Preflight Success: Tips for Designers and a Free Preflight Checklist
Just as a pilot performs a number of system checks on the airplane before take off, it’s important to make sure that a print project doesn’t contain any serious errors that will prevent it from printing successfully. Preflighting for print production is about examining all of the components that make up an eventual printed piece and comparing them against a checklist of potential known issues. If they “pass” the check, the job can move forward in the print production workflow. If they “fail,” something has to be done to correct the problem before proceeding. It is by default a methodical task that is typically performed by prepress personnel (no one wants to reprint a job because an error wasn’t found in time), but designers should also preflight their work before they send it off to their printers. Software tools and a checklist are both critical to the preflighting process. Some of the things that a typical preflight checklist helps you examine: Layout issues: Does the physical size of the layout match the specifications? Are all page elements there? Was the job created with a professional desktop publishing application? Are bleed elements there? Do graphic elements abut (will there be white gaps between objects)? Are any of the rules set to a thickness of “hairline,” or are they made up of a screen build? Fonts: Are they supplied/embedded properly? What type of fonts are they? Are they from a valid foundry (i.e., will they RIP)? Were they menu-styled? Has any type been set to a very small point size, and is small type made up of a screen build? Images: Is there sufficient resolution for the printing or output method? Do the images contain unsightly artifacts? Is the ink density of shadow areas too high for the type of paper that the job is being printed on? Are the images compressed and, if so, by what type of compression? Color: How many colors are supposed to print? What color space are the images/layout objects? Is RGB color used? Are spot colors indicated correctly and consistently? Which color swatch library was used? Effects: Was transparency or other special effects used? Is transparency live or will it have to be flattened? Does the file contain layers? Are they all supposed to print? Are there annotations or other non-printing objects in the file? In addition to application preflight tools, there are also web-based preflight and delivery tools and PDF creation and printer drivers that have preflighting built right in. These software-based preflight tools can detect many errors, but some problems require manual, human inspection and intervention. Knowing what to look for is half the battle—that’s where the checklist comes into play. Download a Printing Industries of America sample preflight checklist that can be used by designers or in prepress, feel free to modify or change it to fit your needs specifically. Preflight Diagnostic Tools for Designers Preflighting tools for digital files are abundant today, and there is really no excuse not to perform this necessary task. Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress contain built-in preflight and packaging options. Adobe InDesign and Acrobat have easy-to-use diagnostic tools that can help you quickly assess and correct common print-related problems before sending the job off to the printer: InDesign Diagnostic Tools Overprint Preview: It’s critical to be able to preview...
read moreEdale announces May open day
Between 10am and 4pm visitors will have the chance to view a number of existing Edale presses in operation as well as a preview of the manufacturer’s FL-5 760mm mid-web packaging machine, set to be launched in 2014, and a tour of the site. Demonstrations on the Alpha label and ticketing press, the next generation FL-3 label and flexible packaging press – which it launched in January – with new features such as an optional rail system and increased web widths, will take place throughout the day. Additionally visitors will see a Gamma printing and converting press, which can be run inline with the Edale FDC-510 flatbed die cutter, and a number of Beta and FL-3 models currently in production for international customers. Meanwhile Edale customer Douglas Storrie Labels, which co-developed the FL-3 press with the manufacturer, has been awarded gold for Best Flexo Print on Film in the narrow web category of the European Flexographic Industry Association awards. Edale UK and Ireland sales manager Chris Chappel said: “The quality that Douglas Storrie Labels are printing on their Edale FL-3 is second to none, and this award certainly helps to cement this.” To register for the open house on 9 May contact Edale at marketing@edale.com...
read moreInk Shop closes as receivers move in
The move follows what the Scottish firm’s managing director Stuart Mason described as “six months of difficult trading”, following the company’s bid to achieve a five-fold increase in profitability by focusing on high-margin work. Anne Buchanan and James Stephen of BDO Stoy Hayward’s Glasgow office were appointed joint receivers on Thursday 4 April, with the £2.5m turnover business’s 15 staff laid off upon their appointment. BDO is understood not to be looking to sell the business and is simply concentrating on realising the value of its assets. In a statement, Mason said: “I fully accept that this happened on my watch. There have been a number of reasons why the business has suffered in recent months but again I accept this was my responsibility. “The issues we had mainly related to margin and getting the right mix of margin and turnover, poor and underperforming equipment, franchising the business, and a general decline in print.” Almost exactly a year ago, Mason revealed that he was planning to cut around £750,000 of the then £3m firm’s “unprofitable revenue” to boost its profitability five-fold. The ambitious strategy followed a 12-month, £1.2m investment package that included a four-colour-plus-coater Komori LS29, a Xerox Color 1000 digital press, an Agfa Avalon platesetter and a substantial investment in wide-format kit, including an Agfa Anapurna M1600. According to Mason, the restructuring plans were working, but “just not quickly enough”. Mason praised the support he had received from suppliers and even the firm’s bank, understood to be Clydesdale Bank. However, he said he was “devastated” by the impact the firm’s closure would have on Ink Shop’s workforce. “My staff have all been long serving, hard working and a dedicated part of the team. I am devastated that they now find themselves in this position,” Mason said. At its peak, Ink Shop, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, had sales of £3m and, as well as its Cumbernauld production hub, it had eight retail storefront operations across Scotland. In 2006 Mason unveiled a plan to create a 200-strong franchise network across the UK, although this was later shelved....
read moreMicropress targets growth with press and building upgrades
The company replaced its Fujifilm Violet Luxel V8 with the Fujifilm Platerite HD8900S last month, which produces plates faster and uses Lo-Chem reduced chemistry. The new thermal system produces can output up to 40 plates an hour. Micropress, which specialises in both litho and digital printing, has also spent around £260,000 on solar panels and energy efficient lighting, which are still in the process of being installed. Sales executive Rob Cross said that the eco-friendly additions to the plant would help the company in its strategy to become more energy efficient while also generating significant cost savings on bills. The printer has also installed a waste extraction system for all bindery machinery in partnership with its waste removal supplier and additional fencing around the site for security purposes. The investments add to the £4.5m spent on relocating from Halesworth to Reydon in Suffolk last November and kitting out the new facility with Heidelberg print and finishing equipment. In the first year at the new site, Micropress has grown its turnover by around 10% to £11m, and is aiming for even higher income in the future as it targets new markets with an upcoming £37,000 web-to-print platform. The website, which is being developed and expected to be ready by the end of the year, will incorporate a bespoke web-to-print service that Cross said will help Micropress to target niche areas of business. “By developing our own system, we can tailor it to our own needs and offerings. Web-to-print is the way the industry is going,” he said....
read moreWerneke Ink founder ‘Inky Lou’ passes away
“Inky Lou” passed away peacefully on 31 March, aged 86. He is survived by his two children, Matthew and Lisa, and eight grandchildren. Flint Group, whose Akzo Nobel Inks division – now known as ANI Printing Inks – bought his ink manufacturing business in 1998, hailed Werneke for “shaping the narrow web tag and label market and helping to build the industry as it is today”. Werneke foresaw the growing importance the environment would play in the printing industry and, in 1973, he began designing the first water-based ink for flexographic printing, arguing: “There have to be some changes made for the environment and for the energy crunches we have.” He then went on to develop a similar water-based system for label printing and built up his successful global business, which comprised US-based Louis Werneke and the UK’s Label Inks, both of which were sold to Akzo Nobel. Tributes to the “well-respected friend, colleague and industry icon” were given at a prayer mass on Monday (8 April) at Washbury-McReavy in Edina, MN....
read moreEven the best-laid plans require a following wind
While the mea culpa stance of its managing director Stuart Mason is admirable, I’m not sure that he’s being entirely fair to himself and his team. I could be wrong, but it doesn’t appear that his plan to reconfigure the business to focus on higher margin rather than commodity work, supported by a brave investment strategy, was the problem. In fact, it was the timing, both in terms of the current climate and also how long it was taking for the benefits to be realised, that was the cause of Ink Shop’s undoing. Mason was a vocal advocate of the need for change in print – perhaps sometimes a little too vocal – but his passion for print generally and his business specifically was admirable. And while it would be easy to surmise that the lesson to be learned from Ink Shop is that change is not always a good thing, I think Mason would probably be the first to say that the worst sort of decision is no decision and we all have to embrace change. It’s just that sometimes you need a little bit of luck and enough time to make even the best-laid plans...
read morePURFection
By Don Piontek PUR adhesive has solved a lot of problems in the bindery. The standard EVA hot-melt adhesive used for most soft-cover binding ran into it's technological limits some years ago. The photo book segment wanted better “lay open” for photo album…
read morePrint industry reflects on Thatcher era
She was famous as the prime minister who broke the stranglehold of hugely-powerful trade unions, including well-known print unions of the era Slade, the NGA, Sogat, and Natsopa. Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke described the union dispute with Eddy Shah’s Stockport Messenger group in Warrington in 1983 as a “dry run” for what was to follow at News International’s Wapping print plant, and with the mine workers. Shah invoked the new Labour Laws, leading to police action against the striking workforce and subsequent sequestration of union funds. “She saw the opportunity of unleashing the full force of the law against working people. She was vicious and she had a view of what she wanted to do. In doing so, with the miners and printers who were both brilliantly organised, she set about to destroy both,” Burke said. “We’re still here, and she’s not.” Recalling the events of 1983, Burke said: “She used riot police against people, police surveillance and introduced the sort of techniques that are now called kettling. I’d never seen anything like it. But local officers including myself couldn’t get arrested to save our lives,” he added. “It was everything that came to fruition in the miners’ strike a year later.” For others, Thatcher’s legacy is more positive. John Hornby, chief executive of Leeds-based Lettershop Group, said Thatcher brought reality back to business life: “We were able to work together as equal partners with the workforce once the union had been made to realise their responsibilities. It’s all very well being confrontational, but that’s not good business,” he said. “If those sorts of [unionised] conditions existed today, there wouldn’t be a printing industry,” Hornby added. “You either loved her or you hated her, but it was what the country needed at the time.” A notable polarisation of print opinions can be found at Bicester print management company Webmart, set up by founder Simon Biltcliffe on the basis of a combination of Marxist and Capitalist principles. Webmart commercial consultant Ian McCord is a died-in-the-wool Conservative as well as being a local councillor for the party. Biltcliffe said: “Thatcher illegally and immorally used the legal system and full power of the state to break working class unions, while leaving all Tory supporting unions alone, such as the Law Society, British Medical Association et al which are unions in all but name. “She laid waste to Labour supporting areas by clearly targeting traditional industries. 30 years on many of these communities have still not recovered from the instant decimation of their economic heart. She paved the way for the indebted society that we now live in; the disintegration of social cohesion; the ‘greed is good’ culture that we are now all paying for in the austerity world that we live in; the total lack of focus on a broad-based economy leading to the reduction in manufacturing to what is left now – a morally corrupt finance based sector.” However, McCord countered by saying that Webmart owed its success to Thatcher’s policies. “While Simon Biltcliffe will never admit to it, Margaret Thatcher made him,” McCord stated. “It was Margaret Thatcher who tamed the unions, notably with Eddy Shah who opened the door and allowed Rupert Murdoch to kick it off its hinges. That had its trickle-down effect that allowed UK...
read moreMesse Dusseldorf and PEIAC to launch annual China print conference
The new event, Functional Printing China, is being organised by Messe Dusseldorf along with the Printing and Printing Equipment Industries Association of China (PEIAC) and will focus on current and future trends and applications particularly within the printed electronics market. The inaugural event will take place in Beijing on 16 May alongside printing technology trade show China Print, which runs from 14-18 May. It is anticipated that in future years the event could become a standalone show. Deputy managing director of Messe Dusseldorf and chairman of its subsidiary Messe Dusseldorf China, Hans Werner Reinhard, confirmed: “We’ve decided to start with a small conference this year that can run alongside China Print and in the future it will either be in combination with one of our shows or if it becomes big enough it will become its own event.” This year’s Functional Printing China will comprise a series of presentations from around eight speakers, including PolyIC chief executive Wolfgang Mildner, NovaCentrix vice president Stan Farmsworth and Heidelberg’s Martin Schmitt-Lewen, as well as Chinese speakers. Presentations at the event, for which there are 200 tickets available at €200 (£170) each, will be translated for Chinese and English speaking delegates. Reinhard said that from 2014 onwards the event would grow in floor space to include an area for global manufacturers and consumables firms to exhibit. He said: “This is an opportunity for the marketplace in China. We want to grow it step-by-step, it’s not about having 200 exhibitors within two years, this is a niche platform that we want to grow.” Reinhard said that Messe Dusseldorf had “started a special focus” on printed electronics last year with its Printed Electronic Products and Solutions (PEPSO) stand at Drupa 2012. It has also recreated this for a range of specialist trade fairs including retail, medicine, glass processing, packaging and plastic converting. “With Functional Printing China, functional printing is the umbrella term for the event and we highlight the topic of printed electronics within that because they have a growing impact throughout the value chain,” Reinhard said. “China will be a market where a lot of these end products will be produced and they will need the machinery to do that so this is a perfect platform.” He added: “By Drupa 2016 we will have grown this functional printing area and we will see that reflected at the next event.”...
read moreSM Finishing boosts quality with Tech-ni-Fold CreaseStream Plus
SM Finishing bought the £10,500 Tech-ni-Fold product last week and it is due to be installed at the company’s Nottingham premises on Thursday. The company was looking for something to create a more professional look for its products and was sold on the CreaseStream when works director Tony Palethorpe visited a Technifold Open House on 19 March. Tech-ni-Fold’s CreaseStream Plus is 20,000sph automatic creaser, micro-perforator and cutter that is claimed to eliminate cracking at high speeds. It also enables a precise and consistent workflow by using a pre-cylinder transport roller, ensuring that the fed sheets are accurately transferred to the tooling shafts. Managing director Gary Benner said: “We used to do our creasing through our folding machine but this gets a better result. “We can do personalised one piece glued mailers now, promo work for clients like Gala Bingo and pizza restaurants. We are going to achieve much better results and I’ll be able to put a quality crease in quicker. “Tony came back from the open house saying it was a great bit of kit.” Benner added that he anticipated the new machine to increase the company’s work on higher weight paper. “If people are paying for quality grammages they want a quality crease. We’re always looking for new markets and want to become a one-stop shop,” he said. SM Finishing has been running for nine years and has one site. It has an annual turnover of around £750,000 and 16 members of staff....
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