Basic Workflow Standardization

[CSimpson]

I am a print shop manager in an in-plant. One of my biggest problems is fonts. Most of the documents I get are from Word or uneducated Publisher users. Some other problems are users creating a two-color jobs in CMYK and black text not being pure black. Currently we handle everything we get on an individual basis, but it is getting completely out of hand. I need to start putting in place some systems to handle some of these problems

Is there a easy way to convert documents to pdf with the correct specifications before I get them? For example is there a pdf print driver that I can put on my web site or push out to everyone on my network that it will create a pdf to my specifications so I do not have to worry about fonts or poor resolution? If so how much does something like that cost?

Is there software, preferably hot-folder driven, that can look at a pdf and if it is only two colors create a two color pdf? Is there software than can ensure that black text is actually pure black so it doesn't count as a color impression if sent to a color machine?

What I am really try to do is get some type of standard work flow in place so I can actually start working on automating some our task. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Keith]

By the sound of it, you're mostly offset? Since you're inplant, I would mention to the owner that his employees are costing him money with these crap files. I'm an owner, I know if someone was costing me money, I'd straighten it out real fast

Ok, seriously. There are a number of things you can do. I have given seminars (ok, only once but I did get paid, therefore, I'm a professional expert) on file preperation and not only did I get paid; but I earned a new customer that send me well prepared files. I am all digital, so it's really not that hard for me. You offset guys have a harder time, especially with files coming from programs like Word and Publisher. Anyway, the first and cheapest thing to do would be to print a "file standards" and send it to everyone. That will help BIG. People feel empowered when they are taught something, especially if it is easy and saves them money (but I guess in the case of an inplant shop, it saves them time by getting the job to them faster).

Second, go here- John Giles Online -and buy that book, 12 Secrets For Digital Success. It is my bible and has taught me A LOT! And if they still give you bad files; you can hit them with the book.

Third, there are PDF drivers that can be installed on your clients computer. Again, THE book talks about that. There are even programs that people can use to create things online and then send it to you.

Fourth, there are also tools for your end that can produce PDFs and edit them. The biggest name in that game is Enfocus. I don't use it (again, all digital) but I heard this is the best tool in the industry- Enfocus - PitStop Professional - The industry standard for PDF preflighting and editing

Fifth- 12 Secrets For Digital Success.

There is some real advice in hear amongst all the jokes. It's Friday, I'm feeling relly good.

Keith

P.S. Seriously, the best thing you can do is educate those that send you files. Otherwise they'll keep sending you crap and you'll keep fixing it and it just keeps going downhill and you'll get miserable and start hating people. And buy that book, not because I work for John Giles (I don't) but because it is very good.

 

[CSimpson]

By the sound of it, you're mostly offset? Since you're inplant, I would mention to the owner that his employees are costing him money with these crap files.

I have a one color and a two-color offset press, the rest is digital. I am an in-plant at a large public entity whose users are spread out in over 90 facilities. I do not get first right of refusal and I do charge users for my service. I don't have to make a profit, but I can't lose money either. My customers can go elsewhere so forcing procedures would be difficult unless the users thought it was super easy.

 

[rich apollo]

Can't speak to Publisher, but I've had to deal with my share of Word documents.

1. Word does not support spot colors. It is native RGB - and only in the last version, or so, have you been able to get CMYK out of it.

2. The latest versions of Word can send imagery at adequate resolution.

3. With Word on the PC you can set up what PDF joboptions get used for creating PDFs through the PDF maker toolbar. You don't have that option on the Mac (that I've been able to find). Odd, huh?

4. You say you're an in-plant - does this mean that your clients are internal? If so, then you could influence to get the right tools for the job. Obviously, Publisher and Word are not the right tools.

5. Getting one color (or 4 color) out of these files is easy, now. You can create Preflight droplets to do that. 2 color stuff will be tougher.

 

[Vee]

I agree 100% that educating the customer in any fashion is the best direction to head in first. Even if your attempt in educating them only reaches 20% of the target audience, you are that much better off.

Couple that with some software on the back end at your site, to automate the PDF correction process and you'll be much better off than you are now. I've used Enfocus PitStop Server to automate PDF preflight/correction via hotfolders, and really loved it. PitStop Professional (mentioned above) doesn't work via hotfolders. There are many other options for hotfolder based preflight/correction of PDF files these days.

Enfocus also has an application called Instant PDF that you might find interesting. Enfocus - Instant PDF - Produce press-ready PDFs with unprecedented simplicity

Best of luck to you!
Vee

 

[oxburger]

You can educate customers (to a certain degree), but in the end, Office products will never be fully print production capable and the customers aren't going to want to spend $1,500 for CS4 and then have to learn how to use them. More and moe "regular" people are being asked to design materials for their companies and the only tools they have to work with are usually office products. It's only going to get worse (the design world will especially suffer) as companies try to save money by moving some of their design functions to their own employees. "Why should we pay XYZ Design Agency $200 an hour to design that brochure when we can have our secretary Judy throw something together on her computer in her spare time?"*

*The author does not mean to infer that anyone with the name Judy lacks design skills or mean to cause any ill will by using the politically incorrect term "secretary" instead of "executive assistant". Not valid in all states. Sorry Tennesee.

 

[CSimpson]

Educating my client base on how to submit files is a complete lost cause and to be honest an absolute wast of time. We offered an internal professional development class to our users and out of 6,500 employees 3 showed up in a year. They just don't care and don't want to know. The feeling of everyone here including upper management is that one of the reasons we have an in-plant is so we don't have to know or care about creating print ready files. They feel that is my job.

So, again I ask is there any easy way to handle my problem? Is there a pdf or postscript driver that I can push out to everyone pre-configured to the way I want it? Is there some type of server based pdf creation tool that can create the pdf using the users font files when it creates the pdf? There has to be something out there that will ensure that I can at least get a file that I can work with.

I was searching on the internet and found activePDF. Has anyone ever used this?

 

[[email protected]]

You might try looking into Web-to-print products such as EFI's Digital Storefront. With many of these apps the client will be able to preview their file as a PDF and therefore the burden of "proofing" lies with them. DSF is pretty pricey but then it does alot and so there are alternatives depending on what you want to accomplish.

 

[DanB]

I'm a print shop supervisor at an in-plant. I came upon a tool called PDF Redirect. You can find it at PDF reDirect - The free PDF Creator alternative to pdf995, cutepdf and freepdf.

We worked with this company and they customized the product to suit our needs. They even replaced their splash screen with our logo, provided me the help files so I could modify them for my user base and set the defaults of the PDFs created to meet our needs. This was done at a very reasonable cost.

We purchased a couple of thousand seats for around 2 to 3 bucks each and give them to our customers at our cost.

The only thing the customer has to do is select PDF Redirect as the printer to prepare a PDF of any application running on a Windows machine. Most customers are willing to do this to get the printing they want.

 

[Shawn]

I've gotten good results with setting up customers using the CutePDF print drivers to get (relatively) clean pdfs out of Word and Publisher. They're based on the open source Ghostscript project so they're free to download and install. They don't make PDFs that are technically as clean as Acrobat Distiller or the Acrobat print drivers, but they work well without requiring a lot of setup by the client.

We usually then use either Acrobat's built in editing tools or Pitstop to fix the rest of the issues in the PDF.

Unfortunately you're in a Garbage In = Garbage Out situation. Education is a key element in reducing wasted time and money on this type of job. An automatic PDF print driver will solve some of your issues, like missing fonts, but it won't be able to solve others like spot colors designed in RGB. If your internal clients aren't willing to work to make printable files you're going to be out of luck. Have you tried offering a small discount to users who send you clean files that process with a minimal effort on your part?

Shawn

 

[michaelejahn]

@ CSimpson

There are 3 basic approaches you might consider. You have already considered educating the customer, which can be a tough slog - as soon as you get one up to competent, they move to another position or get a new job somewhere.

1. Set up a system at your site that rejects 'not ready for printing' files
-- there are several portal type solutions where the customer is asked to log-in and submit the file to a systems that pass/sends - or fails/rejects - Time Warner uses this approach;

Ad Portal - Direct2Time

-- this approach is never popular with your sales team, but it is the best approach given your situation where you have too many outside customers to educate and manage. When you require professional behavior from a customer, like the IRS or the DMV, there are rules and penalties for being prepared to for an encounter. this is the 'lets partner, lets be efficient, lets all avoid disappointment' approach.

2. Buy a solution that is installed at the customer site that makes reliable PDF files
-- This one may not be as expensive as you think. Even Microsoft has the same kind of problem you have - when they rev Word or Publisher, this requires new manuals be printed and in many many languages (Spanish, Japanese, etc..) - you think YOU have font problems !? (smile)
-- Back when the Earth was still cooling and I worked for Enfocus, we pitched and sold them a combination of Enfocus PitStop server and Instant PDF. All the printers who offered sevrvices to Microsoft were grateful that Collen Isabell now sent reliable PDF files to them.

contact - Alex Hamilton
Director of Business Development
Enfocus - an EskoArtwork Company
tel: 215.247.3461; mobile: 215.519.6673; fax: 215.242.6755
[email protected] - www.enfocus.com

3. Get your customer service managers to perform the service and charge appropriately
-- your problem is fonts? Get the fonts from the customer. The fact is that if you only use these fonts on your customers files, and if you are not performing edits on customers files that require these fonts be installed, and you are operating in the US, you are not violating any laws. As you probably know, Adobe applications like InDesign actually offer an automated method to perform the collection of all parts of the document required for reliable processing - this includes colletion the fonts - with a warning dialog box. Microsoft sells fonts, and licenses font technology - I have never understood why they have not offered this approach.

Microsoft Typography - Fonts and Products

-- Use a font manager to create customer font collections, open and close these fonts using a font management application

25 Font Management Tools Reviewed | Developer's Toolbox | Smashing Magazine

My day rate is 2k, but I don't think you need someone like me to help you sort out what to do here !

Best luck to you, and know that you are hardly alone - this is always a tough call as to what to do.

Michael Jahn
Jahn & Associates

From Design Into Print � Advanced Issues: Scan and Descreen

 

[PDQDUNDEE]

Real World

Real World

To my mind whilst education, of the customer, might appear the ideal, the fact remains that they are your customers and for what it's worth you have to work with them. We don't have a problem with Office and we actually see some very good results. All the Office 2007 products will produce a workable PDF/x directly and Publisher will convert directly to CMYK. Whether or not you do that or get the customer to do so is upto you, personally I'd rather do it myself - it's less hastle. We tend to say provide a print-ready PDF with bleed and crop marks or pay us £15 and we will do it for you. Whilst real designers will use Quark or InDesign they are no less problematic with their use of transparancy and layers so whatever you get from the customer you will need to check it out.

The undisputed best program to convert just about any PDF to exactly what you need for press-work is Callas PDF Toolbox 4

Callas PDF Toolbox 4 | Product Review | Layers Magazine

If you have a budget you need

Acrobat Pro - 9
Callas - PDF Toolbox 4
Enfocus - Pitstop
Quite - Imposing Plus

 

[Neocortex21]

First,
we need to know what's your layout software : Indesign or Xpress ?
In these software, you'll find color selection for your fonts. You must take the black one.

If you don't use these software to make your layout, I don't how you do to be a manager, 'cause it's really basic anywhere!!!!

Just, don't speak about workflows before using theses softwares, if anything is wrong AFTER using these one, at the moment we can speak about proofing softwares which are very precise about colors, not before.


See you

Nicolas Dropsy,
Bachelor's degree about workflow, editing and printing solutions.
Grenoble-INP PAGORA (Ecole française de papeterie et des Industries graphiques)

 

[PDQDUNDEE]

Real World

Real World

Nicholas - not too sure where to start but without wishing to rubbish your degree why do you think a print manager needs to have a copy of either Quark or InDesign on his/her desk? Times have moved on and the reality is that a PDF Workflow is all the rage over here - and probably over there as well?

Peter

 

[Neocortex21]

Oups, my text hasn't been changed, it wasn't the manager job I criticized (sorry for my poor english), but, in our world, right now, I don't think to use Word is the best solution over the world! Now, when I'm seeing we want to put a workflow just to convert colors, I don't think is the best economic solution...
Also, Yes we can make a pdf by word, but the quality will not be equal to a real PS or PDF by Distiller... Colors by the "printing in PDF" in World will stay in quadrichromy.

For information, I'm an half student and I'm working since 3 years in Workflows engeenering, I know my job.

Thanks to understand it wasn't the manager job I ciriticized, I apologize for it.

 

[Eoin]

Start Upstream

Start Upstream

Hi Cory,

I haven't read through all the postings, but as someone who works in Production Direction both up and downstream I would highly recommend that you engage your clients and their workflows "upstream."

Your plant can buy, develop, install, document, or what have you and as clients are like the wind (always changing direction) you will in my own experience chase your tail.

My professional advice is to identify those clients who are causing workflow stoppages, analyze why, and address them in a tactful way with those clients. Give them the benefit of your knowledge and help them understand that if their files are press ready they will save the 'o mighty dollar and in this economy that means more and more each day. If they take responsibility for the integrity of their files then your headaches go away and they save $$$ in systems work once at the plant. It's a win/win all round. Document what you collectively did and achieved. You can apply this to other clients or those who might come your way as in general none of these challenges are unique.

Give them a fish and they eat for a day, teach them to fish and they eat for a lifetime and all that. I've incorporated the concept of a documented adhered to workflow, resulting in a solid native application file exported to PDF/X (whatever version is needed for the application) at the content creator and I can say with all honesty, that after training, testing, re-testing as needed, and launch, it has never failed me.

Just my 2¢.

I am a print shop manager in an in-plant. One of my biggest problems is fonts. Most of the documents I get are from Word or uneducated Publisher users. Some other problems are users creating a two-color jobs in CMYK and black text not being pure black. Currently we handle everything we get on an individual basis, but it is getting completely out of hand. I need to start putting in place some systems to handle some of these problems

Is there a easy way to convert documents to pdf with the correct specifications before I get them? For example is there a pdf print driver that I can put on my web site or push out to everyone on my network that it will create a pdf to my specifications so I do not have to worry about fonts or poor resolution? If so how much does something like that cost?

Is there software, preferably hot-folder driven, that can look at a pdf and if it is only two colors create a two color pdf? Is there software than can ensure that black text is actually pure black so it doesn't count as a color impression if sent to a color machine?

What I am really try to do is get some type of standard work flow in place so I can actually start working on automating some our task. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[dkelly]

Acrobat 9 "convert colors", Enfocus Pitstop, callas PDFInspektor or Apago PDF Enhancer can all convert the colors in your PDF to "good" values.

 

[Digital Scans]

Preflight software

Preflight software

CSimpson,

You should purchase a good preflight software like Pitstop or Flight Check Professional educate yourself on the software then suggest to your clients that they purchase the same
software. This will eliminate 98% of your problems.

KG:

 

[mattbeals]

I am a print shop manager in an in-plant. One of my biggest problems is fonts. Most of the documents I get are from Word or uneducated Publisher users. Some other problems are users creating a two-color jobs in CMYK and black text not being pure black. Currently we handle everything we get on an individual basis, but it is getting completely out of hand. I need to start putting in place some systems to handle some of these problems

Is there a easy way to convert documents to pdf with the correct specifications before I get them? For example is there a pdf print driver that I can put on my web site or push out to everyone on my network that it will create a pdf to my specifications so I do not have to worry about fonts or poor resolution? If so how much does something like that cost?

Is there software, preferably hot-folder driven, that can look at a pdf and if it is only two colors create a two color pdf? Is there software than can ensure that black text is actually pure black so it doesn't count as a color impression if sent to a color machine?

What I am really try to do is get some type of standard work flow in place so I can actually start working on automating some our task. Any advice would be appreciated.

Much of, if not all of, what you are looking to do can be done with Callas pdfToolbox either as a plug-in for Acrobat or as a hot folder based application. If you are getting Word files callas has logic that allows you to customize the RGB to CMYK conversion. Further pdfToolbox can detect a wide variety of RGB blacks and grays and convert the to black only. These parameters can be customized quite easily but the core logic of the product is very flexible.

This is really an easy to fix problem that doesn't really require much, if any, re-tooling of your workflow. I'd be happy to show you a demo of what can be done. You can find videos at Tutorial videos . I'd also be happy to process a few documents for you.

 

[smw8]

You should do both:

You should do both:

First educate yourself on Publisher, it is being used by designers more and more and will only increase. Word is a different story, but still capable of fixing if you get good at using pitstop.
Publisher works well after you learn it, problem is, not getting to use it enough and by the time you get your next file you forget how to convert colors or edit images. But they are all still in the same place. So I agree your customer should get a digital file prep document from you, explaining what you accept and what you do not. But you cannot tell them you do not accept publisher unless you plan on losing them. However you can suggest that they upgrade to a better program, especially if they are a nonprofit or education entity. Then better programs can be had for a much cheaper price.
But we have learned that we get publisher files and its a lottery on whether someone knew what they were doing, but a lot of times, it was us not knowing publisher and how to fix and edit the files ourselves. LEARN PUBLISHER. And keep notes on what you fixed and how.