Print Solutions: You recently made a presentation at Solutions 2003, DMIA's Symposium for Manufacturer and Supplier Education, held May 16-19 in Kennesaw (Atlanta), Georgia. How did you prepare for the presentation?
HF: This wasn't the first time I worked with DMIA. I did work for the association before, but it's been a few years. To get up-to-date, I had the folks at DMIA give me a list of attendees. I spent time calling and interviewing these people about the issues they were facing and the solutions they provide.
Print Solutions: Could you give us a brief description of your background?
HF: I've been working in digital prepress and print production since 1986. I was an independent consultant and a full-time technical consultant for GATF/PIA (Graphic Arts Technical Foundation/Printing Industries of America) for six years. Currently, I'm a full-time technical/management consultant for NAPL (National Association for Printing Leadership). Prior to that, I was the editor of a prepress magazine called Pre, authored two books on digital printing, and wrote more than 200 articles for magazines and newsletters. My work focuses on workflow and new technologies in the front end of the printing process or from the time a job enters the plant until it's on press.
Print Solutions: During your phone interviews, what di
d you discover was the biggest prepress challenge for DMIA members?
HF: The biggest problem they're facing isn't unique to the printing industry. The problem centers on working with and training customers to prepare files correctly. However, this appears to be more challenging for DMIA members than for the rest of the printing industry. After interviewing members, vendors and other consultants in the industry, I discovered that the distributor/manufacturer relationship is exacerbating the need for communication. A critical part of digital workflow is communication between the customer and the manufacturer about proper file preparation. The manufacturer has to give the customer feedback about which fonts to use, which file formats and programs work well, how much resolution is needed for scans, how to create PDF files, and a host of other issues that determine if and how well files will print. Without communication and feedback, the manufacturer may not be able to print a file correctly. Actually, calling it "communication" is a bit of an understatement because it's more of a collaboration in which there's an ongoing conversation about how the customer can prepare files to reduce mistakes and enhance the quality of the product.
Print Solutions: What solutions can help overcome this problem?
HF: In my Solutions 2003 presentation, I discussed two communication alternatives. One is to allow the customer service representative (CSR) at the manufacturer to talk directly to the customer creating the file. Of course, that's one suggestion that doesn't go over very well with DMIA's audience. An alternative solution is to train the person working at the distributor facility to act more like a Digital CSR. They would work as a liaison between the CSR at the manufacturer site and the final customer. The Digital CSR has to understand the details of proper file preparation and tactfully explain issues to customers without hurting their feelings. There's also a technology solution known as "online preflight." Online preflight allows a customer to submit a file to a web site to have it analyzed automatically. The site sends the customer feedback about proper and improper file creation. This may work well for DMIA members because it overcomes the issue of the manufacturer speaking directly to the customer, which often is frowned upon.
Print Solutions: What's the No. 1 mistake that digital printing newcomers make?
HF: Underestimating the importance of an experienced and well-trained staff. Often companies expect people with little experience, no training or limited background to work with sophisticated "digitally savvy" customers or with digital applications. This results in customers questioning the digital abilities of those companies or taking submitted files and making them worse. Ironically, it doesn't take that much time and effort to train people. I find that one or two days annually of focused training greatly can improve customer satisfaction, productivity and profitability.
Print Solutions: What's the biggest difference between digital and offset printing that traditional offset printers often don't understand going into the process?
HF: The cost-per-page for certain run lengths. Costing is rather complex, but generally the differences tend to focus on issues that exist in offset printing but not digital printing such as makeready, offline finishing and warehousing. As a result, it costs less to print run lengths of less than 2,000 units with a digital (toner-based) press than with offset technology. On the other hand, there are advantages to offset printing, too. In general, offset printing offers better color fidelity and consistency than toner-based printing.
Print Solutions: How should traditional offset printers evaluate one vendor's equipment versus another when they don't have any experience?
HF: There are a number of strategies you can use to help you make good equipment decisions. One easy way is to ask each manufacturer for names and phone numbers of a few customers who are happy with their equipment. Call each of those customers and take notes as you talk to them. In addition, the internet offers some great ways--such as online forums and newsgroups--to gather information. Some of the best online forums can be accessed at www.printplanet.com. Additionally, www.news2mail.com/comp/publish/prepress.html is a newsgroup that focuses on electronic prepress.
Print Solutions: Before making purchases or signing contracts, what should traditional offset printers investigate?
HF: Contract negotiations usually are missed opportunities. In many cases, equipment vendors make promises they may or may not be able to deliver. Once you've beaten them down on price, you should make sure those promises are included the contract. If the equipment fails to live up to those promises and you're dissatisfied, you'll have a legal leg to stand on. There would be fewer legal battles if claims and expectations were included in contracts.
Print Solutions: What's the biggest problem area digital users face today? Do you have suggestions for solving those problems before they slow down an operation?
HF: When working with digital files, the biggest issue is that file problems aren't discovered early in the process. They're not discovered by the file creator, the CSR or anyone else until the file reaches the prepress or production area. This usually stalls production by several days because the production staff has to repair the files or find missing elements.
For most companies, I recommend a strategy that I call "fast response preflight." Using this method, 75 percent of problems are discovered within a few hours of entering the plant. When the plant finds a problem, it immediately calls the customer and offers to fix the problem for a price or allows the customer to send a new file. This has several benefits. First, you capture some of the time and costs associated with fixing files, and second, you're opening a dialog with customers about proper file preparation and even training them to submit proper files. Some companies offer customers one day of file preparation training annually. Companies that use fast response preflight motivate customers to prepare accurate files and achieve better on-time delivery because problems are fixed before files reach production. Plus, the job now is more profitable because you're charging for services you previously gave away.
Print Solutions: Are there common output problems that can be avoided?
HF: The same output problems we have today existed a decade ago. Most deal with fonts and graphic file formats. First, customers aren't sending us their fonts. Unless they're sending a PostScript® file or a correctly prepared PDF file, customers need to send us their fonts as well. Second, customers aren't sending file formats such as TIFF or EPS files. Programs like QuarkXPress™ and PageMaker® embed low-resolution versions of these high-resolution files, but printers always needs high-resolution files to print. In addition, customers often send bad file formats. This is especially true for PC users who often send GIF, BMP and WMF files. Even when customers send TIFF files, often they're too low in resolution (less than 200 d.p.i.), in a wrong color space (sRGB) or too highly compressed (JPEG low quality).
These problems aren't going away, because they're the same problems we're finding with PDF files even though they were supposed to overcome many of the problems associated with customer-submitted files. So now there's a whole new set of concerns about printing files. As a result, I'm spending less time training customers and staffers to prepare, preflight and fix application files (Microsoft® Word, QuarkXPress, PageMaker) and more time training them to prepare, preflight and fix PDF files.
Print Solutions: What advice can you provide for avoiding or bypassing common problems in the future?
HF: Everyone needs to find independent sources that can provide good digital printing information and advice. The online sources I mentioned are good sources, as are books and magazines. Most importantly, good support organizations such as DMIA and NAPL are invaluable.
For more than 15 years, Howard "Howie" Fenton has been an author, consultant and trainer in the graphic arts industry. Currently, he's the National Association for Printing Leadership's senior consultant of digital technology. Previously, he spent six years as a consultant for the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation/Printing Industries of America and three years as the editor of a prepress magazine called Pre. He has written five books on subjects such as digital printing, scanning, color management and emerging digital technologies. To contact Fenton, call (720) 872-6339 or send email to howieatpre@aol.com.
