Anyone interested in pilot testing a new preflight program?

Started by Greg_Firestone, October 25, 2011, 01:12:29 PM

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DigitalCrapShoveler

Quote from: Greg_Firestone on October 27, 2011, 07:56:49 AM
Quote from: gnubler on October 27, 2011, 07:37:54 AMit's a total crapshoot. Almost no jobs are a nice PDF from InDesign, most jobs are print shop pro from a self-taught graphic desinger.

Fixed. lol

Nice to read that Greg knows about the realities of prepress.

LOL@ your fix. It's nice to no know I'm no longer Satan reincarnated on here.

With the brochure I previously mentioned, I was asked if I could help out to make sure it would print well. I asked to see the PDF which would be sent to the printer. The self-taught designer printed out his Microsoft Publisher file to his inkjet printer and scanned the output using his scanner software to create the PDF. I almost died. I redesigned the whole thing from scratch.

Greg

Ummm, that's my title. Get your own. :laugh:

We are just being honest. I hope you know that... it's nothing personal.
Member #285 - Civilian

delooch

Quote from: Greg_Firestone on October 27, 2011, 07:33:36 AMI did some pro bono design work the other day and created a 4C 8.5x11 tri-fold brochure. I contacted the printer I was told to send it to and asked what specs they wanted (What flavor of PDF/X, ICC profile, etc.). They told me all they needed was the native source docs. I told them I could provide the native docs but I prefer they use the PDF/X I would be supplying. The proof they sent back to me was made from my native doc (I could tell because I used a spot build in my InDesign doc which I specifically converted to process in my PDF. The proof they sent back showed a 5th color. The proof made no sense for a 4C digital job). For me, this is an ideal candidate. I've already spoken to them about testing and they're interested.



im curious if the workorder spec'd this was a 4c process job, or the prepress guy gave you a proof with the spot build because thats how the doc was built. usually if you go through the trouble of specifying a spot color in a document, converting it to CMYK for final output is self-defeating.

perhaps the prepress guy was doing his job correctly, and gave you a proof based on the intention of the native file.

Joe

Quote from: Farabomb on October 27, 2011, 08:08:12 AMI'm sorry if you felt that way but I don't think you're satan, you seem to know your shit. You might have hit a sore spot with some of the members but we are all a little cranky around here but the bark is worse then the bite. Hope you stick around here.

Greg has been around since the prepressforums.com days. I think he may have been greg_onevision back then. Same guy though.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

Joe

Quote from: Greg_Firestone on October 27, 2011, 07:33:36 AMHey Joe,

Thanks for sending some files over. The target market is small publishers and printers who do not have the expertise inhouse to handle PDFs or budgets to purchase expensive in-house prepress systems. While this forum has many technically savvy prepress professionals, I think we can all agree it's not a representation of the entire printing and publishing industry. Some shops still haven't embraced PDF because of tools or knowledge to handle them (i.e. Pitstop is only as good as the operator using it and you may run into problems if you're running a few versions back).

Greg

Yeah, I agree that could be a target audience. It could be real handy for a place running digital and their only RIP is that crappy little Fiery or Creo RIP sitting in front of the "digital press" (actually copier). Much cheaper than buying your own full blown workflow I assume. As you said though, I would still need to look at them and have my trusty copy of Pitstop.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

delooch

yeah, i dont mean to be a douchebag, it just comes out that way.  nothing wrong with open discussion.

Greg_Firestone

Quote from: delooch on October 27, 2011, 10:00:51 AM
Quote from: Greg_Firestone on October 27, 2011, 07:33:36 AMI did some pro bono design work the other day and created a 4C 8.5x11 tri-fold brochure. I contacted the printer I was told to send it to and asked what specs they wanted (What flavor of PDF/X, ICC profile, etc.). They told me all they needed was the native source docs. I told them I could provide the native docs but I prefer they use the PDF/X I would be supplying. The proof they sent back to me was made from my native doc (I could tell because I used a spot build in my InDesign doc which I specifically converted to process in my PDF. The proof they sent back showed a 5th color. The proof made no sense for a 4C digital job). For me, this is an ideal candidate. I've already spoken to them about testing and they're interested.



im curious if the workorder spec'd this was a 4c process job, or the prepress guy gave you a proof with the spot build because thats how the doc was built. usually if you go through the trouble of specifying a spot color in a document, converting it to CMYK for final output is self-defeating.

perhaps the prepress guy was doing his job correctly, and gave you a proof based on the intention of the native file.

Hi delooch,

The workorder was spec'd as 4 C process. All he did was create a low res PDF from my Indesign file. I suppose that would work for position only but I thought it was somewhat useless. The only logo I was provided for the design was a process CMYK JPG. I grabbed the color and added it as swatch in InDesign. I wanted to add some tints to the design. This is where I had one of those "What was I thinking" moments. For some reason, I had in my mind I needed to make the color a spot with a process build to get the tints. Maybe  I'm thinking back to Quark 4 or something crazy like that. So I made it a spot and converted it to process when making my PDF. After the fact I realized I didn't have to do that.

On a side note, the job came out great. They did a nice job with the skin tones.

@Joe - good memory, that's me.

Greg
_______________
Technical Project Manager
OneVision Software

Greg_Firestone

Quote from: delooch on October 27, 2011, 10:41:57 AMyeah, i dont mean to be a douchebag, it just comes out that way.  nothing wrong with open discussion.

No hard feelings. I decided to post it on the forum because I thought I'd get some honest feedback. I definitely have. It's not just about the technical capabilities of the product but how people perceive it. If it's not clear what it does/doesn't do and how it can be used in a workflow, it will fail faster than Quickster  :lmao:

Greg
_______________
Technical Project Manager
OneVision Software

Joe

Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

frailer

Quote from: Joe on October 27, 2011, 10:22:34 AM
Quote from: Farabomb on October 27, 2011, 08:08:12 AMI'm sorry if you felt that way but I don't think you're satan, you seem to know your shit. You might have hit a sore spot with some of the members but we are all a little cranky around here but the bark is worse then the bite. Hope you stick around here.

Greg has been around since the prepressforums.com days. I think he may have been greg_onevision back then. Same guy though.

Looks like they've gone from archive. Blankety blanks now....    :sad:  Had to happen.
Forgotten good guys: Dennis Ritchie, Burrell Smith, Bill Atkinson, Richard Stallman
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now just an honorary member.

Joe

Quote from: frailer on October 27, 2011, 06:10:03 PM
Quote from: Joe on October 27, 2011, 10:22:34 AM
Quote from: Farabomb on October 27, 2011, 08:08:12 AMI'm sorry if you felt that way but I don't think you're satan, you seem to know your shit. You might have hit a sore spot with some of the members but we are all a little cranky around here but the bark is worse then the bite. Hope you stick around here.

Greg has been around since the prepressforums.com days. I think he may have been greg_onevision back then. Same guy though.

Looks like they've gone from archive. Blankety blanks now....    :sad:  Had to happen.

It's been gone for quite some time now. The last time I tried it was re-directing to PP.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

frailer

Quote from: Joe on October 27, 2011, 06:28:26 PM
Quote from: frailer on October 27, 2011, 06:10:03 PM
Quote from: Joe on October 27, 2011, 10:22:34 AM
Quote from: Farabomb on October 27, 2011, 08:08:12 AMI'm sorry if you felt that way but I don't think you're satan, you seem to know your shit. You might have hit a sore spot with some of the members but we are all a little cranky around here but the bark is worse then the bite. Hope you stick around here.

Greg has been around since the prepressforums.com days. I think he may have been greg_onevision back then. Same guy though.

Looks like they've gone from archive. Blankety blanks now....    :sad:  Had to happen.

It's been gone for quite some time now. The last time I tried it was re-directing to PP.

Think tear-jerking rendition of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Memories'  :shrug:  The only thing it would be interesting for is to see just how fast we've all travelled on the APPE Highway.

... which I'd like to think is relevant to this thread.    :undecided:

Forgotten good guys: Dennis Ritchie, Burrell Smith, Bill Atkinson, Richard Stallman
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now just an honorary member.