Quick Printing

AUG 2013

Quick Printing is the only business resource serving the quick and small commercial printing niche in North America. Quick Printing is the authoritative source for business information, emerging technologies, shop profiles and management insight.

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Photos courtesy of Bindtech, Inc. and Enfocus. The more detailed the design, the more important it is to communicate clearly. By Jeffrey Steele esigning for print involves countless and complex considerations. But experts agree the most essential among them are these two points. First, designers must involve printers as early as possible in the process, and second, communication fow between designers and printers must be as clear and upfront as possible. D The most successful designs are those that come in on budget and get results, says Michael Reiher, product manager for Enfocus Connect. Enfocus software is, of course, widely used in the industry for PDF pre-flight and PDF editing tools, while Enfocus Connect blends PDF creation with quality control and file delivery, specifically targeted at the graphic arts industry. "Many designers forget it's more than just a pretty printed piece," Reiher says. "If your print design is going to be effective, it's got to be reproducible downstream. So the easier you can make it for those downstream, the better it is 16 QUICK PRINTING / August 2013 for everyone" he observes. "If you comprehend what your piece will become, you'll better understand your design limitations. You have to design to your budget. A lot of people waste time designing, only to learn it won't fit in the budget." If the designer can pass to the printer what the latter needs the first time out, it helps ensure the piece is produced much more quickly, keeping the project on budget. "Designers tend to throw things over the fence, and the printer has to go back and forth with many surprises," Reiher says. "For any effective communication, you have to understand where it's going, and whether it's meeting your budget and your time frame." The issue actually involves twin considerations, he adds. On one side is the problem of the piece's technical aspects. Is it a tri-fold? Where do the folds fall? Is it a die-cut? Second, there's the technical end. What kind of file is needed to produce that job? Will it go to a digital press or an offset press? "Communicating that aspect tends to be the challenge," Reiher says. "Knowing what color model to use, how to put in the bleeds, resolution of the images, and all that becomes a tough thing for a designer to grasp," he says. Enfocus Connect takes responsibility for the technical aspects of the file format, which today is typically a PDF, Reiher says. It takes all the technical knowledge away from designers, and gives it to the printer. "The printer doesn't have to communicate back to the designer to w w w. M y P R I N T R e s o u r c e . c o m

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