Shotgun News has a new printing home, the Quad Graphics plant at Lomira, Wis. Starting with the February 1 issue, SGN will be printed at the 2.2 million-square-foot facility, the largest QG plant in the nation.

The big printer employs about 1,500 workers and goes through about 80 million pounds of paper a year, printing newspaper circulars, complicated direct-mail pieces, catalogs and consumer magazines like Every Day with Rachel Ray. When we visited, a fat Cabela’s catalog was rolling off the line.

When I was starting in the trade, printing was done by ink-stained old experts who used the Mark I eyeball to judge color, registration, ink saturation, etc. Now it’s all computer controlled, though someone has to know how to control the computers.

We expect you’ll see improved sharpness and colors that are truer to life than before the next time you get an SGN in your hands.

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Printing SGN

SGN covers run through the press. Four colors are applied, and then the paper runs through dryers that evaporate solvents from the ink. This helps prevent smearing.