PrePress Day 4

I’m getting more comfortable with the terms and finding my way around a complicated network of computers. What files go where and where to load this and prepping for production. Yeah...

Today was about editing a job for a final proof for a client. I even got to put my name on the proof ticket as the technician who worked on the job. I got all giddy and nervous at the same time. What if I really screwed it up? I was too excited to let the nervous in.

Something that surprised me was how many designers expect prepress to make changes to their files, such as adding or changing text. For some reason it just made sense to me that a designer is in charge of all work in the file. Maybe it’s my little bit of control freak that leaks out, but I would want to be responsible for my project. Sounds simple right? Nope. The guys charge $100 an hour for any major design work. No wonder designers charge high rates to clients, because sometimes they are paying someone else to finish stuff up.

I learned a bit about varnishes today as well. Mark gave me a guide, by Sappi, on all these amazing varnishes and coatings. UV, Satin, Gloss, Dull, Spot, Flood, etc. New terms! Sappi is Sierra’s major paper supplier, which is exciting because these guys get ALL kinds of awesome samples and pamphlets of the capabilities of the printing process. I was so impressed by the design of the guide I quickly flipped to the back to see the designer. Pentagram. I should have known.

Varnishes also get printed as a spot color on the press. They have their own plate depending if you are doing flood or spot, but it goes through the press just like it was an ink.

Another interested thing I learned about was the actual dots of the printing process. We all know basic process printing is 4 dots or “spot” colors on a press? Okay, well those dots have different sizes. Could be round, elliptical, hash marks. Hash marks are rarely used as that is an older form of printing, but round and elliptical can change the way your image works. 300 dpi or 175 lines per inch look different when dots are placed a certain direction. The guys I’m learning from used to use actual photographic plates and screen each plate with something similar to a window screen. That’s how they would get dots.

So many topics get brought up every day it seems like a classroom session that goes wild. Today other topics included:

Embossing, which they have the capabilities to do on site. I’ll be seeing a die cut soon.
Thermography. Technique which raises the ink on paper to give it that textured feel.
Calibrating monitors. I still have no idea.
Learning Prepress aka “Apogee” as it was once called, is the most complicated program I think I have ever come across. Kill me.