FAQ

A. We normally are able to ship within 2 weeks of receiving files and payment information. If it will be longer, we will tell you promply.

A. No. Our local UPS provider will not accept other UPS account numbers for shipping.

A. Yes, we do keep your files electronically in our PrePress Department. We don’t guarantee them, though. If there is a failure in backup or if a hard drive crashes, we may lose your files. It hasn’t happened yet, but there’s no doubt that it will someday. Please maintain copies of all of your own files, should this become an issue. We will certainly delete any of your files upon completion of a job, should you instruct us to do so.

A. No, we are not. We are a printer. That means that we don’t normally do any graphic design, layout, marketing, distribution or sales of products. We simply take your files and create printed products from them. If you need a publisher, then Google is the best place to search for one.

A. No. We prefer that you only send PDF files. You must convert whatever you have to PDF. We do this so that the layout and fonts don’t change from what you see to what is printed. If, for example, you sent us a Microsoft Word file, when we open it, it will most likely reflow, due to different fonts on our system to yours. Remember to give us PDF files of at least 300dpi and all fonts embedded.

For Macintosh computer users, you can create a PDF through Adobe Acrobat Professional. You can also try Print:Preview, but there is no control over settings such as embedding fonts or setting the file to 300dpi. We recommend Adobe Acrobat Professional. While we suggest Adobe Acrobat Professional, we cannot provide customer support for this product.

For PC users, you can also use Adobe Acrobat Professional, or you can create a PDF by using PDFForge’s PDFCreator. You can download it free from http://www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator. When installed, it acts like a printer, allowing you to take your file and “print” to a PDF file. It allows you to set the file to 300dpi and to embed the fonts. While we suggest PDFCreator, we cannot provide customer support for this product.

A. We offer a separate service to lay out books or other printed items. Ask your sales representative about this service if you need it. We charge $40/hour, with a minimum of 1 hour. Very simple text-only books can be as fast as 2 hours to lay out, but any changes will be billed at the same rate.

A. No. You can purchase ISBN numbers online at

https://commerce.bowker.com/isbnsan/standards/cgi-bin/isbn.asp, and you can make barcodes for them at http://www.tux.org/~milgram/bookland/#online. Your cover files should include the ISBN barcode in the image when you send them to us. While we recommend these two sites, we cannot provide customer support for them.

A. Give us a call. We will do what we can to point you in the right direction.

A. We can, but we charge a surcharge of $20/box to fill out all required customs forms. We only use UPS International for shipping outside of the US.

A. Tell us about your project, and we will send you a sample of something that is close to what you require. It is simply to give you a feel for our quality and printing accuracy.

A. Yes, as long as it is not illegal. If we question the content, we won’t print it.

A. If this is your first job with us, we request payment up-front for the first job. We accept checks, or Credit Card payments (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover).

A. For a misprint, send back the books and we will replace them for you at no charge (assuming a fault is found). If there is a problem, we will print and ship again at no charge. If the problem is with your file(s), then there is nothing we can do at our end. We would be happy to reprint after you have sent us revised files, but at your charge. We prefer to use UPS Ground for shipping. Boxes are automatically ensured to $100.00. We are not responsible for damage in shipment. Simply request a payout on the automatic insurance from any damaged boxes. If you prefer more insurance, or If you prefer another shipping method, we will work with you to achieve your goal, but we are not responsible for damage in shipment. We have had bad luck with USPS Media Mail and USPS Bound Printed Material Mail, where entire boxes have been lost or totally destroyed, with little to no recourse for reimbursement. It’s why we use UPS Ground.