Printer Type

When you first open the app (and in the Settings) you’ll have a chance to tell Layout Department about what type of printer you are using.

Collating Printers

Collating printers can output a stack of each page in a row, for each copy you tell the printer to make.

Desktop Printer

Desktop printers are often inkjet or laserjet.

Pros

• Usually can print collated and both sides of the page in one pass
• Easy to access: you might already have a home printer or be able to access one at an office or library
• Not super expensive to purchase, and don’t take up a lot of space

Cons

• Often can only print smaller sheets of paper, like Letter or A4
• Ink or toner can be expensive, so the per-print cost can be expensive for big runs
• Slow to print a big edition
• For laserjet, the printer uses heat to fuse the toner to the page, so the pages come out slightly curling and need to be flattened

Copier or Xerox machine

Toner-based, they use the process of Xerograpy where electricity makes static to hold toner to a drum, and then that toner transfers to the paper and heat fuses the dot in place.

Pros

• Usually can print collated and both sides of the page in one pass
• Often at copy shops
• Not super expensive per print

Cons

• Toner gives a shiny look to the printed areas that not everyone prefers
• Heat-based process can make paper curl after printing, so you might need an extra step to flatten the papers

Stencil or Plate-based Printers

Stencil or plate-based printers make a bunch of copies, very quickly, of one sheet, and then you move on to print a big stack of the second sheet, and so on. Then you need to collate to get one page from each stack in the right order to form your book.

The benefit of these types of printers is that since they are printing from a stencil or plate, they can print very quickly, typically at lower cost for a bigger edition, and often with nicer inks.

The downside: most don’t automatically collate, so you need to do that as a separate step.

Risograph

Risograph machines use a stencil wrapped around a drum to make the print. The drum spins, paper passes through the machine and under the drum, and the ink transfers to each page. You print one ink color at a time, giving you vibrant spot color inks. (You also might need to prepare your files into the greyscale files that the riso needs to make the stencils. If you have multiple colors, you might do color separation to prepare one file per ink. Spectrolite, a Mac & Windows app also made by the same people who make Layout Department, might be helpful there.)

Offset, Letterpress, etc

You might also make artist publications with other print methods, like an offset press, or relief methods like letterpress. Some small presses and artist publishers use these machines for special books or larger editions.

Just a heads up, if you’re having your publications offset printed by a printshop/printing company, you likely won’t need to use Layout Department to make imposed files – offset machines are pretty specialized and printshops typically have their own imposition software. You’d just send them a PDF of your pages. You can still use it to make proofs and dummy copies that you print on a regular printer, of course.