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Book designers: grain direction?
Posted by rjohnston in
18 Mar 2005 — 9:40am
18 Mar 2005 — 9:40am
I just recently completed a job which went a little wrong somewhere between the printing and the binding and I'd be interested to hear some opinions on where the blame lies.
Basically it was a hardbound book, 128pp approx A4 trim size. The binding boards (2.5mm) were covered with a printed paper laminate and endpapered as normal.
When the finished books were removed from their shrinkwrap, the covers immediately opened slightly; the foredge of the cover is lifting up in a curve away from the spine. I didn't notice this initially and neither did the client; it was ultimately raised by the client's distributor, who reckoned the books had either been bound too tightly or one of the elements (board, covering, endpapers) had been used in the wrong grain direction.
I read up on the problem and decided that grain direction was the issue. Apparently, the grain of all elements -- text block, boards, covering, endpapers -- should run parallel to the spine to minimise warping. I did a few quick tests and it seems like at least the endpapers were going the wrong way (too hard to check the laminated coverings, although I suspect these too).
Now: am I a bad designer for not knowing about this issue, and for not double checking with the printer at every stage that they were using the correct stock (most papers can be ordered with the grain going in the long direction or in the short direction -- 'grain long' or 'grain short' -- to deal with different impositions)? Or are the printers at fault?
My feeling is that this is a technical issue and really should be the printer's responsibility, but as any of you guys will know, you cannot leave anything completely up to a printer. This is why we do press passes.
So anyway, comments?
Robert
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18 Mar 2005 — 10:37am
It is the printer's responsibility.
When they quoted on the job, they should have figured the imposition with the grain in the correct alignment. (Assuming that the printer is making the film/plates.)
To avoid problems, the printer can show whoever is paying them an unprinted, bound up dummy, in the chosen stock, to be signed off on.
18 Mar 2005 — 11:08am
Years ago I was involved in a similar situation in which the
dummy was made to spec with the proper grain direction, was
signed off on, and the final books arrived as you describe.
In our case the entire guts were facing the wrong direction.
Through extended debate and hassle we were able to
have the books reprinted properly for free.
Do you have the dummy - assuming it was prepared correctly?
19 Mar 2005 — 7:16am
Eric, I don't have the dummy, no, but there was one made, and as in your experience didn't exhibit the problem that occurs in the finished books.
I'm beyond the point now where I can do anything to have the book reprinted or recouped in any way, I'm just interested to hear opinions and comments on this. It's not something I'd encountered before.
I constantly find myself wondering -- where in the hell did the skills in the print trade go? Why as designers are we constantly having to educate printers in their own trade? It's taken me a good four years working with a print company (who are well respected in the trade) to get to the point where I have confidence in them to produce my books (generally fine art catalogues and the like) to the standard that I need -- trying to weasel dot gain figures out of them, find out what colour standard they're running their presses to, figuring out which press guys are the good ones, etc. etc. Now I'm going to have to sit them down and explain to them that from now on my jobs will be paying attention to a thing called 'grain direction', and I can imagine the looks I'm going to get.
I'm untrained (I studied fine art and kind of fell into design work through my interest in typography) and often wonder whether colleges are teaching this kind of thing -- arcane technicalities like the importance of grain direction -- to students of graphic design. Are they?
R
19 Mar 2005 — 8:20am
I've had printers build dummy books of the selected stock. Some stocks will bind in the wrong grain direction, some have problems.
Keeping the grain in mind is ideal, but for many horizontal format books you won't find a sheet that works, particularly if you try a French fold cover.
There are different quality boards as well. Humidity at the bindery and many other issues can play a part.
Try the folkes at
http://www.stinehourpress.com/
They send out to ACME in Canada and are REALLY tuned in to the process.
Don't be too hard on yourself. Next time you will be able to discuss this upfront with your printer.
20 Mar 2005 — 6:08pm
My feeling is that this is a technical issue....
A grain is more than just "a technical issue"; this is an important factor for printing (and binding).
BTW, an old trick to find the direction of the grain - tear off a corner and lick it; it will curl in the direction of the grain.
I don't know who's your printer, but something here/there is not right.......
21 Mar 2005 — 4:24am
"...often wonder whether colleges are teaching this kind of thing -- arcane technicalities like the importance of grain direction -- to students of graphic design. Are they?"
I've been out of school for about 4 years now, but I can tell you that this stuff wasn't taught to us. We learned about printers and printing, but it was more rudimentary (we went on a 'press check' and were taught about file prep). But a lot of this knowledge has to come from doing, from what I've experienced thus far. I'd guess that many schools just can't afford it (or don't want to pay for it).
Is there a good 'watch for these issues' book for designers about printing ?
21 Mar 2005 — 4:52am
>many schools just can't afford it
Time for working on print-based education has been squeezed by new media: web design, interactive design, animation, etc.
It may also be that digital proofing (rather than from film) and direct-to-plate has made printers more cavalier: there's more uncertainty between proof and printing, and it's easier to reprint.