Fay conquers the mighty ocean.....

Anyone who thinks that all Fay can do is run Heidelburg printing press for Lighthouse Printing www.lighthouseprinting.co.uk will see how wrong they are when they see this video... Fay is also an intrepid sailor who can face any challenge the seas put in her way. As you'll see, however mighty the waves, Fay will fearlessly power her way through...

(The video was shot in Broughton Bay, Gower.)

FREE PAPER!!

We're having a bit of a sort-out in the printing room and there are various packs of paper which we'll probably never use even if we print to the end of the next Millennium....

Tinted, watermarked paper was very popular a few years ago for business stationery but no-one seems to choose it these now .... It's 'which shade of white do you want' these days although you do get the odd mad creative type who goes for 'ivory' or 'cream'..... The upshot is that we've got a few reams of nice quality tinted paper which someone might like to have. Obviously we'd prefer to give it to charities, schools or other suitable causes but if you want it - its yours! Just get in touch with Lighthouse Printing www.lighthouseprinting.co.uk

Good luck to our customer David Cowley who our more cultured readers will know is cellist with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. We've helped David put together artwork for his new CD "English and Welsh music for Oboe and Piano" and it's just been released. Hope it does well David!

waterproof paper

We have recently produced a job on waterproof paper! It was a booklet giving information to rough sleepers who will obviously sometimes be keeping the book in pretty tough conditions. It's produced on a material called Yupo. It looks and feels just like paper but in fact it's plastic. As well as being waterproof it's very difficult to rip. We'd like to use the stuff more because it such an amazing material - they use it a lot for labelling chemical and oil containers and its fantastic for maps! If you want the technical spec' ...... "this film is formed while creating microvoids by stretching it biaxially" - so now you know! If you want to produce instructions for deep sea divers or a comic you can read whilst surfing - just get in touch with Lighthouse Printing www.lighthouseprinting.co.uk

Mystery Reviewer!

Who are you - Mystery Reviewer?

Today my son Joe was talking me through some of the murky secrets of Google page rankings when I checked to see where our website www.lighthouseprinting.co.uk comes in Google if you search for 'printing, cardiff'. I could see that it was on the first page, which was nice but then I noticed a review of our business which said this:

"These are 2 of the nicest people you will ever meet.The "nice" are usually not successful in running a business.But there are a few who are the exception.I remember them starting out on two big adventures.Running a business and being married.And it has been a succes in both. At the very least you should have a chat to them.They will not baffle you if you are a 1st timer but they will not patronise you either.Straight talking, no bullshit, honest people who deseve all the sucess they have achieved.‎"

Now I know what's going through your mind.... "you wrote that yourself!" .... but I promise you I didn't, and we didn't tell anyone else to write it either!! I'd love to know who the reviewer was. Reveal yourself and we'll give you some free printing! (unless it was you Mum?).

finding a pic...

Just uploaded a profile photo. It was quite difficult to choose one. I could have found taken some work based photos with the two of us giving cheesy smiles besides the press or a computer but no-one really wants to look at those. So then I started looking back at holiday shots but they don't seem quite right either. In fact we don't seem to have many of the two of us taken together and most of the ones I did find, I look horrible and Fay looks good. I finally spotted one in which I don't look like a character from Wayne's World but it isn't one of Fay's best. I'm hoping she never finds out I've used it but if the photo suddenly disappears and another one appears with Fay looking nice and me in bandages, then you'll know what's happened.

Lighthouse www.lighthouseprinting.co.uk are nice and busy at the moment so I'd better get back to the white hot frontier of print-production........

my first effort....

mmmm... have never blogged before.... I used to feel like this when I sat down to write an English essay in school, facing what seemed like an acre of white paper.....

The difference is that when I wrote my English essays, the only person to read it was Mr Johnson, my English teacher. This blog will be read by squillions of people the world over.... (possibly...).

Yes, things have changed a bit since we printed our first few jobs at Lighthouse Printing, around twenty five years ago. We specialised in wedding stationery in those days and Fay used to typeset whole Orders of Service with three or four hymns using a small hand-operated letter press. It was a glorified John Bull printing kit really, which used tiny type made of lead. We now know that lead isn't very good for the brain - which explains a lot....

Talking of business - we are now offering free matt lamination on our full colour business cards. Laminating can be gloss or matt and it protects the printed surface of your business card when it's thrust into your customer's wallet or purse along with sets of keys, coins of the realm and decomposing Werther's Originals. It also makes your customer think you must be a real hotshot business person to have money to splash about on laminated cards.

Thanks to Mike from Bakers Dozen and Jan H-T for your jobs this morning ... I'd better start some work or you'll never get them......