Automated PrePress...In Reality?

[PrePress19]

Hello...I'm new to this forum...and here's my story. I'm in the Prepress Dept. of a small/medium sized printer. We have an EskoArtwork Raster workflow. My employer has charged me with getting info and implementing a more 'automated' prepress workflow. By this I think he wants three things: A way for us to automatically COLLECT and PROCESS files from our various customers and Sales People (which come in all categories...from professionally prepared files and PDFs to amateur RGB, no bleed, no fonts, etc.), from email, our ftp, their ftp, etc.The other thing is to 'automatically' IMPOSE these files, including the ability to calculate 'gang' impositions of different size/quantities (we now manually use Preps).

There seems to be a lot of products out there that promise they can do the above...but it seems you have to know how to mix and match them up. It's pretty confusing. My preliminary research has pointed me to these products...Enfocus Switch, the Gang feature within (an updated Preps), and on this forum, Metrix. I'm not sure how much $ these are.

Can a 'regular' prepress operator, such as myself, implement these procedures? Are these mature products or is the industry just beginning to see the automation of prepress?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[PDL]

This is a bit of a sales pitch, but here goes.
All automation in any workflow is conditional. There are ways to use boolean logic expressions within this automation (if this, then that, if not then this), but still this is conditional. There has to be something, part of the file naming convention, origin of the file (Hot Folders), MIS/database reference, etc. , something the system can read to determine what path of automation you need this file to travel.

First thing you should do is contact an EskoArtwork rep.. I am assuming you have a Nexus workflow presently. Since the merger of Esko-graphics and Artwork Systems (origin of your Nexus) much work has been done to integrate the automation features of all the AWS and EG, and yes Enfocus legacy products. This does include an integrated imposition application. Being an existing Nexus customer there could be some great advantages for you by moving up through EskoArtwork. They can help you determine and setup the best possible automation for you. You'll be amazed at the possibilities.
Contact EskoArtworks with a question or remark

 

[mattbeals]

Sure, it works. I've done it for many printing/publishing companies. How much does it cost? Hard to say because each installation chooses different software. Can you do it completely on your own? You could. Some have tried and succeeded, but few if any with any significant. Most have bought a few days or more worth of training and integration. But yes, automation in prepress most certainly works. Your mileage may vary.

 

[davidmwe]

Automating FlightCheck with SWITCH

Automating FlightCheck with SWITCH

Start with looking at and using the basic tools needed for such a job. That would include, of course I say this, but it is true, FlightCheck Professional.

It can collect and even compress all of the various jobs that will come in; even grabbing non-embedded fonts that are not in a PDF if available! See:
Preflight Adobe InDesign, QuarkXPress and more with FlightCheck!

Once the manual process is understood, you could talk to people like Matt Beals to scripting your workflow or even perhaps easier, using a tool like Enfocus SWITCH to automate job in-take, where even at this time FlightCheck can be controlled to collect jobs as well. Here is a movie on how that works:

YouTube - Automating FlightCheck with SWITCH (Part 1 of 2)

My advice from the numerous workflows we have set-up in the past, is start simple and realistic. Baby steps. If you can automate 10% of your work within the next several months, then that is already likely a very attractive ROI.

Happy Thanksgiving.

-David Dilling
Markzware
Adobe, Quark and Publisher Data Conversion and Quality Control Software Tools| Markzware