Sorry, I have to ask...
Does your MIS system accurately distinguish interpreting single color clicks, because most front ends won't. For example, indexed grayscale, CMYK black, and registration marks set to "all colors" will generate a color click instead of a black & white click on a digital press. How is this system any different, unless it re-processes the file to clean it up?
Just wondering.
gig0, this topic thread was not about direct production issues such as file setup, it was whether one sets up the hourly rate against a click based machine by calculating the clicks into the hourly rate of the machine (does not make sense to me to do it this way) or as a separate charge, over and above the machine’s hourly rate (which makes sense to me).
When setting up the Accura MIS costing tables, one enters the appropriate mono or colour click rates against the machine. A print MIS and preflighting and or file prep/PDF workflow software are separate and different things.
When creating an estimate in the Accura MIS, one is often quoting on a job without even being supplied a file. All one can do is go by the specs supplied by the customer. For example, a full colour 4pp cover section and a 60pp mono text section.
So, when one is building a quote, one builds the 4pp full colour section on the appropriate stock using colour clicks. Then, one builds the 60pp black only section on the appropriate stock using the mono click charge. The MIS calculates the correct print time/cost and the correct amount of clicks per section to apply based on the calculated amount of sheets and the job quantity etc. So yes, the Accura MIS can distinguish and apply the correct amount of click charges to each section of the quote. This is independent of the file supplied for output if/when the estimate is won.
Now, if the native file or PDF file that is finally supplied is not matching the quote specs, and the 60pp mono section is not technically mono, then file prep or PDF workflow software will need to be used to fix the file so that the correct click is applied at output (unless the DFE or RIP can be set to process these pages as mono only). This then brings up a whole new conversation on whether this then becomes a case of the customer re-supplying the job correctly or whether this becomes a chargeable extra over and above the original quoted price (which likely depends on whether the mono job simply used rego colour in trims or if the file was setup with full colour elements in the live job area).
Stephen Marsh
