Notes On The Printingbindery Checklist

Unlike notes on most other checklists, these notes are not a supplement to the material presented in the chapter. Rather, they are an integral part of the chapter. The checklist is presented in Figure 15.2.

1. Printing budget. The portion of quoted or estimated costs allocated to printing, even if printing and binding are given to a single supplier. You will want this figure for future comparison shopping. Be mindful of probable savings in getting a printing-binding package price.

2. Start-up date. When the project will actually go to press. Dates materials must be received by the printer are covered in #7.

3. Completion date. When the printing portion of the project is to be done. Any bindery work that is to follow is checked off in #12 on.

PRINTING/BINDERY CHECKLIST

Project Title___

Project Description _

Overall Supervision By

Completion Date

Start Up Date

PRINTING ASSIGNED TO DUE

1. Printing Budget _ _

3. Completion Date _ _

4. Project Manager _ _

5. Tentative Schedule _ _

6. Supplier Selection _ _

7. Final Schedule _ _

10. Coating
11. Shipping
BINDING
12. Bindery Budget
13. Bindery Start-up
14 Completion Date
15. Project Manager
16. Schedule
17. Folding
18 Binding
19. Shipping Dates &
Methods (skids,
cartons, etc.)
20. Postage
21 Reports

Figure 15.2 The printing/bindery checklist.

IN MUST APPROVE BY DATE IN INFO COPY ONLY SEE ATTACHED

4. Project manager. When in-house technical expertise is available, use it, always asking to be a spectator permitted to learn. When printing decisions are thrust on you before you feel quite ready for them, ask the printer to be your guide. Never involve yourself in how-to questions! Remember the client's magic words: "I know what we have to achieve. I couldn't begin to tell you how to get there."

5. Tentative schedule. This schedule is generally prepared at the beginning of the project, before suppliers are chosen, and helps guide in their selection. Some flexibility must be built in, depending on the complexity of the project.

6. Supplier selection. Follow the same procedure as that suggested for selecting a prepress supplier on page 298 and then add the following considerations:

• Sheet or web printing. Sheet-fed printing uses precut individual sheets. Web printing uses paper taken from huge rolls. Web printing almost always prints on both sides of the paper at the same time, with folding continued as part of the same printing process. Commercially, web printing is used for larger quantities—generally, no less than 25,000 for printing one or two colors and 50,000 for full color.

Sheet-fed printing has many advantages of its own. It tends to be much more flexible in quantity, number of pages to be printed, size of the pages or printed sheet, stock to be used, and number of suppliers than does web printing. The "quick print" shops found almost everywhere are sheet-fed printers, as are commercial printers in smaller communities.

• Check for the right printer for each job. No single printer can do everything! Visit the plants you asked for quotations. If you are unfamiliar with anything you see, ask. If the plant is not spotless, leave.

7. Final schedule. Prepare a schedule that you and your prepress supplier, printer, bindery, and distribution source can achieve to get the project done on time. If all else fails, negotiate. Remember to differentiate between how and when!

8. Paper. Selecting paper, or stock, is one of the most critical aspects of any printing project. There are literally thousands of different stocks, many available in a variety of thicknesses or weights. The lower the weight, in units of pounds, the thinner the stock. Thus, paper used in most office copy machines is 50-pound offset, or 50# stock, which means that 1,000 25" X 38 " sheets weigh exactly 50 pounds. To keep life from being too simple, different kinds of stock use different weight criteria, but each is consistent within itself and shows thinner to thicker (light to heavy weights) as smaller to larger numbers.

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