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I have had a request from a client for an unusual numbering service. We usually produce between 100 and 200 wire-bound books for them. They have now asked us to add numbering like this: the number one placed four times in a diagonal down each page of the first printed book as a sort of watermark – so that book is numbered one throughout. Then the number two staggered four times in a diagonal down each page of  the next book, so that is book number two and so on. In the end they will have 200 books, each individually numbered all the way though the book. So what I’m looking for is a program that will allow us to do this without printing 200 separate books. Many thanks for any help.
‘Dave’, via the Help Line forum at printweek.com

Thanks to various members of the PrintWeek online community for their contributions on this one, including: Print Buyer, Moaner Lisa, NDCT, Trillian, and Peter Wise. I’m in agreement with the consensus view from the community – this sounds like a job that’s a perfect application for a bit of variable digital printing. As Trillian so concisely puts it: "Find a digital printer. A little script can be knocked up to do exactly what you need." Depending on the extent (you don’t say how many pages the book has), you could either print the whole thing digitally or print the standard text pages offset and then overprint with digital numbering. Hope this helps. And as usual, if anybody knows of a better or more efficient way of achieving the desired result, do get in touch.

We’re a print management and logistics business and would welcome the names of a couple of top class consultants on the MIS side of things. We currently operate through SAP and are anxious to upgrade.
‘R’, via email

Try John Charnock at Print Research International; or independent computer consultancy CCL. A couple of responses to this query also came in via the Twitterverse: Robin White recommended Jon Honeyball, contributing editor at PC World magazine as an expert source – you can contact him here or he is @jonhoneyball on Twitter. And Emerson Welch at Clarity Software sent over their ‘Introduction to MIS’ White Paper. All other suggestions and recommendations welcome.

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