MA Publishing Studio

Planning and study for group work publishing projects is faciltated by the provision of an excellent space, the MA Publishing Studio within the Faculty of Media, where students busily congregate to work out their new ideas for books, magazines or digital publishing products.

Print and Digital Print Room Sponsors

MA Publishing students within the Faculty of Media are able to realise their ideas with practical education with access to a world-class Print Room run by the College, with the kind support of corporate sponsors.

• Duplo - who sponsor finishing equipment for our printed work
• EFI - who sponsor our digital printing software imaging systems
• FujiFilm - who sponsor our printing plates for offset printing assignments
• Heidelberg - who sponsor our offset printing presses, computer-to-plate systems, and finishing systems
• Hewlett Packard - who sponsor related digital printing equipment
• Robert Horne - who sponsor quality papers for the printing of the annual MA magazine Blurb
• Xerox - who sponsor our colour digital printing equipment and materials
• X-RITE and Pantone - who sponsor our printing inks and colour matching control systems
• Ceros - who sponsor the digital magazine software for Online Blurb and the e-edition of Blurb Magazine

The support our students get from our sponsors enables them to produce and publish an electic range of new books, new magazines and online products to complete their group practical projects under real-life and exacting conditions.

Production Technicians

Postgraduates negotiate with our technicians the achievement of their production projects and deadlines. Project planning for production within the Print Room is undertaken by students in their own dedicated MA Publishing Studio within the Faculty of Media.

Our students are supported by our great team of technicians, who are a vital component of the course:  Scott House, Finishing Operations; Jim Mc Bride - Colour Suite and Digital Printing; Phil Sears - PrePress Operator; and Tony Yard - Press Operator.

Publishing Production Premises

The Print Room and Digital Media Suites 

 

The Print Room and digital media suites hum throughout the course as students grapple with the invisible art of colour management and publishing production and design. With the printing and digital equipment housed in extensive space students are coming and going initially on visits to the Print Room and computer suites to build up their knowledge base and professional practice of technologies and processes essential for their professional practice and learning assignments. 

In Phase 2 the students move up a gear by visiting the premises and facilities to complete their group practical projects. Study groups huddle and pore over proofs to realise their publishing product or event. At this time students operate from their own MA Publishing Studio, to advance their editorial and marketing visions and manage the design layout and production of their project artefacts.

Profile of Equipment

Prepress

• 160 Apple Macintosh computers
• 100 PCs
• Agfa Horizon Scanner
• Agfa Avantra Imagesetter
• Agfa Processor
• 2 Hewlett Packard wide-  bodied ink jet printers
• Lexmark wide-bodied ink jet printer
• Various A3 and A4 scanners
• Agfa Proofing system
• Agfa Sherpa digital laser proofing system
• Imation Matchprint proofing
• Imation Rainbow proofing
• Planning and platemaking department with PD frames and plate processors

Printing

• 2 Heidelberg Kords
• 1 Roland 201 single colour
• 1 Roland 202 two colour
• 1 Ryobi B2 single colour
• 1 Heidelberg B2 four colour with CPC 1,2,3,4 and CpTronic
• 1 Heidelberg 46 DI
• 1 AB Dick small offs   et press
• 1 FAG 104 flat bed proofing press
• 1 test rig for gravure and flexo
• 1 Svecia screen printing press

Finishing

• 2 Guillotines
• 2 Combination folding machines
• Muller-Martini insetter/stitcher/trimmer magazine production line
• Adhesive binding line
• Various stitching machines
• Tower collator
• Book sewing machine

Digital Media Production

• Midi Sound Studio
• Video production facilities

Materials Science

• 3 fully equipped materials labs for testing paper, inks, colour, etc.
• Research labs

Other

• 14 Web offset/sheet-fed offset/flexo/finishing simulation suite systems
• 2 Management information systems - Enreco and Print Pack