Test Prints - University Printers
The first stage involved printing out my spreads double-sided. I'm hoping that everything would go smoothly once this has been done and it would also give me a general idea of what my book would look like.
Once everything was printed I put them together in the same order I had referenced from my prototype. I didn't cut them out as I wanted to see if everything was displayed correctly and that each side was with their other halves (so that they formed a complete DPS).
The prototype worked! Everything was in the correct order, however, I noticed that when I had folded them that the designs looked slightly... Odd. It seems that when I printed them double-sided the printer had shifted the design on the other side to the left by at least 1cm!
I tried the process again but this time printed just one side to then put it back manually and print it out again as an alternative to having the printer automatically doing it double-sided. This took a very long time, and it was an hour or so before I finally figured out how to do it so that it wouldn't print upside down.
Unfortunately it still had that problem of being quite off-centre. I was getting a bit worried now; all of my double-sided "experiments" didn't work and I still had that problem of the other side being off centre. I was beginning to run out of options so I quickly went to Staples to get my designs
Test Prints - Staples
I managed to get my test prints done at Staples and as I got home I held one of the designs up to the light and it seems that even the printers at staples were slightly off-centre, but considerably less than the printers at university.
Reflective Thinking - Summary
I am a bit disappointed with my results but at the same time I kind of expected this to happen from my previous experiences with university printers. I had hoped that I would figure out a way but after printing out so many copies in different ways it's safe to say that there isn't an alternative that I haven't explored.
I still have hopes that this process will work and that I wouldn't have to resort to using Blurb, but it will depend on how my prototypes and bookbinding processes go. I would like to do it all by hand to emphasise on that hand-done and "traditional" aspect that I have aimed for in this book, but I know that if it doesn't work I would just have to make do.
My next step is to therefore use what I have printed from Staples and start creating a prototype using saddle-stitching to bind it. I shall try out other processes as well and then decide which one works best.
Learning Outcomes:
[5] Developed skills of independent study, resource utilisation, problem-solving and decision-taking.
[9] Developed their ability to work with complex material, analyse problems and identify appropriate solutions.
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