I’ve been out of the loop in the digital printing market for… scratch that. I’ve never printed anything besides from my inkjet printer. But my current and long overdue Jenn project requires me to print the image bigger than 8×11. So I tried to find a place with a large format digital printer. After abandoning that quest I just went to Kinkos.

I tried once before but the fonts weren’t embedded in the file and I gave up. But this time I was armed with a PDF of the image and a rudimentary knowledge of what I was talking about. So the weird guy behind the counter loaded up the image on the computer, had me check to see if it was all right, and then sent the job to the printer. I walked around for about for a while and then came back to pick up the job. Success… crap. Looks like their heads are see through, but it was my fault so I paid for it and left. Seems that the process they use to print the image prints everything else first and then the black lines last. Which would be a good idea if the ink were opaque. So round two involved me going through my file and reworking some things, darkening others, and giving all black areas a white backer. Mostly just a pain in the ass. But it was a learning experience. So I sent it to them over the Internet and picked it up at the store. Not a bad process if you ask me. It wasn’t perfect… but nothing about this project has been, so I think it’s nearing completion. Just have to assemble it tonight!

later!