Zine Exchange VI: May - September 2023

Chipper said:
Well, there are tw zines being produced concurrently and so far we are on 3rd reprint for one and 4th reprint for the other. The ones that were waiting for me when I returned today were all suffering roller streaks, scratches... I am over it now.

If there are any recommendations for an alternative that can run 250 of an A5 zine created in Affinity Publisher V2 and exported as a PDF, please tell me so I can investigate your recommendations. I had several people tell me that Mixam were very good so hoping to find a printer that can deliver quality in every copy of an order.

Thank you so much for the zines you sent. I will meander through them tomorrow morning. Bliss!
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SoloPress might be worth looking at
 
I have used London based Youloveprint: https://youloveprint.co.uk/. As cost effective as Mixam, good quality, choice and speedy. They do have the same upload portal system as Mixam.
 
having been disappointed many times in the past with dark prints, I've re-calibrated my monitor, re-edited my images for printing, and sent for a set of small prints to DSCL before committing the zine to print, hopefully this will allow me to make any small tweaks necessary and therefore end up with a decent product at the end of this..........
 
Mixam have now messed me about further with sending over 160+ booklets out when I told them I would be away. "O sorry about that.."
 
Chipper said:
Mixam have now messed me about further with sending over 160+ booklets out when I told them I would be away. "O sorry about that.."
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I had a conversation about MIxam and shipping dates with them a few months ago, as I was in the same position. Their advice was to up load the zine(s),, do all the checks, but leave it in the checkout basket. Then a couple of days before I finished my holiday, I looged on, completed the checkout. A couple of days after I arrived home, the zines turned up.
 
flook999 said:
I'm not filled with confidence for my impending order :/
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Well, you might be lucky; I made the bigger order [255 copies] after the only quality order came. Perhaps it depends who they farm them out to assuming they do that. Fingers crossed!
 
Mr Perceptive said:
I had a conversation about MIxam and shipping dates with them a few months ago, as I was in the same position. Their advice was to up load the zine(s),, do all the checks, but leave it in the checkout basket. Then a couple of days before I finished my holiday, I looged on, completed the checkout. A couple of days after I arrived home, the zines turned up.
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This was about the 8th dispatch - maybe 9th - on these two orders. I had to report the problem before we came away; as it was in this ongoing mess, I also spoke with them and have emails telling me it would be fine. It would be fair to say, I won't be using this company again. I do need to keep going with it until my friends get what they are paying for though. I have had notification from DPD that the big reprint is now waiting for me in a pick up place [not a convenience store]. I will update this sorry tale on Monday. Meanwhile, I am getting samples from two other printers in case either I or Mixam have a meltdown [and a refund...].
 
Well I'm almost ready to go to print, so I had a read of this https://emulsive.org/articles/guides/how-to-your-ultimate-guide-to-printing-a-photography-zine which @Harlequin565 linked to previously, as this will be my first B/W zine.

Having read this a couple of times, it seems that the recommended route is to PDF at CYMK rather than greyscale, which surprised me, although the example mono zine in the article is noted as being printed in greyscale. Any advice or pointers on this gratefully received.
 
ancient_mariner said:
How many zines will need to be printed, assuming I'm still in the group?
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I'll be asking people to commit on the 1st week in September. After that week is up, we should have a definite number. We've had 18ish people register interest, so I'd say no more than 20 in the highly unlikely event everyone takes part. My guess will be somewhere around 5-10. I think I advised in the OP that you get your printing done after we've confirmed numbers but I'm fairly sure most people order in the range of 20-40 zines anyway. There are a suspicious amount of people who manage to post them very quickly!
 
Harlequin565 said:
I'll be asking people to commit on the 1st week in September. After that week is up, we should have a definite number. We've had 18ish people register interest, so I'd say no more than 20 in the highly unlikely event everyone takes part. My guess will be somewhere around 5-10. I think I advised in the OP that you get your printing done after we've confirmed numbers but I'm fairly sure most people order in the range of 20-40 zines anyway. There are a suspicious amount of people who manage to post them very quickly!
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Thanks, that all makes sense. We're away that first week, so will order the week before assuming that everything comes together as I hope.
 
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Mr Perceptive said:
@flook999

Mixam

If you are using a color profile, use GRACoL2006_Coated1v2 (download it here) - this is our preferred CMYK profile.

This https://www.color.org/registry/GRACoL2006_Coated1v2.xalter states GRACoL2006_Coated1v2 is printed as ISO 12647-2:2004

In Affinity there is a the following Colour Profile

View attachment 398306

This is what I have always used
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thats bizarre, it doesn't exist in my drop down list. What version of Affinity are you using? Mine is 1.10.6.1665

Ahh just seen the download link thanks
 
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Chipper said:
Well, you might be lucky; I made the bigger order [255 copies] after the only quality order came. Perhaps it depends who they farm them out to assuming they do that. Fingers crossed!
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And they are all sub standard- smudged, banded or scractched.... the covers on every one of them.
 
Well... bizarre but true. Today the small reprint. [10] of the other zine I have with Mixam arrived... and it was fine! No scratches, streaks, roller marks.... colours as I expected. This made me smile a lot as I had left it for a couple hours so I didn't get wound up again. :)

I reported this back to the customer service person after her usual work time ended so it will be interesting to see if she has any explanation why the batch being picked up in the morning were all so poor when compared with this one.
 
Chipper said:
Well... bizarre but true. Today the small reprint. [10] of the other zine I have with Mixam arrived... and it was fine! No scratches, streaks, roller marks.... colours as I expected. This made me smile a lot as I had left it for a couple hours so I didn't get wound up again. :)

I reported this back to the customer service person after her usual work time ended so it will be interesting to see if she has any explanation why the batch being picked up in the morning were all so poor when compared with this one.
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I'd guess different print shops. I had 10 printed there earlier in the year and they were perfect.
 
@Chipper - they do use different print shops, I had two zines printed at the same time , one colour and one mono - the ordering system charged me for two lots if shipping - I queried this with Mixam and the representative explained the multiple print locations, she then checked where they were being printed and came back to say that they were at the same location and promptly refunded one lot of P&P :)
 
Mr Perceptive said:
@Chipper - they do use different print shops, I had two zines printed at the same time , one colour and one mono - the ordering system charged me for two lots if shipping - I queried this with Mixam and the representative explained the multiple print locations, she then checked where they were being printed and came back to say that they were at the same location and promptly refunded one lot of P&P :)
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Interesting. How long ago was this David?
 
Affinity question, when exporting the final PDF I've just noticed there are a number of options, two of which are PDF(for print) and PDF(press ready). Previously I have used the default (press ready), any idea if this is the optimum for Mixam? I've tried Google but struggling to make sense of the answers as they're often contradictory :/
 
flook999 said:
Affinity question, when exporting the final PDF I've just noticed there are a number of options, two of which are PDF(for print) and PDF(press ready). Previously I have used the default (press ready), any idea if this is the optimum for Mixam? I've tried Google but struggling to make sense of the answers as they're often contradictory :/
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  • Print: RGB (for regular printing to something like an inkjet or even for use only on a computer)
  • Press Ready: CMYK (primarily used for offset printing)

Affinity Publisher: What's the difference between print and print(press ready?)

I've always seen the two of these options on the "new document" selection and I'm not sure what the difference is.
forum.affinity.serif.com forum.affinity.serif.com
 
So with 2 weeks to go, I still have one shoot to do and about 4-6 pages still blank. I'm fairly certain this is the 1st zine I've tried to do where I've actually had an idea of what it is I wanted to do rather than taking something I was already halfway through and pushing through to finish it.

Never got permission for what I originally wanted to do, so instead went for a derived idea. It's more "me".
 
Harlequin565 said:
So with 2 weeks to go, I still have one shoot to do and about 4-6 pages still blank. I'm fairly certain this is the 1st zine I've tried to do where I've actually had an idea of what it is I wanted to do rather than taking something I was already halfway through and pushing through to finish it.

Never got permission for what I originally wanted to do, so instead went for a derived idea. It's more "me".
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While I'm still gathering images......not sure if its all going to come together, but I do have a banker zine already finished (might need to order more copies depending on final numbers!!), so I'm in a comfortable position. looks for the 'smug' emoji..... :whistle:
 
With approx 2 weeks to go unfortunately all my pages are blank, I guess I’ll have to give it a miss again this time
 
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