Print Image Blog

NCR (No Carbon Required) Paper.

We print lots of these books every month. They are numbered and the top copies perforated with the last copy in the book not being perforated. They are also numbered for control purposes. This also known as carbonless paper in other countries. How this work is the paper is coated with an ink releasing coating on the back of the paper and the copy has an ink absorbing coating on the front. The middle sheets have the coating both front and back. While the last sheet in the set is coated only on the front. When the books are duplicate we just use a CB sheet and a CF sheet. When 3 or more copies are needed we print on CFB paper. This is specially made paper and our current house brand is Reacto manufactured by Koehler and can be ordered in several colours. White yellow blue green and pink are the colours available. Most books are printed on white for the top copy and the other copies in other colours. This helps with the business filing so you know the accounts copy is yellow etc. The most number of copies in a set is recommended at 5 More than that and it the pressure required to write through to the last page is to great.

The types of books done are time sheets, delivery books, VAT invoices Receipts, Quotes, Orders, Petty cash, Requistions etc. Let us know what we can do for you. Now the clever chaps have also invented a NCR glue. This glue is activated by the coatings so that the sets separate where there is no coating. This is useful for forms which are given out for filling in where copies are required or have to be signed off by several different departments. The other popular forms are the continuous forms used in dot matrix printers.

With our new press we now do the books in two colours as well as one colour. We also have inline numbering and perforating on the press which enables a quicker turnaround.

For quotes and more info contact me

We have had a careful look at load shedding and the new schedules for Johannesburg.

Our schedule is from 6am to 10am on Wednesdays and alternate weeks on Mondays and Fridays. What we have done to ensure our normal standards of production is met is install an extra black/white printer

Also last year we upgraded our litho printing with a 2 colour Heidelberg this has given us extra capacity which will take some time to fully utilize.

This has been good investment as we can cope with our workload without getting a generator. Once our workload increases we will get a generator. In order to get our business in line with these schedules we will open at 9:30am on the days of load shedding and close at 5pm. We will always work later for urgent jobs!

This is possible due to the spare capacity and our favourable load shedding times.

We will be opening at 9:30am on the following days:

• April 16th Wednesday
• April 21st Monday
• April 25th Friday
• April 30th Wednesday EDIT we have heard that there is no loadshedding this week so we open as normal at 7:30AM
• May 5th Monday Now there is a news item that Eskom is suspending load shedding so maybe everything is back to normal, I don’t even think the idiots at Eskom know.
• May 9th Friday
• May 14th Wednesday
• May 19th Monday
• May 23rd Friday
• May 28th Wednesday

This will be updated with any changes for the balance of the current load shedding period or changes in load shedding schedule.

Our aim is to give the best service we can and if this means buying a generator in the future we will.

Regards

Ian Franks

Here is my contribution to help customers (current and future) to set up their manuals for optimal reading and printing.

First before you start make sure your page size is set to A4 portrait. Margins for all pages, before binding, including those on which illustrations, photographs, tables and diagrams are printed should be:

• Left margin 40mm (4cm)
• Right margin 30mm (3cm)
• Top and bottom margin 25mm (2.5cm)

The text of the manual should be printed in 12 point type(minimum) in 1.5 or double line spacing. The recommended fonts are Arial or Times New Roman as these are easily readable and commonly used. You should try to fit your tables, illustrations and photos on an A4 page within the margins. If necessary, large tables and illustrations may be placed on an A3 sheet, and then folded by us so that it opens to the right. Advise us of the existence of these A3 sheets, to ensure that the folds are not cut during binding.

• To insert an A3 page into an A4 Word document, do the following:
  Start the A3 page with a page break.
  Go to Page Setup (in the File Menu at the top) click on Paper size tab and choose A3 from the drop down box. Then in the same tab go to the Apply to tab and choose “this point forward”.
  When you are done typing/editing your A3 page, end it with a page break.
  To continue editing the rest of the document in A4 size, do the same as above just choosing A4 paper size.

Each page should be numbered. The title and index pages are normally numbered in lower case roman numbers counting from the title page (i.e., i, ii, iii, iv …), although the number on the title page is not shown. The rest of the manual should be numbered in numerals (i.e., 1, 2, 3 ,4 …) . All diagrams, photographs, tables and illustrations should be included in the numbering sequence, as should the appendices and bibliography.

The content and layout of the content is up to the author.

Copyright is a legal issue and professional advice should be sought if it is important to you. As I understand it, copyright vests in the author for 50 years from when the work is first published and is denoted by © symbol and the year. Where the author is employed to write, then the copyright vests in the employer.

If you have anything to add to this, leave a comment or send me an Email
Thanks
Ian Franks
mobile@printimage.co.za

To cope with the demand for digital printing of manuals, booklets and brochures we have added a new Black and White printer. It is the Bizhub 600.

This is a 60 page a minute workhorse. We printed 7500 A4 images in the first afternoon. It is rated at 120 000 images a month. Together with our other printers we now have a 152 pages a minute fleet in B/W and 35 page a minute in Colour. Put together with our bindery we offer a complete service. We even scan and store your legacy manuals and handbooks to ensure a professional service. To help customers we set up a library of client documents with unique names to ensure we only print exactly what is required.

So if you want your documentation printed for your training courses or booklets for for your policies give us a call. Also very popular are flyers done on tinted paper.

Click here to visit our website.

Abuse of a customer, accused of shoplifting then the case is withdrawn by the public prosecutor. Before you shop at woolies Eastgate READ HERE

I will not shop at woolworths eastgate again.

What I would like to share is my amazement in trainers, and training authors who send manuals for printing with the page size set at letter size. We cannot change the page size to A4 as the document then reflows. So we print "fit to page". This works but it looks unprofessional as the page is shrunk by 4%. I have spoken to the trainers but they don’t listen so I just print. Also the length of letter size is 279mm which means that just an effective 90% of the length is used. What a waste of space.

Just because Americans don’t want to know about the beauty of the ISO paper sizes doesn’t mean we should blindly follow them. The main size is A4 and there are 16 A4 pages in a square metre. Thus your photocopy paper weighs 5 grams a sheet. 80 Grams divided by 16 sheets. This is one of the beauties of this system. The ISO system uses the square root of 2 (1.41) for its dimensions thus 297 divided by 1.41 is 210, try it.

So to the manual writers out there use A4 size as there are untold advantages to this.

Do you still use NCR (No Carbon Required) books?

Now with ESKOM load shedding they are the perfect backup for your invoicing deliveries etc. We still print up hundreds of books a month. mainly duplicate or triplicate in A4 or A5 size. They are numbered and perforated. Customised to your requirements. Paper also comes in white pink yellow blue and green.

email me if you need a quote.

This is also known as raised print and is popular for business cards. In other countries this is known as thermography with our new 2 colour press we do 2 colour raised print.

The process was first developed to imitate the old fashioned die-stamping process which used expensive dies. It became popular in its own right and is now used on Business cards, Letterheads, Compliment Slips, Labels, Packaging, Invitations, Covers, Calendars and in fact anywhere where a high quality printing is paramount. It catches the eye because it is not just flat print, you can feel it and people equate it with quality.

email me to find out more.
Ian Franks

Having read up on marketing one thing we are missing is testimonials from our customers. From this our potential customers will see how well we are handling our current customers. Please post them as comments or email me
Thanks

Ian Franks Ph 011 447 3133

What simple marketing handout is making a comeback? The simple pad, we print these with your own branding in all the common sizes. From A4 down to A7, the A7 really fits nicely in your pocket. The pads must be useful to your customers, so content can be simple lines, engineering block, to do list or even a shopping list. What will be useful to your customers as you want your name in front of them as much as possible.

Next step is to ask me for ideas and lets get started with the old faithful, simple pads.

Ian Franks Ph 011 447 313