Fixing Files
- Thread starter gordo
- Start date
Macmann
Well-known member
Yup. It's the cost of doing business. If they submitted perfect files what would they need us for? We adjust as needed to get the job to print correctly. We only reach out to the client when there are serious issues and let them know there will be a cost associated to fix. Contacting the client with every issue we find doesn't end well-no one wants to be told their baby is ugly.
MitchtheMitch
Active member
"Well, so-and-so printer never charges me for corrections!"
kdw75
Well-known member
Then why did you quit going to so-and-so?
Seems your question was rhetoric, @Possumgal
...but still:
"Am I actually required to foresee all my mistakes?
Besides, I am offended when I get fined unexpectedly".
"loyal paying customer"
...but still:
"Am I actually required to foresee all my mistakes?
Besides, I am offended when I get fined unexpectedly".
"loyal paying customer"
If you don't want to pay the printer for fixing your files, you are not only required to see all your mistakes, but you are also required to fix ALL of them before sending the files to the printer.
And to be able to (fore)see and fix all your mistakes, there is a very useful and efficient solution called "training" and "school"!
So, do you have the training to be able to make suitable files?
If yes, you shouldn't have make all these mistakes, so obviously either your training was not enough or not good enough, or you were a bad student (or you are a couldn't-care-less person)… then go back to (a better) school and pay more attention to what the teacher says.
If no, you must understand and accept that somebody has to do the job you didn't do, and this somebody has to be paid.
You are not fined, you are charged fairly for the job that has to be done and that you were not able to do.
(but if you are a couldn't-care-less person, perhaps you deserve to be fined for your bad attitude?)
You also can do the maths: what is the cheapest? pay the printer to fix your files? or pay for a good training course? or pay a professionnal (competent) designer?
Last edited:
gordo
Well-known member
IMHO, there should not be a need to fix files. Further, there should be no need to learn print/prepress in order to prepare files for production. The problem is that it is more profitable to fix files than it is to develop and embed that functionality into the authoring applications.
Obviously, in a perfect situation (world…) nothing needs fixing - however, stuff happens.
There may well be situations when a printer feels that the decision to fix the files and go ahead with the job is in the customers' best interests, such as avoiding delays.
However, this decision may well be influenced by the printers' preference for smoother production schedule.
Let's look at a hypothetical situation:
I commissioned a graphic designer to produce a flyer, and I send the final design to a printer, after agreeing to his price quotation.
The printer finds the file unsuitable.
The printer decides to fix the file without consulting me, prints the flyers and charges me for the extra work.
Had he consulted me, I would probably want the designer to fix that file, at no additional cost to me.
Unless it was a rush job for me, I wouldn't agree to pay the printers' surcharge.
There may well be situations when a printer feels that the decision to fix the files and go ahead with the job is in the customers' best interests, such as avoiding delays.
However, this decision may well be influenced by the printers' preference for smoother production schedule.
Let's look at a hypothetical situation:
I commissioned a graphic designer to produce a flyer, and I send the final design to a printer, after agreeing to his price quotation.
The printer finds the file unsuitable.
The printer decides to fix the file without consulting me, prints the flyers and charges me for the extra work.
Had he consulted me, I would probably want the designer to fix that file, at no additional cost to me.
Unless it was a rush job for me, I wouldn't agree to pay the printers' surcharge.
bwaikel
Member
I beg to differ please...the most irritating mistakes I see are from "College Trained Professionals". If they paid to learn how to design for print and they are taught that rich black should be used on ALL text then someone should be fired from their teaching position. I had a 144pg, 5.5x8.5 spiral bound book from the Red Cross (of all people) a few years back chock full of non-overprinting 4-color black copy. I told the designer that was no good and she replied that her professor says that 4-color black looks better. I had to explain that she was taught wrong and why you don't do that. For college courses to be effective, they should have field trips to actual printing companies to see what can and CANNOT be done. As they are now, it's like learning to swim without going near the water.
The mantra should be: A designer is NOT your secretary and your secretary is NOT a designer.
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