Regarding practical matters involved in printing guidebooks (and Acts of
your annual conferences, and..., and...), one option to consider might be
"digital" printing.

Once all the documents are formatted in your printer's program (not simple
Word, but the editorial program with all the "bells and whistles" for the
impagination details, etc.), it can be saved on a CD, and used to print
copies, as needed. The "innards" of the book are printed on a "regular"
printer, so the paper quality and quality of the printer (particularly for
illustrations, which, admittedly came out so-so when we tried this for
DEMHIST, ICOM's international committee for historic house museums) are of
concern, of course. The copies desired (even low quantities, such as 20, 50,
100) can be assembled into the book, as needed, but even this didn't phase
the printer that we used, as it otherwise is an approach that costs less
than printing the whole run at once, using traditional printing methods.

The only thing that, for cost-effective reasons, has to be printed in the
total expected number of copies is the cover, as it is printed using
traditional means. This might mean a few boxes in storage, but is nothing
compared to the bulk of the total number of assembled books.

Hope this has been interesting and helpful. Hope everyone is enjoying their
summer,

Star Meyer
home: [log in to unmask]
work: [log in to unmask]
Bagatti Valsecchi Museum - Milan, Italy
http://www.museobagattivalsecchi.org

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