Guide to the inspection of printed products

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1. Introduction

The Guide to the Inspection of Printed Products was developed by Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC). It is the intent of this document to provide a method by which all customers will be able to inspect printed products purchased through contracting with private sector suppliers.

This guide provides suggestions related to the inspection of general commercial printing as well as specifics for forms and envelopes.

Please direct any comments or proposed revisions to:

Manager, Printing Procurement Division
Constitution Square
360 Albert St., 12 th Floor
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0S5, CANADA
613-998-0440

2. Definition of defects

2.1 Minor defect

A minor defect is not of great consequence unless present in large numbers. It would normally pass unnoticed by the lay observer. If noticed at all, it would not normally be the source of comment, complaint or inconvenience. Small hickies slightly grey type or an occasional broken type character would normally fall into this category.

2.2 Major defect

These are defects, which would normally be spotted by the lay observer and could result in a customer complaint. A print containing a major defect is still usable for the purpose intended, but may make the use more difficult than it should be, or may affect the appearance of the printed material. For example, a poor color match, streaky solids, lack of detail in the halftones, or a loose stitch in a saddle wired book are normally major defects.

2.3 Critical defect

A critical defect is one, which renders the printed material unusable for its intended end-use. Typical examples would be illegible text, transposed text, pages or signatures missing from a publication, or binding which allows the pages to fall out.

3. Inspection of printed materials

The purpose of this section is to provide general guidance in the inspection of printed material. A designated person on receipt of each printed job should perform the inspection procedures outlined in this guide.

3.1 Packaging

3.2 Selection of samples

Care must be taken to ensure that samples are chosen randomly from throughout the entire shipment. Some examples of sample size are:

Sample size guidelines by size of print job
Shipment size Number of samples
0 - 1,000 5
1,001 - 5,000 10
5,001 - 25,000 25
25,001+ 50

Label samples with box or location number (e.g., sample 1 from box 1). This will facilitate further inspections or the quarantining of part of a shipment.

3.3 Quality of the printing

3.4 Paper

3.5 Finishing operations

4. Inspection of forms

Besides the general inspection points applicable to all printed materials, there are some things unique to the inspection of forms, that is, snap-sets, flat, single and multi-part forms.

5. Inspection of envelopes

Besides the general inspection points applicable to all printed materials, there are some things unique to the inspection of envelopes.

During inspection defects may be found in some or in all cartons or packages. If so, pull other samples from cartons or packages adjoining those from which the original sampling was done. This extra sampling will help to determine the extent of the defects

Small or minor defects may, or may not, necessitate the intervention of the contracting officer depending on the extent of the defects. Major or critical defects should be reported to the contracting officer immediately so corrective action can be taken. Since defects could be sufficient to require a job to be reprinted, the material should not be distributed until a decision has been agreed to regarding the matter

If there are no serious defects found during these preliminary tests, then the shipment is probably acceptable

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