Another great reason to use a UPS Store to print book proofs

On Monday I wrote about the savings in time and money that come from using a local UPS Store to print book proofs.

The first time I did it, I didn't realize that UPS could work from a PDF file and I uploaded a Word doc.

My doc is formatted for 6-by-9-inch pages, and UPS printed 6-by-9-inch copy blocks anchored in the top-center of each 8.5-by-11-inch page.

Yesterday I uploaded a PDF, and was pleasantly surprised with the results for two reasons:

1. When the Word doc was printed, certain visual images, including "drawn" elements and text box borders, shifted to the right. It was annoying, but not a deadly defect. When I submitted the PDF doc, everything was in its proper place.
2. When I submitted the PDF doc, each page block expanded to fill the piece of paper. It was much easier to read the bigger print--and I found many errors that I had missed when reading the proof with smaller type.

I uploaded the file around 11:30 a.m on Thursday. The robot responder said my printing would be available at 9 a.m. Friday (i.e., today). I could live with that, but I asked the robot to try to have it ready on Thursday so I could start reading and correcting last night.

At around 1 p.m. I received an email saying the job was ready. Since this was the third print job I had in four days, apparently I've become an important customer and am receiving super-special service. I really appreciate this.

OTOH, I'm pissed off that I did not think about using UPS for proofs before now. I could have saved hundreds of dollars and published books weeks sooner.

Oh well, live and learn.