Subject: Natl Geo x3
Date: May 11 05:53:37 1999
From: Constance J. Sidles - csidles at mail.isomedia.com


Dear Tweets, I too got my copy of Natl Geo's third edition. As a
25-year veteran print buyer, I was very interested in the printing
quality of the book. I expected the best, but instead found an
uneven job. Some of the signatures (16, 32 or 48 pages printed at
a time) are very dark, although the ink has not plugged up. I can
tell this because in my copy, the signature containing raptors is
the darkest, but I can still see details in the feathers. What is
more annoying are the signatures where the ink has been applied
too lightly. In my copy, the worst pages are the sandpipers. The
ink here is so light that, had I been on press, I would have
rejected these signatures.

Since Natl Geo's reputation for printing quality is deservedly
impeccable, I took my book back to the U Bookstore to exchange
it, knowing that every time I looked at those sandpipers I would
get irritated. To my surprise I found that every copy in the book-
store was similar. In fact, most were worse than mine. The ink
saturation was so uneven that the range maps looked like they should
have different keys on some pages.

I have already bonded with my book, so I'm going to keep it. But
I plan to write to Natl Geo and let them know about this problem.
They should definitely talk to their printer. - Connie