Frequently Asked Questions
Pre-Press:
- Image scaning from originals up to A3 in size.
- Mac workstations
- PC workstations
- Digital pre-flighting, trapping and imposition system
- Hi-resolution Canon/Epson ink jet proofing up to B1 size
- Screen computer-to-plate B1 platesetter
- KBA Rapida 105: 10 colour perfector with Densitronic S colour management system. Maximum sheet size 720 x 1020mm.
- Heidelberg XL 75: 6 colour and coater with Axis 2 control colour management. Maximum sheet size 600 x 750mm.
- Digital: Konica C6501 Bizhub Pro. Maximum sheet size 320 x 450 mm
- Folding machines, capable of folding almost any configuration up to a maximum sheet size of 720x1020mm.
- Collate/stitch/trim machine – finishing books up to A3 finished size.
- Programmable guillotine with materials handling equipment.
- Heidelberg cylinder 540x760mm cutting and creasing machine.
- 2 x long wheelbase transit vans
Everyone knows that the easiest way to spoil an otherwise perfect job is to deliver it late… or wrong.
These final stages of project delivery are vital to the satisfaction of our customers: frequently minutes matter and accuracy is paramount.
Our account team will work with you to ensure a complete and accurate set of delivery and packing instructions is agreed in good time, and quoted for accurately, where necessary.
We can't clear motorway blockages, shrink miles to the size of kilometres, or create parking spaces on demand outside town centre offices. No one can. But we are proud of the delivery and logistics services we offer, and our customer satisfaction ratings in this area are consistently high.
Our own vans are smart and driven by a helpful and courteous team. They will help you to off-load work and stack it where you reasonably want it, and leave you with clear and accurate delivery notes.
Our own vans are smart and driven by a helpful and courteous team. They will help you to off-load work and stack it where you reasonably want it, and leave you with clear and accurate delivery notes.
When deliveries are outside the reach of our own drivers, we use a local logistics firm who offer a crisp, efficient and friendly service.
We also access a range of other appropriate despatch services on your behalf, including overseas.
At all times we attempt to be able to track goods in transit, and we always record full details of delivery quantities, times and signatures, where they are given.
These final stages of project delivery are vital to the satisfaction of our customers: frequently minutes matter and accuracy is paramount.
Our account team will work with you to ensure a complete and accurate set of delivery and packing instructions is agreed in good time, and quoted for accurately, where necessary.
We can't clear motorway blockages, shrink miles to the size of kilometres, or create parking spaces on demand outside town centre offices. No one can. But we are proud of the delivery and logistics services we offer, and our customer satisfaction ratings in this area are consistently high.
Our own vans are smart and driven by a helpful and courteous team. They will help you to off-load work and stack it where you reasonably want it, and leave you with clear and accurate delivery notes.
Our own vans are smart and driven by a helpful and courteous team. They will help you to off-load work and stack it where you reasonably want it, and leave you with clear and accurate delivery notes.
When deliveries are outside the reach of our own drivers, we use a local logistics firm who offer a crisp, efficient and friendly service.
We also access a range of other appropriate despatch services on your behalf, including overseas.
At all times we attempt to be able to track goods in transit, and we always record full details of delivery quantities, times and signatures, where they are given.
Inevitably, as with most printing companies, there is a range of processes that we frequently outsource on behalf of our customers.
The most common of these are:
- Laminating, UV varnishing and foil blocking.
- Perfect binding, section sewing, case making and binder assembly.
- Specialist folding, complex hand assembly.
- Packing, mailing.
We have a versatile range of well-maintained guillotines plus cutting and creasing, folding, collating and stitching machines. With this plant our skilled operators can produce most configurations of finished work.
As in the print hall, we aim to deliver excellence consistently in our finishing. Our finishing staff are all experienced and versatile machine operators who take a genuine interest in delivering excellent products to our customers. We work to strict quality assurance protocols to ensure this objective is always attained.
As is usual in the printing trade, finishing processes which we can't handle in-house are efficiently sourced from a variety of quality-controlled external suppliers.
Our finishing plant is also listed here
As in the print hall, we aim to deliver excellence consistently in our finishing. Our finishing staff are all experienced and versatile machine operators who take a genuine interest in delivering excellent products to our customers. We work to strict quality assurance protocols to ensure this objective is always attained.
As is usual in the printing trade, finishing processes which we can't handle in-house are efficiently sourced from a variety of quality-controlled external suppliers.
Our finishing plant is also listed here
Our high quality digital printing facility has state-of-the-art equipment, combined with highly skilled operators to offer the best in short-run commercial colour and variable data work.
With the Konica C6501 digitial press, print is produced in colour and black and white, on almost any type of stock from 80 to 300gsm with a maximum image area of 350mm x 470mm (oversized A3 plus bleeds).
Whether you want to test your market or product with an advance run of a handful of brochures or generate a sophisticated direct mail campaign completely tailored to the recipient, Acorn Press can handle it quickly and efficiently.
Contact your account management team to discuss your requirements for short run colour or variable data production. Remember that we can change words, pictures and graphics with every one, making them completely personalised.
With the Konica C6501 digitial press, print is produced in colour and black and white, on almost any type of stock from 80 to 300gsm with a maximum image area of 350mm x 470mm (oversized A3 plus bleeds).
Whether you want to test your market or product with an advance run of a handful of brochures or generate a sophisticated direct mail campaign completely tailored to the recipient, Acorn Press can handle it quickly and efficiently.
Contact your account management team to discuss your requirements for short run colour or variable data production. Remember that we can change words, pictures and graphics with every one, making them completely personalised.
Our printing hall is a high-productivity environment, staffed by a team of skilled printers and equipped with the latest KBA and Heidelberg printing presses and ancillary equipment.
For the technically minded our plant list can be viewed here
We are able to print with consistent and excellent results in anything up to ten colours at a time and we operate 24 hours per day, five days per week.
KBA RAPIDA 105 Ten Unit:
KBA RAPIDA 105 Ten Unit:
- Delivers 13,000 double-sided (perfected) five colour (or four colour plus a sealer/varnish) sheets an hour. Each of these sheets could be a complete 16 page A4 booklet, or a 16 page section of a magazine, or 32 A5 pages... These rates of productivity mean we can produce multi-page projects, such as catalogues or in-house magazines very competitively whilst retaining the superb quality of sheet-fed printing.
- Can print six colours at a time plus an in-line coating at up to 15,000 impressions per hour, and printing on heavy duty stocks up to 700 microns. Perfect for prestigious work of all kinds, from chocolate boxes to report and accounts work, but also great for direct mail, commercial and promotional printing. With in-line coating and infra-red drying we can handle much of the work we produce almost immediately for finishing.
For Digital Print Production:
PDF proofs and Kodak Insite online proofing can be submitted for your approval prior to printing. Hard copy proofs are also available if required.
For Litho Print Production: Before your job is printed we prepare proofs. These will be checked by the printers, the finishing department, your account team, you – and perhaps your clients – and the Acorn Press reader. Proofing is an expensive process, but a hugely valuable one. If you are unsure how to inspect a proof, click here
There are three methods we commonly use for proofing your work:
For Litho Print Production: Before your job is printed we prepare proofs. These will be checked by the printers, the finishing department, your account team, you – and perhaps your clients – and the Acorn Press reader. Proofing is an expensive process, but a hugely valuable one. If you are unsure how to inspect a proof, click here
There are three methods we commonly use for proofing your work:
- PDF proofs and Remote online proofing:
- Adobe Acrobat PDF files provide a great way to ensure that fonts and pictures have transferred accurately between your system and ours, or that multiple components from different files have been correctly combined. Because they can be returned to you by email they are very useful for fast turnaround commercial work driven by the need for speed and economy. Kodak Insite online proofing is a new way of veiwing your PDF files in Hi-Res and in Flip Book form, being able to turn the pages in digital format before printing. Links to your work can be sent via your In-house account contact. (Various resolutions of PDF can be produced subject to the method of file transfer e.g. high or low resolution or web).
- Digital Ink Jets:
- These are colour inkjet prints of your work as it will be printed, and are perfect for all four colour work, but less useful for work produced in special colours or metallic inks. Colour accuracy is very good, but these proofs cannot be produced on the paper you are printing on. Changes and corrections can be made economically to files even after they have been proofed this way and reproofed if required.
- Machine Proofs (wet proofs):
- These are proofs produced on a printing press from the plates that will be used to print the final job. They can be printed on the actual paper specified for your job on both sides of the sheet if required. This is the best way to proof work that uses special colours or metallic inks, where the quality of reproduction is a key driver, or if you require multiple copies of the proofs, but adds both time and cost to the process. Changes are usually relatively expensive, as new plates will be required.
This is where your artwork or files are prepared for the printing process, and is one of the most critical parts of the operation. The objective of the Acorn pre-press team is to produce a perfect set of printing plates from your files. It is for them to worry about all the technical aspects of your work, such as colour separation, image resolution, imposition and trapping.
- We operate a fully digital PDF/Postscript Kodak Prinergy Workflow, with Insite remote proofing. From high resolution scanning, through Macs and PCs, to state-of-the-art computer-to-plate output.
- We accept work generated in all major applications.
- You can send your files via email, FTP, CD, DVD and many other formats.
- We have automated pre-flighting, trapping and imposition.
- Proofing is available as Kodak Insite online proofing, PDF files, high quality imposed digital proofs or of course machine proofs.
Successful print projects start with accurate specifications. At Acorn Press we work with our customers in teams. Each team is composed of the following people:
Business Development / External Account Manager:
Your enquiries will be handled quickly and efficiently by a member of your own team and you can choose to receive your estimates verbally, by fax, email or letter.
- Heads up your team, and the person most likely to visit you from Acorn Press. An expert in all the printing processes, able to provide advice based on years of experience, and able to give you great ideas for how to get the most from your printing budget.
- Acorn's in-house account handlers are knowledgeable, efficient, helpful and friendly. They aim to be available to you anytime by phone. They'll help you with specifying, pricing and arranging the throughput of your work, making sure your project is well looked after throughout the production process, right down to your detailed delivery requirements and accurate, timely invoicing.
- Daily production meetings with Production Managers together with our MIS ensure that they (and you) have real time information concerning all work in progress relating to their customers.
Your enquiries will be handled quickly and efficiently by a member of your own team and you can choose to receive your estimates verbally, by fax, email or letter.
Artwork:
Although your designer will know exactly how to format your print job so it’s ready for press, it’s always handy to know the basics of print-ready artwork.
Bleed:
‘Bleed’ is a term that refers to printing that goes over the edge of a sheet of paper before trimming. It gives your printer a small amount of image to account for the movement of the paper and design inconsistencies.
Binding:
Binding is the term used to describe how collated printed pages are held together as a booklet.
Coated Paper:
Coated paper has a coating, usually a china clay, which gives it a smooth texture. Coated papers are available in gloss, silk (sometimes called sating) or matt varieties and are used for projects requiring a sharper look.
Digital Printing:
The growth of digital printing technology has brought more flexibility to commercial printing. It eliminates many of the mechanical steps required for conventional printing, including making plates, colour proofs and manually stripping the pieces together.
DPI (dots per inch):
DPI is the number of pieces of colour information that is available in a square inch.
Embossing & de-bossing:
A specific area or detail of a printed job is raised up (embossed) or pressed down (debased) to emphasise it or to give a slightly 3D look.
EPS:
EPS stands for encapsulated postscript. This file format can be used for saving images for print, but Tiffs are preferable. They are a good file format for illustrations, logos etc.
Finishing:
The term ‘print finishing’ means anything that happens to your printing after it has ruled off the printing presses.
Foil Blocking:
...
We are always delighted to receive your orders. But it can save you, and us, considerable time and increase the accuracy of our project delivery, if you always include the following fundamental information, in writing or by email.
- Give your job a good clear title or reference number.
- If we've given you a written estimate for your job, refer to our reference.
- Quantity: don't forget to confirm to us exactly how many items you need to have manufactured. Most of our estimates show you a base figure and a run-on figure.
- Confirm the price: whether you've got a written estimate or a verbal estimate (for your own protection and ours) tell us what you think the value of your order is.
- Delivery dates: tell us when you want your order completed and delivered by. We won't accept your order unless we're confident that we can meet this deadline.
- Delivery addresses: many projects require complicated delivery instructions, but even if they're simple, please try to put them in writing, with the following information for each delivery destination:
- Contact name
- Address
- Telephone number
- Quantity required
- Special packaging or labelling requirements
- Delivery deadline
- Advise how your project is going to arrive with us and when.
- Proofing: tell us what type of proof you require and when.
- Special Instructions: early notification of any special requirements will assist us to deal with them without affecting delivery deadlines.
We can accept most commonly used file formats for Macs and PCs in our studio. If you are uncertain how to prepare your files for printing, or you think we might have problems, call us in good time. We're happy to test a project in principle, while we've still got time to iron out any issues.
For people using conventional publishing software (e.g. Quark XPress, InDesign, PDF etc.) we generally need the following components:
- Your artwork files with all pictures and illustrations used.
- Copies of all the fonts included in your project.
- High resolution image files.
- An up-to-date laser proof or a final PDF file.
- A description of the job, where possible. For complex folding or finishing projects and die-cutting work we recommend that you send us a physical dummy or model of the job as you have conceived it.
- You can deliver your files by email, FTP, or on disk, or we can collect them from you.
- Email: Please send directly to your sales team up to 25MB
- FTP: We can collect files from your FTP site. Simply send the log-in, password and file name details to your sales team in an email.
- Page make-up software: Quark XPress, InDesign, Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Word and most other mainstream packages.
- Photoshop files: The best format for our workflow is CMYK JPEG EPS, saved at maximum quality. However we can accept all formats from Photoshop without problems.
- Illustrator / Freehand files: Please remember to include all embedded pictures and include all fonts when you save the files.
- Acrobat PDF files: We can use Hi-Res PDF files. Please save them at 300dpi for colour and greyscale images and 1200dpi for line images. Set compression levels to “Highest quality” (not highest compression!), and distil as single pages, centred, with bleed and registration marks. We can provide you with our own distiller settings if you wish.
Proofs form part of the contract between printers and their customers. Even some experienced print buyers don't know how to inspect or mark a proof up though! Here are some guidelines:
- Physical: Is the job the right size, the right number of pages, and can you understand how it will be finished? Always inspect the proof first of all with a ruler. Often it can help to draw a pen rule around the final trim of the job, so you can easily check the bleeds and the page elements are as they should be. Digital proofs will be supplied with pre-printed page rulings.
- Content: Check that paragraph and page endings are where you expected them to be. Make a visual comparison of fonts, font weights and font sizes. Ensure that each picture is properly positioned, and that colours are accurately reproduced.
- Textual: Even at this late stage you may find textual errors in your work. With digital proofs these are simple and inexpensive to put right. If you have machine proofs, the cost of corrections will be considerable. None the less, it is always worth checking at a minimum:
- Prices
- Phone and fax numbers – dial them to check them
- That the last few corrections have been made
- Machine Proofs: If you have paid to have machine proofs it is always worth making up a dummy copy of the finished document. We can produce this on your behalf if requested. If your job uses special colours, check the colours carefully, and also check that the stock is the correct stock for your job.
- Markup: Mark your proofs up clearly, with a brightly coloured pen. If you have any concerns at all about the work in front of you, you should mark them on the proof. If you have textual amendments to request, please use BS5261 proof correcting marks where possible. A good summary of these can be viewed here.
- Adobe PDF proofs: Increasingly work is proofed by PDF - especially work destined for digital production. PDF proofs should be inspected with the same rigour as any other kind of proof. You should generally print them and inspect them, rather than inspect them only the screen. If you are reading them on the screen, view the file at a large size. We are happy to accept your comments or approval embedded in an Acrobat file emailed back to us.
A Sizes: (mm)
- A0: 841 x 1189
- A1: 594 x 841
- A2: 420 x 594
- A3: 297 x 420
- A5: 148 x 210
- A6: 105 x 148
- A7: 74 x 105
- A8: 52 x 74
- A9: 37 x 52
- A10: 26 x 37
- B0: 1000 x 1414
- B1: 707 x 1000
- B2: 500 x 707
- B3: 353 x 500
- B5: 176 x 250
- B6: 125 x 176
- B7: 88 x 125
- B8: 62 x 88
- B9: 44 x 62
- B10: 31 x 44
- A1, B1: Technical drawings, posters.
- A2, B2, A3, B3: Posters, drawings, diagrams, large tables.
- A4: Brochures, magazines, stationery, forms, catalogues.
- B4: Magazines, brochures, catalogues.
- A5: Direct mail, small catalogues, books, note pads.
- A6: Pocket guides, postcards, books, magazine inserts.
At Acorn Press we are committed to quality. As an ISO9001 registered company you can be assured that this commitment amounts to much more than just words.
Our business processes are driven by a set of procedures which have been designed to ensure quality and accountability in everything we do, and staff in all areas of the operation are briefed and trained to aim for quality at all times.
Part of being a quality-conscious company is that we always try to listen to your comments, and to react to your criticisms and suggestions.
- Click here if you want to have your say!
- Click here to download our Quality Policy
Acorn Press is an ISO 14001 certified company. Manufacturing processes invariably have some negative environmental impact.
At Acorn Press we have worked hard to refine how our factory works to minimise waste
maximise efficiency and introduce waste recycling as much as possible, and thus to
reduce any negative environmental impact.
We are also FSC® and PEFC Chain of Custody certified as part of our environmental commitment. We promote the use of certified papers and are committed to purchasing from sustainable sources.
- Click here to download our environment policy
- Click here to download our FSC Product Groups
Acorn Press works to the standard British Printing Industries Federation terms of business.
- Click here to view a PDF
- Click here to view a Microsoft Word file
- Click here to view or download the PDF
Visiting our web site
For each visitor to our web site, our web server automatically recognises only the internet (IP) address. It does not recognise or record your domain or your email address.
Email addresses and email from Acorn Press
- Occasionally we ask visitors to our site to provide their email addresses. This information is used by us to contact customers and potential customers for our own marketing purposes only.
- If you do not want to receive email from us in the future, please let us know by sending an email to us, by calling us, or by writing to us.
- We DO NOT make the email addresses of those who visit our web site available to other organisations.
- Visitors who provide us with their telephone numbers may receive telephone contact from us with information regarding orders, estimates, or requests for information they have placed on-line. They also may receive telephone contact from us with additional relevant information.
- If you do not wish to receive such telephone calls, please let us know by sending an email to us, by calling us, or by writing to us.
- We DO NOT make the telephone numbers of those who visit our web site available to other organisations.
- If you provide us with your postal address you may receive mailings from us at that address with additional relevant information.
- If you do not wish to receive such mailings, please let us know by sending an email to us, by calling us, or by writing us.
- Acorn Press will not make your address available to any other organisation.