Printers & Producing Your Deck

[Marg Thomson]

HI everyone

I don't post as much as I lurk LOL

Over the past few months, I put together a Guidance/Oracle deck based on 42 of my original mandala paintings. It looks beautiful, it feels beautiful and it works! Once I had the design worked out, I spent 4 weeks putting it all together on my computer. I used the GIMP rather than Photoshop, because I am more familiar with the free program and it does what PS does.

The only problem was that I didn't know HOW I was going to get the deck from the computer to a three dimensional real deck! So at first, I looked at the self printing option. I talked to a lot of people and read a lot and went and badgered tech ppl about the specs and performances of the bigger A3 and A2 printers that are on the market. The Epsons seemed to be perfect.

So then I priced a printer... And the inks... And the card stock... And the laminator... And the pouches... And the corner cutter thingie...

And got totally overwhelmed and disheartened. It was going to be a setup cost of well over $2,000 AUD. To print 100 card decks - and even then, I would have to go through a lot more inks than I had in that original estimate.

So I gave up for a couple of days and concentrated on getting the deck up to scratch, image wise.

And then, coming home from somewhere one day, I drove past a local printer whose huge new building advertised that they had the latest printing technologies and could do anything. So I went in. I looked at what they produced. I made an appointment to go back and see the 'printing guy' with the samples and the files of my work.

I took to the first meeting a sample deck of what I wanted mine to look like end result. It was one of Doreen Virtues. I also took another earlier deck - the Native American Medicine Deck. I had my files on disk and I also had a sample print out of my card, front and back, on the thickest card stock I could run through my cheap and yet admirable little printer.

They looked at everything. Checked the sizes. We picked the card stock and one of the workers there knew a lot about Tarot - being heavily into it. So that person knew exactly what I wanted - was very familiar with the whole concept and design and I worked closely with them over the next few weeks.

The first thing I had to redo was the format. I had saved them in JPG whereas the printer wanted them in TIF. So I did that - it was easy!

They ran the first sample off the big (and I mean BIG) digital printer and the colours were too heavily saturated. So I ended up having to take my original artwork down so they could match it to their monitor and calibrate their BIG printer...

The final result was PERFECT!!! So I gave the go ahead to get 100 decks printed - the cost was around the $1K AUD mark - really good for my budget too!

THE FIRST PRINT RUN

I waited for two weeks for the cards and then I finally went down there after a number of excuses (the cards hadn't been finished... they hadn't dried... they were at the laminators... the corners were being cut...) and was handed a deck and a big box packed with the finished product.

I took one look at the deck and said "Are they ALL like this?"
The person said yes.

They were GREY - not the deep black the proof deck was! The colours were all wrong. The corners were all buckled and torn. The surface of the decks, both front and backed were streaked and marked. The job looked like it had come off a $40 printer that was running out of ink...

I said I couldn't accept them. They were nothing like the proof. The person said their printer "couldn't handle the run of black". I asked why they hadn't stopped after the first sheet came through. There was no response.

This was FOUR WEEKS before the launch of the deck - which I had heavily advertised online and locally based on the beautiful proof deck I already had...

So I asked them to do it again. They said they didn't think it could be done. I said I have paid a deposit and I would like you to have my product ready, please.

They said they'd have to think about it. After 2 days I finally got through to them and they begrudgingly said they would do it on the "bigger printer" - the press.

THE SECOND DECK

Deadline was looming. I had less than two weeks to get the deck. Orders were flooding in but I told people to hold off on payment until I had the physical decks in my hands. The trouble began...

They kept telling me the decks were "being printed".

All the way up until the Friday 2 days before the launch. So I went in and I yelled and I got really really upset when told that they were still being printed and they couldnt rush the job otherwise it'd stuff up... I asked them what they had been doing! I got treated very shabbily and because I suffer panic and anxiety disorder it just made me feel like running away and hiding. The confrontation that ensued between myself and the printer was appalling. Three months they had been working on the whole project and it was down to the last day and still nothing...

I went home. Three hours later I received a phone call advising me the decks were ready.

I went down and I nearly cried. I was handed the loose deck and there were two boxes with the other 100 sitting in them - each deck with a thick rubber band around it.

As soon as I looked at the first deck I had to walk outside and phone my beautiful friend who talked me through the whole thing. They were worse than the first run. They were marked and scratched and pitted. The corners were buckled and torn - apparently their diecutter has a fault and buckles the top left hand corner of everything it cuts.

I could not, in any way, sell the deck to anyone. It was unsaleable, just like the first deck.

So I refused delivery, again, and went home. 48 hours from launch with no product. My beautiful cards were not created and I just cried all afternoon. The next day I went online and on the phone and contacted everyone who had ordered and to change all the advertising.

I turned the launch into my birthday party and had a wonderful day

The whole affair taught me to be extremely professional and very clear about my needs and wants. It taught me to request written time lines and deadlines. It taught me to learn about the printing process and what is involved to get exactly what I want. It taught me that you get what you pay for...

And the end result? I don't have my card decks yet. But the feedback was fabulous and the requests for a guide book to accompany the card deck were multiple, so I am now working on a booklet to go with the decks. I will get the deck done and it will be exactly as I envisage it.

I hope that, in writing this, it will help anyone planning on going down this road - just be very aware - ask as many questions as you can - make sure they understand exactly what you need and always remember, you can walk away and start again...

Brightest of Blessings to everyone
xoxox
Marg

 

[Alta]

wow, that is a stressful and disappointing journey!! Especially as the original proofs had looked so good. A good cautionary lesson, thanks for posting this.

 

[gregory]

You poor thing. If only you were in the US, I know someone who knows someone who....

But - at least you have sort of got some advance publicity out of it . I hope you haven't paid them a single cent ?

 

[AJ]

thank you for sharing your nuts and bolts story of self-publishing.
You have faith in your art and a plan of action and I don't doubt you will eventually get to your goal.

But you have wonderful experience to share with other artists about self publishing...and you are hardly alone. Many members here have a favorite publisher who had 6 or 7 decks under their belt, world wide distribution...and their last deck was apparently pretty much a disaster with ripples everywhere, I can't imagine how much money they lost... At least you still have most of yours

edited to add: I've had a quick shuffle through your various links and sites and see no images except the cover image. May we see more?

 

[cirom]

Hi Marg, sorry to hear of your problems.

Don't be too disheartened. It seems you did everything right except that you were obviously paying the price of working with a printer who was not geared up to the production of a tarot deck. The proofs were probably good because the were digital, whereas the the deck may have been reproduced on traditional press.???? If your deck has lots of vibrant colors, it simply may not be physically possible to reproduce them. Without getting into heavy tech terms, its not just a question of calibrating the monitor, the whole color management process has to take into consideration the press, the paper etc etc. Thats not to say the printer has an excuse, they should have known and advised you if the final print could not match your original files or the proofs they produced. It seem that they either completely mislead you or are complete clowns. Because the lamination process and the cutting guides for the rounded corners are very pricey. In fact I'm surprised at the price they quoted you and even more surprised that they were even willing to do such a small run.
Nevertheless you seem to have taking it all very bravely and haven't given up, good for you. If you care to e-mail me one of your jpeg files, I will give you an honest opinion of how close you can get to that in the printed form. I can even modify the file to produce whats called a soft proof, i.e. a proof that simulates the real print on real paper, rather than what the printer provided, which is a flattering but unrealistic reference. Its a pity that you can't justify the investment of the decent printer and inks you initially mentioned, because ink jet printer can reproduce very good colors (on the right paper) and it wouldn't necessarily have to be laminated, you could consider a protective laminate spray coating instead, but you would have the tedious labor of trimming each card and cutting all the corners. But for just a hundred decks its viable.

 

[Marg Thomson]

To Cirom - thank you so much for your offer - I have just taken my files to a friend who is a digital imaging specialist - and he has worked through them with me. The TIF files are fine, they just needed to be readjusted sizewise - being a fine artist does NOT make me a fine arts photographer LOL even with my photographic credentials
I am seriously considering going back to my original plan of buying the printer and doing it myself. The spray coating can be done - I used to be an automotive spray painter and can probably find someone to teach me how to do it.
Yes, the printer SHOULD have told me from the very start, rather than do two print runs - one on the digital and one on the press - neither of which could do the job. They blamed it all on the black... Cest la vie LOL! As a lifetime sufferer of major depression I can relate.
So thank you for your kind offer - if I need to get a third opinion I will contact you, if thats ok? xoxox

AJ - I quickly pulled most of the links because of the misleading advance publicity - or I edited them to say the deck was coming, rather than available. However, AT have the deck listed and you can find the sample cards here: http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/mandala-meditations-guidance/


Gregory - I lost the deposit I paid. But I consider it a well earned lesson

Alta - thank you so much for reading this book of woe xoxox

Blessings to each of you xoxox

 

[Mabon-Tail]

I had gone through something similar. One of my tarot-themed convention badge prototypes was ready for a print, so I took it to my local print shop. The colors were fine, but they couldn't get the two sides of the card aligned to save their lives. When they cut the corners of the card, two of them were cut too large, and the other two corners were actually cut by hand with a pair of scissors. The lamination was also so stiff and its edges so sharp that one could've carved a thanksgiving turkey with it. To top it all off, when I demanded a refund for their shoddy work, the store manager had the gall to scoff at me. Needless to say, that print shop will never get another dome from me.

 

[cirom]

I am seriously considering going back to my original plan of buying the printer and doing it myself.

Another way to look at it of course is not to see the costs of the printer and ink as directly and exclusively related to this one deck of a hundred copies. The equipment will continue to chug away well after that (albeit with additional ink of course), to produce additional copies should you sell out of the initial hundred, new decks in the future, and related material, i.e, printing your images on fabric, ceramic etc etc. Thats what I do, and after the unavoidable learning curve of getting it right, once you do get the hang of it, there are a lot of possibilities.

 

[Marg Thomson]

Mabon Tail - it's a horrible experience and I share your disgust - when I refused the second deck (they'd offered the first botch up to me at 50% discount and I said I couldn't sell them so what was the point?) the printer looked at me and said nastily - "Well, I suppose you want them at a major discount?"
I said - Well I can't sell them in that condition. They are unsaleable.
He said, "I'll give you ten dollars off..."
I said - What? Ten dollars off each deck?
He laughed and said sarcastically, "No. Ten dollars off the entire job."
I looked at him and just walked off.
He said, "What am I supposed to do with these then?"
I said - You'd better hang on to them and explain to your boss why you produced two botched jobs and a very angry client and no money...

They must think we are idiots, honestly. Although I don't have my decks, I do have an enormous sense of achievement and pride for having the strength and courage to say NO to secondrate and bodgy goods. Considering my background, this is a MAJOR step for me and one which the painting of the mandalas assisted...

cirom - Yes! Thats it exactly! Look outside the box and see the endless possibilities! I think I will go back to plan A - I'll even be able to print the guidebook that goes with the deck then, too! And people will get hand done cards

Thank you so much for the positives!
It is so very heartwarming to have so much wonderful feedback!
Brightest of Blessings
xoxox
Marg

 

[HudsonGray]

At least it's not like someone else I'd heard about. He didn't ask for samples, just told them to go ahead with printing all 5,000 decks. He got them shipped to him, opened the box and every 'card' was printed on standard printer paper, all nicely cut, flimsy, useless, a total waste of money.