Yo pre-pressers! Yep still trapped in the hamster wheel!

Here's some queries you might be kind enough to give guidance on...

The company is currently considering moving away from Kodak's workflow as the CEO thinks that it's overkill now that we have outed our litho facility (although keeping our NexPress digital press)

Q: In Kodak Workshop is there any method to retrieve all archived artwork rather than the max amount of 5 files per Retrieve?

Q: What recommendations would you have for a Adobe Print Engine RIP with imposition and maybe softproofing similar to Insite?

Also, it must be a non-subscription pricing structure and cheaper than Kodaks offering.

Thank you kind sirs, ladies and other non-specified genders.

Hi guys! Yes, still not dead, still in print.

Got my walking papers in Nov (company needed my salary back in their cashflow to keep going) but landed a new job as ***roll of drums*** repro support...I must've been bad in a former life.

Anyways, looking for advice in dealing with that old favourite 4 col Blacks... company doesn't have Pitstop but runs Kodak Workshop/Prinergy Version: 8.0.0.666 - is there a smarter way to convert 4 colour text other than using Acrobat Pro Convert Cols? This works fine for non PDFx files but is a bit inconsistent to say the least.

Hope you all still enjoying the wonderful wacky world of pre-press hell (ninth circle, you know the one with CSRs wielding pitchforks and being constantly stabbed in the ass)

Ciao and TIA from the UK

Yo prepress heroes! After a substantial absence from the unsung area of print,I'm sort of back in the saddle, leastways until I get to retire. (Should've retired last year but popular demand has kept me employed...I'm estimating and operations manager now, so a step up or sideways from sales).

Had a cataclysmic electronic meltdown across several machines last week...basically anything with a cpu and power supply unit got fried...that included our 4 up Acento CTP. Having to outsource plates until the insurance dudes deny our claim (fingers crossed they don't!)

Gulp...so now we need to replace it but rather than jump in with both boots I though I'd ask the guys that really know...
...so, what's the best combo of CTP & Workflow? What would you recommend if your were spending your  $ / £ / €?

Heidelberg B2 5 col CD and coater is the end device. We run from very lightweight to heavy carton stock. Currently, 2400 @200lpi and/or FM screening.

Man! It's good to be back!

Yo troops!

Anyone here tried this little fella?  http://studiorip.co.uk/

Seems like a good feature set and huge value for money at around 30% of the cost of AGFA / Fuji offerings... or is it a 'too good to be true' piece of software?

No not an expired pressman but a problem I can't get the answer to anywhere else but here...

ApogeeX (v 2 so quite old really) running Palladio 30 and an old 7600 Epson inkjet proofer shown in the TPs as Sherpa. Anyhoo the printer squirted its last picolitre of the worlds most expensive liquid the other day. So we connected a newer Epson 7800, it shows up in the parameter sets and indeed it shows up in the workflow as one of the printer options.

However that's where the story ends...ie there's no further progress. On checking the error report log, the message is that the network printer is unreachable (however it can be seen on the network and I can send files to the EFI Hotfolder that do run successfully) the sidebar printer icon then changes status to Offline.

I've gone through the parameter sets and cannot see where to alter where Apogee looks for the printer.

As usual the answer must be staring me in the face but I'm struggling with the logic.

Any assistance appreciated before I go insane.

You don't get rid of me that easy

Anyway, here's a what we call a piece of p!ss for you techies...

PC with EFI Colorproof with ip address 192.168.0.79 connected to a network 192.168.16.xx

Issue is that we can't 'see' the Efi machine. Changing the IP stops EFI from working. So it means we have to manually (memory stick) drop files into the Hotfolder for proofing.

Any ideas?

Yo troops...quick query. We did a clean down of our VCF Gumming unit but the "Maintenance" message is still flashing. Looking at the manual it says this should reset itself when Tank 1 has been emptied. Is there a code to reset this? Checking the plate count (which we reset via code 7075 ~  so there's around 800 to go before the next clean down)

TIA

Richard

Our LP68 central rinse unit motor just will not stop running...even when Inactive.

I have to stop it at the main switch. As soon as I turn the unit on the motor that circulates the water to the spray bar in the centre rinse unit comes on.

Luckily it still processes plates, all the heaters and sensors seem OK. I just did a complete drain and clean down and it's no different.

Any ideas guys?

If you have a V50 Agfa safelight, next time it goes kaboom try this... remove the black endcaps and you should be able to strip out the tube and replace with a far cheaper 18w tube.

Over here the difference in price is staggering... 2.75gbp versus 118.00gbp.

Trashed a file that I needed to archive - (Mac os, so no hope getting it back).

What I do have is the AGFA Apogee arch file.

Q: Is there anything I can do with this file to get back to a usable or editable file? Even the text would be good.

Haven't been posting for a good while but came across this useful clip that shows how to work CMYK%'s to a Spot colour  (if it's been posted before then apologies)

The ad preceding it is a minor inconvenience but worth putting up with.

Quick convert to Spot from CMYK

Cheers

RK

Never seen this one before...

One set of plates imaged with 2 separations at position 70mm from edge of plate and the subsequent one at 64mm and the final at 68mm.!!!

Any ideas?

Our latest burnt out gd/pp guy has left to install satellite dishes so we have an opening. Apologies to you guys across the pond but it's UK based.

Graphic Designer/Pre-press Operator


Main responsibilities include but are not limited to:

1.   Assist the BDM and Director with tasks including:
   Artwork/Design
   Estimating (training given)
   Preparation of work orders
   Pre-press (i.e. impose supplied artwork,
   send to platesetter and see job through to delivery)

2.   Account manage your own projects from start to finish
   (i.e. quote, design, pre-press, delivery) to ensure deadlines are met
   and work is carried out to a high standard.

3.   Design of clients' material where necessay including adverts, brochures, flyers etc.

4.   Liaise with clients at all levels in a smart, professional and friendly manner
   through various methods of communication (i.e. email, telephone or face-to-face).

5.   Manage the CTP system (training will be given) and ensure stocks are maintained and
   fully functional.

6.   Contribute towards basic house-keeping
   (i.e. maintain a tidy and safe working environment).

Hours:      38.75 with 45 mins for lunch
Holiday:        28 days per year. Based on accrual system. 1st Jan - 31st Dec
Working hours:    8.30 - 5.00
Report to:     Business Development Manager

You MUST have indepth knowledge of the Adobe Creative Suite 3 or 4 to qualify for an interview.

If you are interested then contact me on: 01332 297 278 / 07590 927 969 or via email... richard@eyetechgraphics.co.uk

Salary is circa £13.000pa but is negotiable dependent on experience.

G'day guys

we're thinking of going from AGFA lap-v's to Fuji Brillia HD Pro-V lo-chem plates (anything that cuts out the nightmare clean down of the processor is a winner in my book)

Question nobody this side of the pond can answer... is our Palladio 30 (2004 vintage) capable of imaging these plates?

...this popped up on a net search.  :laugh:

how the mighty have fallen

K2? That turned out to be InDesign.

Opinions welcome - good or bad, before we launch our new site.

link

Anyone used this at all? Does it work? Seems incredibly cheap...

link 1

link 2

Great imposition plugin;  when we had it on InDy CS2 it covered all our needs.

Of course, since Quack acquired ALAP (the parent company), it stopped development of a CS3 version - the Acrobat version lives on but I'd like to know if anyone here uses it before I post a small query.

Friday afternoon here in the UK, we get a call from a client to whom we've just delivered 20,000 leaflets. Half of which are affected by a 'step' in a simple gradient. (we didn't spot it on press). The job is 2 up work & turn, so one of the images is fine but the identical file below it, is not.

Job was created in CS3, Press Quality PDF, we impose it (manually) and run out as PDFx-1a to our ApogeeX 2.5 workflow. The step is not visible in Acrobat (overprint on or off) nor in the Apogee proof but can be seen (just) in the Apogee plate preview.

To determine where the issue is we go the PS/Distiller route (CS3 again) no luck, PS (CS3) & distill thru' Distiller 7, the same.

So we resave the file as .inx open it in CS2 export to PDFx-1a: that clears the issue.

Looks like we may have to upgrade Apogee to v4  :sad:
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Looking for a quicker workaround for the following scenario...

We had a job 100% solid with 80% & 50% tints in text, rules and some 2mm squares (lots of them). Supplied as Press Quality PDF. We managed to generate a 'bump' plate by opening in Illy and manually selecting the tints and setting them to white. However opening PDFs in Illy is fraught with potential pitfalls - especially if the correct font isn't available.

I wondered if there is a way of re-processing the original file so the tints drop out leaving only the 100% solid?

I did try creating a simulation curve set to zero all the way up to 99% but that didn't work - I guess because the dot itself is 100% albeit smaller.