Why do designers not take prepress seriously?

It never ceases to amaze me when I hear designers working in a studio downplay the role that prepress plays in the design process. Over and over they will say they "do not do prepress." And the reason—some claim they are too busy while others think it is beneath them. Truth be told designers should be more prepress savvy than production people simply because they are the creative ones who come up with the idea in the first place. Production artists or studio people simply follow the creative and produce the final file which will be imaged to plates. They will not add or enhance the design unless the designer directs them to do so. A designer who has a strong understanding of prepress can add special inks or finishes to enhance their design or suggest alternative printing methods that can add dynamics to their concept. A production artist is nothing more than a foot soldier carrying out orders, while a designer is a commanding officer in charge planning how the creative piece will fulfill the client's needs. They have the last say on it will evolve and what form the final printed piece will take.

So why isn't prepress taken more seriously by creative types? Why are they not as familiar with both the limitations and possibilities of translating what is on screen to the actual paper? I think the problem lies in the way workflow production is taught in post-secondary education, as the material is often delivered in a dry and technical perspective. Many books I used before writing Exploring Digital Prepress were very complex with formulas that many students could simply not understand much less remember. Instructors using these texts would ask students to perform tasks that were rarely used in the industry like calculating the size of an image in Photoshop® using only its bit-depth and dimensions in pixels. Well this information can be obtained by going to the bottom of the Photoshop® window and selecting document sizes from the pop up menu. Why should a designer or anyone for that matter waste valuable studio time on this? Academia sometimes lose sight of the fact that in the business world, time is money! So don't expend energy on trivial exercises to prove you're a prepress Einstein. Instead, show your boss or creative director how clever you are by producing a unique piece.

You can prove you are a prepress guru by adding a spot varnish or blind emboss to the cover of a brochure or saving costs by substituting a spot color used in a logo for one of the process inks and saving the client money in how many plates are required which saves printing costs. Suggest a paper stock that makes the piece look more expensive and elaborate without blowing the client's budget. Or if you're limited in the number of inks you can use, then make your images into multichannel duotones thereby enhancing them. A die-cut or unusual fold can add interest to your piece without significant cost. Many of these techniques are explained in Exploring Digital Prepress. If knowledge is power, then prepress knowledge is a designer's secret power! Use it to your studio and their client's advantage—they will appreciate your extra efforts. For a designer who truly understands prepress is ten steps ahead of the rest. With this knowledge you can go boldly where others dare not tread.

Photoshop is a trademark of Adobe Systems Inc. All other trademarks and brand names used in this article are the property of their respective owners.


© Copyright 2013. All rights reserved worldwide. Reprint by permission only.

More proof that the analog age is gone…

A couple of weeks ago I was driving on the way to work and the radio announced that Kodak had filed for bankruptcy. “WHAT!” I nearly swerving my car into the oncoming lane. “Kodak… I can't believe it!” For those readers who were born after 1990 this may not seem like a big news story, but for those of us born prior to the digital age, it is like finding out that the lunar landing was faked. It defies all reason and is surely a sign that 35 mm photography has bitten the dust once and for all. Sad thing too because I still know many photographers that swear by the old rolls of film.
A few months ago I wrote about Kodachrome® film and its demise. Now the company that invented it may no longer be around much longer. It was Kodak that invented color film back in the 1930s, spawning numerous industries in the graphic arts field. Every designer, photographer and artist working before the turn of the 21st century owes their livelihood to Eastman Kodak. Think of where the world would be today without that invention. We would still be watching movies in black and white. Modeling agencies would not exist and neither would food stylists. Photography studios might not have proliferated and would probably be few and far between. The advertising and graphics industry would not have the influence or power it has today.
Still, there are those who will say it was inevitable. All things change and digital photography is the preferred method of nearly every photo studio. It is difficult to argue as to the efficiency with which a digital image can be uploaded onto a service providers ftp server and then imaged on a color printer. Still, I remember developing 35 mm film by hand in high school. It was fun and you could play with exposure times to tweak the brightness and contrast of the image. Now all that can be done with a number of different image editing programs like Photoshop®.
So what new invention will come about to replace a traditional prepress process? Your guess is as good as mine. Who knows, maybe printing plates will soon become a thing of the past?

Kodachrome® is a registered trademark of Kodak Canada Inc. Photoshop® is a trademark of Adobe Systems Inc. All other trademarks and brand names used in this article are the property of their respective owners.

© Copyright 2011. All rights reserved worldwide. Reprint by permission only.

Changing colors in Photoshop

A new video that shows how to replace colors in Photoshop using the "Replace and Selective Color" functions. Check it out on YouTube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KG65R012RI

Printing ink prices on the rise

I have recently observed that many manufacturers of printing inks have announced price increases. While it seems odd that ink prices would rise when the economic is still recovering from a recession, it gives printers an opportunity to explore alternative ink resources. Nearly every graphic artist working on this side of the world is more than familiar with Pantone® and process ink systems (CMYK for the layperson), how many of us know that there are numerous printing inks available besides these standards? Truth be told, a designer has many options for specialty inks that can be used to enhance print quality. While ink systems such as Toyo and Focoltone are used sparingly by graphic designers on this continent, there are a number of alternative ink suppliers that produce exceptional quality at affordable prices.
The Flint Group is a manufacturer of printing inks based in Luxembourg, Germany. After opening numerous plants in North America several years ago, they are making headway into the North American printing ink market with brand name inks for nearly every printing method. Flint Group has been established for over two centuries in Europe (the company’s history can be traced back to the 1700s when the earliest presses were developed in Europe) making them one of the oldest manufacturers of printing inks.  By implementing an aggressive marketing and sales campaign coupled with competitive prices they are prepared to give existing North American ink manufacturers a run for their money.
Heptacromía® is one ink type that has been developed by the TrueTONE S.L. company of Italy for use on a gravure press. The system uses seven colors for printing from a definitive formula that is unmatched for precision. Heptacromía® inks can be matched to nearly any color model regardless of press conditions or substrate used. While their marketing efforts have so far been limited to Europe, demand from gravure printers here searching for improved ink quality with competitive pricing may start opening doors in the gravure printing industry.
Another consideration for printers is the ecological consequences from the inks they have been using. These concerns have swayed many printers to using inks that are more environmentally friendly. Although vegetable based inks have been around since the 1980s, many ink manufacturers have begun to produce soy-based inks as an alternative. While the cost of soy inks may be higher many printers acknowledge that the quality of soy ink is superior and contains less volatile materials. In fact, the Flint Group, Pantone® and many other manufacturers now offer soy-based inks as an alternative. While soy ink may not supplant petroleum ink right away, it is certainly a choice for printers to consider when selecting ink suppliers.
Only one question remains for a manufacturer of alternative ink systems. Will Adobe® incorporate these new ink systems into their ink swatch libraries for their CS line of products? Perhaps if they become popular enough but if they are used sparingly and only for specialty printing, it would seem unlikely. Still, a designer can create a spot color based on these inks and indicate it to the printer by renaming it and providing a swatch sample (this technique is demonstrated in our book, Exploring Digital Prepress). So for the designers reading this, do not be afraid of using alternative ink sources for your next project. Encourage your print provider to use environmentally friendly inks.

Adobe® is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Inc. Hepticromía®, is a registered trademark of TrueTONE S.L. Pantone® is a registered trademark of Pantone LLC. All other trademarks and brand names used in this article are the property of their respective owners.


© Copyright 2011. All rights reserved worldwide. Reprint by permission only.

Creating a PDF in InDesign

A new tutorial video uploaded to YouTube on creating a press quality PDF file in InDesign for printing.

Watch it here, OR…

Click here.

© Copyright 2011. All rights reserved worldwide. Reprint by permission only.

Making bleeds in InDesign

Just uploaded this video onto YouTube. Enjoy! See more in our book, Exploring Digital Prepress.

Video on making bleeds.

© Copyright 2011. All rights reserved worldwide. Reprint by permission only.

Imaging a separated PDf file in Snow Leopard

From everything I have read on prepress newsgroups, it appears that imaging a separated PDF file in Mac OSX 10.6 has become rather difficult. This has happened because Apple decided to remove the Adobe® PDF 9.0 driver from Snow Leopard due to some security issues. For prepress pros this driver was a must-have for producing separated PDFs in earlier MacIntosh operating systems. Seems a shame as many printers I worked with preferred PDF files that were separated to composite ones, particularly if spot colors were being used. Unfortunately, substituting the PostScript® driver will not produce a separated PDf file in Snow Leopard. So, is there a work around? Well, actually yes, there are a couple of solutions.

Some people have been able to successfully use other PPD drivers to image a separated PDF file. I was able to use an old driver from an imagesetter that I downloaded from a printer's web site that had been available for clients still processing negative film. It worked but was rather tricky to install. A better solution is to download the Adobe® PDF JobReady™ printer driver (hint: a quick search on Google will provide a list of web sites this driver is available for download). Installation is easy and it shows up in your System Preferences under Printers as the name of the company you downloaded it from. Select it in the Print window when printing your PDF file as you would the Adobe® PDF 9.0 driver and follow the same procedure as you did before. If you haven’t done this before, try looking in our book, Exploring Digital Prepress, under chapter nine.

A few companies also offer free PDF creation software either for download or on-line, but it is better to stick to the tried and true products from Adobe® and other well-known brands that have proven to be reliable. Whatever method you select, remember to preflight your PDF files before sending it to the printer. Good luck and email me if you have any questions.

Mac OS X, Macintosh and Snow Leopard are trademarks of Apple, Inc. Adobe, PostScript and PDF Job Ready are trademarks of Adobe Systems Inc. All other trademarks and brand names used in this article are the property of their respective owners.


© Copyright 2011. All rights reserved worldwide. Reprint by permission only.