It’s the last week of November’s Picture Book Month. We’ve been celebrating all month by getting our next book, KeeKee’s Big Adventures in Rome, Italy, ready to debut on Thursday, December 5th. One of the key partners to do that? Our Printer!

We are lucky to have our printer, Lehigh Phoenix, only 90 minutes away in Hagerstown, MD. We were able to make two trips to their facilities this month…first to work with their team on color proofing, and second to print check the book’s jacket, cover and pages physically on the printer.

The HUGE Printer

On our second visit, it hit me how important having an attentive and caring printing team is. As each file went on the printer, the Pressman took the time to run tons of samples to check against the approved proofs to ensure color and placement. Then they brought us out to give the okay before the full run.

As the last Signature (what you call the poster size piece of paper with 8 pages on each side…then combined and cut to turn into book) was prepping, the Pressman saw a few things he wanted to bring to our attention…a line on a page and some dark coloring. It turned out the page was the wrong file, so we fixed it. And you should have seen him analyzing the Signatures to ensure the pages fit together perfectly. Their attention to detail is incredible.

Art Director Paul comparing proofs to printed pages

Lehigh Phoenix not only has an amazing team (including our helpful sales and production team, Trudy and Shannon), they have state-of-the-art equipment. We were thrilled to see KeeKee’s pages stacked up next to Fancy Nancy, Pete the Cat and Sophia Grace & Rosie books. We know our books are getting the best attention AND we’re printing in the United States.

Rome Printed Signature Pages

Thank you, Lehigh Phoenix, for ensuring we give our customers the best KeeKee’s Big Adventures books!

For more on The Making of KeeKee’s Big Adventures in Rome, join The KeeKee Club.