Re: Printing manuals

[David Neeley <dbneeley -at- earthlink -dot- net>]

Chris,

Sorry about the delay in this response, but I only sporadically read the 
TECHWR-L these days, spending most of my time with the Framers list.

A Risograph is essentially an upgraded form of the old "spirit master" type 
machine--what is often referred to as a "duplicator." It is capable of 
multiple colors, but only as spot colors. Full-color illustrations are 
quite beyond its registration capabilities. Recent examples are able to 
image their masters on the machine. Run lengths are relatively short before 
the image degrades and text becomes somewhat fuzzy and indistinct. You'd 
have to see what present machines are capable of, since it's been about 
five years since I examined these.

As for having suppliers who do everything in-house, in printing this can 
often lead to higher costs. Printing must be thought of as a manufacturing 
process. Most plants are set up to do some things very well, and others 
only by work-arounds. Likewise, some of the best pre-press operators have 
separate shops, as do binders.

It is standard practice for print shops of all sizes to send part of some 
jobs to outside firms that can do these portions of work more efficiently. 
This is often done for binding of book-length pieces, for instance.

With the same percentage markup, two different printers can have wildly 
varying costs depending upon what they are set up to do most efficiently. 
Often, you can find print brokers whose business it is to contract printing 
to one or more printers. If you deal with one of these firms, you can often 
save a great deal of time and money. The problem with shopping around 
yourself is that you are not experienced in determining who gives low bids 
because of poor quality or indifferent service, and who gives low bids 
because they are particularly suited for a given job.

By the way, a Docutech is not "similar to an industrial-sized laser"--that 
is precisely what it is. (I was consulting with the Xerox campus in El 
Segundo, California, where the machine was designed and built when it was 
first launched). It is an excellent solution for short-run, black and white 
materials--just as you suggested.

The beauty of having good relations with one supplier versus shopping jobs 
around is that you become a more important customer, so your jobs receive a 
certain amount of priority in scheduling. Likewise, the printer becomes 
accustomed to your work and any quirks it may have that preclude it being 
run cleanly--special fonts, perhaps.

Otherwise, I'd think seriously of finding either a good print broker 
(especially if you have many jobs that vary widely in format, quantity, 
etc.) or at least a good pre-press house if you do much offset lithography. 
The single most difficult part of the job is handled at the pre-press 
level, where printing plates are produced including all the specialized 
adjustments required for your job.

I hope these observations have been helpful.

David Neeley


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