How to produce a ticket out of Illustrator

[cserban]

Good afternoon guys,

I apologize if I am asking a stupid question but after a couple of hours of trying to identify a solution to my dilema I decided it would be worth a try to publish a cry for help in case somebody would have an idea and would like to share.

Here's my dilemma: I need to be able to output a job ticket including an image of the graphic being worked on, that can be ripped/printed and passed on down for processing. This implies:

1. Being able to shrink automatically the art I am working on to fit to a 11"x17" or an 8 1/2" x 11";
2. Adding infomations to the bottom of the page like: user, media to be used, location of the file, finishing, job number, perhaps a barcode, etc;
3. Rip this file to check for errors on art then prin it on a proofer (say an HP Z2100);

Preferrably this would be done with a plugin directly from Illustrator but any other third party solutions would work.

Until now I looked all over the place and there is no such beast so, has anybody heard/seen anything that would work remotely in this way? Even a combination of solutions would bea posibility.

Any thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a bunch and Happy Holidays!

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

Sounds like something that could be done with scripting, however it may be easier to do in Acrobat, or maybe in InDesign using the the way InDesign can use metadata (like location of file, etc)

 

[cserban]

Thanks for the reply.
The only think is I know nothing about scripting so that puts me at the mercy of existing software.
I am testing a piece of software from EskoArtwork now, I hope it will work.
How are you guys testing prints to make sure the rip does a good job before you send it to a large printer? Say a 15 foot Vutek?
Because finding out a the rip failed in amiddle of a 100 foot banner is not pretty.

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

Esko does have som nice and very flexible workflow solutions Please let us know how you solve it.

 

[M. R. Horton]

How to produce a ticket out of Illustrator

I have attached an image (albeit low resolution for the forum) of a "proof" version of what we use for "screen" and "paper" proofing of our offset press jobs. Note that this is an image of the entire press "plate". Also, note the tag lines indicating specs for the job as well as the rectangles indicating imageable region of the press and sheet size and location which were annotated for this response. From your post I expect that you want to arrive at something similar, though your output would not be to an offset press.

In order to accomplish this I mapped out the available tools from our in-house and vendor supplied software/databases and when I didn't have something to carry the workflow forward (ie. alter, reduce and print for proofing, generate CIP3 image and ppf files for press, or retrieval of press job stats) then I wrote batch applications or scripts or web interfaces to accomplish it. If you aren't a programmer and don't want to be, then you can look for someone to do it for you, you just need to know what point you are starting at and where you need to end up.

I realize this doesn't tell you how to do what you want to do with Illustrator (I don't think that you can in an automated way), but I wanted to convey that you may have to think outside the box (or canned software) in order to accomplish your goal. Hopefully, in your market you can "sell" the benefits of your resulting workflow to clients as well as the finished product.

 

[cserban]

Wow,

That reminds me of the Zund demonstration at Print 09.
Thank you much for the thoughtful post.
I think I have a start, I gathered the parameters would like to see on paper and would pursue a couple of approaches.
Esko has an interesting plug in for Illustrator that will allow to automatically identify used colors, spot colors, path of the file, name of the file, user, placed files, fonts and links which is way more than I need. I also understood that the more I try to make this automatic, the more I risk to have the rip fail due to unwanted instructions in the file, so there has to be a balance somewhere.
I think I will start with a manual produced template in which will manually drop art and save it to a hot folder and based on results will try to automatize some parts of the process.
The reality is that no workflow is perfect. It is only as good as the peopl using it are. If you know what are you doing and you know what errors to look for, then you have a high chance you will do good. If you have no clue and no interest in what you are doing, no amount of software automatization will do you any good.
Or so I think.

 

[M. R. Horton]

I think you are correct in wanting to automate a step at a time. I started on the front end of developing order entry and inventory years ago and added one step at a time, I'm not done yet, but usually our workflow is more automated/connected than the brand new solutions vendors provide. Not knocking vendors - they often do very important parts very well, but the overrall workflow is probably unique to your business unless you want to compete as a commodity supplier.

 

[michaelejahn]

Vendors develop solutions for more than one problem

Vendors develop solutions for more than one problem

I think you are correct in wanting to automate a step at a time. I started on the front end of developing order entry and inventory years ago and added one step at a time, I'm not done yet, but usually our workflow is more automated/connected than the brand new solutions vendors provide. Not knocking vendors - they often do very important parts very well, but the overrall workflow is probably unique to your business unless you want to compete as a commodity supplier.

Now THAT was well put.

As I suggest in my title, the fact is that it make absolutely no business sense to make 1 off custom software for a vendor. However - It is somewhat unusual to find someone who has such a unique prepress need that existing workflow solutions can't be used. To create a Job Ticket, or better said ' a file that explains what need to be done' - we have a standard for that - JDF. Most vendors support JDF. In cases where live automated production is involved, you also need JMF. go to CIP4 Website if these terms are not familiar to you.

Tools that enable "while you sleep' production tools are common place today - Web2Print workflows often make use of SOAP and REST - at Compose, our BIB and Express LabelPrint products use Web Services to capture and deliver PDF files with JDF (and JMF) to our Compose Express Workflow solution.

http://goo.gl/CwuAm

- Kodak supports JDF in their workflow, AGFA does the same in Apogee, Esko supports JDF too - and for full on customization, Enfocus offers PowerSwitch.

Adobe has all sorts of hooks in its application files (XMP) - so, my suggestion is that many many people use this stuff, you just need to define your requirements.

Hope this helps !

 

[cserban]

Funny you should mention that. ONYX is developing their JDF module for the rip and will be available early next year. I am one of the lab rats that would test that approach and see how well it would integrate.

What I did for now:
1. Made a template in Illustrator that has both static and user modifiable fields as well as a place where a small version of the job would be represented. I also added gradients to the template to make sure we have an idea on how color is represented natively;
2. Set up an ONYX rip with a 24" HP Z2100 printer and hotfolders so people can drop in it directly;

This way they can use the template to print a sample ticket and drop it in the hot folder then the print technician will pick it up from the basket and verify their prints accordingly.

I would love to integrate some automatic font listings, color usage etc, but I just realized it may be overkill. I think for now we will go with this and see how well it is received and will tweak it after that.

Thank you all for your comments/replies1