End to Prepress Operator??

[pmgprepress]

Is it just me wondering if I'm going to have any future with Prepress with all the automation coming into play with Rips? At least RAMpage I'm not sure of the others because it is only Brisque, RAMpage I have experience in. I thought I would just see if there might be anyone else with this concern for their career in prepress and what their doing about it.

 

[macphenom]

They will always need people to fix the "Print Ready Pdfs" supplied by customers that created them in Powerpoint, Word and Publisher. We have Rampage and take advantage of all the automation including Jdf and autoimpose and it has not affected staffing at all. It just makes us more efficient and helps with the bottom line.

 

[PrePressPete]

Wow, I think you are at the stage of anybody can do this job cause it is so easy... This is not so.. It is like any other job when you do something everyday..8 hours a day for years you start thinking anyone can do this. You start thinking everything you know is common knowldege. Not so.. Let the owner of your company or better yet, switch jobs with the pressman.. If he is running an auto press with a console he is probaly thinking the same thing....

You are are a craftsman, troubleshooter, and heart of the quality and throughput... Snap out of it and get your self worth back...

 

[cjwworld]

You are are a craftsman, troubleshooter, and heart of the quality and throughput... Snap out of it and get your self worth back...

Some truth to what you said, but who are you directing it to? Who to snap out of it..?

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

The know how has to be somwhere. The biggest sign on the recession is that more and more people are operating outside their area of expertise. If you add value to the process then you are indespensible... do what computers cannot do, forsee problembs, come with suggestions on how to avoid and/or fix them. If you make your knowledge and experience available you will be useful to your clients, your boss and your coworkers.

 

[Ritter]

preflight/prepress will remain pretty much perpetually required. the lines between the two have pretty much blurred completely.

what the more interesting question is what will it look like in the future? and how big will with the department be?
what i see...(in the long term)
- 1-3 operators per shift maximum (even for the mega big places)
- a shift from traditional preflight/prepress to configuring the automated systems, scripts and equipment and then maintaining them
- customer service reps will be phased out/merged with prepress (those with the new skills in both places stay while those without them see the door)
- working with customers to resolve their issues permanently rather than just fixing them on a per job basis (ever had to webex with a vendor for your workflow? yeah, that technology can and will work the same way between you and your print customer; think of it as seminars on the fly)
- color expertise

as PrePressPete stated this job isn't easy today but it is going to require much more skilled and technologically efficient people to do it in the future. if you aren't learning and staying ahead of the curve you are sinking. i've watched some damn good people sink for years now because they think they have this massive safety net that in reality does not exist. do not underestimate the power of automation or it will eat your lunch. the automated pdf corrections today are just the tip of the spear. it is only a matter of time before software smart enough to add bleeds, scale up low-resolution images to high-resolution images, etc. the drive from the customer to lower costs and the internal drive to increase throughput will put the type corrections back on the customer. traditional preflight is already running out of road.

sorry to be so long. this is a bit of a passion point to me.

 

[pmgprepress]

Wow got a bigger response then I thought! I appreciate everyone's point of view very helpful.

 

[Cory Smith]

Agree with what other people have said. A skilled technician will need to have some involvement with the majority of jobs (at least for the time being). PrePress is a changing landscape, most prepress departments now are responsible for all kinds of operations that weren't around long ago. Wide Format, Signage, Digital, Variable, Web-to-Print.

Learning as much as you can about these will make sure that you stay relevant to the job.

 

[kdc415]

The number of "image ready" jobs that are junk is directly proportional to how bad the economy is! It's worse now than ever. I think more people are trying to do it themselves instead of hiring a good designer. You prepress techs are some of the smartest guys in the shop anyway, you're not going anywhere.

 

[C_N_Gage]

Automation and Application advances are not what will cause your job in pre-press to go away. This is a required process in the printing industry. As the ability to transfer terabytes of information around the world improves, this is where the work will go.

 

[cjwworld]

More is needed for preflighting and fixing ads, color in PDF's that Customers bring in. Shifting from film to preflighting is what will be required for prepress guys. If they are not computer iterate now, then they are going to suffer.