Printing Companies
  1. About Printing Industry
  2. Printing Services
  3. Print Buyers
  4. Printing Resources
  5. Classified Ads
  6. Printing Glossary
  7. Printing Newsletters
  8. Contact Print Industry
Who We Are

Printing Industry Exchange (printindustry.com) is pleased to have Steven Waxman writing and managing the Printing Industry Blog. As a printing consultant, Steven teaches corporations how to save money buying printing, brokers printing services, and teaches prepress techniques. Steven has been in the printing industry for thirty-three years working as a writer, editor, print buyer, photographer, graphic designer, art director, and production manager.

Need a Printing Quote from multiple printers? click here.

Are you a Printing Company interested in joining our service? click here.

The Printing Industry Exchange (PIE) staff are experienced individuals within the printing industry that are dedicated to helping and maintaining a high standard of ethics in this business. We are a privately owned company with principals in the business having a combined total of 103 years experience in the printing industry.

PIE's staff is here to help the print buyer find competitive pricing and the right printer to do their job, and also to help the printing companies increase their revenues by providing numerous leads they can quote on and potentially get new business.

This is a free service to the print buyer. All you do is find the appropriate bid request form, fill it out, and it is emailed out to the printing companies who do that type of printing work. The printers best qualified to do your job, will email you pricing and if you decide to print your job through one of these print vendors, you contact them directly.

We have kept the PIE system simple -- we get a monthly fee from the commercial printers who belong to our service. Once the bid request is submitted, all interactions are between the print buyers and the printers.

We are here to help, you can contact us by email at info@printindustry.com.

Book Printing with Online Printing Companies: How to Settle a Dispute So Everyone Wins

No matter how long you’ve been buying custom printing servcies from online printing companies the time will come when something goes wrong. Online printing companies are staffed with human beings, who are fallible, so from time to time it will become necessary to work through a difficult job, to find a solution the digital printing service can provide that will satisfy your needs.

A client contacted me today, disappointed with a job that had just been delivered. I looked at the samples that I had received and noted that opaque white letters on the inside covers were barely visible on the beige uncoated cover stock.

Doing the research

I took a breath. Then I did some research. My client, the custom printing vendor, and I had discussed adding opaque white, but the two options the printer had proposed were to print the opaque white under the image on the front cover as a “ground” to keep the beige paper from darkening the transparent process ink, or to use the opaque white as an accent (spot placement within portions of the cover art). We had not discussed using opaque white for any text.

I reviewed the collection of sample promotional books that I had received from paper manufacturers, looking for information on (and examples of) opaque white usage. I found a sample of opaque white lettering (a large headline) on a deep blue stock, and a description of how to use opaque white as a ground for printing process color images. The white ground (or base) made the images “pop,” or stand out from the surrounding tinted paper stock. In both promotional sample books, the opaque white had been printed twice (a “double hit”), yet the effect was subtle. When I checked under a loupe (a high-powered magnifying glass used by printing companies to view fine details on printed press sheets), I could still see flecks of the blue substrate through the white headline letters.

Talking with the online printing company

I asked the printer why his prepress operator had not flagged the white type as potentially problematic, and why the pressman had not commented on the barely legible type on the beige paper during the press run. The surprised printer noted that the type had been faint, but still legible, under his pressroom lighting.

This got me thinking. Pressroom lighting is 5000 Kelvin (which is the same color as sunlight). It is not the same as the light emitted by my LED desk lamp or the fluorescent bulbs or incandescent tungsten filament bulbs in the house. I went outside. In sunlight, the text was light but readable. I went back inside and called the printing service. I explained my findings. The CEO agreed that the text was too light. He wanted the client to be happy.

Working together toward a solution

To keep costs down, and because the text of the booklet was beautifully printed, we determined that the best way to proceed was to reprint the covers, tear the old covers off, and attach the new covers. The online printing company agreed to do all work by hand to keep the variance in retrimming to 1/16” or less. (Retrimming a book that has had its covers removed and replaced risks making the head, foot, and face margin uncomfortably tight, since retrimming makes the book slightly smaller than it had originally been.)

The client would pay to have the books sent back to the business printing provider, and the printer would do all work “at cost” (about half the retail price). We also discussed the schedule. We wanted to make sure the client could mail the books in a timely manner.

In addition, the designer decided to change all white type to blue type (it is always a risk to print small, serif type in a light color on a middle-toned, tinted press sheet). She decided not to risk this. If she had wanted to keep the white type, the custom printing vendor could have improved the ink’s opacity by adding silver ink to the opaque white ink. He could also have used white metallic foil instead of opaque white ink for the text, but this would have required an additional stamping die (at the cost of approximately $500.00).

Unfortunately, the beige paper was a special order item, adding to the cost of reprinting the covers and also lengthening the schedule (acquiring paper would take three days). So I suggested printing the beige of the background as a process color screen on white uncoated cover stock. After all, there were no flecks in the paper. It was easy to replicate the “sand” text sheet with process color inks. The client and printing company agreed. The reprint cost and timeline were both abbreviated.

Working with online printing companies as partners

We all worked together as partners, finding a workable solution at a fair cost (shared by the custom printing provider and the client) within a workable time frame. It was clear to me that the client felt taken care of. And both the online printing company and the client can now work together comfortably in the future. Ironically, the printer’s prices had been so good that, even including the additional cover reprint cost, the total price of the job still matched the next lowest estimate for printing the booklet in the first place.

Custom printing is an art, as is negotiating. Problems occur from time to time. Approaching the business relationship as a partnership and seeking ways to resolve the problems yields the best results for all.

4 Responses to “Book Printing with Online Printing Companies: How to Settle a Dispute So Everyone Wins”

  1. Custom print says:

    I like your style. It looks like you spend a lot of effort and time on your blog. I have bookmarked it, and I am looking forward to reading new articles

    • admin says:

      I do, but it is a labor of love. I am fascinated by offset and digital printing, as well as the integration of the Internet into the newer cross-media communications initiatives (web-to-print, social media, blogs, PURL’s, etc.). I’m glad you find this blog useful. Please come back regularly, or set up an RSS feed for automatic updates.

  2. I found this informative and interesting blog, so I think so it’s very useful.

Archives

Recent Posts

Categories


Read and subscribe to our newsletter!


Printing Services include all print categories listed below & more!
4-color Catalogs
Affordable Brochures: Pricing
Affordable Flyers
Book Binding Types and Printing Services
Book Print Services
Booklet, Catalog, Window Envelopes
Brochures: Promotional, Marketing
Bumper Stickers
Business Cards
Business Stationery and Envelopes
Catalog Printers
Cheap Brochures
Color, B&W Catalogs
Color Brochure Printers
Color Postcards
Commercial Book Printers
Commercial Catalog Printing
Custom Decals
Custom Labels
Custom Posters Printers
Custom Stickers, Product Labels
Custom T-shirt Prices
Decals, Labels, Stickers: Vinyl, Clear
Digital, On-Demand Books Prices
Digital Poster, Large Format Prints
Discount Brochures, Flyers Vendors
Envelope Printers, Manufacturers
Label, Sticker, Decal Companies
Letterhead, Stationary, Stationery
Magazine Publication Quotes
Monthly Newsletter Pricing
Newsletter, Flyer Printers
Newspaper Printing, Tabloid Printers
Online Book Price Quotes
Paperback Book Printers
Postcard Printers
Post Card Mailing Service
Postcards, Rackcards
Postcard Printers & Mailing Services
Post Card Direct Mail Service
Poster, Large Format Projects
Posters (Maps, Events, Conferences)
Print Custom TShirts
Screen Print Cards, Shirts
Shortrun Book Printers
Tabloid, Newsprint, Newspapers
T-shirts: Custom Printed Shirts
Tshirt Screen Printers
Printing Industry Exchange, LLC, P.O. Box 394, Bluffton, SC 29910
©2019 Printing Industry Exchange, LLC - All rights reserved