Life has a funny way of dealing from the bottom of the
deck. There you sit with a pat hand and, out of the blue
(or grey) somebody lays down four aces. Happens everyday,
usually when you least expect it or can afford it. So it
should come as no surprise when you decide it’s time
to produce a brochure or catalog that you are embarking
on a dark and dangerous journey, full of potential pitfalls.
Kind of like doing a reconnaissance behind Yankee lines
while wearing a sign that says “shoot me”.
As with everything else we’ve had the pleasure of
taking a pot shot at, planning what you’re going
to do is the quintessential element. And as we’ve
pointed out before, most of the people you are going to
do battle with are little better than carpetbaggers and
scalawags. But that shouldn’t come as a big surprise.
A brochure and a catalog serve different purposes: one
sells you and your company; the latter sells product. One
can be virtually timeless; the other, by necessity, must
be timed and timely. Now that might sound pretty simple,
sort of like knowing that “cush” is not a gourmet
meal. [Editor’s Note: “Cush” was a Southern
war-time delicacy of bacon, cornbread and water. The concoction
was cooked until all the water was boiled out. Try it some
time.]
Let’s say that you know what type of material
you need; that you have followed all the rules for creative
strategy and development; that you are ready to go to the
printer. Here’s where it starts to get fun.
I’m
going to run through a list of things that you might want
to be prepared to answer before you walk out
the door:
Is your piece camera-ready, or is a layout needed?
Does
type have to be set and mechanicals made?
If you have photographs
you want used, do they have to be separated?
If you have
to set type, what font do you want and in what point size?”Printers
think in terms of “point” size
- with the standard usually 12 - and there are about as
many font types as there are troopers in Sheridan’s
cavalry. And, fonts come in two forms: Serif and Sans Serif.
One has little hangy-down things and the other doesn’t.
(For example, the headline for this article is sans serif
and the text is serif type.)
Do you need halftones, duotones,
reverses, screens, bleeds, solids - or a combination
of all of these?
How many pieces do you need printed? What size is it supposed
to be when you get it back?
What kind of paper stock, with
what kind of finish, color and weight would you like? Paper
weight is figured on the
weight of a ream (500 sheets) of a certain size - i.e.,
500 sheets of a certain finish, sized 25” by 38” (to
fit a press size), weighing 60 pounds is called 60# paper.
What it boils down to is do you want heavy or light paper? “Finish” refers
to whether the paper is coated or not; whether it has a
dull look or a glossy look. ‘Course you realize that
a coated stock can also be dull looking if you get it in
a matte finish. If all this seems about as clear as the
James after a flood, join the crowd.
Then we need to ask
about how many colors of ink we are dealing with: one,
two, three, four, etc. and what PMS
(Pantone Matching System) colors. Are you going to varnish
the piece? If so, that counts as a color - even if you
can’t see it.
Now that you’ve answered all of
these simple little questions, how do you want it to go
together? Folded, perforated,
stitched, perfect-bound?
And then there are some of the
more mundane questions like whether the pages are to be
numbered, drilled, and if you
want die-cuts.
Last, you want to figure your time frame.
When do you need it versus when you REALLY need it. Printers
generally operate
on their own calendar and clock which is something similar
to Quantum mechanics. The usual response is “you
want it WHEN...?” followed by reverberating and raucous
laughter.
Now you probably want me to explain all of this,
don’t
you?
Well, this Ol’ Hoss hasn’t got the time
and space to do all of that in one sitting. And don’t
forget, the overriding contaminating variable is “HOW
MUCH ARE YOU WILLING TO PAY!”.
The better you want
it to look, the more it’s going
to cost. But the question you have to ask is more important
than cost:
If you had your druthers, would you prefer a
piece that did what it was supposed to do; or one that “looked” good?
Sure,
you can have both. But don’t get bushwhacked
getting it, either. We’re trying real hard to give
you an idea of what it’s like to “see the elephant” without
getting stepped on.
Practically all of us take a certain
amount of things for GRANTed. And, when we do, it usually
results in some
kind of major problem. Printing is one of those “things”,
as we discussed last time. Everybody comes in contact
with it; everybody uses it; very few understand it. It’s
the lack of understanding that generally causes all of
the chigger itches. And, if Johannes Gutenberg hadn’t
updated the development of moveable type in the 1400’s
you wouldn’t be in the quandary you’re in
now and none of us would be where we are today - and
you certainly wouldn’t be reading this column (somehow
I’m not so sure y’all would put that in the
major achievements of man but here we are anyway).
The
mechanics of printing are driven by quantity: Offset
is used for small to medium quantities; Gravure is used
mostly for large to huge quantities - the kind needed to
print all of those Free Standing Inserts (FSIs) you wade
through by the ton in the Sunday paper. To be more specific,
Offset is usually used to print sheets of paper while Gravure
is used to print on rolls (also known as webs) of paper.
Then, of course, there is the Perfecting Press - the kind
that prints both sides of a sheet/roll of paper at the
same time. And don’t forget that there are presses
in one-, two-, four-, and six-color inking at one time.
That means that the more complicated your job is, the more
sophisticated the press needed to do the job. Complication
and sophistication add up to M-O-N-E-Y.
Printing is a manufacturing
process, albeit one that is generally considered custom
manufacturing. Sorta like whether
you like your hard cider from the suttler or from your
own jug out of your own spring house. And to print a piece,
let’s say a brochure, the steps are about as complicated
as making a good batch of cider.
First you have to have
a concept with an idea of what you want to say and what
you want to show - that’s the
easy part. Now you need to write the copy and pick the
visuals you’re going to use. Let’s say you
want you’re brochure to end up being 8 1⁄2” X
11”. Well, the amount of copy and the number of visuals
will determine how many pages you will have to print. Now
if you go the other way and say how many pages you want,
you might wind up trying to fit an elephant through the
eye of a needle - just won’t do. So let’s say
that your copy and visuals work out to four pages plus
the cover: that works out to a total of eight pages to
be printed, counting front and back of each page as one.
The next step is to set type and produce a mechanical
or paste-up. The mechanical is the step that indicates
what
each page is supposed to look like and where the visuals
are supposed to go. Before you set type and start work
on the mechanical be sure that the copy has been “proofed” at
each step - if an error occurs, and you let it get by,
you may not be able to correct it later. Okay, you get
one last shot to save your hide and that’s when the
mechanical is completed and before the printing plates
are made. Remember to proof each mechanical to be sure
that
there are no typographical errors and that
everything is where it is supposed to be. A one-digit
change in an address or phone number can mean the difference
in whether you get any sales or not. It goes without
saying (that’s why I’m saying it) that most
errors occur in the elements that you take for granted.
It amazes me how most typographical errors can happen
with the most mundane elements of copy.
Once you have
approved the mechanical it goes to film assembly, or
stripping, where the pieces are put together
to produce
the plate. The film is put together in forms - the way
the pages will be printed on a piece of paper. The size
of the print surface of the press will determine the number
of pages per form. If the form isn’t utilized well
you’ll have a lot of excess paper trim, the more
trim - the more paper you have to use to print. The more
paper you use, the higher the cost. Oops. Miss Lucy has
gotten her crinolines in a ruffle because we’re running
to hard, too long. Until next time, Don’t chop anything
but high cotton.
