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You have laboured long and hard for weeks, months, maybe even years and now your publication is finally ready for print. Congratulations! How good does that feel? Sales pitches aren’t our style so just take 5 minutes to look through the photography of our previous comic book printing on this page and if you like what you see then ping us a quote form and we’ll send a few price options.
We’re in England and delivery throughout London, Gotham City and the UK is FREE. We regularly ship worldwide so do ping us your print spec on our quote form, remembering to let us know where you are. We’ll add on the overseas shipping at our cost price from the cheapest courier on the day.
We have been doing this a while now and have seen a lot of impressive comics come off our presses. To give you a head start with your project printing, here are three print specifications which work well (and photos of them, see right). Each has its own characteristics which have proven to be winning combinations from a production perspective, cost per unit and most importantly, have reader appeal.
If any of our showcase options would work for your project, take a note of the spec and jump on our quote form to receive your bespoke quotation. Or ping us an email on hello@exwhyzed.co.uk if that is easier.
Showcase 1 - a high impact, stapled graphic novel:
A4 Wire Stitched Booklets
.
4pp Cover onto 250gsm Gloss.
Gloss Lamination to outer
.
16pp Text onto 170gsm Uncoated.
Four colour print throughout
.
Showcase 2 - a standard cost-effective, A5 self cover comic:
A5 Booklet.
20pp Self Cover onto 115gsm Uncoated
Four colour print throughout.
Trimmed, collated and wire stitched.
Showcase 3 - a dynamic, chunky A4 solution:
A4 Perfect Bound Books.
4pp Cover onto 300gsm Uncoated.
Matt Lamination to outer.
40 inside pages onto 170gsm Silk.
Four colour print throughout.
Showcase 4 - an impressive, perfect bound solution to showcase your whole portfolio:
A4 Perfect Bound Books.
4pp Cover onto 350gsm Silk.
Matt Lamination and Gloss Spot UV varnish to outer.
Full colour print to outer.
112pp Text onto 170gsm Silk.
Full colour print throughout.
As a guide, you could print 500 copies of this for £6 per copy.
Tweaks you could consider...
• A 170gsm cover will be a thick paper. 200-250gsm is thin card. 300-350gsm will be a thick card cover.
• Switch to gloss lamination for a shiny aesthetic.
• Stapling for upto 76 pages (over 40 pages will bounce when found)
• Perfect binding for 32 pages or more.
• Decrease the size to A5 to save you money and make the publication more ergonomic.
• OR increase to A4 for a larger area of content.
• Pick out some content on the cover for Spot UV varnishing which makes it shine (this is an additional £280).
There are almost infinite possibilities on size, finishing and papers so we offer expert knowledge and advice before your job goes to
press, a competitive comic print quote to stretch your budget and a high quality standard of printing delivered nationally throughout the UK and worldwide too.
Binding choices.
This is easy…if you have up to 40 pages then we recommend stapling your comics (also called wire stitching and saddle stitching). We can staple upto 76 pages but the paper has to be very thin to achieve that – a 170gsm cover and 100gsm text MAX works for this.
If you have 32 or more then the comics will be thick enough for us to glue and perfect bind. This method gives a professional looking, book style finish.
In the meantime, have a look the following pages for inspiration.
http://www.exwhyzed.co.uk/resources/paper-choices/
http://www.pinterest.com/exwhyzedprint/ex-why-zed-paper-selection/
We specialise in beautifully printed comics from our top of the range Indigo digital presses. If you are printing up to 700 copies then digital printing is where it’s at. However for the longer more established publications of 700 copies or more, our litho presses will provide you with the best print quote.
We always try and quote for a few quantity options to help bring your unit price down. We’re keen to see your artwork in print so if there’s a more cost effective size or way to print the graphic novels then we’ll let you know.
Send us the print ready artwork and KAPOW! in 4/5 working days a box (or two) of your magnificent comics will arrive by super powered courier.
If you would like a test copy first then it’s best to allow an extra week for us to print, deliver, look through and make tweaks.
Enjoy looking through our showcase of recent comic and graphic novel projects.
We have done our best to give you a huge wealth of information on this page and in our guides but if here are some frequently asked questions to help you get your work into print.
If you haven't already seen it, do also watch our feature length Definitive Zine Printing Guide which will give you some ideas on what can be achieved with your comic and graphic novels too.
Ready to place an order? Brilliant, you'll need to upload the files using www.wetransfer.com sending them to hello@exwhyzed.co.uk and in the comments box let us know the number of copies you're going for and the best address for delivery. We'll then give your artwork a free preflight check to highlight any potential issues and will email with any advice or recommendations before going to production.
Once we receive your print ready artwork, we'll aim to deliver in 5/6 working days (we do get busy at degree show time). If you are working to a crucial deadline PLEASE allow more time - there's no harm in getting the artwork to us early so we can deliver a few days before the show starts 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/embed/9elKD4qeGKU
https://www.exwhyzed.co.uk/resources/setting-3mm-bleed-on-artwork-for-print/
We will need 3mm bleed on all the edges, you'll notice at the moment that the artwork stops at the crop marks - it needs to extend 3mm beyond this to avoid any chance of a white border.
The following page includes illustrated and video guides on how to set up bleed correctly:
https://www.exwhyzed.co.uk/resources/setting-3mm-bleed-on-artwork-for-print/
You might have set this up correctly in InDesign but when you export to PDF just make sure that in the 'Marks and Bleeds' menu you not only tick 'Crop Marks' but you also add '3mm' in to the four bleed boxes - top, bottom, inside and outside. This will add the bleed to the exported PDF.
BLEED FIX
It's one of two things:
Have you dragged the background image out 3mm beyond the black line on your Indesign file into the bleed area? Try that then export again.
OR you have done the above but then when you're exporting you need to click the Marks and Bleeds menu, then type '3mm' into the four bleed boxes. This will add the bleed to the pdf.
Remember, we’ll need a hi res pdf file with 3mm bleed and crop marks on each edge to go ahead please. Sending it over correctly first time means we can go straight to print. Do have a last check through our file set up guides to make sure all the boxes are ticked. <link>
The old print industry maxim is that it is possible to have two of these when you send a job to print. Stop Press! At Ex Why Zed we have changed the rulebook and are confident we can now offer all three! The highest quality printing, for the best prices and delivered when you need it.
We like to interact with our customers, find out about their projects and have a bit of dialogue rather than hide behind a massive, confusing spreadsheet on a website. We provide a bespoke quote for each and every job because your project is bespoke and unique.
Don’t get us wrong, our process is quick and efficient but we like to add extra value by starting a conversation with you first. Remember conversations? Yep, they are what happened before your phone was glued to your head! 🙂
For this reason we don’t list all our prices online but get in touch either in email or through our quote form and we will give you a bespoke quote.
