Shop News
Here’s what’s new in the shop.
July 5, 2012
Puritan hosts Daniel Dejan at MIT
This past Friday we hosted an informative talk at MIT by Daniel Dejan, Print/Creative Manager of Sappi Fine Paper. Daniel covered the numerous special effects in the Standard 5, and let us know more about QR codes, augmented reality, and other current topics. Many thanks to the staff at MIT CPS and Sappi paper for helping us pull this together.
Categories: Around the Shop , Uncategorized
June 27, 2012
NMPS in Chicago
Steve Stinehour and Michael Ames just spent three days in Chicago at the National Museum Publishing Seminar. We met a lot of new people and also reconnected with many of our long-time customers. We had a chance to attend seminars each day covering topics ranging from book design, binding, offset alternatives for small print runs, social media, and electronic publishing. It was also a great chance to see what some of our competitors have been producing in Italy, China, and throughout the U.S. Here’s our table:
And here is Steve with Judy Bloch from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Categories: Around the Shop , Homepage , Shop News
June 15, 2012
Appleton U360 award
“Frontiers in Opthalmology” is a winner in Utopia’s 2012 U360 Design Competition. It was one of 11 winning projects chosen out of a field of over 300 entries. The piece was designed by Visual Dialogue and printed by Capital Offset for Harvard Medical School.
Entries were evaluated on overall communication, creative expression, and execution, including environmental impact.
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June 13, 2012
eBook creation
In the words of prepress team member Dan Weiss: “EBooks are growing increasingly popular as more people get dedicated e-Readers like Amazon’s Kindle, and Barnes & Noble’s Nook; or multi-function devices like the iPad and iPhone, and Android devices.
“To create our first eBook, we started with the InDesign file supplied to us for the print version. Some re-formatting was needed to make sure the text flow was correct. Charts needed to be converted to graphics and anchored to the correct position in the text.
“Since an eBook will reflow based on the size of the device and size of the font the user has selected, traditional page numbers are irrelevant. What is on page 204 of the physical book might be page 348 on a Kindle with default display settings; or 516 if viewed on a larger font size. For that reason any references to specific page numbers need to be changed to the closest chapter or section location. The entire Table of Contents therefore needs to be recreated.
“Starting from InDesign we were able to create an industry standard ePub file. This file type works on most devices and can be freely distributed and shared. It is distributed by most of the major eBook stores including Apple’s iBookstore and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Store, who add copyright protection if desired. To support Amazon, we used conversion software to change our ePub file to Amazon’s own proprietary format, Mobi. With an ePub file and a Mobi file, our client is ready to publish to all of the major online eBook stores!”
Photo by Dan Marshall.
Categories: Around the Shop , Shop News
May 7, 2012
Strike-through varnish
We used a strike-through varnish technique for the first time with our new press. We put down a solid metallic first, followed by a matte varnish in the desired pattern, followed by overall aqueous. The strike-through varnish reacts with the aqueous, bringing out the underlying pattern.
Categories: Around the Shop
May 2, 2012
Ansel Adams catalog
Capital Offset has just finished printing “Ansel Adams, At the Water’s Edge”, a 176-page catalog to accompany the upcoming exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum. Plant manager Aaron Constant created 120 tritone images, printing at 300 line screen. Curator Phillip Prodger says this will be a unique exhibition of Ansel Adams’ work focusing on the artist’s work with water in all its forms.
Project supervisor Susan McNally, pressman Michael Warren and Aaron show of the first press approval sheet to kick off a week of printing.
Susan and designer Peter Blaiwas pose with the first folded signature.
PEM photography curator Phillip Prodger reviewing a press form on the first day of printing.
Categories: Around the Shop , Shop News