Now that a good decade has passed since the advent of computer-to-plate (CTP) printing, the industry has a good feel for what is working, and what isn’t.

Developers and vendors can be credited for quickly supplying the tools printers needed to make CTP work. Open file and language standards enable more seamless communication between technologies driving digital proofing, prepress systems and press room solutions. With highly automated workflows, it’s possible — now, more than ever before — to keep the presses running at a steady pace. That is, as long as there aren’t any bottlenecks in prepress.

Unfortunately, bottlenecks abound at most prepress departments at printing companies across the country. Many suggest that as many as 85 percent of the digital files they receive from customers are problematic, requiring some form of intervention before the job can proceed. Many of the problems printers see are merely innocent mistakes that can be fairly easily remedied — perhaps it’s missing fonts, an errant RGB image or a resolution conflict.

To complicate matters, there are plenty of methods by which the customer may be preparing the digital file — working in any number of digital file formats to send to the printer (native application files, PDF or PDF/X-1a files, for example).

No matter how simple the problem with a file may be, fixing it requires time and cost to make the repair. Either the printer takes on the responsibility for making the alteration and re-proofing the file, or the printer puts it back on the customer to make the fix and resubmit the job. Either way, the schedule and the bottom line are compromised.

The ideal scenario — the most efficient and cost-effective way for printers and customers to work together — is to have content correctly prepared by the content creator, according to specific prepress parameters established by the printer.

Not only will Wethington gladly spend phone time with a customer who wants to ensure that they’re preparing good content from the start, Cardinal Printing also publishes “preflight checklist” on its Web site, which provides customers with a simple, bulleted guide to making sure their files really are “prepress ready.”

Putting preflight in place
Bill Wethington is the electronic imaging specialist for New Albany, IN-based Cardinal Printing. Founded in the late 1940s, the company provides sheet fed printing to a wide range of customers — everything from small, local businesses to large corporations.

Cardinal Printing’s prepress workflow comprises a Brisque RIP and plate setting equipment that feeds a stable of three printing presses, each with its own specialty; a Heidelberg for small-format jobs, a Mitsubishi 640 for larger-formatted work, and a large-format two-color press for single – and two-color jobs.

Wethington estimates that approximately 90 percent of the digital files coming into the plant are, in some way, flawed. Those pesky, honest mistakes on the part of the content creator are usually to blame — anomalies like missing fonts, improper bleed settings, missing images or graphics that are too “low res.”

Cardinal Printing accepts most file formats form its customers, but Wethington says that the bulk of the files come in as native Adobe InDesign or PDF formats. As a rule, he explains, Cardinal Printing prefers to receive PDFs, as long as they’re properly created. But, he says, “Personally, I like the native apps, such as Quark, Pagemaker, InDesign, etc., because I like to see how they are put together if there is a prolem with the file.”

To find and identify problems within the incoming files, Wethington uses Markzware’s FlightCheck Professional, a solution that looks inside the file and verifies compliance with the printer’s specifications. With the preflighting tool, he explains, “We can catch most of the common problems — and then some that the customer would not have even known about.”

Wethington envisions an ideal workflow, where by content creators take on greater responsibility for submitting well-prepared digital files. The further away from press errors are found and fixed, the better the opportunity to keep costs down and schedules on time.

Evangelizing the message
Los Angeles-based Donahue Printing has had a digital workflow in place for five years; film was long ago abolished, in favor of digital files.

Like Cardinal Printing, Donahue Printing receives content in a variety of formats from its customers, mostly native application files prepared in QuarkXPress, Photoshop and Adobe InDesign, according to Tom Donahue, Sr., who serves as president, and his son, Tom Donahue, Jr. who serves as vice president.

While there are still jobs that come in with some inherent file flaws, the Donahues say that they’ve been able to get the flawed-file percentage down to a more manageable 30 percent. How did they do it? With good old fashioned customer service, it seems.

“We inform our customers how to prepare their files properly,” the son explains. “Usually, we will fix them first; then, we instruct them on how to do it correctly from then on.”

The Donahues would like to see more customers taken an active interest in learning basic printing principles and how to set up their files accurately. “We definitely want to catch mistakes as far away from the press — and plates — as possible,” Donahue Sr. affirms.

How can a printer ensure that the files it’s receiving can be qualified as prepress – or plate setter-ready?

Perhaps by deploying its own quality-control technology, a pre-/post-flighting solution, for example, that checks the job files as they come in. Most printers do this already, but it only partially solves the workflow communication problem between customer and printer. It’s too late in the process to detect an error once it arrives at the printer. And so, printers must be willing to educate their customers on best practices in digital file creation, share their digital file specifications, and evangelize the use of quality-control at the content creation level.

Even the simplest of creative errors, such as improperly spec’d color space, resolution or missing fonts, can stall the print production workflow — costing both time and money to remedy. The ideal workflow eliminates problematic digital files as far away from the press as possible — at content creation, preferably.

Stop The Madness: At The Creative Stage
Steven Stelter’s career in the graphic arts industry began in the art department at a Milwaukee television station, where he was responsible for maintaining a Web site and designing both on-air graphics and print projects.

Subsequently, Stelter held positions with a marketing firm and a 200-person ad agency, where he honed his print production skills further, producing everything from brochures to billboards.

Stelter founded his current company — Seattle-based Stelter Design — in 2002, sort of by happenstance. “I pulled up stakes [in Milwaukee] and moved out to Seattle in 2000. I had a number of interviews with design firms in Seattle, but the economy and dot.com fallout was starting, and I never landed a staff job,” Stelter recalls. “I began doing contract work … First, production work, but over the years, that switched to design and art direction.”

According to the founder, Stelter Design caters to small and mid-sized companies that “may have a marketing director, but may not have a designer.” Stelter Design’s clientel mostly reside in the great Seattle and Milwaukee regions. Among its clients are Wisconsin Lutheran Child and Family Services and Westward Seafoods.

Stelter estimates that between 80 and 90 percent of the work he produces is destined for print. While he’s responsible for the majority of inspiration behind his work, Stelter does, occasionally, receive content from his customers: “Yes, we often get Microsoft Word docs and occasionally a rough Publisher or PageMaker doc to show a rough layout of what the client is thinking or trying to express to me.”

Stelter’s core creative applications include: Adobe InDesign, QuarkXPress, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Acrobat. Complementing his creative workflow, Stelter also uses a pre and post flight solution from Markzware, called FlightCheck.

FlightCheck Professional “looks inside” digital files (in a variety of formats, including native application files, PDFs, and standards-based print industry files like PDF/X-1as) and analyzes whether the file is complete and accurately created for it’s print intentions.

“If a file leaves the office, it’s been ‘FlightChecked,” Stelter affirms. “I have worked with it for about four years now, and what I love about it is the ability to examine all the linked files of a Quark or InDesign file — such as Illustrator files — and ensure they are in the correct color mode and resolution It will also warn me if they are not compatible with my file release standards,”

While Adobe’s InDesign does have a post-flight feature for verifying PDF files, FlightCheck is capable of post-flighting PDFs as well as a whole slew of other formats, including native application files and standards-based PDF/x-1a files. “Adobe InDesign has a built-in [postflight] tool; however, it does not tell what it is doing or give me as much information about what is wrong, when a file is wrong,” Stelter explains.

Proofing provides another layer of quality control. “I have an Epson Stylus 300 with an iproof systems’ PowerRIPX running on a standalone server,” Stelter explains. “I also send low-res and high-res PDF files for any projects I release on CD-ROM. On Occasion, we’ll have a client with more exact color specifications, so we’ll go to a service bureau for a Matchprint.”

Back To The Beginning
To ensure a favorable outcome, quality-control measures must be built into each stage of the print production workflow — at content creation, production, prepress and, of course, on press.

No matter the file format in play, digital content files should be verified and re-verified by time it’s manipulated in any way. And print suppliers should support their customers by providing best practices and solution suggestions that enable them to prepare digital files properly and utilize other quality-control means, like digital proofing. Learning the basics of print production and file creation presents new opportunities for content creators — not only to develop a new set of skills, but also to be more of a contributor to the print job’s success.