• Sewing pattern printing / folding (small scale wholesale) ?

    From Eli the Bearded@21:1/5 to All on Sun Aug 8 01:35:57 2021
    A bit of a long shot, but...

    I had been getting work done by Pattern Printing Company (at obvious dot
    com), but the owner, Dale, is retiring. Looking for anyone that might have recommendations. These need to be shipped to California, so Western US
    is better, but continential US is acceptable. International orders are
    probably not going to work.

    The actual printing isn't so hard to find. Reprographics places will
    gladly run off a few hundred Arch D or Arch E sized pages, which is a
    common order. They'll come in a hefty roll. The local place delivers
    them by bicycle, which is ambitious considering the weight and the
    hills.

    (Arch D: 36 x 24 inches; 61 x 30 cm. Arch E: 36 x 48 inches; 91 x 30 cm)

    The specific thing Pattern Printing Company had and I'd love to find
    again, but I don't get from general large format print services is
    folding. Turn around time was longer, so reprographic services were good
    for rush orders, but folded output is a major convience.

    My searches online have found places outside of the US, and one place
    in Virginia that appears to be a reprographic shop that just knows how
    to target the sewing audience (PDF Plotting at obvious dot com) but it's
    just rolled paper. I can get that locally. I haven't found anyone else
    offering folding. (I'm not sure where I'd find the machinery to buy to
    do it myself, or if the costs could be justified for the scale.)

    Elijah
    ------
    big week for pattern sales, ~200 shipped out today

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  • From John Forkosh@21:1/5 to Eli the Bearded on Sun Aug 8 06:40:40 2021
    Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> wrote:
    A bit of a long shot, but...

    I had been getting work done by Pattern Printing Company (at obvious dot com), but the owner, Dale, is retiring. Looking for anyone that might have recommendations. These need to be shipped to California, so Western US
    is better, but continential US is acceptable. International orders are probably not going to work.

    The actual printing isn't so hard to find. Reprographics places will
    gladly run off a few hundred Arch D or Arch E sized pages, which is a
    common order. They'll come in a hefty roll. The local place delivers
    them by bicycle, which is ambitious considering the weight and the
    hills.

    (Arch D: 36 x 24 inches; 61 x 30 cm. Arch E: 36 x 48 inches; 91 x 30 cm)

    The specific thing Pattern Printing Company had and I'd love to find
    again, but I don't get from general large format print services is
    folding. Turn around time was longer, so reprographic services were good
    for rush orders, but folded output is a major convience.

    My searches online have found places outside of the US, and one place
    in Virginia that appears to be a reprographic shop that just knows how
    to target the sewing audience (PDF Plotting at obvious dot com) but it's
    just rolled paper. I can get that locally. I haven't found anyone else offering folding. (I'm not sure where I'd find the machinery to buy to
    do it myself, or if the costs could be justified for the scale.)

    Elijah
    ------
    big week for pattern sales, ~200 shipped out today

    Wow! ~200 in a day! Nancy Zieman had better watch her back!!!
    Anyway, can't suggest anything directly answering your question.
    But maybe this is a workable alternative: I've used poster.c
    https://schrfr.github.io/poster/
    https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Poster
    https://ctan.org/tex-archive/support/poster
    or google poster Eijndhoven for many other sites
    with variously-dated versions, all more-or-less equivalent afaict
    to resize and tile images, printing large images in 11x17" tile segments
    on a tabloid printer. Poster works really great for me and my purposes,
    using an old Brother MFC-J6920DW in my case, which cost just $250 back
    in 2014. See
    https://www.brother-usa.com/11x17-ledger-printers
    for their current 11x17" tabloid selection. Heck, they're so cheap
    relative to what I'd guess you've been spending, that I'd think
    you might as well give it a try: You can never be too rich or too
    thin, or have too many tabloid printers.
    --
    John Forkosh ( mailto: j@f.com where j=john and f=forkosh )

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  • From EllisMorgan@21:1/5 to Eli the Bearded on Sun Aug 8 08:30:28 2021
    On 08/08/2021 02:35, Eli the Bearded wrote:
    A bit of a long shot, but...

    I had been getting work done by Pattern Printing Company (at obvious dot com), but the owner, Dale, is retiring. Looking for anyone that might have recommendations. These need to be shipped to California, so Western US
    is better, but continential US is acceptable. International orders are probably not going to work.

    The actual printing isn't so hard to find. Reprographics places will
    gladly run off a few hundred Arch D or Arch E sized pages, which is a
    common order. They'll come in a hefty roll. The local place delivers
    them by bicycle, which is ambitious considering the weight and the
    hills.

    (Arch D: 36 x 24 inches; 61 x 30 cm. Arch E: 36 x 48 inches; 91 x 30 cm)

    The specific thing Pattern Printing Company had and I'd love to find
    again, but I don't get from general large format print services is
    folding. Turn around time was longer, so reprographic services were good
    for rush orders, but folded output is a major convience.

    My searches online have found places outside of the US, and one place
    in Virginia that appears to be a reprographic shop that just knows how
    to target the sewing audience (PDF Plotting at obvious dot com) but it's
    just rolled paper. I can get that locally. I haven't found anyone else offering folding. (I'm not sure where I'd find the machinery to buy to
    do it myself, or if the costs could be justified for the scale.)

    Elijah
    ------
    big week for pattern sales, ~200 shipped out today

    I think you will find that 12 inches is approximately 30cm.
    Ellis

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  • From Eli the Bearded@21:1/5 to forkosh@panix.com on Mon Aug 9 21:28:57 2021
    In comp.periphs.printers, John Forkosh <forkosh@panix.com> wrote:
    Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> wrote:
    The specific thing Pattern Printing Company had and I'd love to find
    again, but I don't get from general large format print services is
    folding. Turn around time was longer, so reprographic services were good
    for rush orders, but folded output is a major convience.

    Wow! ~200 in a day! Nancy Zieman had better watch her back!!!

    Her book came out in April. Not nearly Nancy Zieman level yet, but
    slowly growing. That 200 was a day with four wholesale orders, the
    largest with 80 patterns. Most weeks are not that busy.

    Anyway, can't suggest anything directly answering your question.
    But maybe this is a workable alternative: I've used poster.c

    Ah yes. That's a well known "fix" in the pattern industry, but not
    a good one for paper pattern sales. There are basically three ways
    patterns are sold:

    1. Traditional folded paper. (This is what I seek help with.)

    2. Downloadable print at home, which uses poster tiling. Several of
    the patterns are available that way through Creative Bug, a video
    teaching site formerly owned by the same company as Crunchyroll
    (known for streaming anime videos) but is now owned by Jo-Ann's
    Fabric. This style requires a little bit of technical support
    because it is important that the pages are printed at the right
    scale. It's also a good idea to arrange the tiling to not have
    busy parts of the pattern on a page edge.

    3. Downloadable "copyshop" versions. These are full size patterns
    that need to be printed on wide format printers, eg, at a copyshop.
    There's a lot of noise in search results for searching for pattern
    printing about places seeking to get the copyshop business. Small
    run printing of plotter style output shipped in a cardboard tube.
    We are trying to avoid this because of the risk of someone buying
    once and running off a bunch of copies. The envisioned scenario,
    and there's reason to believe it is a real risk, is some sewing
    instructor printing unpaid-for copies for use in sewing classes.

    Eventually we anticipate all the patterns will be available directly
    from her shop in downloadable print at home format, but that requires
    revisions to all the instruction booklets, too. All of that takes time,
    which is harder to come by if you're spending all day folding a roll of patterns from a reprographics order.

    Elijah
    ------
    the patterns for the book were printed overseas with long lead times

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  • From John Forkosh@21:1/5 to Eli the Bearded on Tue Aug 10 04:25:51 2021
    Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> wrote:
    John Forkosh <forkosh@panix.com> wrote:
    Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> wrote:
    The specific thing Pattern Printing Company had and I'd love to find
    again, but I don't get from general large format print services is
    folding. Turn around time was longer, so reprographic services were good >>> for rush orders, but folded output is a major convience.

    Wow! ~200 in a day! Nancy Zieman had better watch her back!!!

    Her book came out in April. Not nearly Nancy Zieman level yet, but
    slowly growing. That 200 was a day with four wholesale orders, the
    largest with 80 patterns. Most weeks are not that busy.

    Anyway, can't suggest anything directly answering your question.
    But maybe this is a workable alternative: I've used poster.c

    Ah yes. That's a well known "fix" in the pattern industry, but not
    a good one for paper pattern sales. There are basically three ways
    patterns are sold:

    1. Traditional folded paper. (This is what I seek help with.)

    2. Downloadable print at home, which uses poster tiling. Several of
    the patterns are available that way through Creative Bug, a video
    teaching site formerly owned by the same company as Crunchyroll
    (known for streaming anime videos) but is now owned by Jo-Ann's
    Fabric. This style requires a little bit of technical support
    because it is important that the pages are printed at the right
    scale. It's also a good idea to arrange the tiling to not have
    busy parts of the pattern on a page edge.

    3. Downloadable "copyshop" versions. These are full size patterns
    that need to be printed on wide format printers, eg, at a copyshop.
    There's a lot of noise in search results for searching for pattern
    printing about places seeking to get the copyshop business. Small
    run printing of plotter style output shipped in a cardboard tube.
    We are trying to avoid this because of the risk of someone buying
    once and running off a bunch of copies. The envisioned scenario,
    and there's reason to believe it is a real risk, is some sewing
    instructor printing unpaid-for copies for use in sewing classes.

    Eventually we anticipate all the patterns will be available directly
    from her shop in downloadable print at home format, but that requires revisions to all the instruction booklets, too. All of that takes time,
    which is harder to come by if you're spending all day folding a roll of patterns from a reprographics order.

    Elijah
    ------
    the patterns for the book were printed overseas with long lead times

    Congratulations on your/her book (not yet, emphasize >yet<, Nancy Zieman
    level notwithstanding). Besides poster.c, the only other thought that
    crossed my mind was that if your business is generating enough revenue,
    and at 200/day (though you say that's uncommon ... >yet<) it sounded
    like it might be, invest in a wide-format printer yourself. I guess
    the 24" models ain't wide enough for a full-size pattern, and you'd need
    a 36" or maybe 48" model. The cheapest of those I recall seeing was
    maybe ~$2500, but for my personal purposes it was way more than I wanted
    to spend (and required way too much space in my home office).
    As for folding, I've gotten some full-size posters in the mail that
    were rolled up on cardboard cylinders. So maybe don't fold them at all.
    And I'd even guess (emphasize >guess<) customers would prefer patterns
    without the folding creases. And if they're ordering several, you could
    roll them all at once on the same cardboard cylinder (though maybe not
    that entire 80-pattern wholesale order), maybe saving some of the time
    you're spending folding them.
    --
    John Forkosh ( mailto: j@f.com where j=john and f=forkosh )

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  • From Eli the Bearded@21:1/5 to forkosh@panix.com on Tue Aug 10 19:10:32 2021
    In comp.periphs.printers, John Forkosh <forkosh@panix.com> wrote:
    Congratulations on your/her book (not yet, emphasize >yet<, Nancy Zieman level notwithstanding). Besides poster.c, the only other thought that
    crossed my mind was that if your business is generating enough revenue,
    and at 200/day (though you say that's uncommon ... >yet<) it sounded
    like it might be, invest in a wide-format printer yourself. I guess
    the 24" models ain't wide enough for a full-size pattern, and you'd need
    a 36" or maybe 48" model. The cheapest of those I recall seeing was
    maybe ~$2500, but for my personal purposes it was way more than I wanted
    to spend (and required way too much space in my home office).
    As for folding, I've gotten some full-size posters in the mail that
    were rolled up on cardboard cylinders. So maybe don't fold them at all.

    Interesting attempt to make lemonade. This is what 200 patterns shipping
    out to four wholesalers looks like now:

    https://qaz.wtf/tmp/200-patterns.jpg

    Can you imagine 200 cardboard cylinders? Can you imagine the postage
    cost? This is a difficult amount to carry the four blocks to the post
    office. 200 mailing tubes would be impossible to walk over.

    I'd consider buying a folding machine before a printer. Wide format
    printing is easy to find as a service.

    Elijah
    ------
    has never seen a folding machine for larger than letter size paper

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  • From John Forkosh@21:1/5 to Eli the Bearded on Wed Aug 11 06:39:14 2021
    Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> wrote:
    In comp.periphs.printers, John Forkosh <forkosh@panix.com> wrote:
    Congratulations on your/her book (not yet, emphasize >yet<, Nancy Zieman
    level notwithstanding). Besides poster.c, the only other thought that
    crossed my mind was that if your business is generating enough revenue,
    and at 200/day (though you say that's uncommon ... >yet<) it sounded
    like it might be, invest in a wide-format printer yourself. I guess
    the 24" models ain't wide enough for a full-size pattern, and you'd need
    a 36" or maybe 48" model. The cheapest of those I recall seeing was
    maybe ~$2500, but for my personal purposes it was way more than I wanted
    to spend (and required way too much space in my home office).
    As for folding, I've gotten some full-size posters in the mail that
    were rolled up on cardboard cylinders. So maybe don't fold them at all.

    Interesting attempt to make lemonade. This is what 200 patterns shipping
    out to four wholesalers looks like now:
    https://qaz.wtf/tmp/200-patterns.jpg

    ...That's impressive. At least it looks like you're doing a great
    home business there. But I now understand why the spin-off series
    from "Sewing with Nancy", "Shipping with Nancy", never took off.
    P.S. And I never realized that .wtf had become a top-level domain
    ...That's hilarious.

    Can you imagine 200 cardboard cylinders? Can you imagine the postage
    cost? This is a difficult amount to carry the four blocks to the post
    office. 200 mailing tubes would be impossible to walk over.

    My bad. But, like I said, I've actually received full-size posters
    in the mail rolled up on those tubes. Seemed worth mentioning.

    I'd consider buying a folding machine before a printer. Wide format
    printing is easy to find as a service.

    Elijah
    ------
    has never seen a folding machine for larger than letter size paper

    Guess you're back to your original question, trying to locate
    a wide-format printing-And-Folding service.
    --
    John Forkosh ( mailto: j@f.com where j=john and f=forkosh )

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