A Day in the Life of a Print Job -- Part 4

It's quite normal to see customers back in the pressroom during print day because that's when you can catch any errors or irregularities before it's too late. But hardly ever do customers go down to the bindery during finishing time, so it was quite a treat for me to get to go back there today and catch my print jobs as they were trimmed, folded and stitched.

First up is a stack of pattern sheets ready to be trimmed.



The cutter trims off all 4 edges of the patterns sheets using the trim marks as guides.



The trimmed edges are then collected...



And thrown into a recycling bin.



The neatly-trimmed pattern sheets are then stacked up next to the folder.



The folder can have 2 or 3 or 4 units attached to it depending on how many folds the sheet requires. The first unit folds the sheet perfectly in half. Then the next unit grabs it and folds it in half again... and so on...



Then, after all folds are done, the last unit spits them out and stacks them.



The instruction booklets go through a similar process, except it's got more steps.

First they get stacked on the cutter...



Edges are trimmed off...



Then they go onto the folder. See that striped unit on the left side of this next photo? The sheet gets sandwiched in there and folded in half. It moves so fast that it's nearly impossible to see.



They come out at the other end all neatly folded in half...



Then this next machine (the stitcher) was the most fascinating to me! Check it out... it takes a folded inside spread and places it onto this moving belt then it drops the cover sheet on top of it and the nested booklets go down the line to get stitched.

In this next photo, imagine the machine moving right to left... first you see an inside spread all by itself, then the cover is placed on top of the inside spread...



Pretty maids all in a row...



At the other end, the machine places two staples on the fold of each booklet...



Then they get trimmed to finished size, stacked and put on top of this conveyor belt, kinda like what you see at the airport...



And VOILA! Pattern booklets are finished! Ready to be assembled, boxed & shipped...



Thank you all for staying with me through this little field trip. I so appreciate your comments and questions. I hope I didn't bore any of you to death... haha. I promise I'll get back to normal blogging after all this is done and over. :)

A Day in the Life of a Print Job -- Part 3

Press checks for the instruction booklets started promptly at 10:00 a.m. today. This time there was nothing keeping me from attending... no snow days, schedule conflicts or delays of any sort... so I was a happy camper. :)

As you come in, the pressman usually has your press sheet up on the table ready to be checked over. They were able to get all 6 of my front & back covers plus 1 interior spread on one press sheet. Pretty impressive, if you ask me!



The first thing I do is look for registration issues. This is the pressman's lupe. I tried to get as close to it with my camera and see if you could actually see the dot pattern through the magnifying glass, but my photo didn't turn out as clear as I expected it. Oh well! But trust me, you can see each and every dot through that thing. Any registration issues will be clear & visible right away. Everything was in perfect registration. YAY! :)



Next, we compare the press sheet to the Sherpa proof to see if there are any color discrepancies. In this photo I am holding the Sherpa proof on my left hand while I point at a little bit of redness I noticed in one small area of the press sheet. By the look on my pressman's face I'd say he probably thinks I'm crazy! LOL!



I check my signature red and lime green colors from the MODKID logo to make sure the color is accurate and consistent throughout and I also check for good skin tones and things like that. Pressman Kenny is at my side the entire time to answer questions or make quick color adjustments.



Oh, see those greenish-looking sheets on the lower right hand corner of this next photo? Those are the plates from which the press sheets are made. There is one for each process color, C=Cyan, M=Magenta, Y=Yellow and K=Black. All 4 of those together make up a 4-color print job like mine.



Here is a closer look at those plates...



My booklets always go on a 6-color press, like this Heidelberg Speedmaster because in addition to the 4 process colors, they get a Dull Aqueous Coating, which is like a varnish that is applied in-line and is actually considered a 5th color.

(Isn't this thing massive?)

When the press sheets come out of the machine, they have the coating already applied. We added the aqueous coating to minimize glare on the booklet when your are sewing and also to protect the pages from fingerprints, grease, water, etc.



Next up... trimming, folding and saddle-stitching. Stay tuned!

A Day in the Life of a Print Job -- Part 2

I hope you guys enjoyed the first portion of the tour.

Well, we were snowed in yesterday, schools canceled, etc. and wouldn't you know it? My rep calls saying that the pattern sheets are going on press that morning. I nearly screamed. Mostly because I hate missing a press check, but also because I had already committed to doing this little "behind the scenes" tour for you guys and I hate to let anyone down.

Kids are not allowed back in the pressroom, but I wouldn't want to take them back there anyway.... too many chemical fumes and too much heavy machinery for inquisitive little fingers.

In a situation in which you cannot attend a press check yourself, you can always nominate someone to go in your behalf. I quickly called Jon to see if he could sub in for me, but he had a schedule conflict. My sales rep agreed to press check for me so we were back in business.

Our pattern sheets are printed in black ink only (or in printer's speak 1c/0c) so I wasn't too worried about them. There is not much that can go wrong in a 1c job except maybe wrong paper stock or the screens being out of whack.

Here is a picture I took last year on my iPhone of our last print run. This is our Nina pattern sheet. (Don't ask me what all those buttons do!)



Our pattern sheets are put on a 2-color sheet-fed press (meaning they are individual sheets, not on a roll) and are later trimmed to size and folded.

Sometimes I bring my own lupe (magnifying glass) to look at lines and screens more closely but when I forget, I can always borrow the pressman's lupe.



Through the lupe you can see registration issues (which, again, on a 1-color job, there are none) and dot size on the screens. That means that on the gray areas, like on the bodies of my potty girls, you can see if the dot pattern is too big or too small or muddled, which means there's too much ink going onto the sheet.

We've never had a paper stock or screen issue with this printer so I am confident that the pattern sheets will be flawless... plus my rep signed on the dotted line for me. haha

On Monday, my instruction booklets go on press, and I fully intend to be there for them (knock on wood). Our pattern booklets are printed 4-color with an extra aqueous coating, so they need to go on their 6-color press in order to do the coating in-line. You'll see what I mean...

A Day in the Life of a Print Job - Part 1

A few of you have expressed an interest in the "behind the scenes" action here at the studio. We're always buzz, buzz, buzzing around when it's print time for our patterns. I print locally at a commercial printing facility because I like to have the option to attend press checks and discuss pre-press edits directly with my rep.

The pre-press proofs for our 6 new patterns arrived yesterday. I immediately spread them out on the floor because I find that the best way to work. I thought I was the only one who did that (because I'm "vertically challenged") but come to find out a bunch of my creative tweeps work that way too. I'm guessing us "creative minds" don't like to be confined to the strict parameters of a table.

These are the "Sherpa Proofs". They are large digital outputs made on a high end AGFA machine. We use these to check for color variances, image resolution and registration issues.



This is about the closest you can get to what it'll look like on press, without actually creating the plates. The pages are impositioned in the same fashion they would on press, in our case we print our booklets as "work and turn". Here's a closer look:



After I look these proofs over with a fine-toothed comb (as if I hadn't already looked at these patterns a gazillion times!) I check the "OK TO PRINT" box and sign on the dotted line... then my heart beats a little faster.

Next, is the "folding dummy." As this title would indicate, these proofs are used to check for page positioning, binding and finishing. This proof is in no way to be used to check for color or print quality (that's what we have the Sherpas for!) As a matter of fact, the color is often way off and the image quality is poor. We look these over to make sure the pages are in the correct order and the booklets have the right amount of pages and are folded and saddle-stitched (stapled) as they should be.



There's that pesky "OK to Print" box again. I always hesitate a tad before checking it.



And finally we get to look at proofs of the actual pattern sheets. These are black & white and full size and usually come folded to the size the final printed ones will be folded to.



We check for all the usual stuff... placement, resolution, image quality, size, folds. I also give it a once-over to make sure the MODKID logo is sized consistently throughout and the fonts and type sizes are also consistent. I'm super OCD about those sorts of things.



And wouldn't you know it! No matter how many times we proofed, edited and re-proofed the files before sending them to print, it's not unusual to find something at this stage. That's why I'm so happy I get the chance to OK these before they go on press.



PHEW! So glad I caught that! ;) I make a little note on the sheet, mark my proof as "Need Corrections" and off they go to get plates made.

I hope you guys enjoyed seeing what goes on behind the scenes at the studio. My printing company has graciously agreed to let me bring my camera into the pressroom later this week so I can document what goes on "on press." It truly is a fascinating process... well, at least it is for me! I hope I'm not boring you guys to death!

Until then...