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And no, this is not a scam.
For those not in the know, I'm based at the Queenberry lab.
They put up with me here as long as I sit quietly in the corner. It's a bit crowded as Philip Laing is sitting in the same corner.
Anyway, I'm not allowed to speak so I get to listen to what's going on regarding some of the issues that our printers face.
Now correct me if I'm wrong, but the terms and conditions of most album companies are a bit like the signs you used to see in china shops around New Zealand – "if you break it, you buy it". In other words, if you send us a crappy file, don't blame us if we send you a crappy print job.
Where we tend to be different is that we really hate putting crappy prints in beautiful albums, so if we can, we pull the job and get in touch with you to see if between us we can do better.
Here's the dirty little secret.
Most of the stuff that stops work being printed could be resolved before the files are even sent to us, because the three main problems we see are very simple: pixelated images, soft images, alignment issues.
So, if you don't listen to anything else I say, and my wife wouldn't blame you, listen to this.
CHECK YOUR FILES CHECK YOUR FILES CHECK YOUR FILES CHECK YOUR FILES CHECK. YOUR. FILES.
Honestly, I bet you do check your files, but I mean check them!
Don't just view the thumbnails in Photojunction. When you export the layouts, open them up in Photoshop. View them as an overall layout, and then zoom in to 100%. You'll be amazed what you pick up at that level.
Now this is where the saving money bit comes in. We query hundreds of orders each year. Every time we do, and a new file has to be sent, or we have to do some artwork, and reprint something, it costs money. Either you, or us. We'd rather sort things out than send you an album you're unhappy with, but we hate charging people, and no-one likes paying.
The second way you save money is by saving time. Half an hour spent checking your exported layouts before sending is better than twenty-four hours, a week, even a month of holdups waiting for an album we've found issues with. You could have handed it to your clients and banked that final payment.
Finally, there's album repairs. Maybe the wrong file was sent for printing (eg the wrong version of an image, missing the artwork). Or maybe the date on a title was wrong.
Times are tough, and every dollar counts, so who's pocket would you prefer it to be in? A dollar saved is a dollar earned.
Yours helpfully, Pete (and Philip).
Dean
on
May 16, 2012, 6:50 am
said:
Excellent advice Pete and Philip! Just to add - if you don't have Photoshop for exporting the layouts, the next best thing would be to check the folder(s) of high resolution images used for the Photojunction design. I right-click on folders in the "Image Folders" tab in the Event Window and select "Open File Location", and then review the high res images inside those folders.
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Duplicating albums is a great feature- 4 reasons why | The Junction - Queensberry's tech support blog
on
May 18, 2012, 4:02 am
said:
[...] You placed an order, but there was a problem with your files… so you need to fix a layout and create a new export. You’ll need to duplicate first [...]
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