I have often praised the HP Indigo in PIE Blog articles. I consider it to be state of the art in digital electrophotographic printing. When my brokering clients need the highest levels of color saturation and detail in images, and when the length of their press runs warrants digital custom printing, I always seek out vendors with HP Indigo equipment.
I sent a client two printed samples recently. Both were magazines. My client is producing a graphic novel, which is essentially a magazine with two gatefolds and some other inserts. I had requested printed samples from the periodical printer with the lowest price. I had worked with this vendor once before and had been very happy with the results, so I was confident in encouraging my client work with the printer as well.
A print brokering client of mine who is producing a graphic novel sent me a thumbnail-size layout of her print book a few days ago. The physical printing requirements of this 8.5” x 10.875” book, which will be produced on a heatset web press, were a lot easier to comprehend when all the pages were presented as a complete book, even in a small, low-resolution format.
Within the last twenty-four hours two print brokering clients of mine made erroneous assumptions about press signatures within print books, and I made one as well. I'd like to share all of these with you so you will be better aware of how to determine press signature configurations.
I found a very simple and accessible book on design at a thrift store recently. It was written by Robin Williams and John Tollett, and it's called Design Workshop.
I just received the following schedule for a print book a brokering client of mine intends to produce. I think you might find it illuminating in your own print buying work, since it addresses some areas that could be confusing, or that you might inadvertently forget to consider.