The Importance of Press Checks

Some folks in the design community think that once you've created your design and shipped it off to your local printer that your work is done. Just sit back and let the accolades roll in, au contraire, you're close to the goal line but still far enough away.

Many things can change from your Mac to the print shop. Of course CMYK color won't be one of them if you used the TINTBOOKS color management system. Still you have plenty of factors that you should personally check to ensure your project comes out as you've planned.

We've outlined some points on How to Do Press Checks succesfully.

HOW Design Conference Videos

See Exclusive HOW Conference Videos

Nothing beats attending the HOW show to experience the energy and to have the opportunity to talk to other people in graphic design from around the country and the world. Even if you attended, did you get to talk to the paper mills during the mad rush? Did you get to hear what some of the industries biggest names had to say? Maybe and maybe not.

We have some great videos to give you an insiders view of the conference no matter where you were last week. See our exclusive HOW Design Conference videos.

Paper & Envelopes Videos

We've posted the first in a series of educational videos for graphics professionals, students and everyone interested in seeing how things happen. The videos provide an inside view of how paper is made, how envelopes are made and other secondary processes related to graphic design and the paper industry. We visited Neenah Paper's newly acquired Appleton Paper mill, formally owned by Fox River Paper company. We also visited the National Envelope envelope manufacturing plant in Appleton, Wisconsin.

It's amazing how prolific the paper industry is in this part of the country. Even though the landscape is almost perfectly flat the area is known as the Paper Valley. We located our business in Neenah, WI (the Paper Valley) because of the large number of paper related companies, businesses and professionals concentrated in the relatively small geographic area.