In the publishing world, the concept of “prepress” is not fresh and is used in the language of professionals in the printing industry in everyday life with the frequency of the slang term. Prepress or prepress - what is it? Prepress is the development of a prepress version of a printing publication.
Before you submit to print the material version of a publication, you must visualize it. Here a kind of electronic layouts and drafts of a printing product come to the rescue, which, of course, helps to avoid shortcomings, unnecessary errors and financial costs before the large-scale printing process is launched.
This is the short answer to the question: "What is this - prepress?"
We understand the process in stages
The duties of an employee of the pre-printing bureau of a printing house include not just preparing to print a mock-up of a product placed, as a rule, on a regular printed sheet, knowledge of the characteristics of printing machines, including a specific printing house, is important here. A pre-employee participates in the layout of publication strips, in editing and retouching digital photographs, takes into account scales and tags, and carries out color correction.
Stages of Prepress
The steps below are conditional: something, depending on specific needs, is excluded, and something is added in the process. But, as a rule, the standard scheme is as follows:
- A design is being developed, a general vision of the end result of the printed product.
- An electronic layout is made taking into account layout - installation of strips, typed text and headings, diagrams, tables, photos, illustrations, etc.
- Proofreading text.
- Making changes, taking into account color grading, choosing the method of trapping.
- A selection of proofs for reconciliation of "color".
- The implementation of the descent of strips and subsequent processing, taking into account cutting, folding (folding sheets in a certain sequence, in compliance with the established format), creasing (the process of applying a straight groove to a sheet of paper), etc.
- Production of transparencies - film output.
- Production of a printed version of the product.
All stages of prepress production of printing products are very closely related and interdependent, they are responsible for the final type of product, and reveal the essence of the definition. Now you know what it is - prepress.
Process description
A proper understanding of the process is very important to minimize errors and unnecessary costs, and to obtain a high-quality circulation.
Prepress is the last stage of preparatory work before feeding the material to print. It is carried out taking into account the requirements of a particular printing house.
The role of the designer for prepress is invaluable. For competent prepress preparation, an experienced specialist in this field is required. Sometimes it happens that even a sufficiently qualified prepress specialist is not quite capable of what is easily done by a prepress engineer.
The duties of an engineering specialist include knowledge of basic things about raster processes, elementary screening algorithms. It should have a clear concept of lineature, have an idea of the angles of inclination of the raster. Without knowledge of such things, a prepress engineer can no longer be such. Otherwise, due to significant gaps in knowledge, his work will contain many technical errors, and the consequences will be catastrophic.
Equally important is the coordination of the work of a web designer and a specialist in prepress, as well as excellent knowledge in the field of information technology, knowledge of the technological component, the intricacies of the printing process and equipment.
If the customer has set the task of only preparing the photographic material without any typesetting and editing, the specialist only adjusts the material to size, performs color correction and color separation, and retouch the photographic material.
To complete the layout and design of the publication, a layout designer is needed: he will control the implementation of all installation work, will be able to clearly substantiate the technical requirements of the particular printing company in which he will be printed. Since the printing house is certified under a certain printing standard, most often the initial pre-printing preparation and direct printing is carried out according to the established printing standard.
In custody
Having found the answers to the main question: “What is this - prepress?”, We’ll clarify what needs to be considered before submitting the layout for printing. First of all, the absence of errors and unnecessary changes in it will save you from additional annoying and costly losses.
You always need to remember and take into account the specific individual features of the order so that the worked-out layout matches the finished product as closely as possible. It is important during the prepress process to visualize the product in its final form all the time, push off and adjust to this image.