Hidden Cost In The Generation of Print

Even though the technologies enabling businesses to create documents have become more accessible, there remains a hidden cost in the generation of print and electronic media—a cost easily offset with some simple tools and best practices

Perhaps you’ve seen the commercials by print giants like Xerox and Hewlett-Packard, in which they espouse how cheap print has become? Indeed, the cost to generate color print these days is, in fact, much less expensive for businesses than it was just a few short years ago.

While printers and the consumables they use have become more accessible to businesses on a budget, there remains an unnecessary hidden cost in print output and electronic publishing—the cost of ill-prepared content.

The origin of content
The amount of content businesses generate these days is mind-blowing. It’s disseminated in any number of ways—in print products such as brochures, marketing and sales collateral, advertisements, educational and training materials, presentations and so on. In combination with their print initiatives, businesses also have “new media” opportunities—creating content for electronic communications, such as the Web, an Intranet, DVDs and CD-ROMs, and e-newsletters—each medium requiring that the content be prepared just a little differently based on its output intention.

David Creamer, owner of I.D.E.A.S. Training, Bonsall, CA, says that there is greater burden on businesses to develop strategies for both print and e-media, and as a result, must understand the nuances of how content should be prepared for each “product.” A document intended for print, for example, must be created in a very different way than content destined for a corporate Intranet.

Fundamentally, content for print and content for electronic distribution, differ in color space. A file bound for the Web should be set up to enable a monitor—which reads color in variations of red, green and blue—to read and reproduce the file. Electronic files should be also be “low resolution,” meaning there are fewer pixels required (and, thus, a smaller file size) to view on a monitor.

Conversely, print is a bit pickier. Most printers read and process in four-colors (cyan, magenta, yellow and black, “CMYK) and require very-high-resolution graphics and text in order to output crisply.

Clearly, it complicates operations for businesses—dealing with how to take all this content, massage it into a form that’s needed, and then getting it there. When content is not prepared correctly, based on its output intention, there is a cost—sometimes hard, sometimes soft—to “fix” the content.

“Making content” is very much like a manufacturing assembly line. As an automobile is being created, it passes along various production stages, where parts are added until the car is complete. But what happens if the car skips a stage—leaving it without an engine block, for example—and no one notices the error until the car is rolling off the line. There is a cost by the manufacturer to disassemble that car, add the engine, and reassemble it until the car is whole.

Content is no different. Digital files that are incomplete or inappropriately created cost their creator time and money to fix.

“Everyone can make a PDF file on the computer simply by selecting the print-to-PDF option, for example. It does not mean that the file created is a production-quality PDF,” explains Steve Shinnick, vice president of sales for All Systems Integration, an international graphic arts and printing integration firm. In his role, Shinnick consults with businesses across the globe, and suggests and implements technologies that help his clients create, manage and distribute content is the most effective and cost-efficient way.

Fortunately, content creators don’t have to be formally trained graphic artists to prepare good files, suggests Shinnick. There are low-cost software solutions—commonly referred to in the print industry as “preflight” software—that help businesses ensure their content will render appropriately, no matter how it’s disseminated.

A preflight tool like Markzware’s FlightCheck Professional will adjudicate digital files and verify that output specifications are met.

The investment is minimal—just a few hundred dollars for a software solution that promises to save the average business untold amounts of time and money in the recreation of “problematic” digital files.

Is There a Cultural Shift in the Advertising Workflow?

With the advent of digital workflow, new responsibilities emerge for the newspaper publisher and the ad creator

Ask most newspaper sales executives, and they’ll tell you just how competitive the market place is these days — how tough of a sell it is when other media forms are drawing the interest of advertisers like never before.

Newspapers must be able to compete with these other vehicles, present compelling circulation numbers, and provide excellent customer service to the advertising client. They must be able to accept, position, produce and print the advertiser’s copy and images, with particular attention paid to reproduction quality.

In the cases of ads supplied by larger agencies and experienced design firms, digital content may come in by way of “prepress-ready” file formats, all the elements present and accounted for, all the specifications for print met. But not all ads come in from clients well-equipped to supply these types of files. As a result, plenty of bad files come in the door — files rife with font, resolution or color space problems. And these “bad files” must then be fixed before they can be placed in the imposition, which, of course, takes time and money.

Fortunately, there are inexpensive software tools available to newspaper publishers and their advertising clients that smooth out these workflow wrinkles, and enables advertisers to supply well-prepared and accurate digital ad files to the publisher, as well as enabing the publisher to confirm that the files are “good” upon receipt.

The publisher’s role
Newspaper production departments have been long – (and well) equipped to receive any number of types of digital ad files — everything from native application QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign documents to more standardized, locked down PDF files.

As the publisher, accepting these digital ads, the newspaper production team is often equipped with software — referred to in the print industry as “preflight software“
– that will analyze digital ad files and alert the publisher to any inaccuracies in their preparation. Preflight software will sound an alarm when there may be missing fonts and graphics, improper color space (RGB vs. CMYK) or resolution discrepancies.

While preflight technologies have been a staple for newspaper and other print publishers for more than a decade, the workflow between advertiser and publisher remains replete with flaws, with publishers and printers reporting as many as 85 percent of the digital files they receive from their clients are ill-prepared and require some intervention before they can be printed.

Most publishers and printers agree that the ideal advertising workflow comprises digital fields that are supplied in good form that meet the ideal printing specifications established by the newspaper publisher and its printer. And there’s really no reason why advertisers — whether large, print-savvy agencies or independent designers — can’t supply their files in this way. The tools to verify their content before submitting it to the newspaper are inexpensive, easy to use and accessible. But if may fall upon the publisher’s production and sales staff those who have direct contact with the advertising client — to evangelize their use.

Fortunately, it isn’t a tough sell for clients who share the publisher’s goal — to produce good print ads. Increasingly the culture is shifting, and ad creators are more inclined to do whatever is necessary to ensure the files they release to the paper will process seamlessly and look great in print.

The agency’s role
These days, it’s no longer the publisher and printer who share the responsibility of quality control; it’s everyone’s responsibility — from content creator to production to prepress to press.

“I examine and check all the files before they’re released from the agency — whether they’re for outdoor media, newspapers or magazines,” suggests Donna Carroll, quality control manager, newspapers or magazines,” suggests Donna Carroll, quality control manager, print production, Crispin Porter and Bogusky (CPB Miami).

CPB produces graphics and ad campaigns for some notable clients, including Virgin Atlantic Airways, Burger King, Mini Cooper, and NOW HIV/AIDS, just to name a few. Carroll says that no matter the size and prestige of the client, it’s the agency’s primary responsibility to ensure their ads are visually spectacular when they appear in print.

To ensure that the digitial ad files she offers to newspaper publishers, Carroll uses a low-cost application called Flightcheck Professional from Santa – CA – based Markzware. The solution according to the developer, is designed to “look inside” the digital file — whether it’s a native application file (such as QuarkXPress or Adobe Illustrator) or a final-format PDF — and determine whether all of the file elements are present and accounted for.

“We have 20 digital artists who work on files before I get them, Carroll explains. “For each of them, their last workflow step is to use FlightCheck [Professiona] to check these elements and then collect them to a single file package. Not only is it a checkpoint for us at the creative stage, it is also a collection tool that gathers all the images and fots, so that within the package, you know that everything required for the job is in there, and whe it gets to the vendor, it’s not missing anything.
“Then , they send the files to me,” Carroll ads. “I use FlightCheck again to double check them before they’re released to a publication or printer. It’s our last line of defense.”

Remember the common goal
Like Donna Carroll, Kenny Berwager is a big proponent of preflighting digital ads before they leave the agency’s doors. He’s a graphic and production artist for Lois Knott Advertising, a small, more-than-35-year-old advertising firm based in Hanover, PA.

While the firm produces a wide range of advertising media — everything form print to radio and TV spots — the majority of jobs Berwager works on are bound for local newspapers.

He describes the typical newspaper ad workflow: “Lois [Knott] is the creative director. She gathers any materials I’ll need to produce the ad, and also provides me with a sample layout — just someting simple like a pencil sketch. I take that layout and begin the design — in [Adobe] Illustrator or InDesign, usually. We currently use the Adobe Creative Suite applications,” Berwager explains.

Once the ad design is complete and approved by the client, Berwager finalizes the digital file by putting it through a complete preflight analysis and then collecting the document or output to a flattened PDF file that’s both “camera-ready” and “prepress-ready.”

Preflight is absolute necessity to the Berwager’s workflow, he insists. Using FlightCheck, Berwager is able to see all the file’s guts.

“It checks for things that may be corrupt,” he says. “I can see if images are RGB but should be CMYK. I can tell their resolution. I can see all of these details about the images and the fonts, so if something needs to be fixed, I can go back to InDesign or whatever application I’ve created the file in, and make the changes, recheck it with FlightCheck and then save out my PDF. That way, I know, when the file leaves my desktop, it’s not going to land at the newspaper and cause all sorts of headaches there, or on press.”

Berwager claims that he’s quite happy to preflight his files before he releases them to a client, a publication or a printer. While it may be an added responsibility on his shoulders, he says that it’s worth the few minutes it takes to adjudicate the files — especially for his clients.

“[Preflight] ensures there are fewer mistakes in the print job and ultimately, that means that our agency or our clients won’t have nay extra, unexpected charges for fixing problems with the files we produce,” Berwager asserts.

Why Better, Faster and Cheaper?

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.

Disciplined File Creation

Indeed there’s no shortage of workflow tools used to create, color correct, optimize, verify and exchange content bound for print. The print industry certainly isn’t lacking in technology to support the all-digital workflow. But what may still be missing is a commitment to better educate the customer – teaching them how and why they need to create “good files” for print — and a willing shift in responsibility.

Ask most any print supplier — commercial, publication, book, large-format or otherwise — about the number of digital content files they receive from clients that are flawed, in some way incomplete or ill-prepared, and you may be surprised to learn just how many “bad files” are being circulated in the market. Even with the advent of the Portable Document Format (PDF), which promised to resolve some of these problems for printers, the old industry saying, “junk in junk out” holds true.

Having a quality-control buffer between the customer and the print supplier is one way to ensure that files coming into prepress are properly prepared and complete. Another way, is to take time to provide customers with some basic file setup instruction and to encourage them to use their verification solution.

Markzware donates FlightCheck to Lab

DesktopMedia would like to thank Markzware, the leading software developer in preflight and file utilities for creative workflows for their generous donation of FlightCheck Professional, FlightCheck Designer and Q2ID to the DesktopMedia training lab. Not only will we put this to good use exposing and teaching as many professionals as possible, but, in the coming months we’ll be writing about how this powerful tool can help your organization!

Preflight and Conversion Tools For Document Content – MARKZWARE
Check out Markzware for all their latest offerings. Remember, the earlier in the your workflow you can include quality control the greater the success rate of your production files! Flightcheck Professional can review more file formats than you think — InDesign CS3, Quark 7, PDFs, even Microsoft Office files!!!