Wiring Up

Learning about prepress hardware and software with respect to your package printing operation is essential to a smooth workflow process down the road.

By Molly Joss

Properly designed and implemented, front-end prepress hardware and software form the backbone of the time and money savings inherent in digital workflows. It also allows package printers to gain better control over job preparation and scheduling.

There are several approaches to creating a front-end system from scratch: do everything yourself; work with a value-added reseller or consulting company; or, work with a company that sells a complete line of solutions. No matter what route you take, it's essential to know the basics and what to expect throughout the entire process before you start.

What You Need

Before you set out to locate and buy a prepress system, spend as much time as you need envisioning what the perfect prepress system for your company would be able to do. Put these ideas on paper to serve as a private wish list. Most likely, however, you won't find a single system that meets all these needs and desires. You will be able to more quickly eliminate systems that aren't equipped with enough of the capabilities you need, such as the ability to handle more than four colors.

Everyone's list will contain a few of the same items. But since packaging jobs vary widely, a prepress system must be able to handle a wide variety of functions with a high degree of diversity. A system good at handling one or two different types of jobs isn't versatile enough.

In addition, prepress systems designed originally, or exclusively, for offset may be under-powered for flexo or other technologies in such crucial areas as sophisticated trapping, versatile, easy-to-use step-and-repeat, and support for multiple inks (four+).

What's Available

Once you know what you need, you can start looking. Working alone or with a consultant, you might want to put together a system from stand-alone applications. You can also work with a supplier that sells all, or many, of the components you'll need, including the hardware and software.

One way some companies get started is with a single workstation running one or two programs that help edit images or position all the elements needed for a design on a single label or box. For example, an operator might use Quark Xpress to set up the design and Adobe PhotoShop to edit scans. Then, images created in Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia FreeHand can be more easily incorporated.

This approach is the least expensive, as the software packages involved generally cost a few thousand dollars altogether and a single computer workstation can handle all of them. You can find operators familiar with these tools by placing ads for graphic artists in your local large daily, or by working with an employment firm that handles graphic artists or a local college with a graphic arts degree program.

The end result is a relatively inexpensive system that can handle many simple jobs. More complex jobs are harder, such as those with precision traps or more than four colors. While the hardware may be up to the task, these general-audience software packages are not specifically designed to handle such complexity.

Some of the complexities can be dealt with by adding in specialized software, such as electronic step-and-repeat or trapping packages. Preps, an electronic step-and-repeat package from ScenicSoft, Everett, WA, is commonly used by some package printers.

Using software specifically for packaging design is a more expensive, but less complicated, approach. ArtPro is a well-known all-in-one package for label and packaging production. Developed by Artwork Systems N.V. (Gent, Belgium and Holland, MI), it allows interactive, fully editable trapping as well as essential functions such as highly automated step & repeat.

Professional Computer Corporation (PCC), Bristol, PA, makes a complete line of packaging prepress software. President Dennis Mehta urges package printers to keep their specific prepress needs in mind when shopping. "They need software that does what their market segment needs. Folding carton printing needs one set of features, labels another set."

Buying specialized software and installing it yourself makes a lot of sense if you are comfortable dealing with computer hardware. If you aren't, or if you need specialized peripherals, consider working with a one-stop vendor, such as Heidelberg USA, Kennesaw, GA. Such companies can be invaluable with software, hardware and installation needs.

Heidelberg USA sells a complete line of hardware and software for labels and packaging prepress, press and post-press. PackPilot, the company's prepress solution, includes Artwork's ArtPro, LinoColor (color management) and PrintOpen (print management). They can also provide peripherals such as scanners, imagesetters and computer-to-plate equipment.

The software is the most important part of a prepress system. Without the right software, even the most expensive hardware is useless. PCC's Mehta and Achim Schmidt, manager of prepress systems for packaging and labeling at Heidelberg USA, strongly recommend visiting the vendor whose software you are interested in purchasing.

Be prepared to spend as much time as needed at the company to assure yourself the software can do what you need. Take along some of your recent projects and have the company staff recreate the work while you are there.

The Costs

Because there are so many software options, the software and hardware costs of establishing a prepress system range widely. A single well-equipped Macintosh workstation with a package and label design software suite can cost $20,000. Add in the cost of peripherals such as scanners and color proofers and the cost escalates rapidly. When the system contains three or more workstations, you may want to add an image server and networking capabilities. A networked system with three workstations, a scanner, an inkjet proofer and image server can run $100,000 or more.

No matter what software you choose, you'll need a well-equipped workstation to run it on. Most of the software runs on the more powerful Macintosh graphic arts workstations, such as the Power Macintosh and G3. Some, such as Barco Graphics' software, operates from a Unix platform.

No matter which operating system you choose, you will need at least one workstation to get started. Unit costs for a single well-equipped station without any software (a Power Mac or G3 system from Apple with at least 64 megabytes of RAM, a multi-gigabyte hard disk and 17"+ monitor) range between $10,000 and $15,000 depending upon the exact configuration. Similarly equipped Unix workstations may cost a few thousand more.

The Time

Deciding what you need can take weeks or months. The process of evaluating options and installing a system takes another few months. Following installation, some actual production can be expected immediately. However, weeks or months can go by while operators are working the bugs out of the workflow and getting to know all the features of the software.

Training always helps to speed up full production, and you may have to rely on the software company to provide it. So, before you invest in software, ensure that the manufacturer offers some kind of training. An initial training program of a few days or a week is a good start. As new features are introduced in the software, plan for periodic one-day training sessions.

Mehta, Schmidt and Halleran suggest training manual strippers to operate the system rather than people who are more familiar with computers, as in-depth knowledge of the printing process, and stripping in particular, is more valuable than in-depth computer expertise. Initial training on how to operate the computer may take three days. Learning the software may take several weeks.

The Potential Return On Investment

Schmidt offers the following observation based on his years of experience in the packaging prepress arena—return on investment can happen easily within a few months or years. He says a good prepress system can reduce a manual stripping department with a dozen or so stripping tables to two or three workstations and operators.

TECHNOLOGY AT A GLANCE

The Basic Flow

The following is an example of an electronic workflow drawn from Mark/Trece, a Fallson, MD, digital prepress house and flexographic computer-to-plate operation. All steps are performed by the prepress staff

Step One: Receive the digital images that comprise the job from the client, design firm or advertising agency either on disk, removable storage media such as SyQuest, or via a telecommunications line such as ISDN or T-1, or the Internet.

Step Two: Prepare the images for printing using prepress software (may include such tasks as assembling images, checking traps, performing step-and-repeat or editing the images).

Step Three: Create color separations of the job on film or a digital filmless proofing device using the digital file.

Step Four: Check the proof and, if okay, show proof to client for approval.

Step Five: Correct the file if needed and repeat steps 3, 4 and 5 as needed until the proof is approved by staff and client.

Step Six: Send the file to the plate machine which images the plates using the digital file.

Steps two and three, when a filmless proofing device is used, are the two points in the workflow where package printers generally make mistakes and lose time when first becoming accustomed to the new process. The way to minimize such mistakes is to start with simpler jobs and work up to more complicated ones as the staff gains experience and confidence—which can happen within a few months.

Step five, making corrections to a file with prepress software, can also be tedious at first as operators experiment with the different effects changes in the software make to the proof. However, this step becomes much faster once operators have gained some experience over weeks or months.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A Prepress Software Shopping List

The following is a short list (with explanations) of some of the features you may need or want to look for in your prepress system software.

Image editing—Separate software or functions within prepress software that allow the operator to make changes to an image, such as adding or removing elements and changing colors. Other editing functions include rotating an image and increasing or decreasing its size.

Proofing—Especially important in computer-to-plate operations, the software should provide the operator with the ability to print the image, stepped layout or contents of a single separation or entire plate.

Support for more than four inks—The software should be able to separate an image into the various ink colors needed for printing, including spot and process colors.

Step-and-repeat—The software should be able to automatically copy and place copies of an image (such as a label) to fill a sheet or plate following parameters set by the software operator. The term "imposition" is sometimes used to refer to the same functionality.

Trapping—The software should enable the operator to check areas of an image where colors overlap or meet and to adjust the trap as needed. This is manual (also known as interactive) trapping. In automatic trapping the software does all the checking and makes changes on its own. Most software offers both, allowing operators to use automatic trapping and check the traps later to make delicate adjustments as needed.

Additionally, if you are preparing files for work that will be applied to a curved surface, look for software that allows the operator to curve flat images. The function may be called warping, which is distorting an image or part of an image to make the image fit on a curved surface. Conic transformations are a related function, enabling the operator to curve an image so that it fits a cone-shaped object.