Guidebook: Printing Dissertations

When a dissertation is nearly completed, the great questions of printing occur. Often combined with a irritatingly definite period.
At this very point this little guide­book is supposed to join in and help, it contains a cross section of dialogues we've had with our customers throughout the years, so it contains answers to the customarily asked questions.

Printing

B/w and Colour Print

Our filecheck displays amount and number of counted coloured pages in a template file. Since coloured prints are clearly more expensive than b/w prints, sometimes it is thought a bit longer about having some pages containing pigment printed black and white.
This is done very easily by switching to complete b/w mode, maybe with a coloured title page only. However, if this is also considered for enclosed pages, it is absolutely recommended to convert these pages into greyscale already in the original file. Mostly concerned are included graphics, converting the colour depth to grey scale via 'edit' function of every customary graphical software will do. This applies particularly for scans, they often contain pigments invisible to the naked eye.
Of course it is also possible to deliver the corresponding page numbers (always use the internal page number at the lower screen of the pdf-file, not the paging of the document, please) requesting rededication, but at this point usually so much extra handling time is needed that this marginalises the cost saving. To make things worse, it is no longer possible to print by the pile, which has a negative effect on the concision of the resulting print sets.

Single- or Both-sided Printing

Sometimes already external forces like the capacity of the chosen binding type or requirements of the examination authority lead to both-sided printing.
A further consideration might be the price of 100g or 120g paper, though paper usually has a weak effect on the total.
Single-sided printing ist standard, we don't have an explanation for this, maybe the reason can be found in the following paragraph.

Both-sided Printing
If you want to choose both-sided printing, you should mention that already from the start. Most word-processing programs offer this mode already at document setup and thereby decrease author's worries, a subsequent modification usually doesn't run without loss.
Of particular importance is the right-placed paging, this is simplified by page numbers positioned in the center.
The predetermined margin left blank always has to be placed on the right side.

File Format pdf

Printing is carried out exclusively from pdf files.
This file type is the only platform independent one. Files saved in other formats contain conversion failures too often. The more grateful appearances of such failures are files that can't even be opened or that contain only hieroglyphics, but mostly failures hide in bits and bobs that aren't recognized in a hasty checking.

If all else fails, we sometimes make an exception, but reluctantly. The risk in such a case is transmitted to the customer though.
Please bring time and your own application development system then.

In case you have problems with converting, assembling or sorting, you can resort to other converters than the one that is integrated in your developing application. These converters install themselves as program independent print drivers on your system. We place a very extensive and reliable pdf converter for PCs at your disposal, others can be found on the internet.

Page Adjustment

Our standard is printing with page adjustment.
Background: Printing always spares a framing blank margin of a few milli­meters (otherwise toner powder would be thrown into the machine). Printing without page adjustment could cause cropped elements near this edge.
Using page adjustment the page is scaled down to about 97% before printing, so content is complete extant at any rate.
In case printing without page adjustment should be necessary, please inform us.

Blank Pages

Especially in case of both-sided, but also of one-sided printing applies: If a page is to be left blank (often necessary in both-sided printing in order to let the next chapter start on the right), it has to be an integrated blank page in the document. Usually there's an extra function for preventing a paging of these pages.

Paper

Standard in dissertation printing is a coated 100g paper. Coating compacts the surface in order to gain a very fine and clear print image, worth considering especially concerning graphics.

Printing without graphics can also get along with our 80g paper Double A, which due to its high fibre density haptically hardly differs from 100g paper. Also the degree of whiteness is nearly identical. Since the surface isn't coated accessorily, prints fray a little bit more, which is less noticeable on font than on graphics.

120g paper is the Porsche among document printing paper, something impressing. In order to guarantee an optimal print image, the surface is coated, similar to 100g paper, but thanks to the 1.2-fold thickness it seems even whiter. The 100g paper is opaque too, but if you test one of it lying on another plain and another one on a printed sheet, the one on the printed sheet (or one with a printed back side) will seem a bit greyish. This effect is avoided with 120g paper.
It also differs from the other paper haptically, it is that heavyweight, customers sometimes test whether they have possibly caught two sheets.
120g paper is already too stiff for usage in glued bonds, on browsing the pressure among adjoining sheets is so high they'd like to escape, so they tend to detach themselves from the glue in the spine.

Recycled Paper

In order to decrease the ecological footprint we offer two types of uncoated 80g recycled paper with the ecolabel 'Blue Angel':

• Classic recycled paper without bleach, suitable for private use or just to keep conscience really clear
• Bright white recycled paper with bleach as an alternative to 80g paper Double A

One has to stay fair at this point: With a Blue Angel much less degree of chemistry used for bleaching, smoohting, thickening or even coating is available, so a paper with this label can't match a premium paper like Double A. A bright white recycled paper easily bears comparison with customary 80g paper made of fresh fibre, but looking at it lying on a Double A paper in a very oblique angle, you can identify a difference. Same with opacity, which is about 94% at the Double A and about 85% at bright white recycled paper. This slightly higher porosity isn't visible to the naked eye, the recycled paper just seems a little bit thinner.

Paper in excess of 130g is not advisable for the purpose of printing books, heavier paper gets in the range of cardboard.

Format DIN A3

If your template contains pages formatted in DIN A3, the printer driver only detects a landscape format, therefore it is absolutely essential to pass this information on to us during the ordering process and to specify the corresponding pdf page numbers.

A3 formats are folded zigzag, so after printing and before binding we fold the sheet in its center and then again justified to the right border, so finally the right half of the left half of the sheet is covered.

The additional effort is charged as extra services.

Binding

Amount of Pages

Sometimes the type of binding is already determined by available capacities:

up to 125 sheets / 250 pages both-sided on 80- oder 100g paper	hardcover, softcover, glued bond, spiral
up to 105 sheets / 210 pages both-sided on 120g paper
up to 250 sheets / 500 pages both-sided on 80g or 100g paper	hardcover, glued bond, spiral
up to 210 sheets / 420 pages both-sided on 120g paper
up to 270 sheets / 540 pages both-sided on 80g or 100g paper	hardcover, glued bond
up to 225 sheets / 450 pages both-sided on 120g paper
up to 280 sheets / 560 pages both-sided on 80g or 100g paper	glued bond

Amounts beyond these limits are often splitted where content is qualified for separation, so that e.g. appendices are bound apart.
If the amount of pages lies just slightly over limitation and single-sided printing is favoured, it is worth considering minimizing the amount of sheets by printing only particular parts in both-sided mode.

Durability

Since our paper is wood-free and laser prints are everlasting, it depends primarily on the type of binding whether a dissertation delights over the years.

The most durable type of binding by far is of course the hardcover, only direct solar irradiation can cause damage to its colour, in other respects this type of binding is nearly indestructible. We compress several times, so the sheets lying in the steel rail are stuck to each other maximally.
The cover itself is slightly oversized, this helps protecting the sheets and avoids signs of wear.

All of these benefits are also provided by the softcover, but the cover is flexible, therefore much thinner and therefore more vulnerable. The front is made up of plastic foil, this can dry out and get fracturable over time.

The most fugacious of the offered binding types is the glued bond. The reason for this is on the one hand the nature of things, glue is just less durable than mechanic procedures, on the other hand the flexibility, the strap on the spine consists of fabric and glue, this keeps sheets together indeed, but it can't resist higher strain, even less being treated improper (and examinants too take the bait of leveling opened books with their thenar much too often).
The stability of glued bonds decreases with increasing binding size.
If glued bond isn't prescribed, it is absolutely recommended to think about the softcover as an alternative.

More practical than durable is the metallic spiral, this binding is also more affected by the bound paper than the other way round, so if paper warps over time, the spiral will deform. However, use can hardly cause damage to this type of binding.

Front Foil

Front foils are offered in glossy or frosted style. Matt foils seem like sand-blasted. Glossy foils are standard, but the matt ones are more convenient. Damages and signs of wear are much less conspicuous on matt foil.
Matt foils are contact-transparent, which means they look a bit milky, but when they touch the print lying behind they show every detail of it.

Embossing

Embossing is always a wise decision as far as upgrading is concerned, combined with a hardcover already in order to avoid a down­grading: If an examinant can't distinguish front from back, perhaps even opens it on the wrong side, easily a diffuse feeling of "Someone saved money in the wrong place" occurs.

The lettering of embossed covers is generated of single characters casted in metal blocks. These metal blocks are greatly heated and then burned into the cover.
Because these blocks are only delivered in standard character sets, graphics or all too special characters can't be embossed.
You have the opportunity to test various letterings in our schematic hardcover configuration, varying character amplitudes are already considered.

If textured, especially leather textured, paperboard shall be embossed, you have to consider that embossing takes place on just one level, thus on spots where texture is worked in very deeply remains a fine gap in the embossing, it doesn't become illegible though. It's a matter of taste, some find it stylish, for others it looks like a blemish.



Hardcovers can also be embossed on the spine, but only with a binding capacity of at least 60 sheets of standard paper, because beneath this capacity the minimal character height of 6mm isn't reached. In case a spine embossing is indispensable, special board straps can be used to fill the gap, but they don't necessarily brighten up the binding.
Including a spine embossing a hardcover no longer consistes of just one framed cover but of three assembled pieces. This is not recognizable at first sight, only at examining the junctions viewed from the flat side.

CDs

At fabrication the pdf template, which has also been printed, is burnt on a blank CD and the outcome is controlled.
In case a further version in another file format is desired, it is no problem to have that done. However, if whole folders, graphic collections or similar are to be burnt, it is temporal not manageable to check all these files for operation success, therefore we usually opt out at three files to burn.

Blank CDs are covered with a white label, which is inscribed on demand. Further design options such as graphics or coloured accentuations are not available.
For inscription three blocks are available, one in boldface on the upper half and two more on the lower one. In this process font size and text length are automatically adjusted. So theoretically the text could be of any length, practically font becomes unreadable at about 150 characters per block.

Ordering Online

Payment

Online orders can be payed cash or by ec when picking up or via PayPal or advance payment in case of delivery.
If delivery is combined with advance payment, the date of delivery of course corresponds to the transfer term.

Delivery by Courier

Within the city of Munich delivery by courier takes places within a few hours. Which postal code can be supplied can be found in the price list by click on the delivery zones.

Because delivery is transfered to second-party providers, it is not suitable for time-sensitive orders. We can only guarantee the two hours fabrication time, but we don't have any influence on the dates of pick up or delivery.
Presently deliveries pass off within two to three hours after finalization.

DHL Shipping

For delivery adresses out of (and of course also within) the city of Munich you have also the option of authorising DHL with delivery. Provided are standard and express shipping.
This service accrued from the corona shutdown, we adhere to it because of the request of many customers, but we explicitly allude to not assuming liability for potential contract violations on the part of the shipping service provider. Even off-Corona DHL isn't very good in meeting deadlines, and we as client don't have any claim for delays, we don't even get back the postage. Therefore the risk of transport has to be handed over to the customer, you.
Since this doesn't please us either, we'd always prefer pick up or delivery by courier.

Period of Production

Our guaranteed period of production amounts two hours starting on order receipt. This period contains all imponderabilities and tolerances on our part, therefore the guarantee. Not contained are delays as waiting periods, advisory services or sample copies, the two hours start when the order is placed / when the fabrication can start.
In particular cases it is possible that production passes off faster or is downgraded in the first place. In particular cases.
In case a friend reported such an event to you without mentioning that this was an exception, you can be sure: We did mention it to him.

Because our production hours are located outside our opening hours, the indicated period of two hours refers not just to the opening hours, but to the hours of production. For example it ist possible to place an order at 7 p.m. and pick it up at store opening next day.

Upon Completion

Replacing Pages

In case a slipped-in mistake is mentioned after production and single pages have to be replaced, this is possible once with soft- or hardcover. Once, because binding quality is adversely and considerably affected at second time, sometimes even the cover.
This kind of replacement doesn't cause material costs, but expenses of reworking have to be charged. If the cover shouldn't be usable anymore, the content (except for outer sheets) can still be saved, so that binding costs accrue, but no further costs for printing or paper.
In case of metallic spirals, the spiral has to be unfixed, expenses are incurred for a new binding and the additional work.
No replacement is possible in case of glued bonds, they have to be manufactured a second time.

Waved Paper

If bonded paper develops waves subsequently, it has become damp (which happens easily to a hygroscopic material like paper, there­fore we deliver in card­board boxes and paper bags).
Relief: Take the material into the bath­room while showering, after­wards weight it down evenly and intensely, then let it dry thoroughly in an arid environment at room temperature(!).