Here was a popular discussion over on the “Prepress, Print & Color Management Professionals” group on Linkedin.com where Sean Runchman of Tunicca posed an interesting post and something I think many on our side of the printing fence have been thinking of for while, titled, “Premedia – the new Prepress?”

“We are seeing more and more encouragement for printers to diversify from a product offering based solely on print to more service oriented solutions. This requires printers to embrace the digital age even further and look at providing additional services demanded by the marketers within large brands.”
See full post and details here:

Then, to show the Markzware side, especially with the content conversion, content extraction and file recovery we offer, the MASSIVE business opportunity for printers out there is summed up in my last post on this hoping thread:

“Ink on paper is a term used often by printers. This expands to, “Content displayed as ink on paper.”

The printers controlled, in essence, the content up until the Internet. That today (ironically enough, for Gutenberg invented movable type to free content!) has more apparent freedom. Yet is that really so?  Read more... (374 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

FTP, although as reported here, is almost as old as me, is still the preferred and main method of file transfer to the printer:

This was all in a very interesting and detailed production survey for publishers by FOLIO over at FolioMag.com, where we read:

FOLIO:’s 2009 Manufacturing and Production Trends Survey reports what tools—like ad portals, virtual proofing and XML workflows—continue to come into their own and save publishers valuable dollars, as well as those areas that manufacturing and production execs are avoiding. Facing so many challenges this year, it appears that decision makers are remaining status quo and investing only in upgrades that will save big in the long run.
Source: http://www.foliomag.com/2009/folio-s-2009-manufacturing-and-production-trends-survey

Let’s just check out a couple of the color graphics they had, but, much more when you click through and read the entire article…

So prepress is continuing it’s migrating in-house by publishers. No surprise there, as it helps streamline the preflight process (note: FlightCheck Pro v6.5 is shipping with Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, PDF CS4 support and Quark 8 checking – preflight and package with FlightCheck!) – And we see that XML and the conversion to a more readily readable file format is also on the move:  Read more... (202 words, 3 images, estimated 48 secs reading time)

Color management is like colour management only spelled differently. That about sums up color for many in print media; it is the same color on that screen as on my printed brochure, only it looks different, cries the corporate customer, to the prepress operators dismay. In this tutorial video we get into the deep details on how FlightCheck Professional (Out any day now with CS4 and Quark 8 support) can help you in preflighting color …

… and for that matter preflighting colour (ok, enough jokes with words, but some do call it color preflighting) in a detailed fashion -

a full transcript is below: In this movie I would like to address some problems you might encounter when you work with InDesign layouts QuarkXPress, Adobe Illustrator (YES, FlightCheck does preflight Illustrator files and package all fonts and images too! Video: How to preflight Adobe Illustrator files…) or any other layout application in which you are able to use colors. Let’s dive in…

 Read more... (980 words, estimated 3:55 mins reading time)

Consolidation in the print sector. With RR Donnelley just reporting an 18% drop in sales last week, it looks like the way to satisfy the shareholders is through acquisitions:

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) — R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., (RRD 12.99, -0.15, -1.14%) the Chicago printer, proposed to acquire the assets of Quebecor World Inc., (QBRWF 0.03, 0.00, -3.23%) the Montreal printing-solutions provider that is in bankruptcy proceedings in the U.S. and Canada. In a statement late on Tuesday, R.R. Donnelley said it was prepared to pay $750 million cash, the estimated $257 million of cash that would be on the balance sheet at June 30, and 30 million RRD shares valued at about $394 million. R.R. Donnelley said that for Quebecor World, its proposal is superior to the restructuring that Quebecor’s reorganization plans provide. The stock of a combined R.R. Donnelley-Quebecor World “will offer attractive investment characteristics for current creditors” of Quebecor World “when compared to the newly issued securities of a stand-alone reorganized company,” R.R. Donnelley said. The deal should add to earnings after the first year of combined operations, R.R. Donnelley said. R.R. Donnelley said it has sufficient cash on hand plus credit lines to finance the cash part of the deal. It said such a deal would be subject to antitrust clearance in the U.S. and Canada.
Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rr-donnelley-bids-to-buy-quebecor-world-assets  Read more... (243 words, estimated 58 secs reading time)

Yet another interesting email popped-up within the In-Box, this time from Dewald Rosema of Exell Technologies, the Markzware distributor in South Africa. Here it is, with the kind approval of Dewald:

In today’s economic climate and growing competition, it is essential for creative, publishing and print production organizations, to ensure it stays ahead of the game and finds new innovative ways to reduce costs reduce human errors and produce high quality jobs quickly at competitive pricing.

Designing for Print?
Where does print start – designing? Who is responsible for printing what was designed – the printer? Who should carry the cost for correcting incorrect design work – the print buyer?

Most common design problems – time wasters – cost adding factors:  Read more... (438 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

• Missing or incorrect bleed
• Incorrect job size
• Missing fonts
• RGB images
• Missing graphics – Links
• Resolution to high or to low
• Trapping
• PMS color – Should it be a spot or standard process (CMYK)

Here is an excellent article on how designers and creators can better deal with their printing job providers called, “A Mistake Was Made–Kill the Printer!” Firstly, I learned of this via Linkedin.com from a post to the PrintPlant “Linkedin-group” via fellow member,  Bill Ruesch. (Who said social media was not useful?) I include the numbered points from this article on how to better work with your printer, which will hit home to many. One way to avoid problems is to preflight, using FlightCheck . Read on…

A Mistake Was Made–Kill the Printer!
The question of giving a supplier the boot comes up from time-to-time. Before doing something rash, like firing a previously reliable printer, you should ask yourself  some important questions:  Read more... (741 words, estimated 2:58 mins reading time)

XChange International in the UK is making an incredible offer – Buy QuarkXPress to Adobe InDesign (Q2ID) or InDesign to QuarkXPress (ID2Q), which each cost 171 Pounds (199 Euros) respectively and get FlightCheck Professional an NO EXTRA CHARGE! FlightCheck normally costs 474 Pounds (499 Euros) – act today. Full offer from XChange International below:

Markzware, the creators of preflight technology, are pleased to work with XChange UK to promote an amazing offer. For a limited time only, purchase either the Q2ID (Quark to InDesign) or ID2Q (InDesign to Quark) conversion tool and receive FlightCheck Professional 6 free of charge.  Read more... (386 words, 7 images, estimated 1:33 mins reading time) Save £494.00 while stocks last! Q2ID (QuarkXPress to Adobe® InDesign) is a plug-in for converting documents from QuarkXPress® to InDesign® format. Q2ID now includes CS3 and CS4 compatibility. The plug-in is designed for use by service bureaus, translation services, data conversion specialists, and other users migrating to the Adobe InDesign platform. The product can convert Quark documents created with either the Microsoft® Windows® or Apple® Macintosh versions of QuarkXPress into Adobe InDesign for Macintosh format. The repurposed legacy content from Quark files preserves the content, pages, layers, look and feel of the original document. More…

Here is yet another form of preflighting, albeit part of a larger Cumulus workflow, for Adobe InDesign users from Insider Software:

“TypeTrax adds the missing link to digital design projects. Fully integrated with Canto Cumulus, a leader in digital asset management, TypeTrax allows a user to simply drag a document into Canto Cumulus and TypeTrax automatically detects and displays the project’s font resources in WYSIWYG mode.”
Source: http://prmac.com/release-id-3938.htm

Would be interested to test this, for sounds useful and really more than just tapping into the InDesign preflight feature. As highlighted in a previous post titled,”InDesign CS4 Preflighting” Markzware’s FlightCheck is a tool needed more than ever in the workflow, especially since much of what this InDesign preflight offers is basically an “in-flight” check. Naturally important, but not the entire workflow by any means. Especially when I read Tweets like this from Twitter, the popular micro blogging site:

@klavars: “Working at commercial printer again today. I miss doing prepress until I spend a day doing it. Customer files get worse & worse all the time.“

Check out FlightCheck here in action and see for yourself.

Stephen Beals editor of “Printing Tools” has posted an interesting article on his blog about ‘Lowering the Margin for Error’.

“Profit margins are not the only things being squeezed in this challenging business environment: so is the margin for error.” That point was made in an article in the NAPL Business Review recently, and it ought to be every printer’s battle cry in these tough times.

[Read more...]

Here is a great article from a blog I often follow by CHUCK GREEN titled, “The designer’s prep, print, and proof checklist” which I caught while browsing Graphicstart.com earlier today. In part it reads:

“In either case, your first responsibility of the prepress process is to “preflight” your files. Preflighting is the process of gathering together and reviewing all the elements necessary to translate what you create on your computer to the printer’s computer. Most printers can provide you with a preflight checklist.” CHUCK GREEN
SOURCE: ideabook.com

The article can be broken down into several important parts:  Read more... (339 words, estimated 1:21 mins reading time)

1. Preflight your files
2. Determine who is responsible for what
3. Review and sign off on a proof
4. Check your job in progress
5. Recheck your job after it is delivered
6. Oversee and approve post-press finishing
7. Negotiate a price adjustment for printing errors
8. Stay abreast of developing