Photo purchased from … www.depositphotos.com The Printing Industry Exchange Blog is #12 of the best 40 digital printing blogs, as selected by FEEDSPOT. One of my print brokering clients is a “fashionista.” I have written numerous PIE Blog articles about her work. Her main printed product is a 3.54” x 1.42” color swatch book on a screw-and-post assembly that looks like a small PMS swatch book. It allows her clients to select complementary clothing and makeup colors based on their complexion. Over the years my client has expanded her product line into print books, an online presence, and (soon ..read more

Photo purchased from … www.depositphotos.com The Printing Industry Exchange Blog is #12 of the best 40 digital printing blogs, as selected by FEEDSPOT. A client of mine called me out of the blue this week and asked about options for 50,000 copies of a 4-color print book containing voting records from Capitol Hill. She needed the book to lie flat, though, and she knew this would drive up the price. A Plethora of Choices I told my client that most of the options would be expensive because of the handwork involved. These would include such mechanical bindings as Wire-O, Spiral Wire, Plastic Coil ..read more

Photo purchased from … www.depositphotos.com The Printing Industry Exchange Blog is #12 of the best 40 digital printing blogs, as selected by FEEDSPOT. When you design a print product and/or buy commercial printing services, sometimes problems arise. Printing is a complex process not only in terms of logistics but also in terms of design issues and art file preparation issues. The very best way to avoid errors is twofold: Put everything in writing. Craft an ongoing specification sheet, which you can then alter for each job, or kind of job, as needed. You can start by closely reading a number ..read more

Photo purchased from … www.depositphotos.com The Printing Industry Exchange Blog is #12 of the best 40 digital printing blogs, as selected by FEEDSPOT. How did they do that? At our favorite thrift store my fiancee and I found a print of a beach scene printed on wood. The yellowish cast of the wood created an overall tone and feel of sand, and the swirls in the wood grain made it look like the wind had created dunes. The beach umbrella and empty chair (presumably the owner was in the surf) added to the overall ambiance. Don’t you wish you were there? I did. Since I am a commercial printing ner ..read more

Photo purchased from … www.depositphotos.com The Printing Industry Exchange Blog is #12 of the best 40 digital printing blogs, as selected by FEEDSPOT. A colleague of mine edits and designs print books for the World Bank, NATO, and several other government agencies. This week she mentioned her frustration in designing a physical book that will be repurposed as a book for online reading in Nairobi, at least on a computer and possibly on a handheld device as well. Clearly there are a number of differences in design (both technical and aesthetic) that need to be addressed for this to provide an ..read more

Photo purchased from … www.depositphotos.com The Printing Industry Exchange Blog is #12 of the best 40 digital printing blogs, as selected by FEEDSPOT. I’ll believe it when I see it. That’s the meme. (Personally I think the reverse is true as well. Once we believe something, we tend to see it everywhere.) In this light I was intrigued by a print book my fiancee shared with me. It’s called The Commissar Vanishes (by David King), and it includes numerous versions of propaganda photos from Stalinist Russia. Paging through this book also dovetailed with the art therapy project we had just done wi ..read more

Photo purchased from … www.depositphotos.com The Printing Industry Exchange Blog is #12 of the best 40 digital printing blogs, as selected by FEEDSPOT. Every so often I come upon a book that reminds me why book printing has not disappeared, in spite of rumors over the past several years. In fact, based on my recent research, it seems that there has been a resurgence in the printing of physical books. After all, ebooks do not have a tactile component—at all. None. There’s no smell or feel of the paper, and no difference in coating texture between various elements on the cover of an ebook. Don ..read more

Photo purchased from … www.depositphotos.com The Printing Industry Exchange Blog is #12 of the best 40 digital printing blogs, as selected by FEEDSPOT. A relationship with a printer is just that, a relationship. To move forward, it must involve mutual trust. You need to know the printer will produce your job in a satisfactory way, and your printer needs to know you will pay as agreed. This PIE Blog posting is a case study about agreements and expectations, and how there can unfortunately be a perfect storm when everything goes wrong. At the same time, there are ways to minimize this chance, a ..read more

Photo purchased from … www.depositphotos.com The Printing Industry Exchange Blog is #12 of the best 40 digital printing blogs, as selected by FEEDSPOT. A lot of these PIE Blog articles address various aspects of buying commercial printing. But really, if you have to start from scratch, how do you even begin to find good printers? Since the onset of Covid, and with the rise in paper prices, I myself have had to revisit this question in my own print brokering work. So here are some of the things I consider when vetting a new printer and when deciding whether to continue with, or disconnect from ..read more

Photo purchased from … www.depositphotos.com The Printing Industry Exchange Blog is #12 of the best 40 digital printing blogs, as selected by FEEDSPOT. Halloween is almost two months away. That’s not too soon to start planning. If you look at the photo above, you can learn a lot about Halloween. First of all, in this country we have pumpkins we carve into Jack-O’-Lanterns. This is a lot easier than in past centuries (in Europe), when people carved faces into turnips and set lit candles into them. A turnip is smaller than a pumpkin, and the flesh of a turnip is much harder to carve. On a spiri ..read more