This much is true: when buying print, most people focus on price—the lower the better. But that should not be the whole story. Quality, service and even the supporting infrastructure are just as important, as they determine how the final product turns out and whether it reaches its destination on time.
And these are exactly what John Strange, group production director at Blackwell Publishing, looks for. "I have dealt with Singapore printers since 1978, and I think Singapore on the whole is the most competitive location for Blackwell, because both manufacturing efficiency and competitive distribution/mailing service are essential to us. Its strengths as a printing destination are many. There are the investment in technology, highly productive work ethics, good command of English and its known expertise in export book manufacturing. The last part lends itself to learning about export journal manufacturing. Then there are a high-quality 'service' culture and an outstanding location in terms of distribution, with Singapore as one of the world's largest container ports and busiest airports. We are also able to import text and cover materials to meet our specifications."
Recent years have seen more printed goods being distributed directly to multiple destinations instead of having the bulk shipped to clients' main warehouses in North America or Europe for redistribution. At the same time, manufacturing of high-quality and time-sensitive projects is fast becoming the focal point for local suppliers. For publishers like Blackwell Publishing, the search for print manufacturers is always based on three criteria: excellent customer service, competitive pricing and the ability to meet quality and turnaround time requirements. And it seems that they find all three in Singapore suppliers.
Going High-Tech and High-Touch
At Tien Wah Press (TWP), the latest project from becker&mayer!—Bob Dylan: The Scrapbook—is one of the most challenging in recent memory. The idea behind the book was to bring together memorabilia, archival photographs and other materials from Dylan's early days in a way that allows readers to interact with his story. Says Sheila Kamuda, group manager of adult books at becker&mayer, "Our team had to figure out which pieces made the best sense with the story, how the items could be placed in the book, what paper stocks would best replicate the originals, and how to make the book look great and yet stay within budget. By going back and forth with TWP, we were able to select the most important and special items and then figure out how to put them together to create a beautiful book that would hold up over time."
Each piece in the book had to be engineered separately, and TWP was entrusted with the task of ensuring it would work. "There was one feature, for example, that was designed to consist of both a flap and a pocket to hold the program of a Dylan performance at Carnegie Hall. It's a fairly hefty feature, though, so we had to be sure that the flap would not compromise the ability of the pocket to hold up when the pages are turned many times. We had many discussions with TWP prior to the start of the project, and all turned out beautifully in the end," adds Kamuda.
Asked why she chose TWP for this particular project, Kamuda says, "Several reasons: firstly, we had worked with TWP on other complex titles and had firsthand knowledge of their capability in handling products such as this book, which has many European editions. Secondly, we knew we could rely on them to help solve problems and we had confidence in their ability."
For sales and marketing director Andrew Yeo and his team, nothing caps a project better than glowing compliments and the show of confidence from a client. "This particular project showcases our ability to produce complex coffee-table titles with book-plus elements. Every page that you see in the Dylan book requires a certain degree of handwork. There is a lot of gluing, folding and tabbing that can only be done manually. Because of the enormous amount of handling involved, the challenge I think is in making sure the book doesn't look as if it has been passed down through a generation of grimy hands," says Yeo. "Increasingly, coffee-table and illustrated titles are more than just high-quality printing on glossy paper. Extra-large formats with high page count—what I would call 'door-stopper titles'—requiring manual binding are also on the rise. We did one such title recently, and it weighs six kilograms. Making sure the binding holds is a challenge."
Given the stringent quality required by every project that lands in TWP, general manager of sales and marketing Bernard Wee has made it a point to offer clients in-house color-separation services. "We prefer working from original artwork so that we can better calibrate the colors throughout the whole manufacturing process. Currently, we are handling prepress work for about 40% of our clients. And they actually like it this way: now they don't have to chase after two suppliers; they only need to come after us!"
At TWP, coffee-table and illustrated products account for almost half of its sales. The rest come from children's products, calendars, novelty titles and packaging. The company, celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, has evolved from a small letterpress business to one of the best-known brand names in the industry.
If you are looking for print-on-demand (POD) capabilities with an alternative of offset printing for higher volumes, look no further than Markono Print Media. Its POD line-up of four Kodak Digimasters—two 150E and two Scanner—with an Oce 8090 Downstream, a FujiXerox DocuColor 6060 and a Canon color printer is supported by its offset printing division. Says director of sales and marketing Jeffrey Tan, "POD is not for everyone. A mindset shift is required to make it work for the user. Understanding its capabilities and limitations, and not comparing a POD book with an offset-printed title, is paramount, because that would be like comparing an apple with an orange. For a start, POD does not support PMS [Pantone Matching System] colors. Nor does it produce the usual half-tone quality. On the other hand, colors are much more vibrant with POD, since the pigments set on top of the paper as opposed to being absorbedas in offset."
To publishers thinking of going the POD way, Tan advises: "You have to view it as a new business model, one which entails a change in inventory policy. With POD, you no longer have to print large volumes or pay for warehousing. Moreover, your supplier can take care of fulfillment for you." Process-wise, Tan cautions, publishers need to be conversant with document management and variable data handling to achieve a seamless POD workflow. Markono typically distributes the printed copies all over the world as required by clients.
On its POD floor, a 30-strong team oversees the whole operation, and every day they get to read the tabloid-sized Sydney Morning Herald. "Rain or shine, it must reach the Qantas Airlines counter by 6 a.m. for distribution to their passengers on flights departing from Changi Airport," says Tan. "You will notice two major differences in the POD issue: the absence of that kerosene smell typical of newsprint and no more blackened fingertips! In addition, you get very fine print, which is not possible in normal newsprinting. One negative side, though—and that's not so good for us—is the high level of toner consumption owing to paper absorbency." The 50-odd page newspaper is churned out by the Oce machine, which is capable of handling sizes close to A2. On the average, the whole POD floor at Markono has the capacity to produce 20 million A4-sized pages per month.
Presently, 20% of Markono's sales come from POD products. "We started with the IT industry in 2000, doing manuals for multinationals such as Oracle, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Autodesk and Agilent. Now we have publishers coming in for low runs of uncorrected advance proofs, journals and reprints of backlist titles. Our arrangement with IT clients is such that they let us decide whether to go for POD or offset printing. Usually, anything below 500 copies will be POD. Sometimes, we combine POD with offset printing. Take for example a 300-copy manual with silver-colored covers: the interior would go through the Digimaster, whereas the cover is printed the conventional way. This would require a longer cycle time, but if that's the requirement, it will be done." And publishers being publishers, it is not uncommon to have requests for notch binding, sewing or anything else to make the POD product look more like an offset-printed title. "Such finishing is not a problem, but there are the cost and cycle-time factors to consider. Over time, I'm sure publishers will realize that passing off a POD copy as an offset copy is not important; what is crucial is the content."
At C S Graphics, the hustle and bustle is not just a sign of the peak production season but also that of the construction of a new two-story plant next door. Says managing director Lee Sian Tee, "This SG$20 million investment is part of our long-term expansion plan to double our capacity and to have more space for new machinery. We have one 8-color press arriving soon." Reorganization of the plant to better accommodate its current lineup of two 2-color presses, two 4-color, two 5-color, full binding/casing lines, CtP/prepress equipment, etc., is also on Lee's to-do list.
Incorporated in 1987, C S Graphics is known for its fully export-based business. A decade ago, 80% of its business came from British publishers. Today, the balance is 50-50, a shift largely due to its establishment of two U.S. representative offices, on the West Coast and in the Midwest, with plans for another on the East Coast. "We are very specialized in the products that we do, which are 90% coffee-table/illustrated books with a handful of calendars," says Lee. "Not much has changed in this segment, except for increased demand for more sophisticated cover treatment and more elaborate packaging. For coffee-table books, there is hardly any distinction between the packaging and the book anymore. For publishers, this is their marketing strategy; and for printers like us, it's a new skill to try and learn."
When asked to describe recent challenging projects, customer service director Pamela Ang is temporarily lost for words. The reason? "We have seen a lot and done perhaps tens of thousands of titles over the years. Many of these are challenging in their own ways, whether it is design-related or technique-based. There are also titles that may look simple, such as photography books with dark backgrounds. The challenge with these titles is not in producing a few sample copies that will pass muster but in ensuring the whole print run is without hickies or lint and is as clean as is technically possible."
Says Ang, "Experience would tell one what is needed to produce a title beautifully and what needs to be done. Sadly, the art of printing and age-old expertise is being sidelined now that modern printing equipment is capable of reasonable quality. At C S Graphics, we pride ourselves on our strong technical know-how. And with our experience in high-quality illustrated titles, we are able to advise our clients, for instance, on what line screen is sufficient to bring out the best in their tritone book of portraits without busting their budget. Stochastic printing may be their first choice, but it is much more expensive, and often 300-lpi printing would do the job well enough."
While Lee and Ang are not seeing any downgrading of paper by publishers to lower their production costs, both agree that on-time delivery is fast becoming clients' first priority. "Time to market is crucial to them. The quality of the product is a given, and only cost is negotiable nowadays. Unfortunately for us—or, for that matter, for everybody in the industry—turnaround time, cost and quality now share the #1 slot with no ground for compromise. But we are not daunted; we have the experience and the results to show," says Lee. With a string of awards and accolades from the British Printing Federation and with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Getty Museum among its clients, the phrase "not daunted" must be the understatement of the year. It seems more like Lee, Ang and their staff take delight in proving themselves and upping the ante whenever possible.
At public-listed Craft Print, print detective Charlie Chan strikes yet again; this time, he wins the Gold World Medal from the New York Print Advertising Festivals and lands on the 46th Design Annual. Flipping through the annual report entitled "Charlie's Winning Hand," PW sees an impressive display of printing techniques, book-plus elements and design ideas that Craft Print is capable of delivering. Says managing director Charlie Chan (the real thing, not the fictitious character), "The focus is on delivery, because what you are capable of delivering defines you. At Craft Print, throughout our 30 years of existence, we promise—and deliver—high-quality work at a reasonable price. If we are running at peak production and are not able to deliver quality work on schedule, we would not take on the project." For Chan, staying competitive means not being a run-of-the-mill printer. And looking at the showroom lined with rows of glossy coffee-table books, the chances of this company being a typical printer are slim.
Picking up what looks like a ton of paper and covers, Chan shows an example of a facsimile project from Hill House, the publishing division of the British Museum of Natural History. "We have been doing this type of work for the museum since 1988. The quality demanded is very high, since every illustrated full-color page is a reproduction from an antique book. The colors may not be bright—and we could have made them brighter and better—and the pages are not the typical white, but that is not the requirement with such museum collections. We are supposed to reproduce exactly what is provided." With print runs as low as 300 copies for a 600-page title requiring meticulous attention to every detail, it is simply not a project every printer will take on. "And that is precisely where Craft Print is: we are a niche player; we go where others won't dare and we excel in it," Chan says.
Another title, this time from the Gerald & Marc Hoberman Collection, boasts an interior with vivid photography and a full-color cover printed on book cloth with the title in debossed gold ink. For yet another photographer-turned-publisher client, Chan suggested miniaturizing his coffee-table books to target the larger and more lucrative mass market. "The client took up our suggestion, and now his smaller books are selling very well to tourists and locals looking for small-format yet expensive-looking gift titles. This has always been the way we operate: we work with our clients to further improve the look and feel of their books. To us, printing is not just about delivering ink on paper at the highest quality possible; it is in fact a partnering process whereby we leverage on our past experience to function as a print consultant to our clients." It is no wonder that 40% of Craft Print's clientele has been with the company for over 10 years.
Nor is it any wonder that expansion in Chan's future. He has acquired a new 120,000-square-foot factory building opposite his existing plant for his 8-color press and bindery operations. "That will give some breathing space for our present plant, which will house the rest of the printing facility, the prepress department—which will have another CtP unit very soon—and our small-scale hand-assembly operation. This is part of our preparations to meet whatever demand coming from clients."
Fifteen years ago, a walk through Colourscan—arguably the region's largest color-separation bureau—would mean seeing 44 high-end scanners and some 650 workers. Today, its spacious office is filled with Macintosh and PC workstations, Epson and Hewlett-Packard printers and only a handful of scanners, with one quiet corner dedicated to offering DAM (digital asset management) services to its clients. In yet another corner, seven presses are churning out wet proofs. "For some projects and certain clients, wet proofs are still the standard. North American clients, especially, prefer having wet proofs for reference, something that would be too expensive for them to do back home," says executive chairman Jan Ong. But increasingly, a total digital workflow from file to proof is the norm.
"For color separation, the focus is now on color management and photo retouching/correction, since most of the files received are already 90% finalized by the compositor or designer and are readied for press. However, there is a difference between acceptable quality for printing and great quality, and that comes from how the color separation is done and how the images are enhanced. Experience and knowledge make the difference," says Ong. "Color separation may be just a small part of the print manufacturing process—and often overlooked because we are the backstage players—but it determines a huge chunk of the eventual print quality. That's the reason many publishers and printing companies, even those with established front-end departments, turn to us for assistance. Invariably, they want a second opinion to make sure their files are optimized for printing. In this regard, you can say that Colourscan is a 'hospital' for digital problems and a provider of digital health assurance."
For Colourscan, adding printing services to its famed prepress capabilities is a no-brainer. Its comparatively recent foray into the printing world has garnered for it a slew of awards. Five gold, one silver, two bronze and the title Best Offset Printer were collected at the second Asian Print Awards last year. "We are not aiming to be the biggest printer in town, but we definitely want to be the best in terms of quality and service," says Ong. On the production floor, one of the four Heidelberg Speedmaster CD machines is a 5-color UV press with in-line coater capable of printing on substrates of paper and plastics. On the average, Colourscan is capable of producing one million impressions per day. But for now, quality tops Ong's agenda: "Over the years as a color-sep house, we have learnt a lot from our clients—from the publishing, commercial and printing industries—and now we get to apply them. You can call it learning by osmosis, or learning by complaints. We know what can be achieved on color sep and what is possible to print and how best to go about both. Now we get to see through the whole manufacturing process, and there's a lot to be said about having such job satisfaction." Colourscan's printing division now brings in one-third of its total sales.
"Our printing clients are predominantly from the advertising industry, and they exact very high-quality standards. Using that as a benchmark, we are now aiming at the high-end trade book market. For example, we now offer staccato printing at 10-micron dot size, which is the equivalent of 600 lpi, or near-photographic quality." Ong's focus is currently on his finishing/bindery division, where one new lamination machine is due to arrive soon. "This is something new to us, and we want to make sure it also operates at the high standards that we have set for ourselves in color sep and printing."
At color-separation bureau Chroma Graphics, there is a principle at work. "We never say to ourselves or to anybody that we know it all," says chairman and managing director Thomas Chan. "And that's very important because the technology changes all the time and so do clients' requirements. In order to keep pace with these changes, we invest in new technology and we continue learning." Walking through its facility, which has a impressive art collection decorating every wall, is an introduction to what's hot and what's new from Creo. Workflow-wise, Prinergy EVO/EL and Brisque are used throughout the production floor, supported by two platesetters. "The face of color separation has changed, and much of it due to the advent of digital technology. Today, most clients invariably provide us with high-resolution images, bypassing the traditional scanning process. These images, however, are sometimes not in a form suitable for printing, owing to the use of inappropriate color space or file format. And that is not surprising, given that the images may have been used in so many different media, hence the different formats."
So what does a color separation house do? Structured CtP/ PDF-ready workflow is the answer at Chroma Graphics. "Using this workflow, we vet through the whole file to rid any hidden problems that may cause plating and printing problems at later stages. Prevention is better than cure, so to speak. Often, designers provide files that look very good visually but may not be RIPped properly. Visuals on the computer screen or on laser printouts are not proof that they will print that way on the press."
The rapid upgrading of software and emergence of new technology provides new challenges. Playing catch-up is a must. "The color-sep industry is a high-tech environment requiring constant updating of technical capabilities and supporting expertise. This means investment and more investment. Therefore, it would be illogical to think that one can keep investing in order to offer new technology and services and yet be able to quote rock-bottom prices. If a client buys on pricing alone, then the day will come when the supplier won't be able to reinvest because there is simply no money to do so. Yet, not offering competitive pricing would be impractical. There has to be a balance somewhere between the need to be competitive and keeping pace with the technology. That said, I believe this industry is a big partnering program and the focus is on maintaining the client-supplier relationship. Chroma Graphics prides itself on being a solutions provider and a reliable prepress partner: we take a project from a client and return it with our knowledge and expertise."
And such partnering philosophy has won clients near and far for Chroma Graphics. Presently, over 70% of its business comes from the U.K. and North America. Interestingly, its first clients hailed from Down Under. "Twenty years ago—when we were established—telecommunications and air travel weren't what they are today. Australia was then much more accessible than North America or Europe." Segment-wise, coffee-table and illustrated titles remain its forte, followed by children's titles, diaries/calendars and medical/ academic publications. Just recently, the 45- strong company won the Annual Gold Ink Awards for its work on a children's book, ABC USA, for Sterling Publishing. "At the end of the day, quality and technical know-how endure. We may not be offering the lowest price in the market, but clients know that Chroma Graphics means quality, commitment and value-added services."
For Seng Lee Press, the decision to focus on servicing educational publishers was made back in its early days, in 1991. Says managing director and co-owner Richard Tan, "Presently, our major clients are North American and British publishers that have their Asian headquarters in Singapore. Segment-wise, 80% of our sales come from books; the other 20% is shared equally by magazines and commercial products. About 60% of the products are for export, but the actual figure is rather difficult to pin down. This is because most of the publishers that we work with also take printing orders from their North American and European offices and the final products are subsequently reexported." Tan is also seeing a shift to shorter runs for immediate shipment, with publishers trying to maintain zero inventory level. "But this short run and ever shorter cycle-time trend is not something peculiar to educational book printing. The whole printing industry faces the same demand."
To those who assume that manufacturing educational books should be a breeze, as these do not have to contend with the high quality and complexity associated with trade titles, well, think again. Tan says, "That could have been the case 15 years ago, when books were mostly black-and-white and text intensive with only the covers in full-color. Nowadays, more often than not, the text is in full-color and dotted with illustrations and photographs. To complicate things further, these titles usually have high page counts and require printing on lighter-weight paper." He continues, "Versioning is also becoming popular, especially for titles with case studies tailored to a specific region or country. In such instances, our prepress department would undertake the task of customizing the files as specified by our client prior to CtP output. This service is not new or extra; it's just part of our value-added service." It is no wonder that Tan has built a strong prepress department to support his printing floor. "In most cases, getting the original compositor to make the required changes within the short time frame isn't feasible, so they turn to us for assistance to ensure the title reaches the market as scheduled."
Interestingly, Tan outsources binding and finishing to two of Singapore's top binderies. "We look at this from the perspective of logistics, productivity and cost efficiency. These two binderies, which are located less than 20 minutes' drive away, have the full range of postpress machinery. They have the specialization and economies of scale to do the job more productively and far more efficiently than we could. Our past record shows that this partnership system has worked very well: in our 14 years of service, we have achieved 99% reliability in terms of delivery. The trick is to have close collaboration with the binderies, to continuously improve our workflow efficiency, and to ensure proper scheduling and tracking on both sides."
As for future plans, "printing for the educational market is typically a business defined by slim margins. Our strategy is always one of constant investment in technology and workflow in order to improve productivity and quality. This will ultimately lower production cost and reduce cycle time—in line with our customers' demand. We also want to make sure our prepress team keeps up with technology and is fully trained to tackle any front-end issues. In the longer term, our focus remains the same: servicing educational publishers to the best of our ability and doing what we do best, which is conventional printing."
At 28-year-old color-separation bureau Pica, the wide adoption of digital photography warrants some space travel. That is, to put it technically, some color space conversion. Says managing director and owner Thomas Ling, "What we have now are digital images that are mostly saved in the RGB color space. The colors are more vibrant, and they usually look great on desktop monitors or on inkjet proofs. But these are not suitable for offset printing. Converting them to CMYK color space and maintaining the same color fidelity is the new challenge." Not an easy task, given that most photographers—and even production personnel—do not understand why the fluorescent blue that is so vivid on screen turns drab once it gets into CMYK.
"Loss of scanning work is par for the course in this everything digital world. Constant upgrading of hardware and software is a given. Then, there is always a lapse during which the RIPping environment has to catch up with the latest software features and new peripheral solutions. Worse is that sometimes the newest software on the block is either not stable or not fully supported by the RIPping and existing preflighting workflow. But one gets used to such problems after a while. We make the most of what is available in the market and use our prior experience and knowledge to deliver the projects. Adapt and adopt is my philosophy."
Currently, 80% of Pica's business comes from the publishing industry, predominantly coffee-table/illustrated trade titles and children's products. "I would say that about 50% of our projects come from Europe, 15% from North America and about 5% from Australia. The rest are from local companies, mostly in the advertising/commercial segment." Just recently, Ling handled a project for a corporate client that called for a 'dot-less' printing effect, i.e., staccato or stochastic screening. "We did two rounds of proofing to make sure the client was happy with the quality. But our main concern was that the appointed printer might not be able to reproduce the same effect seen on the proofs. If the printer was not properly set up to do such a high-end job, they might end up with very dark-looking printing results. For staccato printing, the usual method of ink control—reducing ink—would not work because the dots are too small," says Ling. "So we had the printer do a round on AM mode to make sure the ink balance and the correct density were achieved. Then, prior to plate output, we adjusted the curve accordingly to suit the printer's print profile."
Asked about major plans for the next three to four years, Ling says, "There are two all-important timeless plans for us—and, for that matter, for anyone in this industry—and they are to keep abreast of the hardware and software available in the marketplace and to keep track of the preferred workflow in the industry. It's not easy keeping up with the newest and latest, but we have to keep trying. That is the whole premise of the color-sep industry: we have to be able to support whatever the client provides and whichever format required. There are no two ways about it."
