Blazecatz27 - Blaze - Tumblr Blog
How to get a book quote from a printer
Whether you’re planning a small print run for your comic or looking into other printed projects, learning how to work with printers is an amazing skill. Though many book printers do have online tools to calculate pricing (Mixam, Greko, RA Comics Direct, and Keness being a few), reaching out to a sales rep at the printer is always an option too!
Information a printer needs to give you a quote (and Delphina’s recommendations):
Paper quality (interior) - For North American printers, the thinnest option you would want is about 50lb text for your interior paper. The higher the number, the thicker the paper. 70 or 80lbs is about the top range. Other countries use gsm instead of lbs, so this range is about 90gsm - 150gsm. This paper will be called either “text” or “book” paperstock. It is often available in matte (normal) or gloss (shiny), whichever is your preference.
Paper quality (cover) - If you want your cover to be a thicker paper stock than your inner pages, look for cardstock around100lbs/270gsm. This thicker paper will be in the cover stock category.
For both paper categories, printers are often 100% okay with mailing you some sample sheets of paper of various weights so you can compare them, so don’t be afraid to ask!
Binding type - Your most common options here are case binding (hardcover), perfect binding (softcover), or saddlestitched (staple in the middle, the number of pages has to be a multiple of four).
Size - Some printers have specific sizes they print at (6.625x10.25 is a standard North American graphic novel size, but Europe uses A4-A6 sizes). Many will offer some variant of a “manga” size or do custom sizes. Measure your favorite books to see what size they are and find something similar!
Bleed - If you want any of your art to run all the way to the edge of the page, you should make a larger version of your page size with 3mm or 0.125 inches of extra art on the top, bottom, left and right sides. This is called bleed.
Colors - Your options here are one-color (black and white) or CMYK (full color). Sometimes this is called 4/4 (4 over 4) to indicate the four colors of toner (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) or 1/1 (1 over 1) to indicate K only (black)
Pro tip: If you CAN print black and white only, it’s usually gonna be cheaper!
Number of pages: Make sure you count the title page too!
Spine: Once you know the number of pages and the thickness of your paper, you can use a spine calculator to figure out how much extra you need to add to the middle of your front/back cover design (or just ask the printer in your email!)
Special fancy things: Gold foil, spot UV gloss, lamination, and dust covers for case bound books are some common ones.
Quantity: All right, so this one’s a big pain because HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO KNOW? I will say that comic books are hard to sell in an online store, but easier if you’re doing a crowdfunding campaign. Ask your printer what their minimum run is (note that setting up to print books takes a lot of time, so most printers will want you to print a lot and give you price breaks accordingly). I recommend printing a run of at least 100 if you’re considering stocking these in a store or for conventions, though there are print-on-demand places that will print fewer.
I usually print in conjunction with a crowdfund with the idea of having some left over for my online store and conventions. I ask for quotes of 100, 200, and 500, but you can adjust these depending on your needs.
Let’s put it all together!
Once I find 2-3 printers I am interested in using, I email them all at the same time to ask for pricing. That way I can compare how fast they respond to me and if any of them are clearly better priced than the others.
Here’s what a email I might send to a printer would look like. Feel free to copy and change the numbers for your own purposes!
Hello, I’d like to request a quote for an upcoming comic printing project. Please find the specs below: Size: 6.625" x 10.25" Pages: 104 (cover + 100 inner pages) Bleed: None Binding: Perfect binding Inside Paper: 75lb Gloss, Text Stock Inside Printing: Black and White 1/1 Cover: 140lb Cover Stock Cover Printing: CMYK, 4/0 Quantity: I would like a quote for 100, 200 and 300 copies Please let me know if you need any other information from me to put together a quote, and what the spine width would be for this. Thank you for your help! Name Email Phone
Happy book printing, everyone!
I am a(n):
⚪ Male
⚪ Female
🔘 Writer
Looking for
⚪ Boyfriend
⚪ Girlfriend
🔘 An incredibly specific word that I can't remember
The biggest lie in fanfiction is that everyone has a first aid kit in their house. I have never owned one in my life
What does the arab in your carrd mean? Is it like afab and amab?
.. i’m palestinian
Hi I have a question about Pacific Rim. Given that the sparring is just A way to test for drift compatibility and any activity that requires people to collaborate and anticipate each others moves works, including stuff like multi player video games
Can you test for drift compatibility via improv comedy
Finally done with this one. Kind of a struggle, but hey I managed to get it done before the holidays. Quite tired at the moment so maybe Lancer OC lore dump later.
In exchange for power you agreed to give the fae queen your name. Due to the vague wording of the deal you managed to get her into a marriage contract, which would give her the right to use your last name as her own. Now you have both magic and a 10/10 wife.
The Rabbit is Safe
The skeleton laid in the earth, alone with its hallowed thoughts, for what seemed like an endless procession of years. Halfway through a yawn (out of habit, its lungs had long vanished), it heard the first sound to echo through the grave in… my oh my, how long now? A duet of pleasures – for how long has it been since it had a mystery?
A wild hare burst through the grave wall, making a startled noise and jumping around in quick, tight circles. After a handful of panicked minutes, the young rabbit settled in the skeleton’s rib cage and huddled in fear.
Carefully, the skeleton turned its skull to face the creature. Slowly, it reached up a talon to gently pet the bun. After a few moments, the rabbit calmed, and a bit later, it fell asleep.
The rabbit lay safe and the skeleton was supremely happy.
For the rest of its days, the rabbit would return to the skeleton nearly every night to sleep where once a heart beat.
Sorry for double posting but APPARENTLY those commission scammers have showed up on Tumblr at least for the first time for me.
For those who don’t know what I am talking about, there were/are commission scams going on in Instagram and even places like Artstation where people would pretend to be interested in your work and try to commission a pet or portrait for the sake of trying to get your bank details. Here’s how to (somewhat) sniff them out:
1- They don’t seem to be an average customer/ person that would be involved in your fandom, or has a blank template for an account or don’t even follow you.
2- They ask you to draw a portrait or a pet picture either for themselves or their children/family.
3- They promise to overpay you (in the hundreds) and do not listen to you even if you firmly state the price is cheaper.
4- They are constantly asking for your email name, or private details regarding things like banking details or passwords or other private information others should not know.
5- They try and over reassure you they mean no harm, try to guilt you into giving them the info, or become aggressive over you not giving them what they want.
What should you do if you come across one of these guys? My best advice is to block and report. Sadly these people jump account to account so there isn’t really much to do other than spread this info to prevent artists from being scammed.
Iduno chat is this anything?
As an Aussie, I would love to see more of this a cross the country, as i hope it deters people from this act of crime.
the only time your even aloud to touch any trees on public land/bush land is to get firewood from a fallen tree is if you have a firewood collection permit from forest fire management of your state or territory.
Fun fact for our international followers: If someone in Australia cuts down a tree on public land to improve the view from their house, the local government will install a sign to block that view again
Some of my cosmic cats from this and previous years!🌠
Day one and there's already drama
ok im curious about this so tumblr please tell me
*wild meaning a non-feral, non-domesticated animal, which is not within an enclosure such as a zoo, research center, etc.
for example, seeing a coyote in your backyard is seeing a wild animal. seeing a cougar in a zoo is not.
**feral animals are animals such as cats, pigeons, dogs, chickens, hogs, and other animals which are generally domesticated.
for example, seeing a feral cat in your local park is not seeing a wild animal.
"what if the next natural disaster is me"
- technoblade, funniest man ever
Mumbo: There's some stuff going on on the server that's....strange. But I won't talk about it until I've got this set up.
Me
As has I guess become traditional at this point, it's time for another Curiosity Landiversary post where I show you some pictures and ramble a bit. At the time of posting (5:17 UTC on August 6), Curiosity has been exploring Gale Crater for 12 Earth years!
Last year when I made this post, it was the dead of winter in Gale. Now we're well into summer, and Curiosity is taking full advantage of the warmth (with such balmy high's as 0°C). This has included spending quite a bit of time at the site of the 41st drill hole, 'Mammoth Lakes,' where it found elemental sulphur! With with old geological technique of 'driving over a rock'.
It's been an exciting spring for space here on Earth between the North American solar eclipse and solar activity creating incredible aurorae, and Mars has been weathering these same solar storms. Curiosity's RAD instrument recorded its highest radiation levels since landing as a result. What's neat is you can also see evidence of this solar radiation in the imagery, as charged particles light up the detectors on Curiosity's cameras.
(There's also some dust lifting in this movie - we're well into the dusty season and Gale Crater has been delivering on the dust front.)
Back in the fall, Curiosity also passed 4000 sols (Martian days) on Mars. This happened right before heading into conjunction, a time of year where Mars is behind the sun and Curiosity gets a bit of a break from talking to its team back on earth. There are still minimal activities that can be preformed though, and one of those was taking this movie showing what a full sol from dawn til dusk looks like in Gale! I may be biased a bit on this one, but it's pretty neat to see.
i know i'm limiting the answers to a gender binary. i'm curious about these two genders specifically.
All this about not getting to see John Lennon on twitter but I think the real tragedy is that Freddie Mercury never had an instagram
As a writer I need everyone to know that whenever I write "exchanged glances" my intent is this
