Guide book - Printing

There was a lot to take into consideration when printing the final book to ensure that it would print as I envisioned and also in way that the client would be happy with. 

Notes about the printing:

• Adobe typekit is not on the computers in the print room, so by packaging and then signing into creative cloud I was able to use the fonts that I had included in the design
• laser printer does not print block colours very well, this is something that can only be resolved by using a much higher quality printer such as one that I would have access to when actually working in the industry
• digigreen silk does not print well, over shines the photos
• digigreen silk would not pair well with FB Royal Gloss as very very different stock types
• Hp Olin regular 120 and 200 gsm, not a satin 
• £19, the printing cost could be cut by reducing the number of pages in the document, finding a material of similar quality but slightly cheaper, arranging the back pages so that the thicker stock only has to be used exactly where is needed rather than the whole section 
• before cutting, the margin width needs to be decided on so that the book will open in the correct way
• to ensure that the pages are all of the same size when the book is bound, I was advised to bind it all together first and then use the mechanical cutter in the print room so that the laser can accurately cut through all of the pages in one process

Hp Olin Regular 

• Made from high quality eucalyptus fibres for high opacity and bulk
• Available in 5 weights
• Good environmental credentials 

Margin and spine considerations
I did some research into the margin and spine considerations that need to be made when perfect binding a book. The article of most use went through the different settings to look at on Adobe InDesign that may effect the way in which the content could be effected if the margins and spine size have not been taken into consideration. In general when perfect binding around 3-4mm of the page will be lost, something that can be easily avoided if the document is set up correctly. 

Perfect binding checklist:

1. Two files - a file for the spread of the inside and outside over and then a file for the text pages
2. Text file as single pages, not spreads - page 1 is the 1st right hand inside page when you open the book's cover
3. Cover artwork needs the correct size spine through the centre
4. 3-4mm in the spine gutter on every page is lost, so keep content clear
5. There is a hinge on the 1st and last text pages where the cover is glued, so make sure there is around 10 mm of clear space from the spine edge
6. Have a 3mm bleed on each edge and export the file as a high resolution file with crop marks

Preparing cover artwork

Figure 1 shows a section of the blog that I will find most useful as the front cover is something that I will be printing myself, rather than with the help of the print technicians.

The settings are for an A5 book, 60 pages, 120 gsm paper:

• gutter 4.8 mm
• margins 5 mm
• bleed 3 mm
• page width 300.8 mm (or... the width of the page x2 + spine width)
• page height 210 mm
• landscape

If the spine is less than 5mm then it is recommended that text is not printed onto it as there is a high chance that it slide round to the front of back cover when it is bound together.

fig. 1

Preparing text page artwork

• page width 148 mm
• page height 210 mm
• portrait 
• margins 5 mm
• bleed 3 mm