GATF printing production process forecast

One: Prepress Editor's Note: In recent years, the function of the prepress department has undergone tremendous changes. The speed of change has shocked many in the industry. Some experts describe the prepress area as "a bold new world." In this new world, traditional technologies gradually introduce a historical stage, and digital technology is being widely applied to prepress (pre-media) departments. All corners. In this article we will look at a variety of new technologies used when a printed product is designed, imaged, color managed, proofed, and finally exported to a printing plate or other output device.

Where do I go from before printing? (first time)
(Whither Prepress)
The rise of the desktop publishing system 10 years ago brought revolutionary changes to the prepress industry and brought about a transformation in business for companies or departments that work in prepress. In a few short years, desktop publishing first created certain business opportunities (such as the establishment of export centers), which immediately weakened the industry's demand for such services.

The evolution of the prepress area first allows us to compare the appearance of prepress and postpress operations. In the past, there were specially arranged typographical workers; now you just need to import the text into QuarkXPress, PageMaker, InDesign and other typesetting software and specify the font and font size. In the past, there were specialized color separation workers who performed color separations on photos or other images; now it is only necessary to select a simple menu command in Adobe Photoshop software to complete the separation task within ten seconds. In this process, The most laborious task is just to select the corresponding color separation lookup table and set the Photoshop color separation parameters.

From the outset, the professional prepress center has a very wide range of services. To obtain high-resolution images needed for copying high-grade prints, it is necessary to have a print center with a roller scanner; the image's coloring, processing, or color correction can only be done by professionals; the output center can also be PageMaker or QuarkXpress software layout pages are output to the film used for plate making. All of these are provided by the prepress center, and their business is also very good.

But it wasn’t long after. At the end of the 1990s, the price of desktop flatbed scanners and digital cameras dropped drastically, and the quality of these cameras continued to improve so that everyone could capture the images they needed. In addition, a copyright-free high-resolution digital photo gallery market is rapidly emerging, allowing people to easily and inexpensively download desired digital images. And as more and more people are proficient in using Photoshop software, tasks like image finishing, processing, and color correction can all be done on their own. On the other hand, the continuous emergence of computer-to-plate technology, direct printing, digital color printing, and color copying has caused the demand of people to control the output of the row of machines.

What is the power that has brought us to today and to the future? As some authoritative survey data show, most content creators complete internal prepress tasks as much as possible. As early as the end of 1998 to the winter of 1999, GATF had investigated the ratio of internal processing to external processing. At that time, the survey found that about 77% of design, production, and publishing companies had high resolution. Scanning tasks were outsourced, and only 26% of companies solved their own high-resolution scans. In the summer of 2001, although 60% of design and production companies and 56% of publishers outsourced high-resolution scanning, 35% of design and production companies and 46% of publishers completed their own highs. Resolution scans work, and the ratio of the two has changed.
As for digital photography, the situation is similar: In 1998/99, about 55% of design, production companies, and publishers outsourced digital photography, and only 18% of companies completed it themselves. By the summer of 2001, 43% of design, production companies, and 36% of publishers had outsourced digital photography tasks. 35% of design, production companies, and 28% of publishers had taken their own digital images. The price and quality of desktop publishing software and hardware are a big boost to this trend.

As for the laser emission output, in the winter of 1998/1999, 81% of design, production, and publishing companies outsourced it to a dedicated laser image output company, and only 9% of companies were able to complete this task on their own. The creators completed themselves and did not have the tendency to withdraw this outsourcing task. However, by the summer of 2001, we found that the outsourced output dropped by about 20% in both the design and publishing markets, while the number of “self-solving” companies remained unchanged and declined slightly. However, if you look at the survey data in the column “Do not need to know”, you will see that the number of design and production companies has risen from 12% to 18%, and the number of publishers has also risen from 12% to 17%. Although we do not know how many of these numbers are "not needed" and how many are "don't know," there is analysis and speculation that there should be a certain number of companies that are working toward completing their own processing tasks.

The popularity of direct-to-print technology and PDF workflow has weakened the demand for film. Will there be a group of content creators who do not know what laser imagesetters are in the future? Certainly there will be, just as there is now a generation of printing practitioners who do not know what the wording is.

What does the pre-press future mean for these trends before printing? Prepress is changing from an independent process to a more detailed process. In the past, you had a whole set of tasks that were specifically defined as prepress, and even businesses that specialized in such tasks; now these tasks have become part of the content creation process, such as scanning, digital photography, converting to PDF files, or Part of the printing process, such as plate making, plate imaging on the machine, RIP interpretation process for digital printing, etc.
What is the definition of prepress? Is the content creator's file delivered remotely to the printer? Will the final document be carved into a CD? Or is prepress prepress?
Influenced by the concept of “transmedial”, the connotation before printing has changed a lot and it is difficult to separate it from the so-called “preWeb” and “prewireless”. Now we cannot clearly describe the stages of content creation, prepress, and printing. Instead, we should understand the generation and transmission of files. The transmission process can be based on the Internet, print-based or wireless transmission technologies. Its purpose is to create a file or re-edit the content, apply it to multiple distribution channels, and use it multiple times. Therefore, any "Pre (pre)" preparation steps for any medium will become part of its transmission method. The printing shop will handle the preparations before printing; the network staff will perform web page preparation before uploading, and so on. The preparatory work may be simply to insert the content set of the XML ID into a new template (a recommended solution to solve all cross-media issues) or to convert all the original content files (current methods used).

The new situation means that the strict professional characteristics of the process will be further blurred. For example, when the printer has some “experts” or “professionals” who specialize in prepress work to complete the prepress work, the printers are very relieved because they know that with these experts, the work will be very smooth. However, when these tasks are dispersed in the creation of content for various purposes, and print is only one of the multiple simultaneous publishing media, printers will be neglected. They have to focus on those increasingly imperfect documents. The document may not have been accurately separated, nor is it necessarily an image scanned in accordance with the resolution required for printing, and so on. Printers will find that the number of customers who know about printing is declining, and this situation continues to grow. This also means that companies that specialize in prepress services will die out.

The nature of prepress change also means that the degree of customer satisfaction will be reduced. The main reason for the shrinking of prepress companies is to save time and money. When the operation cycle and cost savings outweigh the accurate color reproduction, the printer will One example of a feeling of ease is the shift from the harsh color requirements of the past to the color that is now good enough.