See that? That’s what the world’s worst printer thinks is acceptable quality for plain black type and a solid black bar — not a scan, not an image, nothing fancy. Plain black text set with real fonts, printed on normal paper with a laser printer. Are you thinking a $50 inkjet printer would do better? Are you thinking potato stamps would do better? So am I. And this latest disaster is the last straw.
I’m going to name and shame here. Fallen Angel Media in Bristol target their services toward independent comics and zine publishers, an idea I fully support, obviously, and one which kept me with them through mistake after mistake that has dogged Pink Mince since the first issue. For a long time, they were able to keep their prices low enough that I felt like I had no choice but to put up with the problems, but the prices have been creeping up, the service has been getting slower and slower, and their attention to quality — at least for me, or at least for the kind of straightforward mix of text and images that Pink Mince requires — has failed to improve.
I’m no stranger to print production. I’ve been at this for over 20 years, and I find it difficult to accept that it’s so utterly impossible to print words and images together that both have to suffer over and over again. So screw it. I’m done paying to wait a month to see if a lovingly assembled issue will look like shit or not. I’m done hoping they don’t object to the content. If I must, I’d rather pay a little more to do justice to the superb work that people are kind enough to contribute, not to mention that work I put in, too.
So I’m sorry to everyone who has already ordered copies of Pink Mince #8, and to the subscribers, and to the contributors. It’s going to be about another week until I see if the kind printer nearby — who is equally baffled by Fallen Angel’s problems — can rescue this issue. Please be patient while I try to get the best result possible out to all of you.
And now raise your hand if you see the telltale signs of JPG artefacts where there ought to be crisp, clear vector data and solid black tones
That’s not a business I would use. I’m glad you are shopping Pink Mince around to somebody more responsive, professional, and exacting. If I were them, I’d be embarrassed. They clearly need their machine calibrated and somebody out to service it. That stair-stepping of the text alone is all the proof we need to see they just don’t care about their customers.
It looks like my Kindle up close!