Customer Reviews

Getting It Printed: How to Work With Printers and Graphic Imaging Services to Assure Quality, Stay on Schedule and Control Costs (Getting It Printed) 4th Edition

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When I bought this book, I was totally uninformed about printing, period. I needed to learn about printing to complete a project. This is really an excellent book. It explains the different types of printing and their applications, use of color, planning your print job, cutting costs, etc. Everything you want to know, it's here.

My only complaint (and this is my own fault) is that after buying it, I realized it is mostly about offset printing processes, and for my particular project, I need to use digital printing because the quantities I need are too small to make offset printing cost effective. I wish I had understood that before I bought the book. But I'm giving it a "5" anyway because that is not the author's fault.

Having said that, I may eventually need larger quantities; if I do, this is a wonderful reference to have on hand.

The best book on printing i've ever found - a terrific reference! I'm not sure what "Ho-hum" was looking for. This is not a "design" book, it's about how to get something printed, AFTER it's designed (it does have some essential design tips, which relate to how things come out in print, such as light letters on dark background). It walks you through every technical detail, teaches the language of printers so you can talk to them, has examples and reference material. Excellent section on color. If you ever have to get something printed, it will save you a ton of time (and possibly money & aggravation).

. . . than to put it on. Plan before you print. Mark Beach explains type, graphics, color, photographs, proofs, plates, paper, printing methods, finishing & binding and how to work with printers. He includes a Request For Quotation (RFQ) sample, the Printing Trade Customs, glossary and an index.

As an author and a publisher, who has run his own business for over 30 years, I highly recommend this valuable book. DanPoynter@ParaPublishing.com.

As it states in the intro, "this guide helps everyone who plans, designs or pays for printing." It is one of the most complete, well explained and understandable books I have seen on printing. It explains not only the printing process but steps that you can take to make sure a print job meets the needs of the project as well as some ways to save money on your printing costs. This is another one of those must haves for any designer and in most cases any business that wants to understand a little more about the printing process and how they might be able to cut costs in ways that their designer or printer may not have mentioned.

I have two books currently which are much better than this one. I'm not really interested in spending the next hour of my life typing up a really exhaustive commentary on this book, as this is the first one I've ever done, but I'm just hoping to save you some time and money and I feel very strongly this is a bad book and a waste of your efforts.

It was the required textbook for my Print Production class, and I could've gotten a better understanding of Print Production by sniffing the ink on my local newspaper. The glossary is substandard, the chapters are, to say the least, hardly informative, and the author is often contradictive of his own statements. It doesn't seem as though he has an understanding of Print Production at all. I spent days staring at this book wondering why I didn't understand print, till I realized it wasn't my brain, I had bought a crappy book.

I won't say some of the elements aren't useful, but you'd be better off shopping at the used bookstore by my school, for example, and picking up a used copy for ten bucks. There will be plenty there. You can get everything useful in this book from the Graphics Master (a much better book) or any other Print Production book.

Try Kaj Johansen (spelling... sorry) or Adobe's Print Production Guide. Also, International Paper occassionally prints a guide. Don't buy this one. Graphics Master Seven or Eight would be of MUCH more use to you.

The content of this book is excellent, but who cares? You can't read the stupid thing because the design is so bad it absorbs all your attention trying to ignore it. I would offer concrete examples of the design flaws, but there are so many it's overwhelming to even begin. Also, the organization of the book is haphazard. For example, the visuals seem to land anywhere but where you'd expect in relation to text flow. I would value this book much more if it were set in Courier and held together with a rubber band. The production team was definitely out to lunch when this monster made it through the approval process.

This is a great book for designers out there to learn the in's and out's of the PreMedia, In House Prepress and Printing; also explains in great detail what tools are needed for DESIGN and how to use the correct program.
I've been in the business for 20+ years and one of my biggest pet peeves is designers using vector base illustration or image editing applications as layouts, enough
already!!!, do not think that because you are an awesome web design is the same application for printed pieces....
PLEASE take the time to read this book to educate yourselves in the matter, it will save you a lot of money.

Strongly recomend this book to publishers, editors, designers, and everyone who is interested in printing a book. Annel Osorio (Printing Services Broker).

They may know printing, but the 4th ed of this book is not readable.

Every single left and right page border contains CMYK registration marks. Cute idea, fine for a front page, but the stark color contrast is constantly distracting.

Chapter headings are migraine-inducing 3" x 7" YELLOW hyper contrasted with blinding full-on CYAN. Other headings are set off with CMYKCMYKCMYK color chunks that are twitchiness defined.

All the text is sans-serif font. Please have mercy on your readers!

This is exactly how not to design a book. A kids' cereal box, maybe... a book, no. The 3rd ed is much more refined and readable, why oh why did they assign this design to the amateurs?

My recommended antidotes: 1) anything by Edward Tufte. Start with "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information"; 2) Robin Williams' "The Non-Designer's Design Book".

The chapters in this book cover the following:

1) Project Planning: Scheduling Time, Matching Cost & Value, Workflows, Service Expectations, Involving Your Printer, Working with Managers & Copyright Concerns

2) Font Types & Graphics: Fonts, Faces & Families, Duotones, Illustrations & File Formats

3) Assembling the parts of Prepress: Workflow & Process Standards, Producing a Process, What Tools to Use, Word-Processing Applications, Vectors, Image-Editing Applications, Page-Layout Applications, Fonts, Databases & Digital Printing Applications, File Preparation & Preflighting, Imposition, Trapping & Assessing Financial Liability

4) Film & Flats: Proofs, Proofing Technology, Remote Proofing, Costs & Brands, Plates & Saving Prepress Work

5) Color Management: Proper Viewing Conditions, Color Language, RGB & CMYK and converting them, Spot & Process Color, Dot Gain & Color Reference Systems

6) Paper & Ink: How Mills Make Paper, Grades, Ratings & Brands, Samples & Dummies, Printer/Merchant Relationships, Reducing Waste & Spoilage, How Paper Looks/Feels, How it is Measured, Bond & Writing, General-Purpose Offset, Luxurious Text, Sophisticated Coated, Sturdy Cover, Misc. Grades, Specifying Paper, Printing Inks, Protective Coatings & Toner

7) Offset Printing: Best for Most Jobs, Press Components, Press Types, Sizes & Features, Quality Expectations, Misc. Quality Problems, Press Checks & When to do them

8) Other Offset Printing Methods: Print On-Demand, Ink-Jet, Flexography, Letterpress, Screen, Gravure, Engraving & Thermography

9) Techniques for Finishing & Binding: Imagery in Binding, Cutting & Trimming, Drilling & Punching, Scoring & Perforating, Folding, Collating, Laminating, Adhesive Bindings, Mechanical Bindings, Case Binding, Selective Binding, Converting, Packing, Final Counts & Storage & Transit

10) Working with Printers: Your Regular Printers, Occasional Printers, Specialty Printers, Printing Away from Home, In-Plant Printers, Locating Printers & Print Buyers, Pricing Practices, Requesting Estimates, Evaluating Quotations, Interpreting Alterations, Negotiating Problems, Industry Quality Guidelines & Clarifying Trade Customs


This book teaches you everything you want to know, need to know and more than you can remember after you've read it. "Getting It Printed" is definitely a great reference book to keep close by your side for an immediate informational refresher upon a moments notice. I used this book for an online print production course and will not resell it due to its priceless contents.