Footprint Talk

A recent talk by 'Footprint' - a small ecologically minded printers based in Leeds, really opened my eyes to how the whole commercial print process can still be ethically and sustainably considered.

They print booklets, zines, leaflets, stickers, newsletters, fliers, books, CD wallets and that sort of "gubbins."

They fold, staple, or spiral bind, and can have properly bound books done by partner companies too.

They are a workers co-operative, which means the business is owned by the workers. There are no bosses, meaning they can run it as they want, doing interesting jobs for interesting people.

They strive to be straightforward, friendly, responsible and responsive, rather than ‘aiming to deliver comprehensive multi-platform printing solutions to clients in the voluntary and vocationally challenged sectors’.

It is done as ethically as they can, printing on proper recycled papers, powered by a genuine green electricity tariff and using the least environmentally damaging processes they can find. Also a percentage of the money they make is given to worthy projects and green charities.

Get some decent politics in the zine.Footprint give discounts if they like the content of your zine or it is representing a campaign that they really want to support! Same applies, if they don't agree with your content, they'll refuse to print it. 

They encourage you to think about your print run & provide the necessary info.
The more copies you print the cheaper the individual cost of each zine. For example in spring 2011 they printed 100 copies of a 40 page zine (A5 with a card cover) and it cost £122. This worked out at £1.2 per copy or 6p per A4 side (there was quite a bit of pre press work too). The following table shows how much it would have cost to have had more printed.

Number of copies	100	200	500
Price	£122	£152	£275
Price per copy of zine	£1.22	76p	55p
Price per A4 copy	6p	4p	3p

This is all because there is a certain cost for setting the machine up for each plate and sending another 100 copies through at 2 copies a second adds a pretty negligible amount of time and ink. Obviously, you have to be realistic with the number that you are going to sell or it will be a false economy.

Stocks.

They offer quite an extensive library of considered stocks, aswell as providing catalogues to choose and order from. You can provide your own stock, but have to be careful with textures and anything over 300gsm. And ofcourse it is preferred to be sustainable/ recycled.

Come and Print it yourself.
While it sometimes takes them much longer to show someone how to use the machines than it would take to just do the job themselves, they want to encourage the DiY ethic and get people to learn how to do the pre-press and use the machines. If you come in to print or collate your own job then you will find it works out a lot cheaper. This is an amazing service to consider for the future!