Yeah, that's what I would say.  The only issue I can see on their end is if they are editing images using an ICC Profile that is meant for a different substrate/press.  ASSuming they know what they are doing and chosing a comparable profile, it shouldn't be an issue.  

From my understanding, as long as one is being used then you should be good.  If it's a known or standard color space then it can be converted to whatever the final output is.  I'm trying to make sense of the prinergy help file, but it's a little hard to grasp...it's early tho and I haven't made it through my coffee.  

As far as color profiles, you definitely should be using them.  More importantly a specific one throughout the process.  First order of business would be to make sure your plates are linear tho, like Joe said.  Without a linear plate, you won't be able to test the effectiveness of your consitent ICC profiles.  We use "US Web Coated SWOP v2".  However, this is specific to web presses and coated stock.  I would do some research as to what makes sense for whatever substrate you are printing on as well as your printing device.  If you ever have the option, make sure to "Convert" profile rather than "Assign" it.  Assigning will change how that specific breakdown of CMYK is rendered.  Meaning the same breakdown will look different depending on what profile you assign to it.  Converting will keep the "look" of that breakdown the same while changing the specific numbers.  Therefore, through conversion you can keep colors consistent from device to device.

One thing that could help, especially with that specific customer is to pin down what ICC profile is being used in your RIP.  To take one variable out, make sure that is consitent throughout the process, from Photoshop to proofers to the RIP. 

Do you have any type of hardward to measure color upon output?  Or anything to measure dots on the plates?  The guess and check method will only get you so far...

We've used 4Over for a few jobs here.   The only extra discounts we've received are from their email blasts.  These are specific discounts given for only business cards, posters, etc.  We don't have a company discount or anything like that.  The quality we've received has been acceptable.  I've used GotPrint a few times personally and have had bad experiences with color and consistency.  

Awesome, you'll have to let me know when you are in town sometime so we can grab a beer.  My golf game is non-existent so I don't think I'd be a good golf partner.  Unless it's the kind where you just drive around and drink... that I may be good at.

And sometimes the Tip is all you need....

I'm definitely going to ask for a raise, and I may need to use Joe's method. I'm just beginning to think that compensation for a lot of added work/stress was never in the plans.  At our shop it's never been a non-managerial task.  Which means everyone who's done it has made much more than I do. 

Well anyways, hopefully I don't have to do any of these things to get it...     

Resurrecting this thread, at least for one post....

Starting in July, I've taken over all production scheduling.  We're a medium sized shop of less than 30 people.  But,  it's a lot of work keeping up with the schedule on top of all my prepress and non-prepress duties.

My question is, are many of you doing the scheduling?  Or who in the shop is doing the scheduling? 

What I'm really getting at is how much of a raise would y'all expect(hope/want may be a better words for it) from taking on the scheduling for your shop?

Yeah, I can understand it a bit better now.  I can think of instances where this inner/outer would have helped.  I've had atleast one 150+ page book where the Cover only had an 1/8" bleed.  With the curve of the spine you lose 0.0625"-0.125", which means we were left with a tiny bleed and had to undersize the product.  This outer creeping would definitely compensate for that.

Same here, we use preps and only ever use Creep-In.  Always make sure to check the "scale" box as well.  Otherwise you'll push content into the spine.

Comic Sans for Cancer... Someone sent me this today.  They treated Comic Sans characters like cancer cells.  Seems fitting.

We don't have any automated archival of files.   I do that manually on a weekly basis.  Im with Fara in that we are running EVO.  We do backup our servers however.  The point was made that if we were archiving files as we go(after we plate the job), then this wouldn't have happened.  The problem was there were two dated folders in the customer's folder, and we chose the wrong one.  Granted, they were months apart(one was april, one was june).  

What I'm going to suggest is that after we plate a job, we just put an X or the like at the end of the dated folder.  That will break the link that the JDF needs to function and therefore make it harder to plate an old job.  I would like to stay away from archiving files on a daily basis.  That seems monotonous and a bit overkill.  

Quote from: Joe on June 29, 2015, 12:34:38 PMIf there is more than one option to choose from humans will occasionally choose the wrong one. The only way to stop it is to find a way where there is only one option for a human to pick from. Easier said than done. We've had the same thing happen before and the prepress person, plater, pressman, AND bindery all failed to notice the problem. You know who didn't fail to notice it? THE CUSTOMER! After it was printed and delivered of course! Luckily my name was not associated with that job!

Yeah, I hear ya.  I'm feeling some pressure to guarantee that this doesn't happen again.  Understandably so.  However, we have many opportunities to screw up a job.  So it's somewhat impossible to human-proof every aspect when there are so many touch points along the workflow. 

Hey All,

We recently had a pretty big mess-up in our Prepress department.  We plated and therefore printed last months file, instead of the current months. 

Since we are using Prinergy, we have all of our "working files" on that server.  Every customer gets their own folder.  In that folder are dated folders where we have the press ready PDF, Imposition, and the VPS Proofs.  An example has been attached.

I manually archive all old files every Friday. But with daily pubs, you are likely to see 3 or 4 dated folders in a customer's folder at any given time.  This is where the issue occured.  One of the older folders was used. 

Are you guys archiving daily?  Or is there another way you guys make sure this doesn't happen?  IMO, this is just a human error that you can't really plan for.  But, I wanna do my due diligence and see if there are better solutions out there.  

Thanks for the feedback!

The original plan was to use the amber sheets like Possum said, until the whole "what if we catch fire" came into play.  Everything has been ordered and mostly installed at this point.  We installed 2 different sets of lights in the prepress room.  One set for processing and one set for when we want to clean the machines.  Every two feet of ceiling is a new light fixture.  Just seemed like overkill to me, but what do i know.