Mette Units - How are Mette Unit Books Produced?

How Mette Unit books used to be produced

As of January 2010, I no longer print and bind my books myself. I am now using a Print On Demand online company to do this for me.
The following information pertains to when I did print and bind the books myself.

The diagrams:

I use CorelDRAW 7 to draw my all my diagrams. Like all graphics design software, it takes a while to learn how to use it. After 4 years of use, I've become quite comfortable with it.

The pictures:

The pictures in "Mette Units", my first book, were taken with a regular point and shoot camera and then scanned.
The pictures in books 2 - 5 were taken with a Sony Mavica (MVC-FD7) digital camera. The pictures are saved as .jpgs on a diskette in the camera. I then import the .jpgs into CorelDraw .
Most of the pictures in book 6 were taken with a Minolta Dimage X.

The printer:

In the past I used to print the books on a Hewlett Packard DeskJet 855C. I now print using a Hewlett Packard 2000C Professional Series (inkjet). Not only is it much faster, but the quality of the printing is wonderful! The HP 2000 holds 3 times more paper than my old printer, because it has an extra paper tray. It also uses separate ink cartridges for the different colors.

How long does it take to print each book?

	HP 855C	HP 2000C
Mette Units	30 minutes	10 minutes
More Mette Units	50 minutes	18 minutes
Mette Units 3	60 minutes	20 minutes
Mette Units 4	45 minutes	15 minutes
Mette Units 5	n/a	15 minutes
Mette Units 6	n/a	20 minutes

The book:

The paper I use is Hewlett-Packard Bright White Inkjet Paper, 24 lb., 108+ Brightness
For the front a back covers of the books, I use Wausau Astrobrights Card Stock.
The back cover of Mette Units 4 (green) is Hammermill Brite-Hue Cover.
The plastic covers are Southwest Plastic #700 - Poly (L.P.)- thin. Extremely durable, washable polyethylene cover that will not break.
I bind the books with an Ibico binder, EB-19 - The Home/Office Option.

I've recently found a wonderful plastics company for the covers and combs!

Southwest Plastics makes all their own products. So, when buying in bulk, I am able to get my supplies cheaper.


Good News!! I am able to get the combs imprinted with the titles of my book, and still save money!! So, slowly but surely, I will get personalized bindings for each of my books.

You can email me with questions/comments at mette@metteunits.com.

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