Tylers in Brazil

We found dozens of printers and went to talk to them. 90% of them either did not work with this kind of printing or they were shut down. So I kept searching online and wrote e-mails out to every company I thought would do the job we wanted. One particular sales representative responded and wanted our business. They sent us a good quote and we went after it.Now it is about the beginning of January and we are buckling down to get this job done. I sent them the files and they said they would look them over and give me a response. The response I received was, “These files will not work. Your black is not the right color. We cannot print them the way they have been designed. Please contact your design artist and tell them that the black color needs to be 100% Black and 40% Cyan.” What on earth does that mean? I started searching out what we could do to change the color. We tried everything we could. For days I went back and forth with them to try and solve the problem.

I downloaded a 30 day trial period for two recommended software programs, Photoshop and InDesign, to try and work out the problem. I knew that we were now dealing with professional printers and not quick digital printing jobs. These programs dealt with CMYK inks and not RGB which is the typical format used in photo manipulation programs.

I had a very limited understanding of what was going on. So I asked many questions. When I thought I had figured out the problem, I sent the file in again and again. The files were returned every time. We even set up a day to go to the printer for them to solve the problem for us. However, they were unable to solve the problem and would not listen to our advice in the matter. We wanted a specific design and they wanted to print something different. In my book, that means we are not going to come to a conclusion.

The next step was to look for another printer. We had already spent weeks on this project and I felt like I was at the end of my wits. Prayer was the only thing that kept me going. Actually, I told my wife I had quit several times, but something pressed me on. We had already asked advice from people in this business for over 10 years and they did not understand the issues. So prayer was our only solution.

After finding a new printer, we sent them the files. The expected answer was given. Your black is not the right color. I did a little more research to find out why things were not matching. I had solved the problem on our end, but when it reached the printer it was different. Once again I told my wife that I had no options left. I suggested we send in the same file again, however we just pray that the Lord would work out the issue!

This time we received a favorable response. The files were accepted! Within three working days I was sent a proof to authorize for printing!!! Hallelujah! Our God sure is a wonderful God. All of this went through on one of the last days of the trial period for Photoshop.

The problem seems to have been in the way one was opening the file. I was able to open the file in the correct way, but the printers were not opening it in that manner. Of course, they don’t want you to tell them how to do things, so God had to work that out on their part.

We received 20,000 tracts from the printer last week! We will keep about 5,000 of these. The remainder will go to people who wanted to purchase some of them from us to use in their churches or ministries.

Many of you prayed for us while this was going on. Thank you very much for your prayers.

–Jeremy