Prepress Career Guide and Counseling

Question: What problems finding work in toronto as a Prepress operator? Hi, I am looking for work in toronto canda, what kind of problems will i be looking at, do i need a job offer first as someone said to me. Many Thanks. I have 13 years exp. mac/pc operator in printing companys. Expert level all programs.

Answer: With all the technological changes the printing industry has seen in the past few years, there are very few job openings for traditional negative stripping and platemaking work. Nowadays it's all computer generated direct to plate. You need to be very tech saavy anymore. You have to be proficient in many different word processing programs (Pagemaker, InDesign, Quark, Microsoft Word, Photoshop, Illustrator and many others). You also have to be familiar with Macs and PCs.

Question: What is the difference between a generalist, prepress & press?

Answer: journelist- is the person who goes out and gets the story prepress- is the peron who redoes the story (changes and twekes it here n there) or the person who tells the paperazies where to go to get the photos exclusivly. press-lk paperazie (ppl who take photos ov celebs) these r all media jobs.

Question: Hi I just want to know What "CTP" means in Printing industry or in Prepress.?

Answer: Color trial proof. Generally, these proofs have the same printing elements as those in the edition. However, they may deviate from the edition through a sequence or color variance, or through added or deleted elements as in the trial proof. A color trial proof may have been pulled at any time during the proofing period or during the printing of the edition. They are signed if the artist feels they are a unique and desirable variation. OR CTP: Computer-to-plate; a method that avoids the use of film.

Question: what are traps and bleeds in prepress printing quality?

Answer: Bleed is the term for extending the background beyond the page, normally between 3 and 5mm extra in each direction. Bleed is required if the item you are printing has colour that goes over the edge, an example, you have an A4-sized page with a picture that you want to print a thousand off edge to edge, the printer might print on an A3-sized page and, once he has printed a thousand, trim it down to A4. Because guillotines are not 100% accurate and paper can slightly shift it is necessary to print slightly larger than A4 if you want to avoid unprinted strips on the sides. Trapping is the term for slightly overprinting elements. Trapping is required to avoid gaps between blocks of colour, an example, printing a red square with a black background, because printing machines cannot be 100% accurate it is necessary that the the edges of the square slightly overlap the background to avoid a white gap between the two colours. The most popular publishing softwares have trapping set up by default, occasionally printers will provide trapping requirements or they will adjust the files before they go to print, bleed isn't a default (because you might not always require it) but is reasonably easy to do.

Question: Is there any chance we could subvert the Bible by slowly changing the scriptures at the prepress department? And hacking the online versions? I mean, if it was done slowly, and carefully, knowing Americans and their penchant for laziness and not checking facts, I think we could have it entirely rewritten in a few generations, and nobody would know the difference. Just imagine... In the beginning, God created White Castle, and saw that it was good, so he followed up with McDonalds, Burger King, Wendys, Arbys, (Roy Rogers went extinct), etc., etc. (Yes, it would really read etc., etc.)

Answer: Hi handsome. We can subvert the buy-bull by continuing to offer facts that prove the buy-bull is 100% plaigurized nonsense.

Question: To Graphic Designers: I'm teaching a course in prepress. What subjects do you think I should cover? Assuming I already taught the obvious: CMYK vs. RGB, DPI/LPI, PDFs, Color, Color profiles, Color space, Fonts (and thier problems), Bleed, trim.... anything else you can think of?

Answer: 1. Color Management - ensure that the printed output more or less matches what you see on screen. also known as printer-monitor calibration 2. Cross Platform compatibility of files - how to work mac files in pc or vice versa 3. masking difficult objects with the use of channels - for hair, fur, etc. 4. setting black and white points 5. Resolution - computation of scanning resolution or required resolution for a project 6. the most important - put pride in your work!

Question: Does anyone have any tips or information on the commercial printing industry? I am graduating with a graphic design degree in December, and I am really interested in prepress, digital printing, etc. Does anyone here have any experience in this field or how to go about looking for employment? I'm currently getting my resume together and working on my portfolio as well--how relevant is a portfolio in this industry considering it's more technical than creative? Any help is appreciated!

Answer: ask around and talk to different places, they might can get you started for minimum wage while you learn, just to get a foot in the door.

Question: What is the past tense form of preflight? I work in prepress and when we get electronic files in we check them out to make sure they are ready for making the printing plates. We call this preflighting, what is the past tense?

Answer: Preflighted. If you're done preflighting it, it's been preflighted. Ding.

Question: How do I use two modes in photoshop? I'm in Digital Prepress class and we have to have an images using both duotone and monotone mode how do I do that? I can only have one mode I can't figure out how to do both modes.

Answer: I'm not sure what you mean by that, you can't have more then a single color mode in a image if that's what you are at. Maybe what you refer to is Multichannel, in that case this may be what you are looking for: http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Photosho… See also: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Mul…

Question: Where can I find information about wages paid in Calfornia? Id like to know the hourly rate I can expect to be paid as a Prepress Technician working for a Printing company in 91204.

Answer: Try visiting the website(s) for the Chamber(s) of Commerce for the city/cities in that zip code.