Keenspace Sampler Volume 1 -- Printing and Distribution

Faub · Post by **Faub** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 10:07 am

Kinkos does seem to be expensive for printing. You might look in the yellow pages for a print shop close by. Sir Speedy printing here in Columbia quoted me $2.50 a book. This was for 60lb inside pages which is ridiculously high quality. I ended up printing on regular 20lb, 84 brightness paper and it looks pretty good. You should try to find a place that prints pages for between $0.03 and $0.07. The Kinkos here will do color copies for $0.99 which isn't unreasonable, but I printed the whole book for that.

War · Post by **War** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 9:02 am

In the end I got myself a long arm stapler and rotary trimmer, couldn't borrow any good enough for the job. All ready for Saturday.

Faub · Post by **Faub** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 11:29 am

Oh Awesome! You got the covers to go to the edge!
I guess this proves that the letter-sized PDF works for A4 paper.

Is there a reason the cover looks a little washed out or is that just the flash?

War · Post by **War** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 11:50 am

I dunno, it just didn't photograph too well, no flash but a lot of ambient light.

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 5:48 am

Hehe. Ping has a copy of the book in her last blog update:

http://webcomicfinds.blogspot.com/

Mr.Bob · Post by **Mr.Bob** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 10:32 am

mcDuffies wrote:Hehe. Ping has a copy of the book in her last blog update:

http://webcomicfinds.blogspot.com/

Pfft. I have SIX copies in my last Forum update.

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 3:44 pm

Damn you! Now five people were left out of book because of you!!!

Leko · Post by **Leko** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 4:14 pm

mcDuffies wrote:Hehe. Ping has a copy of the book in her last blog update:

http://webcomicfinds.blogspot.com/

"Attacking Deadly Bears" sounds like a band. Somebody should start it.

Bek · Post by **Bek** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 2:30 pm

I finally have my spiffy-cool duplex color oh-my-GOD-this-thing-is-fast Canon PIXMA printer (I love my new toy!).

So what paper have you guys been using? My regular paper looks like ass for the covers. I'm also trying to figure out how War got things to the edge. Ideas? My LCS wants copies and I'll be bringing them to the local anime con in May (anyone else going to Animazement?), plus some will be mailed to Houston.

Faub · Post by **Faub** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 5:32 pm

I think War has a special printer that will go to the edges.

All three printers that I've tried make the white border around the edges and a couple people have had the same problem. One of these was Kinkos, another was the MU print shop.

You CAN go to Kinkos and use their heavy duty trimmer to cut off the white border. It's free to use by the public. However, their color copies are $0.85 and their B&W copies are $0.08, which is a little expensive. You will need to make Acrobat Reader shrink oversized pages before printing, though. Otherwise you'll get inside pages that are too large to chop and you'll cut off some of the cover.

Hartchamber · Post by **Hartchamber** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:00 am

use a glossy paper for the cover. it's generally a thicker stock than regular paper, so it'll give it a better feel as a cover. also, i think some of the pixma models can do to the edge printing for 8.5 by 11 paper.

War · Post by **War** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:39 am

I did mine on matte. I've got around 5 glossy copies, and I just don't like them. Glossy printer paper has a nasty tactile feel and sticks to your fingers.

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 1:57 pm

I have just gotten back from kinkos with 25 copies, they seem to have made the front glossy paper without asking but I can stand that. looks quite good and hopefully they will worship me as a savior god when I present them at MTAC.

Faub · Post by **Faub** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 5:57 pm

You might post how much it cost you to get them printed so other people can compare and see if they're getting screwed or you are.

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Wed Mar 30, 2005 10:20 pm

more than I expected about 86 dollars, but there wasn't anything cheaper than kinkos around. that was actualyl for them to booklet it for me (which was probably very unecessary)

Bek · Post by **Bek** » Sun May 08, 2005 12:32 pm

So I finally got some printed. I printed them myself (to the tune of close to $30 in ink for 20 copies plus screw-ups). I tried to get Staples to do the fold and staple (so I wouldn't have to buy the long-arm stapler), but they needed 4.5 hours to do it. I bought the stapler and did it in half an hour. It looked pretty good too. I didn't trim them since the trimmer I got was mangling the edges too often.

I brought 10 to my local comic shop for Free Comicbook Day, and a few had gone before I even left the store. The other ten will be going to the anime con at the end of the month.

Any suggestions on paper that won't smudge so much? I used 24-lb HP inkjet paper, and the covers are beautiful, but smudgetastic. My hands were filthy and some of the white parts of the covers get dirty from touching other books.

War · Post by **War** » Sun May 08, 2005 3:08 pm

Yeah, you'll need a decent rotary trimmer or guillotine to trim this many sheets without making a mess of it.

This thing was my biggest purchase purely for the purpose of doing this kind of thing (the printer cost more, but I use it all the time now). I tried using other trimmers but they either left a ragged cut or the blade just derailed and didn't do anything. In the end I stumped up for this thing. Solid as a rock, weighs a tonne and is rated to do 25 sheets at once so the 8 sheets of the comic were easy enough.
The smudging is odd. I didn't get any smudging on the covers (with both matte and glossy paper). It's probably down to the ink and printer, leaving too much excess on the paper.