Gravure

Print Workflow

As I've said repeatedly, you can't communicate too much with your commercial print service provider. While commercial printers have been developing many mechanisms for making the submission, preflighting, proofing, and tracking of your print projects as easy as possible, it is still important that every aspect of the manufacturing process is well planned and that you understand everything that will happen to your job.

The workflow might look like this (and yes, I'm sketching out the ideal, both process as well as quality control) in the following sections.

Estimating

You contact your sales representative at your primary provider to discuss an upcoming job you are about to begin. You sit down with the sales rep to sketch out the job specifications, to the best of your ability, including the run length, the number of colors, the number of pages, the stock choices, the binding styles, and any finishing requirements. Your rep returns an estimate to you based on the parameters you submitted.

Planning

At this point, you should have solidified the project, resources, staff, and format of the project. You'll call your rep and notify her of any changes that would affect the estimate, along with a schedule. At this point in time, you should participate in a planning meeting with your print service provider if a) the job is important; b) the job is complex; or c) you don't have much experience with this printer or in working with any printer. Often a planning meeting will point out issues on the creative side that might not translate too well in print production, and guidance can be offered to structure a piece in a way that will satisfy the creative requestwhich is very valuable. On the manufacturing side, planners within your service provider will plan the manufacturing process; line up the necessary resources; and map out the workflow including which press, sheet size, and bindery equipment will be necessary to process the job.

Submission and Preflighting

After you have completed your projectincluding proofing and approvaland your own preflight, it's time to turn the project over to your service provider. Depending on your service provider's requirements, you might burn your files to CD or DVD or submit your files via FTP. Your service provider might have web-based preflighting so that, when you submit your work to their workflow via their website, you can receive a preflight report (usually via email) to notify you of the status of your job.

Note

Your goal is to submit as complete a project as possible. The less intervention the prepress operator needs to make with your files, the faster the job will move through the system and the less charges you will incur.

The role of preflight is to verify that all resources are present and validate that the quality of those resources is sufficient enough to move through the workflow with little intervention. If intervention in the form of correcting problems such as fonts, color, and image resolution is necessary, you will probably be presented with the choice of either correcting the problems yourself or having your provider correct the problems.

Prepress

Once preflighted, your job will move into prepress where additional work will be performed. If corrections to your file need to be made regarding fonts, color, or images, this will take place next.

If changes or corrections are unnecessary, meaning you've followed my advice and created a bullet-proof PDFx job that requires no intervention by prepress, you might be working with a commercial printer with an automated PDF workflow such as Creo's Prinergy or Artwork System's Nexus. These systems will take your PDF and, using predefined scripts, process your jobs through the next few steps automatically, instead of operators executing these steps individually or manually.

If, on the other hand, certain changes to your project need to take place to prepare it for production, your original application file will be edited. These changes can include adding bleeds, adding marks, preparing images that crossover bind, trapping, and imposing your project.

Note

To trap a file means to slightly overlap abutting colored areas so that, when paper wiggles on press (and it will), abutting colors still appear to touch rather than pull apart to reveal the paper. Why does paper wiggle on press? Paper is usually held in place along one edge, the gripper edge. The edge of the paper away from the gripper edge could span as much as 40". The farther away from the gripper edge you travel, the less steady the paper is; it can therefore move slightly, but enough to affect how elements on the paper, particularly abutting colored elements, print closely to each other. Therefore, the technique of trapping is employed. Special software examines touching objects in your file and their color values and determines the adjustments that are required. Trapping is just one of many skills a prepress operator must have to process your files correctly.

At this point in the process, you might have asked for some type of proof so you see the finished product prior to trap and imposition. This is a digital proof, such as a content proof used to approve the content of the page(s) but not the color. Or, if you've asked your service provider to perform color correction on your images, you can request a contract proof for the purpose of approval of your images. A contract proof is usually generated on a highquality color proofing device designed to print images, specifically color, very well.

Note

To impose a file means to take the pages you will lay out in reading order and reorder those pages to accommodate the binding style you have chosen. Even if you are not binding your projectsuch as in the case of a postcardimposition still takes place (that is, multiple up). Imposition has two purposes: to make the most of a sheet of paper and to position pages on that paper so that, when the sheet is folded, cut, and bound, the pages are back in reading order again. Imposition accounts for creep, the byproduct of folding many pages together. Pages creep backward, with the innermost pages appearing longer than the outer pages. Imposition calculates the amount of space needed to add back into the layout to compensate for creep.

After your job is trapped and imposed, if you are printing a multipage job, you might have another type of proof generated. This is a page proof, generated from a wide format device that can image the large imposed sheets that are then folded and trimmed down to show you a mock-up of the finished project.

Plating

Finally, your job is ready to plate and print. The prepress operator will release your job to plate, and the digital file will be sent to a machine that will rip your file to machine pixels and laser the image to a special plate mounted on a cylinder. Plates typically go through some type of processing to wash and bake them. Baking hardens them so that they can hold up under constant impressions. Plates are typically inspected and proofed to ensure they match the imposition proof. The plates are then released to the pressroom.

Press

The press operator(s) will manage the chemistry and mount the plates and paper. Depending on the number of colors in your job, each unit on the press will contain a color (CMYK) and a plate for that color. The press operator will execute several passes or runs of paper, adjusting the chemistry to get the press proofs to match the contract proof. When he feels he has accomplished this, a press check, if requested, will take place. The best effort (press sheet) will be taken to a light booth or a customer lounge with a light booth and viewed under optimum conditions and compared to the contract proof. If approval is given, the job will run. If additional tweaking needs to occur, then it's back to adjusting the press until a proof is pulled that is satisfactory. After the job has run and is moved to the bindery, the press operator(s) will be responsible for breaking down the press, removing the plates, cleaning them, and so on.

Bindery

From the press, the sheets are moved into the bindery where folding, binding, and cutting occur. From the bindery, the job is checked (this check is usually called quality control [QC]) and then sent to shipping or fulfillment.

Shipping will send the job wherever it's requested. Fulfillment is a value-added service your print provider might offer, in which they warehouse your finished goods for you and take care of drawing down the inventory and sending it wherever you need, thereby becoming by extension your own distribution center.

Shipping

Once shipped, you are invoiced for the work. Depending on how well the job was produced and how many problems were experienced along the way, you might be asked to participate or you might instigate a review of the project in an attempt to identify areas for improvement.

For a great, firsthand look at the technological advances of this form of printing, go to a trade show such as Print, which is hosted by GASC.org and typically held at McCormick Place in Chicago each September. There, you can walk the floors and see all manner of printing presses and technologies that are innovating this industry.

This is the cycle for offset commercial printing. What follows are descriptions of other types of commercial printing processes and recommendations for applications for each of those processes. The workflow for each varies slightly to accommodate any differences in press preparation, but generally file preparation is handled the same regardless of the printing process.