Printing by wire – dramatic changes in pre-press
It is perhaps in the last 20 years that we have really seen technology leap and bound in sheetfed offset, all on the back of dramatic transformation in pre-press departments. Huge amounts of change have been made in automating the process right from the design and planning of a job, all the way to the final finishing touches, and ongoing work still continues to obtain the dream of ‘lights out’ printing where a green button is presses and a finished job is delivered on a conveyor with no human contact.
The whole shift towards automated workflows began right at the front end in the early 80s, with the advent of desktop publishing (DTP) that in quick succession after DTP, we were based in shotgun style by a lot of them, FTP, CTP, CIP, CIM, MIS and JDF, all with inherent meanings, and each one of vital importance in the evolution of the closed loop printing system.
The advent of DTP though, can be considered as firing the opening salvo of the new era of print. Apple Macintoshes completely changed the pre-press department of a busy commercial printing company and were instrumental in the transition from primitive analogue, to high tech digital workflows. Just one look at the payroll of the pre-press department of a busy printing company two decades ago tells the story of how digital workflows have transformed scanning and plate making from a very expensive labour orientated profession to a highly, very high tech, IT orientated occupation.
This transformation also began to close the loop on the relationship between the tow departments of pre-press and the print machine room. Before the advent of all this new technology, there was often intense rivalry between the two departments who had their own completely separate skill sets, which often battled for prominence. Manual scanning of colour photographs and film planning was a separate industry of its own, and often commercial printing companies would out source to repro houses, which have now all but disappeared. Where a company did have an in-house repro department, it was delight that a machine minder would fill out ‘waiting for plates’ on his time sheet, as the pressure was transferred from manually trying to fit an impossible colour set back to pre-press due to a badly laid down set of films.
Enter film to plate (FTP) and computer to plate (CTP), which has been the bedrock of the new era of printing, and the fundamental change to both the machine minder’s day to day existence and the machine manufacturer’s designs for the future. These two developments, along with DTP, have been responsible for the new language of printing, which has not only decimated the work force in pre-press departments, but which has made obsolete thousands of tonnes of what were high technology scanners and print down frames, worth a combined £100 million of printer’s hard earned cash. It has also paved the way for another new era of industry wide co-operation between suppliers of all equipment from the largest presses to the smallest piece of finishing kit.
To be continued…
Peter Harrison is Joint Managing Director of The Printing House Ltd of Crewe, Cheshire, UK.
Print Buying Direct is an online trading name of The Printing House Ltd., specialising in online print ordering. Our most popular products at the moment: Business Cards, Banner Stands, Flyer/Leaflet Printing, Poster Printing.
Have a look at our great online prices, and order online using templates designed by our experienced team of graphic designers, or upload your own artwork.
NEW – We can now take care of your Online Marketing! Email, SMS & Social Media Marketing by Communications Online LLP.
