Adrian Pipes’ On Press chapter, from his 2009 Production for Graphic Designers manual, provides a thorough overview of the print process, both historically and practically. Exploring paper, the raw materials that make it, recycled, handmade and manufactured paper, and other stocks; various qualities of inks; various printing processes, including emerging technologies; print finishing and binding; and interviews with a number of book designers.
Chapter Six - On Press (p.165 – 219) in Pipes, A. (2009) Production for Graphic Designers, 5th Edition, London: Laurence King Publishing, is available to you as a resource on the OCA student site.
“There is a long-standing misconception to to learn the craft part of any profession can be a chore. The temptation is to jump right in there and get on with the creative stuff. Print production, in particular, with its many different stages and processes, can seem dull… [however] Graphic designers are both artists and craftspeople… And when you have learnt all about print production, the creativity will be able to come shining through.”
Consider which aspects of the print process might feed into your creative decision making process. Where do the connections between artist and craftsperson sit within your work? Use your learning log to reflect on this.
Identify your nearest local printer. If possible, introduce yourself with the aim of arranging a short tour of their production process, from computer through to finished article. Seeing the printers at work helps to put the theory into context and can clarify certain parts of the process you may be unsure of. If the printer you find does print books then so much the better, but any medium-sized printers will no doubt print flyers, brochures and similar material. They will certainly have machines for reproduction, printing, folding and binding, which would be relevant to your research into printing books. Don’t be shy about getting in touch. When you explain you’re a student, printers often enjoy taking time out of their regular schedule to show people ‘round the works’ – but be aware that they do have busy schedules, so take advantage of any time they offer you! Take your camera and ask permission to photograph the machinery and production line, as an aide-memoire. Similarly, take your notebook and document the visit – you can incorporate this research later into your learning log.
Alternatively, you may want to concentrate on online options, such as PDFs or print on demand. Investigate these through internet research, documenting your key findings in your learning log.
Any visit may provide valuable research material for you, and of course the printer may prove a good contact for you in the future.
Alan Pipes On Press
Revisiting this text I have read earlier on this course, I was way smarter in print understanding. Even though I know I will probably learn even more creating my book at the end of this part.
It will be my second real physical book I design for print, but this time, I would have more control over the print part as I am physically at the same country (when I designed the first book I couldn't really physically feel the paper and see in my eyes the print samples, as I was in Australia and the book was printed in Israel - which made things harder and less in my control).
I feel like the chapter of the book is exactly pointing on the idea we have less control on this part of the process unless we are experienced and trained printers, and even then, different printers (machines) have different abilities and it can even be different colours or offsets ... so many things are out of our hands as designers!
But, we have the opportunity to choose where we print, and many other factores!
- We can choose the print house
- We can choose the print method
- we can choose the paper, or multiple kinds of paper
- we can choose the book cover width of cardboard, kind of wrapping (eg. fabric, paper etc.), ink, press, foiling etc
- we can choose the ink
- we can choose other decorations such as extra paper, more foiling or embossing, fabric, pockets at the back of a book, bookmarks etc
- and finally we can choose how we bind the book! which is very important.
When binding and making the cover by hand, we have more control over the process and choosing extra interesting elements so I am very excited I decided to create my own binding and hard cover for the book at the end of this part.
I am sure I will learn about more things (then mentioned above) I have in my control and out of my control too.
Print Visit
I decided to prepare exercise 4 first before going to the print shop, so I don't waste the printer's time and that I bring with me something to print. Also I have found it is a very interesting exercise to see how different prints print on different sorts of paper.
(I did contact them earlier via email but got no response as they are very busy, I made a call and asked if I can come with the prints and take photos/ videos of the process and they said of course).
I came with the prepared prints for exercise 4 and took some photos/ videos but as they told me the printer just prints things at the end part of the big machine so it is not so easy to see much.
I did have a very long chat with them about paper and prints, as I was preparing exercies 4 and getting ready for my final project - the printed book I will design.
I decided to print on many kinds of their paper instead of my own paper, so I can see how different prints look on different papers.
You can see this on exercise 4.
I also chat with them about my ideas for the book, and they explained to me some fundamental things about paper and print, for example, they print on A3+ paper and that means they can print A4 book and A5 books etc.
They explained, that if I choose to create an A5 book I can use all papers, but if I choose to print an A4 book I can't use some of the papers. The reason is the direction of paper fibre and how the book folds. If I decide to create a perfect bound book for example, that is not a problem as I don't fold the pages, but if I sew, then I have to think about the direction of the fold. A3 to A4 can fold only on a horizontal direction which cancel all the papers I can't fold horizontally (as their fibre will not fold nicely, and will cause the book to damage and have creases and in a case of a thin and fragile paper also to tear and break).
I remembered I had a couple of videos from the book I designed for print (sent by the print house, as I was in Australia at the time and the book was printed in Israel).
These videos actually show the whole process of the printed pages and I really was touched to see how the book is being born.
I decided to attach them here as this is probably what the task really asked for.