A print brokering client of mine recently had to upload to the book printer’s website two separate revised book cover art files (a total of three covers for each of two titles). This was to make sure all design elements had been placed properly, such that when printed and folded, everything would fall correctly on the front and back covers, the spine, and the two cover flaps (the print book has French Flaps). (more…)

Don’t try this at home. No, really. You’ll wind up spending more money, and you probably won’t be happy with the results.

I’ve been working with a client to prepare a color swatch book for press (a small print book of single pages attached with a metal screw and post assembly, with color on the front of each page and black text on the back). (more…)

In the late 1970s I found a book by cartoonist B. Kliban entitled Never Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head. The title stuck with me, as did the image of a getting more than you can handle. (more…)

My addiction of choice is frequenting thrift stores with my fiancee. I get lost in the print books, and time disappears.

I find that I often gravitate toward books with a dull coating or laminate on their dust jackets or covers. They seem to fall into my hands, and I want them, as much for their tactile qualities as their content. (more…)

I picked up an older paperback at a thrift store recently. I had owned a copy of the same print book in the 1980’s, and the cover had changed, so I looked carefully at the design and custom printing of the new cover. Granted, it was used and dog-eared, and it was still about twenty years old, but I found the cover intriguing. (more…)

I received an email from the book printer this week about the endsheet material for a case-bound book I’m brokering. It’s an annual 8.5” x 10.875”, 576-page, hard-cover publication with a press run of 1,000 copies. (more…)

I received an InSite preflight report for a client today. I thought it might be helpful to share it with you, and to describe the feedback it presented as well as my response to both the book printer and to my client. (more…)

In prior blog postings, I have written about a 450-page, 8.5” x 11” book I’ve been working on with a client of mine. My client and her boss have looked at a number of press runs (from 1,600 to 10,000 copies) and binding options (perfect binding and plastic coil binding). I have approached digital printers (with the new HP T230 web-fed inkjet press), sheetfed printers, and web offset printers. (more…)

My fiancee just bought an exceptionally cool print book on Pilates physical fitness (Pilates: achieving your potential for health, strength, flexibility, and stamina, by Joyce Gavin). It has a see-through cover that reveals a bright magenta photo underneath. The title is screen printed onto the binder in solid black ink, and the binding is a white, Wire-O coil looped through the plastic folder material. (more…)