PDF Files

Book Specifications

Our Service

Other Information

Books - Types

See examples of our standard sizes below;

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• A4 (297mm x 210mm)
• SRA5 (225mm x 160mm)
• A5 (210mm x 148.5mm)
• Note, the pages are printed on these standard sizes but after binding they are trimmed which results in them being 2mm to 3mm shorter on each side when finished.

Defining our Service - Click Here

Colour Pages

Your books can have colour on any page, anywhere within the book, and new equipment that we have just installed has made this a more economical option. We regard this as one of the big advantages of the new system. Previously savings could be made by grouping colour pictures together but this is no longer necessary and the fact that the whole book is printed on one machine has also removed the need for further collation. Once the printing process is complete books are ready to be trimmed and bound.

For picture or photo books where every page is colour you may like to see another service that we offer through the web site www.photobook.co.nz

If you are unsure about which service is right for you complete and send the form on the quotation request page of this site and we will advise you by email.

Books - Binding

Books have 280gsm soft card covers and are bound in exactly the same way as normal paperback books found in a bookshop. Numbers of pages can vary from very thin, 20 pages, to quite thick, 600 pages. A page is the side of a leaf of paper.

Cover Design

Cover design is something that cannot be done without the proper programs. For example it isn't possible to create a well designed wrap around cover with colour to bleed, and an allowance for a spine, on Microsoft Word. For this reason we offer a cover designing service. There is a special section in our quote request form so that you can describe your requirements for the design of a cover.

Laminated Covers

Covers can be laminated in gloss or matt to increase durability and enhance the look.

The Idea Behind PDF

If you have ever taken a file from your computer to another you will realise that document formatting, fonts and images can change when shifted between computers. Adobe (a large software company) invented PDF, Portable Document Files, to overcome this problem. This is why they are the type of file that we prefer for our New Zealand wide book printing service. PDF files need to be set up correctly for print, not for Internet viewing, and you need to thoroughly proof your work so that the text doesn't have to be changed and corrected. This will result in the most cost effective print job.

Making .pdf files

All newer Adobe programs such as InDesign and Illustrator can save work as .pdf files. Many other programs have this feature, as do Apple Mac computers running OSX (Operating System 10) and the newest versions of Microsoft Office and Word 2007. (A plug-in is available for Office and Word 2007 from http://www.microsoft.com if you don't have it)

If you have a standard PC with an older version of Microsoft Word, Publisher or Office, you are unlikely to have the facility to create .pdf files. Your computer will have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is not the same as the parent Adobe Acrobat program.(Note Adobe PDF Reader software, freely available on new computers and the Internet, will read but not create PDF files.)

Adobe Acrobat is the premium software program that you can buy and install to convert the output from any program into a .pdf . If neither the computer nor software that you are using has the ability to create a genuine Adobe .pdf then we recommend the installation of Adobe Acrobat software. It is a good option for professionals and people who expect to be printing documents through commercial systems on a regular basis, but is probably not necessarily the right choice for someone producing one or two books.

Other Ways to Create PDF files

Other versions of .pdf creating software that allow you to create PDF files from any program are available on the internet, some of these programs are free, at least on a trial basis. Just search Google using pdf or pdf creator as the search words.

A very useful and free option is OpenOffice software that can be downloaded from http://www.openoffice.org/ This is a fully functioning suite of software which includes OpenOffice writer that exports high quality PDF files for printing. Microsoft word files can be imported into OpenOffice writer, edited, checked and exported as PDF files. OpenOffice writer is a sophisticated program and complete books could be written using it. You would need broadband to download it and it takes some time to set up but it is not an unduly complicated process.

Other Print Ready Files

If you would like to send us files from programs such as Microsoft Word and Adobe inDesign that are not pdf's we would ask that there is just one file for the complete book and that common fonts are used, and if images are linked that they be included in an associated folder. If reformatting or other layout work is required to be done by us there will be extra charges. As indicated elsewhere in this site the most efficient, and therefore cost effective method of providing files for us to print from is by the use of PDF's.

Proof Copies

All prices provided by us include two proof copies of your book. This enables you to see the cover design and make any changes that are required to the text. Additional proofs will incur an extra charge. Once the final proof has been agreed upon you must verify, by email, that you have given approval for your books to be printed. This will be regarded as a contract to print your books at the agreed price. We guarantee that our books will be to the same standard as the proofs. Our guarantee covers full replacement or money back provided that it can be shown that the production run is not to the same standard as the proof copies.

If, after seeing a proof copy you decide not to go ahead you will be required to return the proof or pay for the cost of its production.

Margins

Books look best if the margins are generous. For SRA5 and A5 books we recommend 20mm margin on the top and both sides with 25mm on the bottom to accommodate the page number. A4 size books can have margins up to 25mm with 30mm on the bottom. Do not make the margin in the gutter (inside of the page) of your book larger as it is better for us to do that at the time of set up.

Payment

Payment is required before the books are dispatched. Commercial organisations can apply to pay on account by completing our credit application form. If books are not to the same standard as the proofs that we provide then they may be returned for reprinting or a money back guarantee. Proofs remain our property unless the job is paid for. Payment methods can be by credit card, cheque, direct debit to our bank account or through the secure online payment window in our web site www.photophysical.co.nz

Books remain the property of Microfilm Digital print until paid for.

Completion Time

Often the process of providing you with a proof and making final changes takes longer than the print run itself. If the files are correct and complete a proof can generally be ready for dispatch in five working days. If we are required to design a cover it will take longer, depending on workload and complexity. Once everything is finalised a print run usually takes ten days.

Paper Specifications

The internal pages of your books can be printed on the following stocks

• 80 gsm plain paper
• 80 gsm standard paper (recommended)
• 100 gsm standard paper (recommended)
• 115 gsm picture quality paper
• 80 gsm Munken Cream paper

All papers are subject to availability at the time of printing and their choice does affect pricing

Pictures and Photos

Full colour and black and white images can be printed on any page of your book.

There is no extra charge for black and white photos and images per se, although if your Quotation Request shows that you have a lot of pictures we will recommend higher quality paper and the most suitable printing techniques, which may be more expensive. Colour printing costs more than black and white and is charged on a per page basis but our new equipment ensures that it is no longer necessary to group colour pages together. The cost is the same even if colour pages are placed at random throughout the book.

Spine Thickness

If you are designing your own cover you will find the following guide to spine thickness helpful

Writing My Book

This site assumes that you have sufficient knowledge and experience to write and organise the layout of your book in computer software programs such as Microsoft Word or Adobe InDesign and convert the files into PDF format. If this is not the case see see our Book Consultants page or other book printing services

Copyright

These notes should be regarded as a guide.  The law of copyright is complex and people requiring detailed information, particularly if they have a highly valuable work, should refer to a lawyer or possibly a patent attorney who works in the field of intellectual property. Also, more details can be found in (the most recent edition of) the text “News Media Law In New Zealand”, J.F. Burrows, Oxford University Press.

In New Zealand Copyright doesn't need to be formally registered, although it is usual for books to carry a notice on the back of the title page claiming copyright which reads something like:

Copyright (date of first publication) (author's name)
This book is copyright. Except for the purpose of fair review, no part may be stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including recording or storage in any information retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. No reproduction may be made, whether by photocopying or by any other means, unless a licence has been obtained from the publisher or its agent.

This is very explicit.  It is also common for writers to merely print;
Copyright(date of first publication)(author’s name)

Anything that has been created through someone’s brainpower can be subject to copyright, whether a book, essay, poem, letter or work of art. There is however no copyright on ideas or information.
Copyright may still exist in a work written under a pseudonym or by "Anonymous".
Copyright expires fifty years after the end of the year in which a person dies (assuming the work was published during their lifetime). Until that time, to quote their work in print you are obliged to get their permission or, if they are dead, the permission of whoever is in charge of their estate (their literary executor).

Computer generated works have a duration of fifty years copyright from the end of the calendar year in which the work is made.
Photographs are now treated as an artistic work so they have the life of the maker plus fifty years.

In the case of commissioning a work the person who agrees to pay for the taking of a photograph, or the making of a computer program, painting, diagram, map, chart, plan, engraving, model, sculpture, film or sound recording is the commissioner and becomes the owner of the work. 

Copyright can be sold or assigned, so the author of a book or article is not always the copyright owner. For example, when journalists write for a fee or salary, their terms of employment may be that their employer buys the copyright in the articles they produce. To quote from a book, magazine or newspaper, you should write directly to the publisher in the first instance. Be sure to quote in full the exact passage you want to use, and tell them enough about your book so they will get a clear idea of the purpose to which the quoted passage will be put and your reason for wanting to quote it.

With a small print run it can be a good idea to state how many copies you are going to have printed and what the price will be, as this may help to show that you are not going to make a lot of money out of the exercise, therefore they may not charge you.

Instead of quoting the book verbatim, you may sometimes be able to get around the copyright issue by paraphrasing the material you want to quote. It's all a matter of degree: to paraphrase the information in a sentence or two is one thing, but to paraphrase a whole chapter is quite another.

ISBN Numbers

An ISBN is an International Standard Book Number that is used as a world-wide identification code for books. It enables books to be easily located and ordered and is generally printed on the reverse side of the title page and the back cover. It is not a legal requirement to have an ISBN and is usually only recommended when a book is for wider distribution, outside of a family group or club for example.
An ISBN should be assigned to a book upon its first publication. The New Zealand Standard Book Numbering Agency which operates within the National Library of New Zealand assigns ISBN's free of charge to all books published in New Zealand.If you are having us print your book then you are the publisher and therefore we recommend that you obtain an ISBN yourself.

To acquire an ISBN contact:
The ISBN Librarian
New Zealand Standard Book Numbering Agency
PO Box 1467
Wellington
Telephone (04) 4743074
Fax (04) 4743161
Email ISBN@natlib.govt.nz
Web site http://www.natlib.govt.nz

Legal Deposit

Legal Deposit applies to any person, group or organisation that publishes material, for sale or free of charge, to any section of the public. This includes individuals, clubs, churches and incorporated societies, as well as commercial publishers.
Legal Deposit provisions apply to print publishing (for example, books, magazines, newsletters). Publishers of printed materials are required to deposit two copies of their publication with the National Library.
Legal Deposit also applies to electronic publishing (for example, CDs, DVDs, Internet documents).
For more comprehensive current information see, http://www.natlib.govt.nz

The address is;
Legal Deposit Office
National Library of New Zealand
P O Box 12340
Wellington 6144

Barcode
If a barcode is required (on the back cover to aid booksellers) then we can create it for you. First you must obtain an ISBN because the barcode is made using the same number. We will provide a professionally made bar code and insert it into your cover design. The cost is $40.00

You should consider a barcode if you intend to sell your book commercially.

Other Book Printing Services

If you have other requirements that don't seem to be described here we also offer the following,

Full colour photo books through an online service that includes free design and layout software at the web site www.photobook.co.nz This service is very suitable for small numbers of books.

For those who can visit us a full consultation about printing books is available at our retail premises which is called Microfilm Digital Print. It is located at 65 Victoria Street, Christchurch, New Zealand. Phone 03 366 7731 for an appointment. If you can come and see us we are able to offer a much wider choice of book styles, including hard cover case bound books, and there are many fewer restrictions on how you can present your manuscript for printing. See more information about us at www.digitalprint.co.nz

Also see Book Consultants in this site