Pre-cut letterpress papers?

Hello Katesy,

I don’t have a paper cutter yet either. When I need to cut parent sheets or many sheets of smaller paper, I take it to a “real” printer. The fellow I go to uses a massive machine that cuts tall stacks to the thousandths of an inch in a few seconds. Amazing!

Barbara

Awesome thanks so much for the tip. What do you mean a real printer though? Im in NYC—I guess I can just look one up? I really appreciate it!

I think what Barb means is any shop that isn’t a ‘hobby’ shop. There are countless professional print shops and service bureaus in NYC—just call around to find a friendly one willing to help you out. You should expect to pay anywhere between 20¢ and $1 per cut. Depends on how many cuts and how generous they are feeling.

I’m guessing that most cities have a retail paper shop that caters to small printing companies. One here in Richmond VA has boxed sets of precut and scored cards and matching envelopes in several sizes. I’m not sure about the brands, but they’re pretty nice-looking stock. Check your yellow pages under “Paper”.

Hi all,
Thank you so much for all of your help. One last question :)
Do you know what is the best bang for your buck in terms of purchasing Cranes Letra for 5X7 invites and 3X5 rsvp cards? In terms of cuts, etc. Just thought I’d ask because I am sure some of you have done this before. I genuinely appreciate this help :)

Can you print directly on and over the edge of pre-cut paper if you have a full bleed? Do you always have to trip after printing?

Katesy- another good place to look to is a die cutting shop if you have one around. They are great to develop a relationship with if you need to have anything die cut as well (if you don’t do it yourself). Places like these and large commercial printers, as Barbara suggested, can do trimming for not all that much money- the place I work with charges by the hour. I’ve done the math before and it seemed like you could get a heck of a lot of 5x7s out of Lettra parent sheets, vs. trimming down from 8.5x11 sheets, which you can then chop down to 3.5x5 rsvp cards. Whatever you do, don’t take it to Kinko’s!!!

Avivona- if you have a full bleed, you’ll need to trim after printing. You need room for your gauge pins to hold onto the paper- not possible if the plate is hitting all four sides of the paper. But if you have a partial bleed, say on two sides, you can do it.

If use pre-cut papers and want partial bleeds can’t u just create a bleed on the plate? (ie on the illustrator file and get teh plate made slightly larger than the 7X5 paper?)

And thanks so much for the tips!!!

yes- I typically extend mine an extra eighth of an inch. works for me… not sure what anyone else suggests doing that might be better.

Not only do you need to keep the bleed image back from the guide edges so you don’t smash the gauge pins (and plate and base), you also need to keep an unprinted area where you can grab the sheet for delivery, or you will smear the ink.
(Some use sandpaper around the fingertip to reduce smearing when there isn’t enough open area.)

Wow Can you explain a little bit further. Like a step by step if you could? :) Sounds a little confusing. Thank you so much!

If you mean explain the sandpaper, OK. Cut a stripslightly narrower than your finger and, say, three times the length of the first joint. Wrap it around the fingertip from the inside, over the tip and around to the back of the finger. Then wrap a small rubber band around it to hold it in place (maybe there’s a better way—I don’t use sandpaper because the rubber band just cuts off circulation). That sandpaper tip will allow you grab a printed sheet in an area of wet ink without much smearing of the ink.
But even so, there are other reasons to print a bleed image on an oversize sheet, for example the use of grippers or friskets. Any sheet with a full image is likely to stick to the form; the toungues of the gauge pins don’t have enough strength to peel the sheet from the form. You need enough blank space across the near end of the sheet to run string or rubber bands, or enough blank space on the sides to place frisket fingers.