WORRIED! What will the future be for Prepress?

[rhctp]

How many people so you think are going to walk around a grocery store trying to read the sales paper on their cell phone?

[pajdzn]

I wouldn't be too worried about prepress disappearing anytime soon. I have been doing it for over 11 years and have been working for a printer for the last 4. I get files from all over and the trend lately seems to be, get the files to the printer at the last minute, whether they are ready or not! Almost 90% of the files I receive are far from ready for printing, many aren't even in order, no hard copy, no fonts, wrong size, etc. and yet I am supposed to get these files to press on time, usually within a day or so. And while I can't fix things like missing artwork or make up my own page order, I am still expected to sort out any and all problems that I can. And it isn't getting better, it seems to be getting worse, like no one else is paying attention to their jobs since they can dump it on us and make it our problem. So we are a necessary and vital part of the print process and probably will be for some time to come.

Knock on wood!

[Peon]

I think if all you do is worry about where your job is going you will probably die of a heart attack pretty soon. There is no such thing as a secure job any more. All you can do is take one day at a time and hope for the best. I wonder each and every day where my job is going, but I don't let it get to me. I just recently started a part time job at a Radio Shack and actually make good money there. It never hurts to learn a new trade as part time. As far as the U.S. goes, I think it's going right in the crapper, and we can thank our politicians, and NAFTA, for that, but that's for another discussion. Learn as much as you can as fast as you can and make yourself marketable. Good luck!!!! :wink:

[abc]

Once jdf kicks in I think the whole industry will change dramatically.
The whole operation will be driven by management information systems, that will deliver and receive information from the whole of the factory.

I've already seen large magazine printers where customer service carry out a lot of prepress tasks including preflight, and prepress just output proofs and plates and approve them.

[LadIndy]

I don't think prepress will go away but I definitely see a trend to the narrowing job opportunities in straight prepress work (jdf will be one major factor). My company is one example: I am the only one working in the prepress department of a small commercial printing company doing typesetting, design, imposition, proofing and platemaking. If all prepress goes this way there will be fewer opportunties in commercial printing for prepress work and there are a lot of us out there (lots of competition for a smaller job market). I just want to get a feel for other possibilities and see what you all thought :wink:

[PrepressAddict]

Yes, I would like to know more about Premedia as well. I owed a printing company and had to close down because people just arn't willing to pay what the printing is worth anymore. They also are not ordering as large quanities as they bought in years past. Profits are just down. Also printing companies just keep dropping prices just to get the job even to the point of selling something at or below cost.

[jwgd]

Originally Posted by Kaylabean

I don't think prepress will go away but I definitely see a trend to the narrowing job opportunities in straight prepress work (jdf will be one major factor). My company is one example: I am the only one working in the prepress department of a small commercial printing company doing typesetting, design, imposition, proofing and platemaking. If all prepress goes this way there will be fewer opportunties in commercial printing for prepress work and there are a lot of us out there (lots of competition for a smaller job market). I just want to get a feel for other possibilities and see what you all thought :wink:

I am in a similar position, but with a twist. I work in a remote office providing prepress support to the sales staff and feeding work to two manufacturing facilites. Basically, I preflight the file, upload it to whoever is printing it, rip it remotely, then run single page proofs to an HP5500 back here in the office. Once the job is OK'd, the plant that is going to print the job impos and makes plates.

We went from full-on manufacturing to this model about two years ago and so far things have gone OK. It really sucks for the people that were let go but I guess it could happen to any of us. Later.

[prepress_brillance_43]

I feel like staying on top of technology and knowledge will keep any of us good folks in a job. Prepress may lose out to automation, but some human intervention will always be necessary. If, like most prepress people, your good with computers and have other interests such as web hosting, programming or networking, you'll always be ok. It's the folks who like their rut that should worry about their job. The one's who refuse to adapt.

[soilworker]

:?: Okay, I'm pretty new to this whole line of work and very new to this website so hopefully I don't come across like a complete moron. I'm in my late 20's and I've been working in various areas of the graphics field for about 6 or 7 years. I've been working as a Premedia specialist for the last year and I've had similar concerns as to where the industry is going to take all of us. I've heard many rumors during my year in this job but I don't see printing going away anytime in our lifetimes. Sure it might decline but everything always changes. I can tell you that what RHCTP has to say about Premedia is pretty accurate but it does encompass more. I work for a very large company and we do all our Premedia work in-house. It used to be outsourced but bringing in-house has saved us over $1 million a year since it's inception and the savings continue to grow with the more we learn and the more work we get. There is a lot of database work involved. We currently run Quark DMS 2 and are upgrading to QCM 3 shortly. We work with creative and marketing from beginning to end to ensure everything runs smoothly. We also do a lot of color correction, image manipulation etc, basically everything but design. To stay successful you've got to stay on top of the technologies. I hope this helps in some way. If anyone has any questions, I'm a newbie, but I'll help in any way I can.

[Sparky]

Soilworker, without re-quoting your whole post, I feel you have hit a nerve (not a bad thing) that represents what I consider to be the "next generation" of our trade. when I started in the late '60s I saw a change happening from the conventional camera methods to the advent of the first scanners. These multi million dollar machines that were only operated by a handful of specially trained operators, yada, yada, yada.....
Anyway it was a change from one technology to another.

Later in the late '80s when DTP really took over from conventional methods of "stripping" it was another transition. Computers have changed the way our society thinks lives and plays. Anyone born after the mid seventies has never known what living without computers was like, so when the term "pre-media" is mentioned you have to consider the fact that the "web" is now encompassed within our trade. Not only hard copy offset and web printing but audio, video, and internet interactive entertainment and publishing is what now encompasses our trade. This to me is what "pre-media" represents because when I produce a photo to be printed and a newsletter in 2 color for press at the same time I have to think of the PDF web version the customer wants right behind it.

This is pre-multi-media, 8O and welcome to it!! :wink: