Notebook Resources

The Process

The Process

In this resource you will get an understanding of the whole process that takes place in order for you to receive your custom notebooks. From making your decisions on personalisation and customisation, right through to holding one of your notebooks proudly in your hands. Here we will guide you through a summary of the three main steps of production; pre-press, press and post-press. There is more detailed information on each individual aspect of the process in the overall Notebook Resources, which you can find links to on the left.

Pre-Press

Pre-press is all about your artwork once you’ve settled on a type of notebook, quantity and any customisations. It’s important to spend time double checking that your artwork and designs will work successfully with your chosen materials, and achieve the overall final result you imagined. For this, accuracy is important, and this is down to you and the technician who will check the artwork before going to print. It’s also a big help to have an understanding of the requirements for your artwork and why these exist, which is explained in this section, addressing proofs, printers’ marks, pagination and printing plates where applicable.

Press

Once artwork has been proofed and signed off, the notebooks will go into production. Press is the stage in which the printing takes place, so where any images, page numbers, lines, diary templates and so on will be printed onto the pages. This section explains how the machinery works that’s used to create your custom notebooks and how the press is set up, as well as the various choices of paper and printing methods. Finally we discuss the press check which is the final stage of press, to make sure the quality of the notebook is as planned so far.

Post-Press

Although you may think press is the most important stage, a huge amount is also completed during post-press, as this incorporates everything that’s done after any pages have been printed. In summary, your sheets will be folded, cut and bound to complete your notebook. These processes involve yet more machinery, and have a big impact on the final style and practicality of your notebook. Explained in this section is the process of folding signatures, collation, finishing, binding, quality assurance and drying.