Adobe Photoshop Training with Dan Margulis

I’m after some advice about a print job for a client that recently went pear-shaped.

The project is a hard-back 288 book, with a 16 page color section bound in.

The run was 1000 books.

I’m UK based, while the client is in the US, so I’ve not seen a printed copy yet, but the client is telling me that the printing is of very poor quality on the non-color pages.

I followed the printer’s specs to the letter, setting up my Photoshop CMYK for US-style repro., and dot-gain as instructed. Seps were done with a light black plate to ensure the printers had enough ‘play’ in the color when printing.

The whole job was supplied as hi-res PDFs made from their specs.

Client has told me the following;

“We received the first few copies of [book]. On a positive note, the cover and the color section both look great on all the books. However, the are some other serious problems with the printing”

“Pages 141, 147, 153, and 159 are all severely over-saturated, with ink smears and the ‘ghost’ of another page that appears to have been printed on top of them. Three of the 5 cases of books we received had this problem, so it is not an isolated incident, and I suspect that many more in the print run may be the same.”

"There is a problem with the consistency of contrast throughout the rest of the book, which is extremely irregular. Most of the pages printing is too light, with only a few pages out of the entire book being printed to the correct darkness. This is easy to see by just flipping through the pages, as the page border should be the same on every page. It’s not, many pages are very light, making the art look washed-out and the print difficult to read."

"... nearly all the artwork in the B&W section looks washed out and grey, including the page borders and photos. It is quite varied, on some it looks like the mid-tones are gone, and others the blacks look like they are a dark grey."

“They read my comments, and pulled one of the printed books from the ones they had there. It had the same problems, so this is not an isolated incident.”

“[Rep] said the ‘higher ups’ were discussing what to do, and he mentioned that they would likely attempt to give us a discount.”

Sadly, the client is not familiar with printing to any great degree, but if what he describes is true, I am of the opinion that a reprint is the only solution here. Am I right to advise that, and tell the client to stand his ground on this issue?

As he says, “personally I’m not interested in selling a poor print-job, we’ve worked too long and too hard for second-rate work”.

What would cause the mono pages to have such poor printing, where—as client—says, the color is great.

Is it, pure and simple, negligence on the printer’s behalf?

The grayscale art was prepared with similar dot-gain settings, and treated as a black plate in terms of curves, etc.

I believe client saw proofs of the whole book, was happy with the quality of those, including the relative darkness and contrast, and signed them off; they might, however, only have been for the color section and cover.

Against advice, client did not go to the printers and pass on press.

Any one got any advice/comments on this that I can pass on?

TIA

Andy W

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Andy Warwick wrote:

This is called offsetting - the ink wasn’t left to dry long enough, or they stacked too much paper together and the pressure caused ink to transfer from one sheet to another.

If it is a problem throughout the book, the printer should rerun it.

Sounds like quality control trouble in the pressroom.

It sounds like a reprint is in order. But without knowing the whole story, regarding proofs, etc...

A book I worked on last year was rejected for offsetting. Apparently it was a real nightmare for the printer, something to do with the particular combination of ink and paper - it ended up that they had to varnish the entire book because the ink wouldn’t dry.

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Andy Warwick writes,

Not yet. If the client is, as you say, unfamiliar with printing, then his description of what occurred is likely to be incomplete and/or inaccurate. The cost of overnighting a book to the UK is exceedingly small in comparison to the aggravation everybody is likely to go through if the matter is not resolved quickly. You need to see the printed copies yourself and form your own opinion of what actually occurred, and if necessary you should become personally involved and speak to the printer afterwards to negotiate a resolution.

If you sit on the sidelines with incomplete information, what is almost guaranteed to occur is that (unless the printer concludes he absolutely hasn’t a leg to stand on) he will concoct a reason why what happened is your fault and try to sell that theory to your client. And, if your client doesn’t know very much about printing, perhaps he will fall for it.

Get yourself a copy of the job immediately.

Dan Margulis

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hello andy, for me a run of 1000 units x 200+ pages color/bw would be a major project.. I would have high expectations for a truly remarkable final piece.

Any number of things could have gone south..ink offset/heavy-thin ink laydown on the text. the printer may have jobbed part of the work out (perhaps the “better” color and/or the cover).Many on this list may not consider this a major job and depending on previous experience and their relationships with the printer would have delegated the printing/proofing to the printing company... I personally would have been there or at a minimum sent a local professional to represent my interests during the press run.. obviously the criteria to print consistently failed.. I also would not want to submit second rate production.. discounts would not be acceptable to me... Printing from your pdfs do not seem to be the issue.. just basic quality control.. How did you sign off on the proofing? everytime we open a carton of printed material we are either happy or disappointed.. Unless there is more to this story... Quality may be subjective..however, I feel the printer is rsponsible for providing a reasonably consistent product.

good luck jim bean

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Hello list.

As a follow-up to my recent post, the printer concerned has conceded there is an issue with part of the run, and they are currently going through all the packaged boxes of books to determine how many are affected. We have yet to hear how many are bad, and what will be done about those that are; I expect we shall be offered a re-print or full refund of that proportion of the run. They should let us know by Friday.

Despite Dan’s very good advice, and 3 requests to the client to do so, he has yet to send me a copy of the book so I can see the issues myself; so, while I am prepared to offer him advice, I do so with the caveat that this is all sight unseen. If the printers back him into a corner, and convince him it was an issue with files, it is through no fault of my own. (The client has historically always taken numerous reminders to get *anything* done, so this does not surprise me...). I have pointed out that if some of the books are okay, then that simply can’t be the case.

Client has learned a lot about printing very quickly from my discussions and emails. :)

Given distance (me U.K. versus printer/client U.S.A) and budget, having myself present to pass the job on press was not considered an option (the whole production was done on ‘mate rates’, so I made little—if anything—on the job); as second best I *strongly* advised the client to pass on press, at least as far as ‘looking okay’. Sadly, he didn’t.

What’s more, due to last minute deadlines because of constant client amends up to the wire, I was not even in a position to see the proofs. Simply not enough time to send them over the pond, look, and send them back.

Regardless of the printer’s apparent lack of quality control, let this be a lesson as to why skimping on the last ha’penny of tar wasn’t a great decision...

Thanks for the lists indulgence for something that is strictly off-topic; at least I know that, having followed Dans’ teachings on the preparation of the job, the printer had no come back on the quality of the separations that produced the color pages and cover, even though it was my first U.S. print run. I’ve seen digi photos of the book cover and one color spread, and they look great. Chalk one up for “Professional Photoshop”.

I’ll let the list know the final outcome.

Andy Warwick

Creed New Media. <http://www.creed.co.uk>

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Andy Warwick wrote:

A saying I’ve become fond of goes somthing like this: There is never time for a proof, but there is always time to rerun the job.

...Jono

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Andy Warwick wrote:

If the customer has a scanner, or digital camera, it might be of some use to have them email you an image of one or two pages.

Mike Russell

www.curvemeister.com

www.geigy.2y.net

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Hi Andy,

I’ve been following this thread and it reminds me of the old adage that everyone who has ever worked with commercial clients can attest to: ‘There’s never enough to time to do things right, but always enough time to do them over’. Lots of empathy here.

Dolores

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Hi List

Just to wrap up the story of this thread, the printer has gracefully conceded that there was a problem with the complete print run, and they have agreed to a reprint at their expense. They were also willing to offer my client the poorly printed books at a tiny fraction of the original cost (rather than destroy them), for promotional purposes, and allow him to amend some of the pages that he noticed were incorrect after the initial print. All in all, a good result.

The only fly in the ointment is the 4-5 week extra turnaround, during which my client is unable to sell any books and thus see a return on his investment (and pay my invoice!).

The client is also planning to go down to the printer’s this time around, if humanly possible, and pass-on-press, as per my original advice.

Thanks for all the advice and insight. Here’s hoping for a better result this time around.

Cheers

—

Andy Warwick

Creed New Media. <http://www.creed.co.uk>