In house Production Workflow

[Kerrie]

I am looking for a solution for creating a 9x11 full bleed cover in-house. We often have rapid turn around and need an in-house solution. The cover encases tabbed contents so has to be 9” wide instead of the standard 8.5” I have spoken with our printer rep and was unable to spark any creative solutions there. Any advice on where to start looking for such a solution?

This is the current workflow:
Print file onto heavy 11 x 17 paper.
Laminate 11 x 17 paper
Trim with exacto blade and ruler to 9 x 11 page size.
19 hole punch
Bind with rest of document.

Currently, we don’t have the capability in house to print full bleed, but would consider purchasing something new that would allow us to do that. I know that both Epson and Canon now have very reasonable prices on their wide format printers but from what I’ve read on those products, I would only get borderless printing on a roll. I need a thick cover material that won’t curl up. A way to eliminate even one of these steps would help.

Thanks again for any advice.
Kerrie

[mattbing]

I don't really understand the issue.
From reading it you want to print off the edge of a 9x11? So you don't need to trim? You cannot do this. Cause if you can print and 11x17, I'll assume you can print on this page pretty close to the edge that leaves you with alot of room for bleed. You're going to need to trim it and punch it.

[idaho]

How often and how many of these covers are you printing? Are they aways the same or do they have different text and color each time? What kind of printer are you printing them on now?

[Kerrie]

Thanks for your response.

Yes, that's exactly what I want to do. I want a full bleed 9x11 page, and I want it to be thick and durable enough to be a cover. We currently use thick paper and 5 mil laminate. It works great and looks nice but it takes forever to produce.

Basically, I'm wanting to cut down on the amount of time I spend running paper through a laminator and trimming so that I have more time to spend designing. :)

Kerrie

[Kerrie]

The amount we produce varies from client to client and yes the data on the covers change with each piece.

Generally, the most produced for one client is 20 copies. That may happen 3 times a week.

We use a Canon 3220 for production now. It's an all purpose laser jet.

[resdog]

One thing that would cut down on time is to buy a Trimmer/Cutter. There is no machine that allows you to print "full bleed". You have to print on an oversized sheet, and then trim to size (with the cutter)

You say the "Data" changes, but does the bleeded graphic? Would it be possible to print a whole bunch of template pages (with the variable data not printed)? Then lam, cut & punch. Then, when you need to update data, just print the data on the 9x11 sheet (feed it through the stack bypass). Is that a possibliity?

[Kerrie]

We have in the past purchased a mat cutter that worked ok for about a month then crapped out. A functional trimmer is a great suggestion, even something similar to a die cut would be nice but I'm assuming such equiptment would blow our budget.

Does anyone know of a good trimmer or affordable (less than $5,000) die cutter?

Right now, the graphics on the covers change as well depending on the project and client. I'm open to changing that to a standard template however, our printer will not print over laminate.

[PrintDriver]

'Rapid turnaround' and 'custom' are usually mutually exclusive. :D

[Kerrie]

"'Rapid turnaround' and 'custom' are usually mutually exclusive."

That's hilarous. You are so right.