Quote from: jwheeler on April 09, 2024, 03:20:34 PMYou need to group quantities that are multiples of each other. For example if some are 1500, 3000, 9000 you would put 1 of the 1500 piece, 2 of the 3000 piece, and 6 of the 9000 piece. If you end up with one or two that just won't divide by the rest, then round up to the closest divisible number. It will be less costly to give the customer extra prints than to make more plates and do another press run.

Personally, I would make a quick excel chart with each piece name and the quantity, then sort by quantity. Then start your grouping. This will also act as a nice check list for you and production to make sure nothing gets missed.

Pre-planning the above (VERY GOOD) advice ... what's your biggest concern with "waste"? Paper/Plates/Time

If the plating is "perfect" it will likely waste paper ... If the paper usage is "efficient" you'll likely need to make more layouts (plates) ... If changing plates is a concern you're wasting press time. 
Source: I was an edition manager for a daily newspaper publication, and then became a 1 man prepress team for a mon/pop shop - both situations resulted in dealing with arse-holes who'd constantly moan about waste - regardless of how efficient I was!

The autistic part of my brain automatically presses Shift or ALT in Acrobat to NOT select the top layered item, and hit the one UNDER it ... or maybe I select the TOP layer then hold that button and click again ... try messing with that, it might help.

Sorry, I don't have any of those projects now, or I'd slow down and test it out ...


Adobe has a heap of those damn tricks programmed into all their software (CTRL-ZERO), and they all went into my head when I was a photoshop specialist, chased by a heap of FREE red-bull!

**EDIT, just realized this is an ENFOCUS thread, UGH! Ignore.**

Quote from: Tracy on February 15, 2024, 01:39:57 PMthat is really weird even for Canva I think 
can you retype the URL?
I would delete the URL, place pdf in indy and retype URL

Why I love this place ... after first doing Joe's (check) suggestion, I did this! 
But now I'll have to go the full monty and do it in Illustrator...

Still no dice! 

That was a teaching moment ... "Yeah, I'm going to go join the Rock-Band/Guitar-Heroes down the street!

Quote from: Joe on February 15, 2024, 11:19:05 AM

Quote from: Foozball on February 15, 2024, 09:02:03 AMRandom question about Acrobat: I'm working on a page for a friend in acrobat which will be a PDF (obviously) and saved a copy as a JPG ... it KEPT the website link, and I was SUPER impressed with that, for an image file.

But in the JPG the url links to "nttp.." despite the text being CORRECT and using "http.." ... wtf?



Any ideas/thoughts from you guys?

Are you sure the link in the PDF file correct? In the PDF the text can be correct while the actual link may not be. If you click the link in the PDF does it go to the correct place.

C'mon MAN!!
That was my first check (after i managed to find/kill a weird layer of shadows), then I re-exported the PDF (and the URL worked) and re-saved the JPG from the PDF which still failed, as "nttp" ...


However, I just heard from the sender "yeah, she made in CANVA, but it's still a PDF" ... I still haven't tried to take a Canva file to print (unlike you "lucky" guys), but all bets are off now.

Random question about Acrobat: I'm working on a page for a friend in acrobat which will be a PDF (obviously) and saved a copy as a JPG ... it KEPT the website link, and I was SUPER impressed with that, for an image file.

But in the JPG the url links to "nttp.." despite the text being CORRECT and using "http.." ... wtf?



Any ideas/thoughts from you guys?

Quote from: (Pre)PressingMyLuck on January 04, 2024, 01:06:59 PMUpgrade: Replacing a simple system that works with a complex system that doesn't. Updates aren't much different.

Buuuuuut, with this update Acrobat is now DicTok compliant! 

I fed on an old "Johannesburg" press that was converted over to diecut plastic ... steel on steel, no safety stops, had to manually raise (wind) the pile, and my fingers still get twitchy (scared) when I think about it.

The glory days... happily burning up my retinas on that monochrome 9in screen...

Quote from: Joe on December 04, 2023, 03:47:36 PMIn reality for Prepress work on a Mac ... $4198 + you need to buy a keyboard and mouse.

DAMN, I'm glad I got out of prepress when I did ... I was "that guy" who suggested everyone gets a Mac, after process improvements and vendor changes netted us a huge budget cut, but even I couldn't sell a $4k price tag!

Yeah, this really was not a big deal ... AI seems to have mellowed in it's complexity over the years, the only real issue was removing a PMS from the logo, which took 5 mins to find the color pallette.
Thanks for the background on everyone's machines, dumb stuff like that helps!!

Apparently there IS money in it for me, I didn't realize a public garden can double as a charity with fundraising, so I asked for a gift card instead to the value of "whatever you think"!

Preface: Yes, I know we shouldn't help people with their hobbies when it comes to Printing, but this woman was ready to dive in and help last month, as soon as she heard I was unemployed. She's from our industry, and knows why I "paused" when she asked!  

It's a straight 48x24 banner/1 color/less than 50 words, I've already done the text in Illustrator and working on a vector version of the logo ...
- Is there a preference on file format these days? 
- Do people work in AI nowdays? (AI is still my weakest program)

Any constructive advice/pointers welcome! 

Or work like my PC where it LOVES to hang itself at 99% complete ... for 2-5-10 minutes!!

Delicious irony from yesterday: I did a video interview on that machine, just 15 minutes after the fresh install!

So ... that was WAY easier than I thought!
Machine was running OS-Monterey - Hold the power button down to get into the system, fire up the utilities to delete hard drive, then re-install the OS ... which took no more than 30 mins! 

Former employers statement at the start of 2023: "We need all those (1100+) pieces of packaging updated, just change the name in the fine print, so it's only a K plate change to save money."

Even if it worked out their way, which would be for 20% (maybe) of all files - we have to explain thet Adobe pulled support for any files using Type-1 fonts, and also Pantones on layouts that print as 4C-Process ... this is (unemployed) me now