Lighthouse Albums- A Question

Have any other users of this album system noticed over the past year or so- the publisher is apparently curtailing offer of 'regular' album pages. In most areas they no longer offer pages without mounts attached. Their latest catalog has only hingeless pages listed for US and Canada. They still offer the regular pages for most of their German area and even there seem to be gradually paring those.
I understand most of their customer base probably wants the hingeless albums for the modern stuff- so would I- but it seems a huge waste of money to have to spend big bucks for hingeless pages on pages for German inflation issues, etc. Anyone else noticed this?

Quite a wide range of countries are only available in hinged form - I suspect that this is the way they'll eventually go for everything. The alternative is to buy blank Lighthouse pages, get out your fountain pen and ruler and construct the pages yourself. Much more satisfying!

Just got a reply from someone at Lighthouse confirming they no longer offer regular pages for most areas. They do still have them on the US website so assume this reflects their local stock situation and when those are gone, that's it. This was no doubt a corporate decision, non hingeless albums probably amounted to a small percentage of their sales. I guess if anyone prefers these they need to get moving.

PS- just had a discussion with a guy at Subway about a pending order I sent for a set of regular pages- he said they are cancelling the order because they cannot obtain any regular pages from their supplier any longer. Felt others might find this of interest-

I have been using the Lighthouse binders with "Steiner" pages. They are not illustrated, but easy to follow especially if you have a catalog. The binders look beautiful on a book shelf.

I have been considering exactly that. Run off the Steiner pages and have them copied by a print shop onto Lighthouse blank pages.

Why print them out and have them copied? You lose print quality in the process, not to mention doubling the cost and killing all those poor widdle trwees. Instead, have them printed from the pdfs on to whatever kind of special paper you wish if your home printer won't handle it.

Rather than printing off a large number of pages at home, I've sent the PDF's to FedEx Office for printing. I send them to my local shop and they are ready in a few hours or the next day. I did ask to see the paper details - I've been using the Ivory paper which is 28lb acid free at my local shop. It's not as sturdy as the 65lb paper I print at home, but for primarily used stamps, it works well and saves quite a bit of space on my shelves. For comparison, I decided to restart a Canadian collection and printed off all the pages through 2000 including provinces and officials. The pages fit into a single 3" Lighthouse binder. I have my Ireland pages printed on 65lb which cover paper. Pages from 1912-2009 require 2 x 3" binders.

Based on ink and paper prices at Staples, I suspect I'm saving money having the pages printed at FedEx, but never really calculated the difference.

OK- I am going to reveal my ignorance here. How do you send a PDF to a print shop? Do you email them the file, or do you take it into them on a CD?

I use Kinko's which at least here is allied with Fedex in the same location. One fear I have is that they will run a bunch of pages incorrectly and waste a lot of valuable paper- Lighthouse blank pages are not cheap. I remember the time I asked them to copy some pages I'd downloaded onto blank Scott pages. Whoever did the job apparently thought they were supposed to line up the hole punches and the pages came out printed incorrectly- the frame lines were shifted over to the left, not centered. They didn't charge me but I had to eat the cost of many pages. I'm sure the staff has no idea what it is they are printing.

CD, USB drive, email--whatever. But yes, you are right that they won't know how to navigate through the Steiner files. You'd want to copy off on to a flash drive or email only the specific Steiner file or files(country/date range) that you want printed. And yes, it would become more complicated if you wanted to skip printing some pages within the Steiner file.

But that's all in the abstract, since I print my own pages on to 8 1/2 x 11 card stock and am happy with it, don't need fancy Lighthouse album pages. Therefore, I have not actually tried this process myself. Others on SCF have had print shops do this for them directly from pdfs. They can give you details based on experience.

You probably are much better off going to a small non-chain print shop and establishing a long-term relationship with an owner-operator who will be willing, as a good business practice, to learn about your project so he does understand what you are trying to achieve. Or find a franchise chain shop with a manager who actually operates like an independent shop manager.

I still think you should print directly from pdfs rather than from copies you make--for the sake of the widdle trwees and for the sake of all the time you spend printing out the master copies. Let the pdfs be the masters, even though that means finding a businessman who is willing to work competently with you.

But others can give clearer advice.

One related question. I recently bought a set of Lighthouse pages that are the old style- no holes, for a springback binder. I want to use them in a post binder. Has anyone had any experience punching pages to fit a post binder and if so how did it go? I am unsure if my local print shop can do this or not- each age will need five holes- two for posts and three for a plastic stabilizer Lighthouse uses in their post albums. I am tempted to try it myself just using a standard punch but there are 150 pages or more. Just wondering..

Stamps

Probably the most useful thing I acquired during my career as a civil servant was a heavy duty single hole-punch, from the days when mountains of paper had to be filed. It still comes in useful for those awkward albums (ie most of them) whose holes don't align with standard two or four-hole punches. Worth picking up a decent one that will go through a good number of pages at once. The one I use is made by Maun Indsutries, butI'm sure there's a US equivalent.

Geoff

One more postscript: I managed to locate a regular set of Germany pages 1933-45, received them yesterday. I am disappointed in the print quality; they look like something someone ran off on a copy machine at Kinko's. Superb paper quality and feel as always but the images are all washed out and grayish rather than boldly printed as before. It doesn't matter so much on there- I have most of the stamps already and once the spaces are filled the pages should look ok- but it just seems that Lighthouse, like Scott, is no longer putting out the quality product they used to. One possibility- I bought this from Subway, they told me it was the last regular set of pages they had in stock- possibly it is a set someone returned for quality issues sometime back.

Stamps1962 - The web interface for FedEx Office - AKA Kinkos is easy to navigate. You can upload 1 or many files at a time and configure your print settings. The prices are calculated on the fly. The one "got-you" you need to watch out for is the printing will default to color. You need to change the print color to black and white. Here is the site link: http://www.fedex.com/us/office/

Stamps1962 -- Just saw discussion regarding printing and drilling or punching album pages.

PK-Short, Hieronymus and GeoffHa have all provided great tips. Since I handled printing in my earlier days as a graphic designer (back when I had hair), I'll chip in some points that might help clarify "printing and bindery" work.

All printers should be able to handle your PDF pages on a flash thumb drive for printing.
Only provide those pages you want to order printed. (I have not worked with Steiner files, but you should be able to save each PDF to your own master album file).

It's critical that you discuss your preferred page trim size with the printer.
While 8.5" X 11" is the standard US size for popular business pre-cut sheets, if you want larger pages, the printer will need to order custom paper stock or trim down your paper to the size you desire. Bring you album to the printer so they can see if you need more margin for the binder posts or rings. I suggest the paper choice be acid-free 65 lb. cover weight which will hold up better than lighter (cheaper) paper. Off white cream color paper is readily available if you don't like bright white.

Bindery: a decent printer will have paper cutting and drilling equipment that will save you many hours. Unless you like using a single-hole punch.

When trimming, printing and drilling your pages, ask the printer to include some blank stock as well.
Paper is not expensive for a small job like an album. Include a few hundred "blank" sheets cut to size and drilled and you'll get these nearly at no added cost. You can always have some blanks printed with new stamp pages at a later date.

Have fun!