Lesson Summary: Week five
This week our lesson summary is on traditional printing and distribution.
What is printing? Printing is a process of transferring an image (text or graphic) onto another medium. A printing press is a device that commonly makes this possible.
Creating a pre-press proof
Printing is not generally done in house, so publishers often outsource this part of the publishing process. Before this can be done, a pre-press proof needs to be collated by the publishers.
The stages for creating a pre-press proof are:
Screening (checking image quality)
Manufacturing (historically of plates, but nowadays a PDF is more commonly used)
Not all of these stages apply for every book published (a novel with no images wouldn’t need screening, for example), and they can change for different types of printing.
Although you wouldn’t think it, there are lots of different things to consider when choosing paper.
Paper has different physical qualities:
Weight – More commonly known as GSM (Grains per Square Meter)
Finish – How smooth the paper is
Whiteness – Weirdly, this is not actually the colour of the paper but how well it reflects light
Brightness - The reflectance of blue light
The publisher must consider the cost of buying, the cost of distributing and the final product for the reader. A higher GSM means a better quality paper, which means it will be more expensive. The selection of paper is also based on format, extent (number of pages), use of colour and binding.
During the printing stage, publishers need to also consider:
How do traditional printing techniques work?
Uses moveable type to form the copy
A raised surface is inked and then reproduced
Weaknesses - Dirty, expensive, noisy and time-consuming. Skilled workers are needed
Strengths - Some argue that it creates the highest quality
An image is made on a smooth surface – originally stones, later a metal plate
The image is in an oil-based medium – originally wax crayon
The surface is damped with water; the damp surface is inked
Ink adheres only to the oil-based image and can be printed
Lithography can be used for high quality illustration work, but not textual. In the early 20th century, experiments were being done to learn how to adapt the technology to typesetting
To see lithography at work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E38B0swb4vo
A metal surface is engraved and etched
The engraved lines are linked and printed
Sometimes called ‘copperplate printing’
Usually used for illustrations and other non-textual materials
Put ink on the plate at a very high pressure and swipe the plate clean
Weaknesses - Hard to correct mistakes had to do it through tracing (upside down and back to front)
The advantages of traditional publishing is that, in high print runs, high quality can come at a low cost. However, traditional printing techniques are expensive to set up.
Distribution is another area where the publisher employs a third party.The largest UK distributers are:
Different distributers will offer different services to attract publishers. Some services provided include:
Complete Warehousing and Distribution Services
Invoice and credit management – This is important for publishers who work with a cash flow
Tele-ordering and EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) – Useful for global publishers
Next week: How the digital era has affected printing and distribution.
