Seattle Bindery Newsletter: Issue No. 49. We welcome your comments. 

1. Light at the end of the tunnel? Despite the fact that all leading indicators and most economists are pointing to the inevitability of a recession, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill sheds a little sunshine telling us that “the underlying future of the U.S. economy is very good.” Indeed, according to msnbc.com, “most economists expect growth to resume in the first quarter of 2002, helped by aggressive interest rate cuts and a big boost in federal spending.”

2. Tip of the Week. Wire-O is a binding method that’s growing in popularity, due in part to the fact that it’s durable, extremely flexible, lies flat and opens to 360 degrees. Designers also are showing increasing interest in Wire-O for annual reports and other projects, because of the growing number of coordinating colors. Here are some general guidelines. Copy should be placed at least 3/8-inch away from the spine. In thicker books that require heavier wire and larger holes, copy should be 9/16-inch from the spine. If you precollate before sending it to us, make sure your pages and slip sheets are all the same size. These measures will insure that automatic punching of the holes won’t be jeopardized.

3. Smaller may be better. The most recent stats coming out of PIA indicate that, while smaller printers with fewer than 10 employees suffered the heaviest casualties in plant closures since 1993, the small shops have been the least affected by this summer’s anemic performance. Our IAPHC friend, Kevin Keane, suggests this may be due to smaller shops being “more nimble in the digital saber dance . . . and more adept at dealing with the instant gratification demands of today’s digitally enabled clients.” While we’re on the digital subject, digital printers were all the rage at Print 01, with Heidelberg and Xerox in locked combat over the respective NexPress and FutureColor digital presses.

4. Some more growth news. Visits to Seattle Bindery’s website have doubled since we started collecting data in February 1999, and first visits jumped nearly 2.25 percent, with a huge increase being recorded last month. Don’t know why last month, except perhaps it was the end of summer vacations and everyone was back at work thinking about bindery. You think?

5. Indexing. We’ve had several recent inquiries about step indexing. While we don’t yet provide this, if interest grows, we’ll certainly look into adding it to our suite of services. In the meantime, you can check out the website of Denver-based Ross-Gage at www.rossgage.com, which has sketches and descriptions about step indexing, thumb-cut indexing, and even European thumb-cut indexing. The company claims to be “the largest indexer in the Americas.” If anybody decides to use them, I’d be interested in feedback. Also, my good friend Marty Anson at Bindagraphics, in Baltimore, has indexing information on his site, www.bindagraphics.com.

 
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