‘Getting your Book into Print’

Ian Kinch - 19 Jan 2006 - speaking at the BerksFHS Computer Branch, Woodley

Ian Kinch from Parchment Printers talked about the alternatives to be discussed with a printer when preparing booklets. If you work from hard copy (CRC= Camera Ready Copy) then the finished result will be the same as your original. If you also supply a disc, be aware that printing from this may give a different result as programs such as Word depend on the printer and fonts to create pages. An Acrobat .pdf file will be safer, as long as it has the fonts embedded.
Get quotations for the job, when you have decided how many copies are needed and the quality of the finished product. Do not forget to ask the charges for corrections of both Printer and User errors.
Most small jobs are now printed digitally but Litho may be appropriate, particularly for larger jobs. The main decisions concern paper quality, binding and cover.
Normal paper is 80 gsm and a heavier quality is 100gsm (at approx. 40% extra cost for a simple job). Coated paper can be gloss, silk or matt but gloss is not suitable for text.
Binding can be saddle stitch (staples along spine), or Perfect Bound (Glued back). This can be used for up to 500 sheets now but does not open flat and can break.
Other (expensive) options include sewn binding (traditional style) and wire binding.
An example cost for 50 copies of 32pp A5 booklet + Card Cover is £37.50 using 80gsm paper, increasing to £52 for 100gsm paper.

updated 1 Sep 2007