One of the ways we find out how we are doing is by sending out customer feedback surveys once we have completed a book printing or book binding project.  Thank you Tawnia for taking the time to let us know about your experience with Smith Printing!  She stated she chose us for these reasons:

• Lowest Price
• Fastest Delivery
• Customer Service
• Best Solution

She also added these comments:

“Smith Printing far exceeded my expectations in print quality, turnaround time, and customer service. Becky went above and beyond to make the process easy to understand for an inexperienced author like me. She was upbeat, supportive and very accessible. I can’t recommend this company enough for self-published authors, and look forward to working with them on my next book.”

Many of our book binding customers have never done a project like this before.  We can guide you through the process so you look like a pro!

“What a fantastic job Smith Printing did for us with my grandmothers memoirs! The price was incredibly fair, the end product was beyond our expectation and the delivery was quick. I honestly can’t say enough good things about the performance of this company. From the first conversation we had I felt like I was dealing with trusted friends. Becky and her company were absolutely wonderful.  I had never had a manuscript bound before, so I wasn’t sure how to proceed.  She provided sound advice and guidance and was an absolute delight to deal with.”

Rick

We recently had the honor of helping Barbara print a family history book for her granddaughter who was missing her father…

“My son died five years ago at the age of 46.  He has a now 7 year old daughter who lives with her mom in Singapore (My son and daughter-in-law went there for job opportunities and stayed for the wonderful environment and experiences that are available to Alex).  Alex was only a year and a half old when Robert died.  Recently she has been saying that her Daddy has “fallen out of her heart” because she can’t remember him.  When she turned seven in June, I sent Alex a photo of her dad at his seventh birthday party.  Her response to that made me think that this might be a good time to write down some family history and information about her dad that she can hang onto.  I tried to include photos too so that Robert will seem a bit more “real” to her. 

Alexandra sleeps with her book under her pillow every night. She calls it her “Happy Memories Book.” So, I guess we can say you made her day too!”

Barbara

One of our published authors has taken her love of books to the next level!  She has opened a book store called the Book Nook, located in Delano Minnesota.

My name is Linda Gendron and I recently opened a charming little book store called “The Book Nook” in historic downtown Delano, Minnesota. I carry a variety of new and used books. I also cater to local authors and sell their books in my store and it has been going very well. One 13 year/old author from Albany, Mn., wrote a historical fiction that takes place in WWI, printed his book with Smith Printing and I sold 29 of his books in 4 weeks.

Everyone in Delano seems to be happy to have a book store in town and I am thoroughly enjoying this new adventure! 

http://www.delanobooknook.com/

Two books from young authors published by Smith Printing!

Susie came to us with her family book printing project because she experienced good customer service right from the start.  We are glad she was very satisfied with her printed and bound books!

“From start to finish of my project, Becky was fantastic to work with. The finished family keepsake books are beautiful and have a totally professional look and feel.  The entire experience was better than I ever imagined. Thank you so much.”  

Susie Avey

This has been a year different than any other most of us can remember.  Fear and uncertainty have been the main headlines.  We have not been able to be as close as we would like to those dear to us for comfort and encouragement.  And yet during this darkness a light is shining upon the world this Christmas season reminding us that there is still hope and joy in the world!  We celebrate a God who sent His son Jesus to be our Savior over 2000 years ago.  I love watching the “A Charlie Brown Christmas” story because Linus reminds us, “this is what Christmas is all about!”  Merry Christmas everyone!

When you add pictures to your book you should have a basic understanding about the different types of digital graphics used in publishing.  Pictures that look great on your computer may not look good at all when printed on paper.  The first step is to understand the two basic categories of graphics; raster and vector. 

Raster

Raster graphics are used for most photographic images and are defined by the number of individually colored pixels that are combined to create the image.  If you enlarge a raster graphic you will see distortion because you are asking the determined amount of pixels to now cover a larger area.  The blur you are seeing is actually the edges of the pixels you couldn’t see before when the image and it’s pixels were smaller.  So if you want a picture of grandmother in your book that’s the size of a postage stamp and want it to be full page…it’s going to look terrible!  Examples of raster graphic files are: bmp, jpg, tif, gif and png.   We will go into the advantages of each type of file in a later post.

Vector

Vector graphics are found in company logos, clip art, cartoon or avatar type pictures.  This type of file is defined mathematically by a series of scalable objects, shapes and borders.  The advantage to vector graphics is that they can be resized indefinitely without distortion since they are not made up of pixels.  A good example of this concept is a computer font.  You can make it size 8 or size 800 and it will not distort.  We also use vector graphics to create the die artwork for a foil stamped image on a hard cover book.

Click to Enlarge

There is certainly so much to be thankful for this year!  2020 has been such a different year than we could have ever imagined.  We at Smith Printing have been blessed to have had so many wonderful customers this year.  Our customers come from many locations and I can see that people are doing everything they can to keep their families, friendships and this country going strong.  Jody recently worked with us on her book publishing project and gave us these encouraging words…

“Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!  One of the things that  I’m especially thankful for this year is finding your company.  You have been so helpful and made me feel at ease instantly.  

I’ve enjoyed working with a fellow sister in Christ, Jody”

Ron already had some experience with book publishing when he went looking for another solution.  Despite all the limitations of the current virus climate he was able to receive exactly what he wanted…

“The virus played a part with some aspects of completing our order of books. Becky worked through it and suggested a solution that didn’t change the outcome. This is my third publisher I’ve worked with. Smith Printing Company will be the first to be contacted next time. Very pleased and would order again with her.”

Ron Javner

Font in the image is Cooper Black!  

All of us at some point had to learn how to drive a car.  Learning how to publish your own book can be much easier than that, and certainly safer!  Many of our customers have little or no experience at all.  We have been helping people with their book projects for over 20 years and still enjoy helping you understand the process…

“I want to thank you and Terri for your assistance in publishing my book. Your experience, ideas and efficient process made it easy for this novice and I am delighted with the finished product.”

David