CTP, CTP operator and Offsite Graphic Designer

[nervusvagus]

We are a small printing company thinking of purchasing a CTP, I've made only a basic research so far.

I'm imagining a system where a trained technician is loading the plates and doing the necessary preperation work however the files to be sent to plate, the impositioning and such can be prepared by an off-site graphi designer who maybe sends the files via FTP?

Would you think it's possible and feasible to have a CTP in house without having a graphic designer? Are there any systems of CTP that would make this system easier to establish?


best wishes.

 

[sjunaid]

Hi There,

if your off-site Graphic designer is capable of sending your ONE BIT TIFF file to expose in CTP, the operator from your Montage department may handle it very easily.

I will recommend to have a BasysPrint CTcP (Computer to Conventional Plate). There is a range of CTcP System according to your senario.

I am the Service Engineer for this Machine in Middle East. Any further enquiries are welcome.

Regards
Syed

 

[Armya Inc]

We are a small printing company thinking of purchasing a CTP, I've made only a basic research so far.

I'm imagining a system where a trained technician is loading the plates and doing the necessary preperation work however the files to be sent to plate, the impositioning and such can be prepared by an off-site graphi designer who maybe sends the files via FTP?

Would you think it's possible and feasible to have a CTP in house without having a graphic designer? Are there any systems of CTP that would make this system easier to establish?


best wishes.

Yes you can.There are many organizations operating a CTP with out having a Graphic Designer on the site. Basic job preparation and sending an output file in order to get a plates do not need the graphic designers, but your operator has to be capable of working, editing with different graphic and non-graphic softwares in order to communicate with graphic designers who provide the design jobs to their customers.They also have to be capable of editing any files with different softwares, so having softwares on the site is important. Perhaps your operator has to consider working with Colormanagment or ETC. So you will need someone who loves his job and open to learning more.

 

[John Clifford]

Trying to envision what you're describing. As a trainer of designers in the preparation of files to send to printers, I'm a little confused as to why you would have a designer doing imposition. The CTP RIP software that you get should have at least a basic imposition software that comes with it. Simple step-and-repeats and booklet imposing should be done by the prepress department. Designers do design, not print engineering. Prepress people are the print engineers. They know where you want your marks, your color bars, etc.

Loading and unloading plates is NOT a skilled job. The skilled prepress person understands how to preflight files coming from the designers, imposing the job, and set up information for your operations (yes, color management, screening angles, dot forms, etc.).

 

[imagesetting]

Your asking a skilled graphic designer, to create concepts, layout, design, then perform prepess operations, then operate and maintain CTP output equipment.

If its agency standard design your asking of this person, he will be very busy just doing that.

If your plating requirements are high volume your man will only be able to do one job efficiently - design or prepress.

In an ideal world we would all prefer it all in one, saves on all that communication between departments, but in reality, equipment goes off line, clients change briefs or make late changes to artwork - and all your production schedules go way out the window, not to mention a waiting press and operator.

Add to this your wanting him to operate off site (which I'm sure is possible) - it all sounds like a world of stress.

You might well find that magic bullet of a person, but do not under estimate the task your asking of that person.

http://www.imagesetting.com

 

[pacart]

As a prepress person who does the graphic design as well, i can say that this is possible. It all depends on how busy your shop is.

As far as the remote part of it, i sometimes work from home because of daycare or other issues. When this happens, i just call in and have people turn on my workstation and the other required computers such as the rip.

From there i gain access to my workstation via Remote Desktop. I can do everything as if i were there, no problems.

 

[imagesetting]

I guess 'graphic designer' is a broad brush, the original poster should tell us what sort of design work is required ? and what prepress and printed product is also required.

If the CTP equipment is used just a few times a day, then sure its possible, but in a high pressure production environment - your putting that one person under a lots of stress.

http://www.imagesetting.com

 

[nervusvagus]

Thank you very much for the answers. This was primarily considered for "high production environment" . As a "print only" provider I was having difficulty figuring out what common roles a graphic designer and a ctp operator has. In our case we usually send files from offsite designer to an offsite ctp provider. And what the CTP provider does is usually to layout the files on plates but sometimes go as far as modifying the pdf's provided to fit printing goals. Basic touch ups on printed files. Adjust bleeds and correct elements. And of course impositioning.

The person offsite who designs the files and the person offsite who operates the CTP and prepares files for plates doesn't necessarily have to be the same people, however since CTP requires high level of computer ability I thought its possible to have someone offsite and have someone with basic maintenance skills in-house to help with hardware stuff.

Large amount of files would need to be shared across 3 parties, offsite designer-printer-offsite ctp provider but technically so far it seems perfectly possible.

 

[pacart]

Why is everything off-site? If you have a high production environment, everything would be more efficient and could probably be done by 2 people instead of 3.

It appears you don't have your own imagesetter? Or are you a broker? i don't get it?