Margie Dana

"As a long-ago TV character would say, "I pity the fool" that does not take advantage of your upcoming Print Buyers Conference. What a dynamite agenda! Best wishes for a successful conference."

Mike Reilly, Beechmont Press, Louisville, KY

Can You Tell a Heidelberg
from a Hole-in-the-Ground?

If you buy a significant amount of printing, it makes sense to familiarize yourself with printing equipment. A printing company's capabilities are tied to its equipment, although printers commonly outsource work, so they don't necessarily HAVE to have all the "heavy metal" in house to handle your work.

Still, part of your print buyer education should be learning about printing presses and what each can/cannot do. If you go to a printer's web site, you'll usually see a link to the Equipment List. This is a laundry list of everything, from prepress to press to post-press equipment. It will mean nothing to you at first. As you gain more experience, it will make more sense, and you'll start to figure out the relationship between presses and the types of jobs they produce efficiently.

Diane Dragoff

At our upcoming 2nd Annual Print Buyers Conference, one session is devoted to this very important slice of print buyer education. It will be led by seasoned print buyers - all of whom, coincidentally, have a background working in the printing industry.

Lead speaker Diane Dragoff is Purchasing Manager for the United Way of Massachusetts Bay. Co-presenters are Greg Mroczek, Manufacturing Manager at Harvard Business School Publishing, and Mark Hoffman, Production Coordinator at WGBH.

I asked Diane to answer a few questions about this session, entitled, "Can You Tell a Heidelberg from a Hole-in-the-Ground?"

MD: This topic is something every buyer can relate to – especially newer buyers. Why is understanding a printer's equipment list so important?

DD: Printing and its equipment are always changing. The basics are the same: Machines that prepare jobs for press by automation or by human touch, machines that apply ink (or toner) to a substrate, machines that fold/affix or otherwise attach one thing to another.

The printer's equipment list gives a buyer the basic talking points. If one needs a web press or a digital press and it's not on the list, the buyer should know that that printer isn't the right printer for the job.

MD: How are you organizing your session discussion - between prepress, press and post-press equipment?

DD: We’ll touch briefly on the beginning and end of the process in a very basic way. We’ll concentrate on the press, since it's the driver of the process. We want to give a flavor of the equipment, thus the holistic treatment. As experienced buyers, we’ll share our philosophies on print buying as well. The list is just a jumping-off point.

MD: Will you be focusing on offset – or on all of the common printing processes, including digital printing?

DD: We’ll talk about it all. Digital demands a different prep method, and buyers also need to know that just because a printer has a “digital press,” it doesn’t necessarily mean it has the bells and whistles that you need to produce your specific job. Some of the smaller offset presses make more sense if you aren’t utilizing variable data.

MD: Without tipping your hand, what kinds of conclusions can a print buyer draw from seeing an equipment list?

DD: To quote our panelist Greg Mroczek: “An equipment list is kind of like a resume. That is, it's a high-level view of what a vendor's capabilities are, and an OK place to start a conversation.”

MD: What kinds of handouts will your session include – for instance, will you show a typical equipment list and then show what kinds of work (products/services) that equipment can produce?

DD: We’ll have a PowerPoint presentation hand-out with some equipment list portions and other information included. Greg Mroczek, Mark Hoffman and I want to share our experiences with printers' lists: How we scan them for information, what we learn from that information and how we then interact with printers.

MD: For the less-experienced print customer, isn’t it dangerous to put too much emphasis on the list? It isn't a totally accurate reflection of what a printer can do, since printers outsource work regularly.

DD: The list is not the Bible. It's one tool to use in determining whether your work and the printer are a good fit. You wouldn't hire from a resume. Face-to-face visits and meetings are as important. Learn to use all the tools available to you so that you can acquire and hone your buying skills. We've got tips to help develop those skills and we're happy to answer questions at this session.

Diane, thanks! This session runs from 11 am till 12:15 pm on Thursday, November 8th. Sign up at www.printbuyersinternational.com.

©2007 Margie Dana. All rights reserved. You're free to forward this email to friends and colleagues: please do! However, no part of this column may be reprinted without permission from the author.

Comments? Talk to me at

Jobs Posted

Creative Services Assistant for John Hancock Funds in Boston, MA.

NYC Mutual Fund Print Sales for Universal Millennium

Development Marketing Purchasing Specialist needed by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA.

For details on the above job openings and to apply, visit our Job Bank.

Members can post jobs for free! Others pay just $250 for 4 weeks.
Visit our Job Bank page.

Print Tips Archives!

Our Print Tips archives are public. Access them from the home page of our site
under Print Tips at www.bostonprintbuyers.com.