For all the strangeness I’ve seen down here, one of the funniest ones is this guy who I call The Mad Printer.

The Mad Printer was discovered at Lion’s Coffee in Mission Valley. He started out like any other web surfer in a coffeeshop. He was posted up by the window with his laptop, quietly perusing the intarwebz, minding his own business. He was there for about 45 minutes before he disappeared to his car and returned with a large printer box. He proceeded to remove from this box a color inkjet printer and paper. He sets up the printer on a chair next to, plugs it in, loads some paper, and starts printing out email from Yahoo (not that I was looking at his screen or anything).

Coming to a coffeeshop with the intent to print things is, in my opinion, simply odd to begin with. Are there not better places to go? Aren’t you a bit embarrassed to have that complex of a set-up in a public place? Aren’t you scared someone is going to kick out a plug or bump into it? Not this guy, he was merrily printing away.

After I got over how silly this seemed, I went about my business writing a few blog posts. After another half-hour, however, I realized that this printer had been going full-bore that whole time and he had racked up a formidable stack of printed paper. This began to distract me as I wondered just how long it would continue.

In the end, this thing was printing continually for over an hour. At an average of about 20 pages per minute (guess), that’s over 1,200 pages of printed material… all from this guy’s email account. Part-way through, he abandoned his set-up to walk across the parking lot to the Staples and buy another ream of paper.

The environmentalist in me was furious, the financial advisor in me was dumb-founded, and the hater in me though this guy was out of his mind so I took pics and here they are.

A few tips for printing out material using less paper and less ink:

• Check out a  Print Preview before you fire up your printer. More often than not, there are pages at the beginning or end of your document that you can choose to not print. Watch out for blog posts in particular; sometimes you end up with page after page of comments you weren’t going to read in the first place.
• Try copying the text you want to read and pasting it into a word processor. Adjust the text size down if you can, remove images you don’t need, and shrink the margins. I’ve cut document sizes in half or more using this method which is a good thing to do if you’re talking about 10 pages or more.
• After you’ve chosen the Print option, click the Properties button and print two pages per sheet. This cuts the document and print time in half. If your printer is capable, also print on the front and back; this will also halve the number of sheets of paper you’re using.

Don’t be a Mad Printer. Print Smart.

Related posts:

1. Want to self-publish? Here’s my review of Lulu.com I posted a while back with my armchair analysis (no...
2. Curing Underemployment (or) Josh’s Six Step Plan to a Great Resume (part 6 of 6) Ha! I thought forgot about the last one, huh? Nope....
3. Fresh cards from Fresh Impressions in Florida It’s not everyday, or even every month, that you can...

After first seeing an interesting printing style called letterpress on an art and design blog, I got it into my head that I wanted to have a set of business cards made in that style. At the same time, I was talking to a complete stranger on a forum about his upstart letterpress printing company. They had not even gotten the press yet but were going to be up and running in no time. I knew it would take me forever to design what I want (I had zero experience with Illustrator, the program I needed to use to design it) so I took his email and got started on the design process.

Many iterations, a page orientation change, and many hours bumbling though Illustrator, I had my design (you can see the iterative process here):

All through the design process, I had Preston Grubbs, co-founder of Fresh Impressions printing, on my Google Talk application, talking me through the design, making suggestions, and teaching me about the process. He was helpful, friendly, and a complete professional. We chatted at long length about paper weight, ink color, design elements, and the process in general. I had never met him before, never talked on the phone, but I was already convinced that I would be completely satisfied by the end of the process.

The check was sent, cleared, and cashed, the paper ordered, the plate created, and pictures to ease my anxiety about the whole thing. Finally everything was complete and I had a tracking number. Here’s where Preston and his partner really started to shine.

When the cards showed up, they weren’t really what I expected. I was new to the process so I may have been confused but I wanted to talk to them about the final product. Preston told me explicitly “BE HONEST” when I told my opinion so I typed out an email detailing my issues. Here was the response:

I talked with my ‘business partner’ and we both agreed that we would be more than happy to reprint them. Unfortunately, last night we did a little more printing and we were able to fine tune the press even more. It turns out we were using our roller gauge incorrectly so we were putting down too much ink, therefore creating an inconsistent ink density as well as impression.

If you would like, I will express you some of the samples we printed last night on various stocks to show the quality we have reached now. We will not be able to reprint on 220lb because it is so much more expensive, but hopefully we will be able to do the pearl 110lb now or we also have access to some really amazing handmade paper that receives a beautiful impression. I can send all of this to you today if you would like me to and you can choose what you want your reprint printed on.

Again, I apologize for you not being happy with it and hopefully this doesn’t affect our relationship and you will accept our offer.

I was honest, he was honest and nothing beats complete honesty in a business relationship.

I kept some of the original cards on the thick stock and had a new set of cards printed on the thinner (but, in my opinion, easier to manage) paper stock. They were printed quickly and shipped out as promised. When they showed up, I was totally impressed:

In the end, I’m helping Preston get the attention of someone who might be able to help him rise to great heights in this printing endeavor… though there is no doubt in my mind that he could do it on his own. These cards are unique, tactile, and each one feels like a work of art. Preston’s passion for what he does shines through in every communication and especially in the product itself. I would never hesitate to recommend his services to anyone.

Thank you, Fresh Impressions, for your unmatched service and truly “needs-to-be-seen” product.

Related posts:

1. Letterpress cards cut, packed, and on their way… Amazing work… this iPhone photo looks like it was from...
2. Business cards featured at Design Cubicle I saw a Tweet a couple of weeks ago inviting...
3. The Mad Printer… an interesting coffeeshop activity I live in California and, as such, I’m generally less...