Is it just me??

[MickyJ]

Today, I've been at odds with a customer's artwork that is full of content mistakes. One mistake did happen on my end due to an image linking mistake that I missed and it was approved by the customer and we ran it. All other issues belong to the customer. I'm I just an idiot for trusting a signed proof and plating a job based on said proof, or has anyone else had this issue? I ask because the pressman wants my blood.

Any stories or input would be nice. I'm the sole prepress/plating/design guy at my shop and am lonely crammed here in my office by myself.

 

[JaimeZ]

MickyJ,

Those are the perils of prepress. Frankly it's lesson to be learned--that when it does not look fine on the proof spend the extra time to fix it. Customers will only focus on the one mistake you make and not the hundreds they make.

As for your pressman, just remind him of the last order that needed to be rerun because he did not match the correct PMS color, but he probably thinks he walks on water anyway.

 

[MickyJ]

MickyJ,

Those are the perils of prepress. Frankly it's lesson to be learned--that when it does not look fine on the proof spend the extra time to fix it. Customers will only focus on the one mistake you make and not the hundreds they make.

As for your pressman, just remind him of the last order that needed to be rerun because he did not match the correct PMS color, but he probably thinks he walks on water anyway.

Uh, yeah, he does believe he walks on water. How did you know?

 

[gordo]

Today, I've been at odds with a customer's artwork that is full of content mistakes. One mistake did happen on my end due to an image linking mistake that I missed and it was approved by the customer and we ran it. All other issues belong to the customer.

In my experience, when we made a mistake like yours we would rerun the job with apologies and our mistake corrected. If the customer then decided to make changes to their content - as in your case - it would be considered a new job and they would pay to reprint it. If they're not happy about that, then they can take their job elsewhere.

gordo

 

[JaimeZ]

I have met few humble pressmen--most of them seem to think they make no mistakes.

As for Gordo you are very wise and your procedure is a good one to follow.

 

[RGPW17100]

Our prepress people can design 100 different files and we could run them and never have an issue. The problem is customer files. In this high speed world people use PDFs instead of hard proofs. I would bet that 70 percent of our mistakes are from the things that are on PDF that arent on the Oris. Whether it is RGB, font substitution or low res graphics these are things that kill us. If you take a publisher or word file and create a PDF then run it through the work flow there is a good chance there will be problems. We gang short run jobs 8 up on press sheets and it takes longer to proof the Oris to the PDF then it does for the press operator to print it. When you are running 15 of these jobs a day then short cuts happen, proofing goes out the window and a bad file sneaks by. I used to blame the prepress guy now I just blame the customers and we have a much better working relationship at work.

 

[dynamicprinter]

In a world where everybody now has a computer and thinks that they can design it themselves I understand exactly what you are going through. I constantly get files that people set themselves and then I have to fix them. People don't proof read they're to busy, then they want you to eat it. It almost makes you want to quit. You're not alone!

 

[Al Ferrari]

A case of the teapot calling the kettle black. The correct phrase is "they're too busy". A little punctuation would also help, but that would take more time, eh?.

Al

 

[Ed The Finisher]

What I enjoy is when a job gets clear through to the bindery only to find out that you can’t fold or trim the job without cutting off type, or folding off a color bleed.
The last time I complained that no one ever checks anything. The next job I folded was suppose to fold in half, but me being mister “CHECK IT” folded it as a letter fold.
We all miss things; it’s when we make a habit of it something has to be done.

(By the way the only water our pressman walks on is their tears when they have to rerun a job.)

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

It is a good idea to logg what jobbs go right. Because mistakes take time we tend to think we make more wrong than right. Mistakes happen, if you have a signed proof that covers your back. Explain to the customer that it is to avoid this kind of problem you send the proof to the customer.

Had a similar problem where a customer was updating a folder. One image was updated, but most of the images were adapted for press in the previous run. We liked to the optimised images, sent a proof to get all approved and they approved, not noticing the updated image was not updated. They wanted and explanation. I would be willing to help a customer get a discounted rerun if they understood that it was discounted and they were willing to learn that it is their responsibility to not approve jobs if they are not correct.

As for fold jobs we allways fold our proofs to make sure that they are producable, I know we can't keep the verification strip, but that the job can be finished is more important than a certified delta-E.

 

[Tech]

I tried my best to remind our designers to have a habit of collecting a complete job every time they make a change to art. It's always the small things that will get you, and more often than not, preflight can't catch everything. Certain things you just need to sit down and eyeball them.

 

[John Roberds]

We have a step in our workflow we call "print one". After a job sent to a printer, the operator literally prints one copy of each job. We are all digital so this is reasonably simple. The print one is sent back to customer service with the job ticket and the print is ruled out to check bleed and folds, measured to check size, colors checked if we have a comp from our customer or PMS number, visually inspected for other errors like images that don't fill boxes, etc. We do not proofread text, however. If the job is to be die cut it is sent to our digital die cutter to have the die line printed on it with a pen tool. With our DI press we do all of this to the final proof of the job from our proofer. This sounds like a lot of work but it has saved a lot of waste and if organized well doesn't take too much additional time.

 

[T]

Our prepress people can design 100 different files and we could run them and never have an issue. The problem is customer files. In this high speed world people use PDFs instead of hard proofs. I would bet that 70 percent of our mistakes are from the things that are on PDF that arent on the Oris. Whether it is RGB, font substitution or low res graphics these are things that kill us. If you take a publisher or word file and create a PDF then run it through the work flow there is a good chance there will be problems. We gang short run jobs 8 up on press sheets and it takes longer to proof the Oris to the PDF then it does for the press operator to print it. When you are running 15 of these jobs a day then short cuts happen, proofing goes out the window and a bad file sneaks by. I used to blame the prepress guy now I just blame the customers and we have a much better working relationship at work.

We have client checking the PDFs on Blackberry's. Talk about High speed world. AAAGGGG. How can we expect our client to see the PDF file correctly with some half A$$ software that come with a Blackberry AND have it represented correctly. And you guessed it, most get "Rejected" because its not looking right... DUH!!

 

[Brad38CMU]

Pressmen walk on water at your facility too? Wow...

In regards to your customer proofs, if your print matches the proof the responsibility is on them. That is why you go through the proofing process, to cover your butt. Do any of you provide a PDF to the customer to approve for copy before proceeding to contract proofs? This is our procedure, and I can't count how many times the customer will approve the PDF then request copy changes after the contract proof has been sent to them. The PDFs are sent in an effort to conserve and to expedite the process. This is frustrating...

 

[apepp]

...yes been there on several occasions myself, wrong image updated...
...missed bleed...
...overlapping bleed on an impo spined...
...imposed wrong for watermarked paper...
...imposed pages in wrong order...
...forgetting to map a spot color to another spot color, so missing on plates and print...
...copied and pasted from one quark doc to another, same ink names, different colors, meant colors changing...
...poor rgb conversions...
...overprint whites...
...thin tinted lines not printing...
...typed wrong dimensions for impo, job trimmed incorrectly...
...small serif type on a heavy mix black background disappearing on web press...
...client artwork not fitting existing cutting tools...
...imposed A7 saddlestitch, no finisher could finish...
...imposed endorsement fold wrong way up, based on client dummy...

...and thats just friday afternoon...

...and still the boss expects perfection day in day out and a smile on your face?

...apparently computers were invented to make life easier and we'd all have so much more free time in our lives we wouldn't know what to do with it...

...b*****ks!!

...slaves to the machines, slaves to the money, never be quick enough...