Missprints Are Every Where: Always Proof Before Going to Print

If you’re going to avoid errors like the two in the title of this blogpost, it is important that you have your work thoroughly checked. We can always provide a proof copy of your project that can be checked before we launch the print run. Skipping this part of the process can make you look pretty silly. Check out these examples of misprints that weren’t spotted at the proofing stage

English Grammar

This chap’s inconsistent use of Capitalisation should be enough to put anyone off hiring him for tutering.

It's Not Unusual

Any proofreader worth their salt knows to check every single 'its' and 'it's' in a piece of text to make sure that the correct one has been used. It's perhaps the commonest typographical error of them all. 

The Corrections...

The entire print run of Jonathan Franzen's novel 'Freedom' had to be withdrawn and pulped when it was discovered that an early unedited manuscript file had been sent to the printers by mistake. The early draft was full of typos, grammatical errors and inconsistent characterisation. He was at the height of his fame at the time and the initial run was 80,000 hardbacks. 8000 had already been sold when the error was spotted.

...and the Clarifications

Daily newspapers have such a quick turnaround between content being submitted and the paper going to print that it is no surprise that errors creep through. The Guardian is famous for its typos and has a daily column that publishes corrections and clarifications. It's not always as easy as you might think as this example from December 2012 highlights:

"A review of Scott Walker's latest album, Bish Bosch, referred to one of its tracks as SDSS14+3B (Zircon, A Flagpole Sitter). That should of course have been SDSS1416+13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter)."

A Sub-Editor Has Some Explaining to Do

Whichever editor was responsible for letting this slip through is going to be in big trouble. 

Ultimately, it's not the printer's job to proofread. Our job is to print what we are presented with. If your printed project has a lot of text, we would recommend that you have it professionally proofed before coming to us. We will always give you the opportunity to check over a proof before going to a full print run. If you have any questions at all about our printing procedures, please don't hesitate to contact us. You can call our office on 01603 488001. Alternatively, email sales@col-print.co.uk.

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