What’s this site’s function?
The short answer
- To establish and encourage standards in the print production industry, and to uphold a high level of craftsmanship.
- To share useful information with Mac artists, both beginners and veterans, about good file building and file management.
The long answer
Standards
Which way is better, and why?
Sharing the wealth
Who is this site for?
Browser requirements
What's with the redirect?
About the author
Copyright
There are a great many books and courses regarding pre-press production (or print production), and most of them do a good job of showing how to use the industry's standard software, such as QuarkXpress, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop. However, it's difficult to find resources, particularly on the Web, that list standards that all Mac artists can adhere to.
In an industry where freelance Mac artists and designers work in many agencies and for many clients, it's important to have standards, so that the files created can be modified or worked on by any other operator or designer, without that person having to spend many frustrating hours trying to figure out what unique method of madness was used to create the files.
Anyone who has spent any time using the programs listed above will know that there's usually more than one way to do anything. So what's the best way? And why is it better? Most of us have had to find these answers by trial and error, and, quite frankly, some of us don't even think to pose the questions. So, this site attempts to let Mac artists know what works well for what situation, and explains why.
There's a lot of good ideas out there, but they're usually protected like state secrets by people who are either afraid of losing their jobs to other people with their skills, or who just can't be bothered to share their hard-earned knowledge with everyone else. I was one of the latter.
But it's important to realise that elevating everyone's knowledge of file building and management, can only make everyone's life easier: You'll save time and several bottles of headache pills if everyone else does their job well, because you won't be wasting your time and effort deciphering and rebuilding files that others have butchered. And skills aren't the only things that define a good designer or operator, so fearing for your job is hardly an excuse, when your natural talents and love of what you do shows in ways that cannot be put down on paper.
And there's a quantitative result that clients can see: Time and money are saved when work is produced and shared efficiently. And print shops and film houses will love you for building files that rip (print) with no hassles (and they won't charge you more for having to waste their time fixing your files).
These, among many others, are the reasons why the print production industry needs to share the knowledge that it has amassed over the years. And sharing means making it freely available for anyone who's looking for it. The Web is the ideal place to contain this information.
If you have found ways to make your work more efficient, please contribute to this site, and share your wisdom with the rest of the print production community.
- Students entering the world of digital print production and junior
Mac artists.
- Experienced Mac artists who want to learn more about standards,
and/or contribute to their community (proper credit will be given
to all contributions).
- Those interested in knowing more about and/or contributing to the print production industry, such as account managers, studio/production managers, and clients.
Although this site should be accessible by most modern browsers, please note that it has been optimized for CSS-compliant browsers, such as the latest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 5 or higher for Macintosh), or Safari.
As the print production industry is openly Macintosh-friendly and Macintosh-dominated, I haven't bothered to test this site on a Wintel box. However, for the sake of the community, if you are viewing this site on a Wintel machine, and are having problems, please let me know.
You may notice that your browser redirects you when you visit the home
page. That's because this is a non-profit site, and I can't afford a
dedicated server. If you want to bookmark the site, use the primary
URL (Mac users click and hold; Wintel users right click):
http://www.prepressproduction.com
To protect myself from SPAM and other intrusive information gathering agents, I'm not comfortable providing a bio. However, for the purpose of reassuring you that I do in fact work in print production, here's a short list of experience:
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3 year diploma in Advertising and Design at George Brown College, Toronto, where the primary source of experience came from the ¢99 draughts at the HogTown pub across the street.
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2 years at Montana Steele Advertising, Toronto, where I learned more in 3 months than I did in 3 years at college. Seriously. I'm not kidding.
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2 years at Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto, where I learned about the value of typography, structure, process, and planning. Oh, and also, why it's not such a good idea to have your desk next to a spray mount station.
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Running on 6 years at Taxi Advertising and Design, Toronto, as senior Mac Artist and Studio Technology Manager. Why have I stayed on so long? The office parties.
All the material in this site is freely available to the public, to be distributed, linked to, printed, and quoted. This is a non-profit, community-oriented site.
All company names and product names that appear in this site are the property of their respective copyright holders, and are used without permission, in good faith. No theft of property is intended.
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