Full Color Printing - Print Management


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print management

Print management is essentially the glue that connects the design people with the print people. Once the inevitable cycle of the design process finally stops, as a client you will be expected to sign off hard copy proofs of each piece of finished artwork. This signals that you are happy with what you have seen and that you expect the final printed material to come back looking exactly as you have it on this final proof. But how do you translate this page into the business brochure or magazine that you require? Well this will be done with the help of your friendly neighborhood printer working in conjunction with your ever patient designer and, if you are smart, a professional print manager!

	Signing off and going to press
	The designer is generally expected to supply your printer with all the files that they require to output film or(as is more often the case these days) produce a digital plate. While designers tend to be familiar with the requirements of 'collecting for output' .More>

	Achieving peace of mind
	You might be forgiven for thinking that once you had okayed the proof the printing was a mere formality but nothing could be further from the truth. When the designer passes the files to the printer there are a plethora of things that can cause a job to falter these can include. More>

	Liability
	The other great thing about using a print manager is that as well as taking away a lot of the stress of the liaising between printer and designer, they also take on the liability for any mistakes at this crucial stage.More>

Signing off and going to press

The designer is generally expected to supply your printer with all the files that they require to output film or(as is more often the case these days) produce a digital plate. While designers tend to be familiar with the requirements of 'collecting for output' as this process is called, they

may never have worked with the particular printer that you have chosen. This can complicate things somewhat and is the reason that people with experience of this process often opt for a print manager.

An average print production cycle

Print Manager
Now if your designer is used to dealing with printers they may well offer this service as part of their service. It is well worth checking if this is included in the price they have quoted you, it will usually be itemized on the quote. Print management carries with it a great deal of responsibility and is one of the reasons it is often a significant part of the designers costs. Many designers will not offer this service for this very reason. You should always have someone experienced in the job to oversee print management for you as this is an area where there is no margin for error and mistakes will cost you dearly.

Acheving peace of mind

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So what does a print manager do exactly? Well you might be forgiven for thinking that once you had okayed the proof the printing was a mere formality but nothing could be further from the truth.

When the designer passes the files to the printer there are a plethora of things that can cause a job to falter. Problems can include incorrect imposition, missing and substituted fonts, poorly optimized or incorrectly formatted images, differences in calibration between output devices and so on...

Troubleshooting
The main thing to note here is that these things all need to be avoided and that is a job that an experienced print managers will do for you. On top of that he can source you competitive print prices and deal with the press operator to ensure that what you get delivered in the boxes is what you expected.
As I said all of this generally comes at a price but undoubtedly it will be money well spent for the peace of mind gained by employing a print manager. Indeed the money he(or she) will likely save you should cover the cost of using them.

Liability

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The other great thing about using a print manager is that as well as taking away a lot of the stress of the liaising between printer and designer, they also take on the liability for any mistakes at this crucial stage.

In other words they provide insurance against anything going horribly wrong. This should be covered in their term of business and it will be worth ensuring that is the case when employing one.

Guarantee
The proof you have signed off is effectively your benchmark with the print manager overseeing the printer to guarantee you get a verbatim copy of this. Should it not be the case it is up to the print manager and the printer to decide who pays for the reprinting.

Related sections

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	Screen proofing
	Since they arrived PDF's have been a godsend to the industry, speeding up workflow and allowing designers easily communicate their ideas and clients to ratchet up their expectations. More>

	Avoiding undesirable results
	There are many things to be considered if a printer is to avoid a job going pear shaped. Some will prove to be simply annoying little hiccups while others can justifiably be called print disasters. The thing they all have in common is that they can usually be avoided. More>

	Pre press considerations
	As well as the common decisions that have to be made when setting up a job for print there are a few others unique to magazine printing that have to be considered before the design work can actually begin. These include . More>