Justifying and metallic ink

still alive · Oct 28, 2009

Well, I'm struggling to learn! Why is it when I justify margins in Word, there're always wider spaces between words than to be found in commerically published books that are also justified?

Is there some way to prevent the wide spaces?

And does anyone know if metallic ink is considered an acceptable color by PODs, or do they charge an arm and a leg if they even do it?

Merci.

ResearchGuy · Oct 28, 2009

still alive said:
Well, I'm struggling to learn! Why is it when I justify margins in Word, there're always wider spaces between words than to be found in commerically published books that are also justified?

Is there some way to prevent the wide spaces?
. . .

You can reduce that problem through hyphenation. But be aware that the current version of Word sometimes hyphenates in very strange places if you have it automatically hyphenate. You can manually hyphenate, line by line, if need be.

But to the best of my knowledge, you cannot get the same look that a professionally typeset book will have. You can get "pretty good," but that is about it.

Pete Masterson's Book Design and Production has a chapter on Word. He advises against using it for book design, but still gives useful information for those who use it anyway.

My views. Others may be more helpful.

--Ken

still alive · Oct 28, 2009

I put in automatic hypenation and it hypenated "dotted" as dot- in the middle of a line! with the rest of the ted on the next line.

Since Word is all I've got! And am I correct that even if Lulu does your pdf files, you have to send them as they'll look? Justified, font etc?

Bummer!

I guess you don't know about the ink? With their having such poor communication as several of you have said, it really kills their attraction! But I don't know that Createspace is any better. I even googled Lightning Source and they do not use off-set printing with POD, so I suppose the things wrong with digital are also wrong on there.

Funny-or not so funny-thing: my main characters own a weekly newspaper, so I'd learned a lot about printing presses. Well, a lot from the zero I originally knew.

Deleted member 42 · Oct 28, 2009

Metallic ink--no. It is too difficult to work with to use with laser printers.

Also expensive.

Full justification--your best bet in MSWord, since it doesn't do kerning, is to turn OFF automatic hyphenation and go over the ms. line by line.

Depending on YOUR printer, and version of MSWord, you may have a setting in the Print dialog, under options, to turn on font metrics.

That may help a little.

ResearchGuy · Oct 28, 2009

still alive said:
. . . I even googled Lightning Source and they do not use off-set printing with POD, so I suppose the things wrong with digital are also wrong on there.. . .

Not quite sure I follow that.

Digital ("print on demand," POD) printing is different from offset printing. The latter is used for large print runs, and the former for one-at-a-time or small numbers at a time. L.S. does POD, not offset. [Edit: a later post by Captain Jack shows that L.S. does do offset for runs of sufficient size.]

Lulu will get bids for offset printing on large bulk orders. The cutoff used to be 1,000, but I don't know what it is now. But if you are buying that many at a time, you can almost certainly do much better elsewhere, and have many more choices.

--Ken

Captain Jack · Oct 28, 2009

ResearchGuy said:
Not quite sure I follow that.

Digital ("print on demand," POD) printing is different from offset printing. The latter is used for large print runs, and the former for one-at-a-time or small numbers at a time. L.S. does POD, not offset.

Lulu will get bids for offset printing on large bulk orders. The cutoff used to be 1,000, but I don't know what it is now. But if you are buying that many at a time, you can almost certainly do much better elsewhere, and have many more choices.

--Ken

LSI also offers offset .... this is from the email I received today:

[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Lightning Source offset books are unmatched in quality and the speed in which they get to market. Our offset print runs are ideal for paperback book orders greater than 1,500 copies, and for hardcover books orders greater than 750 copies. From order to delivery, Lightning Source offers the fastest manufacturing at competitive pricing - Lightning Source is the economical solution.[/FONT][FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif] [/FONT]

still alive · Oct 28, 2009

There is a lot to learn! Printshop has a color that might pass as gold. A neighbor of mine has been fiddling with helping me--I only found out today--and he downloaded Lulu's template for the 6 X 9 book, and lo! when the text went into it from MSWord's doc. page, it "squinched" it up [new tech word!

] so much a lot of the white space from justifying cleared up! They use Garamond 11 for default and I'd used TNR !2.

Whatever works! Thanks so much for your helping me.

ResearchGuy · Oct 28, 2009

Captain Jack said:
LSI also offers offset .... this is from the email I received today: . . . [FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif].[/FONT]

Good to know. Thanks for posting that.

--Ken

Deleted member 42 · Oct 28, 2009

LS can do artisan books if you can pay.

LS is absolutely a top notch printer; they can do almost anything you want, and yes, offset and web press (this is how trade mass market paperbacks are printed) IF you can pay, need the appropriate number of copies, and can prepare the files or film required.

zpeteman · Oct 28, 2009

Technically, LS does NOT do off-set printing. They are just down the road from me, I've been in their facility, talked to them in depth, seen everything they are capable of producing. All of their off-set runs are outsourced to other printers. I suppose that's nice if you are doing both off-sets and POD work and want to stick with the same company for both but why not just go to another company yourself to save the money that LS is going to charge you.

LS has a very nice facility, btw. If you are ever in the Nashville area drop by and I'm sure they'll give you a tour. It's really something to see all those books rolling out of the printers.

ResearchGuy · Oct 29, 2009

zpeteman said:
Technically, LS does NOT do off-set printing. . . . .

They can offer offset printing (via outsourcing) without doing it in-house. I think that was the point. Apparently they do offer it (as does Lulu) as an outsourced service.

--Ken

zpeteman · Oct 29, 2009

Right, I just wanted to point out the distinction because the outsourcing means your printing cost is most likely going to be more than if you go straight to the source.

What LS does do for you, that is undoubtedly convenient, is to shop your off-set request around to find the cheapest (they claim) printer for your needs. I considered working with them but in the end, it still ended up being significantly cheaper and more comforting to simply request my own quotes and contract my own printer. I'd highly recommend Worldcolor (formerly Quebecor) if you are looking.

Justifying and metallic ink

still alive

practical experience, FTW

ResearchGuy

Resident Curmudgeon

still alive

practical experience, FTW

Deleted member 42

ResearchGuy

Resident Curmudgeon

Captain Jack

Starving Artist and Author

still alive

practical experience, FTW

ResearchGuy

Resident Curmudgeon

Deleted member 42

zpeteman

Natural born...

ResearchGuy

Resident Curmudgeon

zpeteman

Natural born...