Making the copies

A copy shop seems like a mundane resource until you realize that every place you used to like has closed or changed completely, and you need 500 booklets printed by next week. Fortunately, I found FlashPrint in Harvard Square.

I used to bring these jobs to Typotech or Kendall Press. Typotech closed some years ago, along with their well-maintained equipment and their hypercompetent staff. Kendall Press still has great press operators, but the front end has gotten too hard to deal with since the ownership change. I need to efficiently choose an available paper stock, discuss finishing requirements, confirm file specs, figure out the price, and know that the file output will be done correctly and the job will be completed on schedule. None of those steps are reliably easy any longer.

As the rep at FlashPrint said, it’s not hard. But far too many places make it hard. Most copy shops here no longer provide a comprehensive price list for simple jobs (and 500 saddle-stitched 5.5"x8.5" 16-page black-only 1/1 self-cover booklets on 60# natural white or cream smooth text with no bleeds really is a simple job). Instead, you have to request an estimate. So I requested an estimate from 5 places, expecting responses by the next morning at the latest. Place #1: no response yet. Place #2: over a day to get a (sky-high) price. Place #3: three days until a phone call saying the quote would be done “soon.” Place #4: almost 24 hours to get a quote that had the specs wrong. The winner by a long shot? FlashPrint: 7 minutes. And they have a price list you can pick up in their shop, with perfectly reasonable pricing.

FlashPrint showed me the paper they recommended and double-checked that they had it in stock, told me they’d call if they had any questions, asked if I wanted to see a proof, ran the job perfectly, and called me to let me know the job was finished two days early. Place #3 (mentioned above) said that I sounded like I was in the trade when I confirmed the job specs and confirmed that the imposition was correct in the PDF file. I’ve been buying printing for over 15 years. But FlashPrint is in the trade.