The Print discussion thread

squishykins

When is the print back?

Alt_Grrr

squishykins wrote: »

When is the print back?

Well Rob is away on a much needed holiday atm so I'll step in,
It'll be soon enough I'd say.

The next one shouldn't be too long after the start of the term,
In the mean time feel free to write any letters, news, view, reviews and send them in.

Fresh talent/blood is always welcome.

squishykins

I love writing...all I need is something to write about! Trees...I like trees...that chair is interesting...:P

declan06

squishykins wrote: »

When is the print back?

Yea, It will be out some time in Feb,

Seren_

That "The Cries of Retail" article in the latest issue of The Print is very familiar... But, I just can't remember where I saw it before!

:pac:

Duddy

Very slick, very swish! Old woman in the Barbers kept looking over my shoulder to read it:P

banquo

Notes:
We've seen The Print as a year-long project here in the Comms Office. Most student newspapers have been going a few years, some more than 10 with no change to layout, whereas we (Broni and I) had to build one from scratch! Far from a basic A4 magazine, The Print is a fully-fledged newspaper with all the requirements of a daily broadsheet. It's exactly the same as if we were putting together The Independent or something. There are no shortcuts. So we've been experimenting all year with different things - this is why sometimes pictures and stuff came out funny - with an aim to having it perfect by the end of the year and ready for the next person to hit the ground running.

1. New Software!
We finally got the new design software (the latest version of InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator). Previous to this we (Broni and I) were using versions of the software from 1998 or something that were completely unable to handle the massive job that is The Print. So now it takes about 20 minutes to do a page instead of 90, all going well, and means that we don't have to work for 50 hours straight to make the thing. Hurray!

New design software = so much less stress, which in turn = generally a better paper I think. Have basically double the time to work on it, which means less mistakes. Also means I can get draft pages out to people to proof-read quicker.

2. Pictures
It also lets us process pictures so much faster. All pictures that go into The Print have to be treated beforehand or else they come out all muddy and bad and I think that in this issue we've finally nailed down the correct process.

For anyone who cares, it's:

1. Import into Photoshop
2. Convert to LAB Colour mode
3. Reduce the darks and lights in the A and B channels by about 15%
4. Reduce the highs and lows by about 8%
5. Convert to CMYK
6. Send off in .tiff format to AGFA Newsprint Optimisation Machine, which mixes the colours to be most suitable for newsprint and sends them back.
7. Convert images to .psd and make sure that they're in CMYK.

Every. Single. Picture.

However, it's totally worth it if the pictures of students doing their thing come out nice. I think the images in this issue look infinitely better.

3. Mistakes
Most of these in the past have been a time issue - have 50-60 hours to design and read the paper. Every issue that comes in I go through with a big red pen to find all the mistakes. Think I've found most of them.

There are three biggies (Pages 1 and 31, see if you can spot them. Funnily enough six people proof read page 1, including myself, and not one of them spotted it!) and a few other small mistakes.

*'MSU Enters 12 Catagories for Student Media Awards' on page three - Conor O' Brien, total hero, should also be mentioned in that list.
*'Welcome Back' pics on page 16 - the one of the dummy holding the sign is there twice. Bah.
*The word 'build' instead of the word 'built' on page 26.
*6 Down in the crossword has too many spaces (entirely my fault).
*'Scorpio' is in a different font to the rest of headings in the Horoscopes.
*The letter 'd' is missing from the word 'and' on page 28.
*'Amnesty' is spelt 'Amensty' on the back page (my fault again)
*Sudokus came out a bit blurrier than I thought they would, will make them clearer for the next issue.

4. Size
The Print is more than twice as beefy as any other student paper in Ireland. We've gone up from 8-10,000 words per issue last year to more than 50K an issue this year - this is why proof-reading is so hard, there's so much!

5. Design.
Opinions on the new look?

*Rob Munnelly

XxMCRxBabyxX

banquo wrote: »

Conor O' Brien, total hero

Ha ha he'll love hearing that! Especially considering he was constantly called that all through his school days! Even had a song! :P

banquo

I demand opinions on the new style

/Comms Monster

Good and bad please :pac:

BuroniKiisu

banquo wrote: »

I demand opinions on the new style

/Comms Monster

Good and bad please :pac:

It's deadly. Now stop refreshing this page beside me and getting sad that there's no feedback yet.
:pac:

banquo

I need constant reassurance.

BuroniKiisu

banquo wrote: »

I need constant reassurance.

*Pats Rob*



You have no idea how much I've wanted to type that...

Every time a poster is made and mailed into Rob:

"Good job *Pats Broni*"

-_-

Daemos

I love The Print. You can tell it's gotten better by experimentation issue by issue. Even compared to the first, which was pretty darn good, today's one is a big improvement.

"Local underground dump on fire" :pac:

banquo

BuroniKiisu wrote: »

*Pats Rob*

*purrs*

@Daemos: Thanks!

CnaG

Delighted with my hand delivered copy of the Print today, which Rob kindly gave me when he dropped by on his way past. And he discovered that the pool is actually quite nice, so it was a win win situation all around :-)

funky penguin

banquo wrote: »

I need constant reassurance.

Still the office you two?

Pints?

banquo

funky penguin wrote: »

Still the office you two?

Pints?

Yes. But first I have to finish up here and then wish Barleybooley a happy Valentine's Day

funky penguin

Text me whenever you minx.

BuroniKiisu

Pints!

XxMCRxBabyxX

BuroniKiisu wrote: »

Pints!

I see'd you! :P

funky penguin

Where was my text?!

Stood up on Valentines..... ;_;

cython

Crossword in this issue is a bit of a shambles, I'm afraid to say. Some clues with quoted lengths that do not match the spaces left for them, one of which seems out by 3 characters, unless you want people to randomly include/exclude spaces in multi word answers, depending on whether there are excess spaces? Including them at all would be very odd, to be honest.

BuroniKiisu

XxMCRxBabyxX wrote: »

I see'd you! :P

You did'ed. :P

funky penguin wrote: »

Where was my text?!

Stood up on Valentines..... ;_;

Blame banquo, the scoundrel. ;_;

XxMCRxBabyxX

BuroniKiisu wrote: »

You did'ed. :P



Blame banquo, the scoundrel. ;_;

And this time you properly remember me! :P

smiles302

*whispers*

Thomas versus Donal appear to both have the exact same opinion on Tangled.

XxMCRxBabyxX

smiles302 wrote: »

*whispers*

Thomas versus Donal appear to both have the exact same opinion on Tangled.

I noticed that one too!
makes the versus a bit pointless! :P

And am I right in thinking that a school principle should be spelled principal? Genuine Q!

banquo

cython wrote: »

Crossword in this issue is a bit of a shambles, I'm afraid to say. Some clues with quoted lengths that do not match the spaces left for them, one of which seems out by 3 characters, unless you want people to randomly include/exclude spaces in multi word answers, depending on whether there are excess spaces? Including them at all would be very odd, to be honest.

Shortest possible explanation: computer said no.

Think I've figured out the crossword problem now. Have a little project planned for the next one. It's a biggie though, might be too tough.

How so Joe

XxMCRxBabyxX wrote: »

I noticed that one too!
makes the versus a bit pointless! :P

And am I right in thinking that a school principle should be spelled principal? Genuine Q!

Thomas's article was doubled - Donal got nothing, the poor dear. And yeah, it should be principal when you're talking about a school's head teacher.

mickstupp

Like the new issue. But... page 9, in the 'Dramatic slowdown etc.' article...

"In the past, mature students were entitled automatically to the higher non-adjacent rate of up to etc."

That is, unfortunately, not true. Unless you mean 'some mature students'. Or unless the 'past' you're talking about is more than three years ago. I only say it because a number of mature students I know, myself also, are not and never were eligible automatically for any grant at all. Or for the back to education allowance for that matter.

The means testing system in this country is broken.

squishykins

I finally got a chance to read the whole thing, I was happy :P

Rob, I completely forgot that I offered to help you at the beers, am I too late? :P