History of Bible Imprinting at Crossroads

Since Crossroads opened 20+ years ago we have provided imprinting service for the Bibles we have sold to our customers. We refused to imprint Bibles purchased from other stores, for many reasons, the main one being that we were in the business of selling Bibles, not imprinting them. The imprinting was a service that we provided along with the sale, and hoped to break-even on the cost of the imprint in the process.

Fast-forward to 2010. Because so many Christian Bookstores have closed, we are now getting more and more frequent requests from individuals and churches to imprint Bibles that they have purchased from another source. In many cases these are Bibles that we could not have supplied to them. They often live in areas where there is no Christian Bookstores within several hundred of miles, and are willing to pay shipping both directions as well as the imprinting fee.

Given the changes in the industry, I have decided to provide the imprinting as a service separate from the sale of the Bible. This will of course require changes in the imprint fee structure, but we will also begin to do imprints daily to provide quicker turnaround.

How are imprints done?

The machine that does the imprint is made up of a heat unit, a type holder, and fixture that holds the Bible in place while the type is pressed against it. The person doing the imprint sets the type manually, letter by letter (upside-down and backwards) including spacers required for proper centering; The type holder is inserted into the imprinter and allowed to heat up to the temperature required for the imprint; A test imprint is done, both to check spelling, spacing, and temperature of the type; The Bible is inserted under the imprinter and imprinted; The imprint is cleaned to remove excess gold or silver.

What are the potential problems in imprinting?

• Spelling errors -- as long as initial instructions are correct, and it is carefully checked this is rare.
• Variations in cover material -- The usual problem is that synthetic materials will not hold the color of an imprint, that is why we specify that some Bibles be embossed without color. However occasionally a leather is very hard and the high temperature is still not enough to leave a good imprint. With this kind of problem, it is not possible to know that it will happen prior to actually imprinting.
• How the cover and backing is assembled -- The imprint cannot cross a seam or the letters will break up. If you look at the inside of a Bible cover, you will see that there is a seam where the cover is glued to the inside paper. The imprint has to be done above that seam. If the seam is unusual, it may not be possible to place the imprint as planned. This can be detected before the imprint has been completed.
• Small Bibles or very thick Bibles cause problems with placement in the fixture -- This sometimes isn't apparent until trying to apply the pressure needed to complete the imprint. This can result in a partial or very light imprint.

What does all of this talk about problems really mean?

It means that things usually don't go wrong with imprinting, but there is always that possibility. When we are imprinting a Bible that we sell, it has been a simple matter of ordering another and redoing the imprint or deciding that it shouldn't be imprinted. From a cost perspective, our loss was minimized by the fact that we had made an initial profit on the purchase of the Bible that would at least partially offset the replacement of the Bible.

When we accept a Bibles (or other book) for imprinting that we have not sold we will no longer be able to assume that risk. The customer will be required to sign a disclaimer acknowledging that there are potential risks to imprinting that we will not be covering, and that the only recourse open to them if there is a problem with the imprint, will be for us to provide the imprint on a small metal plate that can be affixed over the problem imprint.

What does the imprint cost?

We will be doing only single line imprints, up to 23 characters (including spaces) and the fees will be as follows

• Imprinting on an item not purchased from Crossroads - imprint fee $12
• Bibles purchased from us costing less than $10.00 - imprint fee $4.
• Bibles purchased from us costing $10-$39.99 - imprint fee $6.
• Bibles purchased from us costing $40-$79.99 - imprint fee $8.
• Bibles purchased from us costing more than $79.99 - imprint fee $10.
• Imprints of multiples of the same item, at the same time, with the same imprint - imprint fee $1 for each item after the first.($2 if items not purchased from Crossroads)
• Imprint a silver or gold colored metal plate - Imprint fee $5.

We use a script typeface. On most bonded leather Bibles the imprint is done in either Gold or Silver to match the page-edge color. Most of the material in the duo-tone Bibles will not accept color, and we will emboss those without color.