Okay, I'm awake now (as much as I ever am), and a little more coherent than last night. Anyway, I remembered some things:

There is, now, a "press" that a lot of printers are getting so they can make short runs, anything from 30 sheets at a time to 500 or so. It's from IBM and is called a Docutech. Sort of a glorified copier, only much higher quality. And they've recently come out with a color one. The shop where I work has one on order, but it isn't due to deliver until after the new year. However, there are already plenty out there, especially in big cities. The beauty of the beast is that there are no negatives or plates needed -- everything goes straight from one computer to the Docutech computer and, voila!, out she comes at the other end! It's one of the cheapest ways to go. And it's fast -- you can usually get your product back within the week, even at a printer who is not a Quick Print Joint.

Also, most printers these days can be e-mailed your art. You'll want to snail-mail, ship or deliver a "hard copy" to them, too, or they're going to be reluctant to take responsibility for the final product. However, this does mean that you can e-mail your art overseas -- making it possible to have a few printed under the auspices of someone in England/Scotland/Ireland, another few under the auspices of an Australian mudcat, another few in Germany, etc. The on-the-scene mudcat can print out a hard copy and deliver it with the local order.

The drawbacks are that 1) the largest sheet of paper the Docutech will print on is 11 x 17; 2) you cannot bleed inks, but must leave 1/4" all the way around the paper, so your image area is actually 10-1/2 x 16-1/2; 3) I don't know about the four-color Docutech, but the black-and-white one doesn't like coated paper (the slick stuff magazines are printed on), so your photos and such must be 133 line screen (266 resolution) to avoid ink spread.

(Note: If you're running them from your own printer, it may not matter, but please note that professional printers require that photos be CMYK, not RGB. Most photos scan RGB and will need to be taken into Photoshop or a comparable program and converted.)

If all interested parties will take the time find out if there's a color Docutech nearby, get an ballpark figure for a four-color calendar of 12 pages (or 6, depending on the design), say 50 copies, and report back to "The Mudcat Calendar Committee," you'll have an idea of real cost for these. You can then broadcast a price and see what kind of orders you get in response.

Meanwhile, BillD can have fun playing with the pictures, and I'll be happy to advise on how to get the product so ready for printing that no "extras" show up on the print bills because they have to do something other than open the rascal on their computers and run it -- i.e., trapping artwork, sending backup documents and fonts with your e-mail, other stuff they don't tell you in art class.

I'm probably forgetting stuff, but that's the way I am.

Sarah