Looking for a printery/how to prepare my manuscript

[jbrukardt]

Good morning folks,

I asked a question a couple months back about getting a very large (900 11x17 size pages) document bound, I think i learned a lot then about the binding process, and after a several month hiatus, I am back and ready to continue the process.

Firstoff, im looking for a printery so i can get my document printed up on nice paper with proper imposition. I live in the Washington DC/Baltimore/Virginia area and a local one would be better, but im willing to ship out if thats not an option.

Now heres the step im a bit stuck on. I have my document in a .doc format, from working with it, ive determined that microsoft word is pretty horrible for large files and proper formatting and im assuming a printery might think the same thing.

#1) Whats the best digital format for me to have my document in in order to make the printerys job easy?

My document contains some text boxes (blocks of text surrounded by a line) and some inline pictures, this may affect what formats i have available

#2) Anyone know a good printery in the area i mentioned? It would just be a single printing, one copy of the manuscript

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks in advance folks

[kittenbot]

I am by far no expert on this, but I would think that you would want to find the print shop first, then determine what file type to have the document in. The thinking behind this is that different print shops have different preferences, they have different software programs and such. Depending on the print shop you find, they may even convert it from the .doc file for you, for a fee, usually.
Google Print Shops + Washington DC and see what you come up with.

[nermander]

As for the format, I think most printers today accept PDF files. They might however require you to have all fonts embedded.

PDF won't have any problems with the framed text boxes.

Note though that some print shops are picky about the PDF version (there are several different versions of PDF with some differences in what they can handle and contain).

And some print shops "abuse" your PDFs by importing them into Quark Express (which can't properly handle some PDFs).

[jbrukardt]

Hmmm, what are these "framed textboxes" and how do i make them?

[nermander]

[BCWatson]

Just a note about printing.

For most Printing needs your Local Staples, Office Depot, or Office max can do what you need. They all prefer PDF, and can print large format. One problem for Binding is that (you should check your local store) they don't do imposition.

A quick fix for PDFs is this site "http://www.bookletcreator.com/" you input a pdf Specify how many pages in a signature and if you want the program to read left to right or right to left and you hit send a few seconds later it will ask you to save a new PDF that is imposed correctly.

I have used it a few times and all I have to do Is Print odd pages only, then reload paper and print even pages with order reversed. Then count and fold. If you go to a printer they can do that for you, but you will probably have to show them how to fold a signature correctly.

[jbrukardt]

Sadly that site, although it looks very helpful, only takes pdfs up to 20 MBs, and mine is more than 100 due to the pure amount of text (and the fact that i kept my images fairly uncompressed to maintain fidelity.

I did check with an office depot before I even asked here, and they didnt understand impositions, and claimed not to be able to do large pages (only standards of 8.5x11, or A3 legal). Maybe i just went to a lousy office depot, but it was my impression that they couldnt fit my needs