A document worthy of the USGPO 1956.
March 17, 2018 10:17 PM Subscribe
Kindly recommend an offset print shop in L.A. that can handle an odd-sized, saddle-stitched booklet with fussy paper requirements.
I'm printing up a limited-edition (250x) booklet in support of a new record. The job is an odd size (8.5" square) and I'd like it to have the feel of a vintage military/scientific brochure from the 1950s. That means a nice, thick uncoated paper stock that has an almost cottony texture. I'd also strongly prefer offset over digital for added authenticity, since many of the images included are reproductions from the types of brochures I mention.
At this point I'm lost in the quagmire of printing companies everywhere in L.A., and in need of some firsthand recommendations. Cost is obviously a factor, but so is working with a team that knows their stuff and wants to help produce a cool little artifact. I like the handmade touch. Thanks!
I'm printing up a limited-edition (250x) booklet in support of a new record. The job is an odd size (8.5" square) and I'd like it to have the feel of a vintage military/scientific brochure from the 1950s. That means a nice, thick uncoated paper stock that has an almost cottony texture. I'd also strongly prefer offset over digital for added authenticity, since many of the images included are reproductions from the types of brochures I mention.
At this point I'm lost in the quagmire of printing companies everywhere in L.A., and in need of some firsthand recommendations. Cost is obviously a factor, but so is working with a team that knows their stuff and wants to help produce a cool little artifact. I like the handmade touch. Thanks!
Aardvark does good work, but they're not cheap.
posted by roger ackroyd at 10:52 PM on March 17, 2018
posted by roger ackroyd at 10:52 PM on March 17, 2018
Best answer: • roger ackroyd, mykescipark specified “offset” [lithography] printing—Looks like Aardvark is a letterpress shop.
• BTW, mykescipark is correct: “Digital” printing—while entirely adequate for casual reproduction jobs—is, notwithstanding, easily distinguishable from commercial offset lithography (and, in some instances, commercial letterpress work), which remain the state of the art for print on paper.
The problem is that—like everything else in the American marketplace—most mid-level printers had long ago been squeezed out of the business, leaving, at the low end, “copy shops” which, even if they still use offset presses, produce low-quality work not better than good digital work and at the high end, big commercial establishments. (I know whereof I speak, having managed one of those mid-level printing operations—both litho and letterpress—for a decade.)
• I don’t know of any suitable shops in Los Angeles but, that doesn't mean there aren’t any. If I were you, I’d contact the International Museum of Printing, which is in Carson, California, and ask for recommendations. Everybody there is a printer, and they know everybody in the trade in Southern California.
• Another alternative would be to contact some of the big printing houses here in Los Angeles such as R.R. Donnelly (now called, “RRD”). It may refer you to a shop that can do the job. It also possible that the firm may be able to do short-run jobs at a reasonable price: With computerized workflow, it may be possible for even a big printing operation to do small jobs that twenty years ago would have been prohibitively expensive for them.
posted by burbridge at 11:46 PM on March 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
• BTW, mykescipark is correct: “Digital” printing—while entirely adequate for casual reproduction jobs—is, notwithstanding, easily distinguishable from commercial offset lithography (and, in some instances, commercial letterpress work), which remain the state of the art for print on paper.
The problem is that—like everything else in the American marketplace—most mid-level printers had long ago been squeezed out of the business, leaving, at the low end, “copy shops” which, even if they still use offset presses, produce low-quality work not better than good digital work and at the high end, big commercial establishments. (I know whereof I speak, having managed one of those mid-level printing operations—both litho and letterpress—for a decade.)
• I don’t know of any suitable shops in Los Angeles but, that doesn't mean there aren’t any. If I were you, I’d contact the International Museum of Printing, which is in Carson, California, and ask for recommendations. Everybody there is a printer, and they know everybody in the trade in Southern California.
• Another alternative would be to contact some of the big printing houses here in Los Angeles such as R.R. Donnelly (now called, “RRD”). It may refer you to a shop that can do the job. It also possible that the firm may be able to do short-run jobs at a reasonable price: With computerized workflow, it may be possible for even a big printing operation to do small jobs that twenty years ago would have been prohibitively expensive for them.
posted by burbridge at 11:46 PM on March 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
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posted by mykescipark at 10:19 PM on March 17, 2018