Media Specialization Week 8

This has got to be the most stressful week up until now. The final design was finished last week and I wanted to print it out as soon as possible. I tried researching online for places where I could print on Monday, but there was none that would print out just one notebook/planner. Most require a minimum amount of 50 and more. So, I decided to go to Xerox for the safest bet and let them print it out.

The result is absolutely horrible. The paper feels glossy, the fonts are not that visible and sharp and they printed it out all wrong--all pages are incorrect. There goes my €30! They told me they can't bind it because I have about 176 pages that time. Honestly, I was stressing and so done at that point but I couldn't get mad at them either since it is also my own responsibility, and the old lady that helped me was such a darling. When I went back home, I started to wreck the printed work because I had to rearrange all pages again in order for them to be correctly printed. But, I was having a burnt out and my mind could not process anything further so instead of working further, I called it a day.

Luckily, the next day Casper helped me out and told me to find other printers that have an offline store where I can visit and tell them my exact demands for the notebook/planner. At this point, I was happy with whichever professional printer can get my work printed before the exposition. So, based on Casper's recommendation, I went to visit several print shops but they told me that they can't offer me what I want. Devastated, I decided to just stick with Drukwerkdeal.nl as last resort and read all their instructions. This was Wednesday night, and Wednesday night I read that the pages have to be delivered in single pages, and the cover are supposed to be delivered seperately as well.

In the end, I kept the pages as spread, and just exported it as single pages and uploaded it on Drukwerkdeal after paying. But, when I uploaded the file, I could not add another file for the main cover (they explicitly requested that cover and inside pages have to be sent in seperately in two different files) and was really fed up with this. So, I went to bed and set my alarm clock at 8 am so that I could call them first thing in the morning.

Thursday morning, at 8 am, I called them and the woman on the line was very helpful and so nice. She told me that I should save the two documents as zip file instead and then reupload them. I took her advice and did it immediately, after saying my thanks. At 3 pm, I received another e-mail from Drukwerkdeal and in the e-mail, they mentioned that my files got rejected because the main cover does not have extra 10mm space for the "rugdikte". 

I swear, I was having a nervous breakdown at this point because he took 7 hours to check my file and contact me back and I was afraid that if it would not be correct by Friday before 3 pm, then this notebook/planner will not arrive on time to make it to the exposition. Luckily, he did sent me the correct measurement, so I quickly fixed it and re-upload it immediately.

The next day, Friday, around 1 pm I received another e-mail and I was crossing my fingers that they would start with the production. My prayers were heard, and the stress level declined on that day. I was told that I would receive the notebook/planner on next week Thursday, since they need 5 working days to print it out. I bet this project has given me some grey hairs!