

Images — images that are going to press should be hi-resolution (300 DPI, depending on size, is a good rule of thumb). Don’t cross your fingers and “hope” that a lo-res picture will work out OK when you go to press. Trust me, it won’t!

Bleeds — this entire brochure had bleeds on each page. Problem was, some pages of the file included the bleeds and some didn’t. As you’re preparing a job for print, be sure you include your bleeds to avoid problems and delays when going through pre-press.

Typo’s — Believe it or not, despite the days and hours spent going through this brochure, and the number of people who had proofread and double & triple checked … you know where this is going, right? We went to go on press and found a TYPO! If you do a lot of printing, like this client does, it’s going to happen. Luckily, we were able to fix it before it became a huge disaster.

In the end, the piece was great and everyone was happy. But it’s certainly a lesson for everyone. Regardless of how long you’ve been in the business, Murphy’s Law stories like this are a good reminder to be mindful of the little things, and prepare on the front end. It can help you avoid costly mistakes!

October 24, 2008 - UPDATE!

In response to many clients who have asked us to guide them through the pre-press process, Kopytek has created an updated guide to Creating Print Ready Files. Click here to download your free copy of the guide.

http://www.quickprinting.com/print/Quick-Printing/All-in-a-Days-Work/1$7334

We spent a great deal of time as a company trying to come up with what we felt was ‘the perfect layout’ for a printing business here in St. Louis, and I can say we have almost accomplished it. The efficiencies of our new facility are speeding work flow, particularly when it comes to product movement. Our department managers did a tremendous job thinking things through and providing a dynamic floor plan for our bindery and mailing departments.

As I look back on the last two years of developing this project, I am reminded of how many quality people it takes to put together a good business: employees, vendors, clients, and even competitors. I’m also glad we did the little things that make coming to work more enjoyable: adding a nice patio, lockers and showers, plasma displays, a quality work environment, etc.

Thanks to all who helped, work here, and take the time to write nice things about us.

John Peterson offers living proof that taking your printing business to the next level doesn’t have to mean turning your back on your roots. Peterson is the owner of Kopytek in St. Louis, MO, which he founded as a Kwik Kopy Printing franchise in 1986. Today it is a progressive commercial printing firm that is about as far from the “mom & pop” concept as you can get. In fact, this year Kopytek debuted in QP’s Top 100 at #60 with sales of $4.1 million.
From the very beginning, Peterson had high aspirations. Contrary to what most quick printers were doing at the time, he chose to locate his company in a semi-industrial area rather than a traditional retail site. This allowed him to concentrate his sales efforts on the more lucrative business-to-business market. Nonetheless, it was still a small shop operating with a single press.
By the late 90s, the company had grown and competition issues had developed in the area surrounding the original location. This prompted Peterson to move to a much larger facility in a strictly industrial area that had no walk-in business. Along the way, the franchise affiliation ended and the company name was changed to Kopytek.
Dream Come True
In 2007, Peterson began the process of building his own 20,000 square foot facility, which the company moved into earlier this year. He has also acquired a Screen (USA) CTP system and a Ryobi 784 perfector press. When asked how it all came together, Peterson’s answer is succinct. “You can’t do a new facility and buy all this equipment without good financing, so it starts with the financing. In our case, we were able to do a tax exempt industrial revenue bond, so we got an extremely low interest rate over a long amortization period. So I think the first thing a printer has to do is look for some creative financing.”
When discussing the changes the new equipment has brought about in his company, Peterson says, “Initially, when we started in ‘86, what really changed it was the Macintosh. And then, what’s really changed it to this next level we’ve gone to is the CTP system. What it allows us to do is to burn a 29″ plate in a minute and a half and have it on the press and set up in 10 minutes instead of 45. So the pressman who used to run a 2-up format is now running a 6-up or a 4-up.”
Having the larger format perfector press also plays into Kopytek’s improved capabilities. “Your press operator is only here for a finite number of hours and if he can set that press up in the same amount of time as an ABDick, why run a 2-up when you can run a 6-up?” Peterson asks.
He illustrates that point with an example. “We have a job right now that is a fairly short job. It’s a 10,000 press run, 23×29″, so it takes us about an hour, start to finish. But it’s a two-sided, black ink pad and they need 60,000 sheets. So we just run that on the perfector in an hour. On a 2-up format, that takes you all day. So that’s the difference. The job that once was an all day job is now just an hour job.”
For many, the perception is that transitioning from 2-up to a 4- or 6-up format requires a different business model. Or at least, a different sales strategy. Peterson disagrees. “We sell it exactly the same way,” he insists. “Do we have some other markets? Yeah, we can do a presentation folder now. We can do a poster now. So we’ve got some other markets, but what we found out along the way was that in a lot of cases we were a stop gap measure. We were running five, or 10, or 15,000 sheets to get the client through while he waited on the rest of the order from his other printer. So now, we’re the other printer. Instead of five or 10,000, we’ll just keep running and deliver 100,000 for you tomorrow.”
In addition to the larger format equipment, Kopytek also runs a Heidelberg DI four-color press, Xerox color copiers, a Docutech, has a fully equipped bindery, and offers mailing and shipping services.
The larger facility and new equipment are integral to Kopytek’s future, but what really makes it all click is the workflow. The entire facility was engineered to streamline the workflow, so that every job that comes into the front door moves smoothly through the entire production process and straight to the backdoor for delivery. “What we wanted to do was to be able to bring a customer in and give them a tour of our entire facility in less than 10 minutes,” Peterson says. “That was the first thing because it all starts with selling something.”
“A job never backtracks,” he adds. “From the beginning to the end, it flows in this oval. And I think that the key is to be sure that the ergonomics of the situation are good. Labor is too costly in our business to backtrack.”
Elements of Success
In the midst of this transformation, has Peterson’s basic business philosophy changed? Not really. He offers a few sage observations in closing. “Really, the definition of a quick printer used to be that he ran a 2-up format. The definition of a quick printer now is just that he can turn the job around faster than the next guy,” he observes.
“It takes just as long to think of a small idea as to think of a big one,” he adds. “The fear is in not having business. I’d much rather have an order and try to figure out how to get it done than to try to figure out how to get an order. But if you don’t think you can do the bigger orders, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you try to figure out how you can do it, next thing you know, that’s the kind of work you’re doing. But you never want to be in a position where you can’t do a small order because small customers turn into big customers.”
“At the end of the day, you have to make sure you hire the best people,” Peterson concludes. “Sometimes people get scared by a couple dollars difference an hour. Other printers say to me, ‘You’re big - you have all these resources.’ And I tell them, ‘But I wasn’t. I was exactly like you. Probably, I was in a lot worse position because I was a lot younger and had a lot less money.’ You can be penny wise and pound foolish, but without good people none of it happens.