Below shows a range of developments of the sourcebook created for this module. A various range of books have been printed and bound using different paper stocks and binding methods. I found that each had different pros and cons as noted below.
The above have been printed using laser printing on 110gsm paper stock and have been stapled to bind. I found that this would be perfect for a zine, being quick and cheap to produce being very cost effective to produce in mass, however do not give a ‘book’ finish. The print was very good quality and found that the colours really popped on the page and left no ‘lines’ as found with other print experiments shown below.
Above shows the staple binding leaving a crisp finish, whilst below shows the high print quality on the inner pages.
Above shows another book produced using laser print, however a 135gsm gloss stock was used, opposed to a matte finish as shown above. I really love the quality of the print, as it gives a glossy finish mimicking that of a magazine. I also found the colours to be much more vivid on gloss stock than on matte. I found this the closest to the desired aesthetic as possible. No lines were also found on the print, however 2 pages were found to have not fully flattened layers when printed, showing an outline of a bounding box from the InDesign document. The paper stock was too thick to saddle stitch, and found that stapling was a much more suitable outcome, whilst also being easy to reproduce, however the paper stock is slightly more expensive.
Below shows a laser print copy printed on 80gsm stock. I found this to be the weakest of all the prints due to leaving lines on the pages when printed, as well as many bounding boxes to be seen, as the InDesign document didn’t embed the images properly. This was rectified on later copies. With this test print, I also found that some artwork needed amending due to being too close to the bleed line, whilst also needing to amend the alignment of some body copy and artwork, as when trimmed was too close to the paper edge, leaving an unprofessional finish. This was amended digitally prior to printing any further books/experiments. In addition, with the paper being quite thin, print on the previous side was visible, showing through.
Below shows two booklets which were saddle stitched in different techniques. I used white cotton for one, and pink for another but found that the pink was too much with the cover artwork, and also made any small errors very noticeable, whilst the white cotton allowed for a much cleaner, sleeker finish. I would of been happier with this bind had the paper not been so thin, 80gsm, again showing through print on the other side of the paper. Using an inkjet print for these two books however left a perfect print, with no bounding boxes or lines to be shown, and found this the highest quality print so far. Canvas paper was used for both covers, giving a thicker, textured cover, and contrasting matte inner pages. I found though that on occasion as shown below, show through was still visible, dampening the overall quality of the book.
Above shows one test print (pink cotton saddle stitch) whereby, the cover was printed 10% larger to allow for allowance on the edges of the paper, whilst adding a slightly different aesthetic to that of the other books produced. The print quality on this version however was the best I believe out of the experiments shown, with no show through due to using a 140gsm card stock on an ink jet printer, allowing for more of a ‘book’ feel and finish and a more luxury aesthetic.
