Eco-printing--and A Giveaway

October was a beautiful month here in the Maryland Piedmont. The fall was slow to get started, but when it did, the colors were glorious. The week before Halloween marked the height of leaf color, and it felt like we woke up that Monday morning to see gold all around us. As I was driving my son to school, he and I were exclaiming about a new stand of golden trees around every corner of the country roads we travel on. The colors have become muted now, and there is a chill in the air that suggests the deciduous trees will soon show bare limbs silhouetted against gray skies--a more muted phase of their beauty that I appreciate as well.

I'm happy that I stopped to photograph this spectacular day, as well as others that I want to remember, so that I could capture the memory as a digital image. But I have also been wanting a more tangible way to represent them: their images and the story behind each one. Last month I created a 2011 calendar of photographs featured on this blog. I posted the pdf electronically for free upload. I also had a batch of the calendars professionally printed on 100 percent premium white recycled 100-lb. matte paper. (You can view each month of the printed calendar in the 2011 Zencrafting Calendar flickr set.)

I'm really happy with the quality of the printing, and I wanted to share a bit about what I learned about the custom printing process. 

I wanted the calendar to be high quality, affordable, and ecofriendly. I decided to go with an unbound, oversized (5 1/2" x 8 1/2") postcard format. Each month can be displayed as an individual print using a binder clip, clothespins, magnets, or on an easel or other display stand. (See decor8's "2011 Calendar Roundup" series or Etsy (keywords "2011 calendar") for some inspiring display ideas.) I found some affordable and fun vintage display stands--an old shoeshine kit, a folding ruler, and a coaster holder--at my local antiques mall. And when the month is done, the print can be repurposed: mail it as a postcard; cut and display the print or use it for a collage or other project.

My primary concern in having the calendar printed was to make it as ecofriendly as possible. I found a useful guide in Ecoprint's "Little Green Book," the "green standard" for printing projects. (The pdf is available for free download by signing up on the company's site.) Ecoprint was the first "carbon neutral" U.S. printer and is located close to me in Silver Spring, MD; unfortunately for my needs, the company primarily handles larger commercial print jobs.

With the holiday season soon upon us, many of us are thinking of holiday cards to send out to family and friends. It may take some extra research and leg work, but there are some ways to "green" a photo card, invitation, or other custom printing project with a comparatively small print run:

• Use recycled paper with a high post-consumer content (PCW); a minimum of 25 percent PCW is recommended for coated papers. The big printing venues I checked (Walmart, Snapfish, Shutterfly) don't offer recycled paper as an option. MOO does, and the print quality is excellent, but the upcharge for recycled paper was cost-prohibitive for my project. A few online printers offer recycled papers; use the keywords "eco friendly printing" to find them. You might also consider printing your own photo cards at home using photo paper, such as GreenPix Photo Matte, which uses 100 percent PCW. Or, go graphic, using recycled cards to make a collage or ecofriendly recycled handmade papers from The Paper Studio's Studio Green. (Please note that I haven't ordered papers from these companies, and they aren't paying me to plug their products.)
• Make your whole project recyclable by avoiding foil stamping, UV coatings, and any added plastic pieces. Leave off sticky mailing labels that also make recycling envelopes more difficult. 
• Avoid metal inks because they add toxins to the waste produced by the printing process.
• Reduce paper consumption by choosing a paper-conscious layout, one that doesn't require extra trimming. A postcard format instead of a folded card that requires an envelope uses the least amount of paper, and the postage may be cheaper. Choose as light a weight of paper as is suitable for your project.
• If you choose a soy- or vegetable-ink option for lithographic printing, check to make sure that the soy ink has low VOCs (volatile organic compounds). The percentage of VOCs should be below 3 percent.
• Digital printing is an ecofriendly option since it involves less startup waste and uses fewer chemicals.
• When possible, choose a recycled paper that has been processed without chlorine (PCF).

I had a lot of fun creating this calendar. In fact, my whole family got jazzed about it. Most of the prints have an associated blog post, and my tech-savvy daughter and husband helped me figure out a concise way to include a link on each calendar page. A tiny QR code links to the related post and can be read by a smartphone such as a BlackBerry, iphone, or Droid. For those of us without smartphones, there's also a printed link with the related post's URL (some typing required :)).

To celebrate my first venture into custom printing, I am offering a free copy of the printed 2011 Zencrafting Calendar. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment here by 9:00 p.m. on Friday, November 12. I'd especially love to hear about your experiences with ecofriendly photo and card printing. I'll draw a winner from the commenters and post the winner's name on Monday, November 15.

I am also offering the 2011 Zencrafting Calendar for sale; click on the "My Etsy Shop" link on the upper right to purchase. The cost is $16.25 $12.00 for the 12-month calendar; remember that each month is printed on high-quality paper that is suitable for display and sending as a postcard. **Added 11/29/10: I'm offering free domestic (U.S.) shipping for the calendars.**

Have a great week!

Pat