Re: Mini-rant on the surreal world of "prepress"
Re: Mini-rant on the surreal world of "prepress"
- Subject: Re: Mini-rant on the surreal world of "prepress"
- From: "Matt Beals" <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:10:29 -0700 (PDT)
- Importance: Normal
See inline resonses please.
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-----Original Message-----
From: "Martin Orpen" <email@hidden>
Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2010 5:05am
To: email@hidden
Subject: Re: Mini-rant on the surreal world of "prepress"
On 21 Apr 2010, at 22:45, Marco Ugolini wrote:
> Oh, the temptation to wreak mighty vengeance upon such stupefying ignorance
> was strong, believe you me, Brian.
Hell hath no fury like a prepress noob scorned...
MB: I'm not a noob and I'm just a frustrated.
I think the vengeance on stupefying ignorance has already been wrought... by the expert at the printers.
The first rule of Print Club...
Printers only believe in one type of CMYK.
Whereas Prepress Professionals know that there are two types of CMYK -- that's why we get to work in clean and quiet offices and are even allowed to talk to customers sometimes.
Deciding which of the two types of CMYK to give the printer is a crucial part of our job and a prepress pro would NEVER call the printer because:
1. It's unnecessary
2. It's pointless
If their technical specifications don't make any sense who'd be dumb enough to call them? The best you could hope for would be to get to speak with the person who wrote the technical specifications!
MB: I'd be "dumb" enough to try and make sense out of what seems to be jibberish. If I can make sense out of it then I will know what to do. If I can't, I'll make an educated guess. But if nothing else, I will have at least done my due dilligance.
The stupefying ignorance about printing is assuming that colour accuracy figures anywhere near the importance of price and meeting deadlines.
MB: Why can't you have both? If spending a half hour on the phone with the print provider, who seems rather clueless, will save me potential down time on press or delays in prepress then I have done myself and my cliet a favor by preventing wasted time. And since time and money have a direct link I'm double dipping on my savings. Not to mention if things go well with my client I look like a hero for straightening out any questions. And that translates into good will which evolves into more business for me.
MB: The Seven P's of Life according to a friend who's Navy SEAL and another who is a trial lawyer: Proper Previous Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance
Sure you want to believe that the printer takes special care of your magazine page on press -- you and the 63 other people whose pages are sitting on the same signature...
MB: I don't think anyone here is under that dillusion. The pressman I've seen in RR Donnelley and Quad plants (to cite two examples) do produce good work. But to them it's a manufacturing process like any other assembly line. They have their tollerances and as long as they stay within them the product is most often accepted. There is still craftmanship in the work, but it isn't "craftsman" quality work.
Obviously customer communications from printers aren't going to be up to much -- they always assumed there'd be the buffer of the prepress industry protecting them telling customers how things really work.
MB: You never know until you try. So always try. What's the worst that happens?
The unvarnished and simplified version could easily be reduced to a couple of sentences:
A. Don't waste our time with stuff that we can't dump straight to plate.
B. We use US CMYK (as in Universal Standard) -- characterised very precisely by what comes out the other end of the press using the settings that yield the fewest complaints from the people who pay the bills.
MB: I think the safer assumption would be to use the North American defaults Adobe ships, Adobe RGB 1998 and SWOP v2. Which I think is ultimately the decision Marco came up with. It's the most logical choice in the absence of better or different information.
The surreal bit of prepress is that everybody conspired to prematurely consign it to the history book of no longer needed craft skills... following on from typesetting, compositing, block making and wood engraving etc etc.
MB: I'm not sure it was a conspiracy. That's paranoid even by my standards. What happened was the comoditization of the craft. Just like printing. Just like most other things. People saw a way to make money by trying to make software smart enough to allow untrained people to produce what was tradtionally skilled workers work product.
For those of us trying to keep the flame alive, even the word we use to describe our daily endeavour is in the process of being dumped and replaced by the more generic and baggage-free term "pre media".
MB: It is pre-media now. That in no way diminishes the craft of preparing print files. If professionals like you, Marco and I want to survive long(er) term we need to adapt our skills and bring along the same kind of craftsmanship to that work. It's not the craft; it's the craftsmanship that is imporant. The same dedication to quality work in reproducing color accurately can be applied to any trade or vocation.
The only thing that keeps me going nowadays is a regular supply of stories of crushed expectations harvested from mailing lists that are frequented by designers, photographers and colour management consultants.
MB: If your only satisfaction comes from others apparent misery, what does that say about you and your longevity in the industry? Lighten up, drink a pint of Guiness and a dram of Scotch and chill the hell out. Help bring craftsmanship back into the industry by helping those who you think need help. Not to mention the ones who ask for help. Give them advice, sell your experience and teach them. But for Gods' sake, quit complaining if you aren't even trying to help.
Thanks for posting.
--
Martin Orpen
Idea Digital Imaging Ltd
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