Adobe CS5 Introduction on April 12th!!!!!!

I want it now. CS5 Content Aware features will be awesome!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH0aEp1oDOI

Below is taken from the CS5.org website.

In about 19 days we will learn all about Adobe’s Creative Suite 5. You can sign up for the unveiling and watch a timer at Adobe’s launch site, Announcing Adobe CS5! Join for the exclusive Global Online Launch Event, Monday, April 12, 2010.
Before you get too excited, let’s get one thing straight: This is the unveiling, or basically an introduction to the public. Adobe is going so far as to call it a “launch” day but you will not be able to buy the software that day. Adobe has not announced a release day yet, but October 2010 makes sense to me (just a guess). This would position Adobe for a strong end to the calendar year, it would give them sufficient time to work on it after the April introduction, and it lines up exactly two years after the release of CS4. That said September/November would make just as much sense, and some rumors are putting the date earlier, noting an 18 month release cycle.

Why Printing Process Control is Vital – Measure, Record and Track

What is printing? There are those that would say it is an art. An art produced by craftsman with years of experience and an eye for detail. For these artists, there was a delicate balance between ink and water, combined with pressure and the physical press conditions. Manipulating keys on a console much like playing an organ controlled the process. Color was visually adjusted and tweaked until the artist and customer were happy with the result. Some artists read density of color to help guide them to desired results. The tandem of pressman and customer pulled, tweaked, and outdid themselves to the point of creating unique masterpieces. Remember art is something that is in the eye of the beholder. Enter the world of today. Print is now a manufacturing process. I’m not saying that the skills of experienced pressman are not needed. This is quite to the contrary. The skills of an experience pressman are now needed more than ever.

Process Control is the key to successfully manufacturing anything. I hate to say it but print is a commodity, not one that is traded but a manufactured product that we buy. The days of art direction at press are almost completely gone and the trend is to produce as quickly as possible. This intrinsically creates an environment of buying on price and sacrificing quality. The key to get both is to work with someone who has implemented ruthless process control in every phase of their manufacturing process.

Here are some reasons why process control is more important today than ever.

Operating windows: In years past, raw materials, used to produce print, were manufactured for ease of use. Plates, blankets, inks, developers, and fountain solutions, all key ingredients to putting ink on paper, have gone through many changes. Some have been necessary for the health of those who worked with them daily, others for environmental concerns and yet others to help lower cost and make print more affordable. In making these changes, the latitude or operating windows for successful use of these products have shrunk. We are now peering through a small basement window. The double wide French doors have long been closed. It is very easy to produce inconsistent product when your processes are not refined and monitored. Processes from ripping to proofing to plating and finally to printing need to be measured, recorded and tracked/trended. Change in the printing process usually does not happen overnight and we all know how we don’t see small changes. After all, do you remember when you actually stopped looking like a teenager? Trust me, look in the mirror you don’t anymore. In a pressroom, change is much like the aging process. All of a sudden you look in the mirror and the hair on your head is gone and growing everywhere else. The pressroom all of a sudden can’t match the proofs. Well not really, the change was slow, it just is so bad now you see it and can’t adjust for it anymore. Trending will show what is happening over time and allow you to control the process. I like to think of trending as providing a “fountain of youth” for print production.

Manufacturing Speed: 9000, 10,000, 15,000, 18,000 sheets per hour. In an effort to increase production capabilities press manufactures have been increasing speeds. I’m still amazed every time I see a press running. Stop for a second and think about it. Five sheets of paper entering the press every second, traveling through a series of cylinders and precisely placing an image to form a perfect rosette of dots. Offset presses are a manufacturing wonder. As speeds increase to need for all raw materials to perform as well as the physical press characteristics to be in spec are critical. Think about the speed at which you can waste stock if print is not controlled or out of specifications. Remember, paper is the biggest expense in your print job.

Distinction: Why do you award the job? After all there are thousands of print shops. There are also hundreds who will undercut your favorite printer’s price. Those who do, most likely are doing so just to “keep the lights on” but never the less they are out there and ready to pounce on the project to survive. Process control is a way for the printer to distinguish their service as a trusted partner who understands the necessary requirements for producing consistent, top quality manufacturing.

Your job as someone who purchases print is to make certain you are getting everything you pay for. Ask your provider what process controls they use in the production process. Minimally they should tell you that they validate their proofs against a color standard and the proof you receive should include a certification reading on it. Learn what the sticker means. What are the tolerances accepted by the printer? Don’t be fooled by comments like we have a closed loop color system. Then if they stop there, ask them to see the report data from the press run. It should be measured against the same standard as the proof you already ok’d. If they cannot provide you with report data specific to your job they did not measure, record and track!

Get the Gears Turning

Did I happen to mention I’m a firm believer in using automation in the print production cycle? Did I mention that if printers aren’t providing you with automation tools that streamline production you should find a new printer? Am I delusional to think that the company you work for puts a high emphasis on quality at a reasonable cost? Sorry to bombard you with all these questions but I cannot stress enough that, today, AUTOMATION is the key to profitability. Simple yet powerful Internet applications create cost savings, reduce human error and provide faster delivery of products and services.

So how do you do it? The first step is to commit to it and pick a partner who can provide all the necessary services. Then start to build a list of your requirements for your individual business needs.

Let’s talk about the types of print that should be automated.

Versioned Print, Personalized Print, Print-On-Demand and even some Custom Print jobs.

Versioned print refers to your communications that follow a basic design but change based on information. Examples might be sell sheets, newsletters, posters etc. Think about the work you produce 2-pagers, 4-pagers, tri-folds, 12, 16, 20, 24 pagers the list goes on. Create the buckets and we can work to create automation templates that will address these jobs for you.

LCP 1X1 Digital Print will take care of all your personalized print. Web-to-print solutions provide your organization with the tools that make ordering and customizing offers to one or many possible. Mailing list services as well as PURL campaigns create targeted offers that in many cases can exceed your expected results and produce the highest quality sales leads.

LCP Complete, our fulfillment division is fully integrated with our Web-to-print solution. This gives you the ability to have one login for personalized print but also combine that offer with inventory items such as static print, iPOD’s, kit’s, and any other inventory items. Go a step further and consider reducing or eliminating your inventoried print and move to Print-on-Demand whenever possible. This reduces waste of resources by eliminating the destruction of outdated material and provides you the ability to update information anytime. Couple in the green initiatives your organization has and POD is a necessary part of making that successful.

It's a partnership that makes all of this possible. It's the desire to work together to create a custom built machine that churns through your challenges and produces first class results. Lets build that machine together!

Sorry Quark – Adobe has got you beat!

Being a graphic arts professional for over 20 years and a QuarkXpress user for at least 15 of them, this article is bittersweet. Quark evolved into one of the most important page layout tools in the arsenal of desktop publishing professionals. It was the de-facto standard against which all others were judged.

Not so fast! Like I said I was a Quark Supporter. I loathed Pagemaker and everybody who used it. At the same time the arrogance of Quark continued to lurk around in the recesses of my brain. I had numerous issues with functionality and the unwillingness of the brass at Quark to listen to users. All that being said, when the media announced that Adobe would be releasing “the Quark Killer” I laughed out loud. Adobe, page layout, ha, what they are going to do, fix Pagemaker or worse yet Framemaker? No way!

Swallow – Boy was I wrong. When InDesign was first released, Adobe made it so incredibly affordable that I tried it. InDesign 1.0 was worse than Pagemaker. We all laughed again. Adobe could never take over. Adobe is going no where, as a matter of fact lets take a look at QuarkXPosure. After all Quark is superior at page layout maybe image manipulation is better there as well. Gulp – Boy I was wrong again.

Today, InDesign is a perfect compliment to Illustrator and Photoshop. As a graphics professional, we now cringe at the thought of receiving work in anything later that Quark 6.5. Quark 7 broke a good program and Quark 8 is too little to late.

InDesign and the newest PDF RIP technology create a speedy workflow that works. Printers everywhere prefer the formats and it has enabled productivity increases that help everyone save time and money. If you are on the fence about making the switch, JUST DO IT! The learning curve is quick, the cost is within reason and the benefits are enormous.

Direct Mail Born Again

Many marketers today have pulled away from direct mail but the tides are now turning. See this article: Firms Hold Fast to Snail Mail Marketing

Utilizing snail mail especially postcards that are intelligently designed as collectibles as described in this article or better yet incorporate variable data with a "call to action" PURL are once again proving to be an effective marketing tool. Print is not dead it is just more complicated and as a result even more effective than ever.

Finally, I'm Going to Kick the Ball!

Typical print sale models are like Charlie Brown sitting at his desk while the teacher goes “wha wha wha”. You don’t want to hear it and you tune it out. Print today is sold as a commodity just like everything else. Margins have shrunk and volume is down. More importantly for the design/agency community control of print has all but vanished. You are Charlie Brown and the purchasing department at your client is Lucy holding the football (your print project). You want to kick it, you have good reason why you want to kick it and no matter what you do, there seems to be no way you will. From a purchasing point of view it makes complete sense. Why should I pay you to manage print and pay for it and your mark-up? So now we know the problem, today’s economy has put price in front of quality. You worked tirelessly with your team to create extraordinary graphic designs and then at the last and most crucial step, execution, it is ripped away from you and you fly through the air and land helplessly on the ground. AAUGH!!!!

Hey, we are smarter than Charlie Brown aren’t we? We know the problem, now lets address it and fix it. Taking FULL control of the project is possible. There is not a purchasing agent in the world that would turn down a value proposition that also controls cost. Technology is the answer. Using it is the trick. If you can eliminate almost all prepress costs and never see another file prep alteration charge would you? If your answer is yes, we should talk. Today’s technology makes this possible. Technology alone is not enough; it needs to be used correctly and efficiently. I would love to fly a plane but I guarantee you would not want to be there when I land. I wouldn’t either, but with a trained instructor sitting with me and having some control, I would eventually be able to do it. Using technology for print production is much the same. You don’t want to crash but if you have someone to teach you what to do you will succeed.

Today, printers should be supporting their clients in the use of technology not only for print but also for all forms of communication. Targeted marketing programs that are defined and measured, purl campaigns, email blast, and soon, mobile device tools. These are all part of the communication channels available to advertisers. Your value proposition to clients is to handle the whole project. You need partners who want the same.

Nightmares of Authors Alterations?

The number one issue any print or marketing collateral buyer faces when managing a project is to stay within budget. Almost every project ends with the discussion about unforeseen costs. Printers and advertising agencies alike call these Author Alterations. I call them nasty problems that put undue stress on the client relationships. The fact of the matter is, when they occur they need to be paid for and generally they are legitimate.

So what can you do? Communication is the key. When AA’s pop up, the client deserves to know the cost right away. Make certain you instruct your sales representative how you expect AA’s to be handled ie. Go ahead and proceed for anything under $200.00 but anything above wait for my ok. This type of information is critical to maintaining a healthy relationship between you and your printer.

Now lets talk about preventing AA’s.

The first step is to use SPELLCHECK. It’s free and every program has it incorporated into its tool set. Second, do ALL your proofreading prior to submitting files. After 18 plus years in prepress I’m amazed at the amount of AA’s that result from typos or incorrect words that are undetectable by spell check. (ie you instead of your, there instead of their, etc.) These two steps save thousands of dollars when followed religiously. In our manufacturing environment we have used the word “relentless process control”. Your file creation should incorporate the same phrase as part of its workflow. Proofreading and using spell check are part of your relentless process control.

Another way to prevent alterations is to utilize automation techniques offered by your printers. If your printer cannot put the same production tools into your hands that they use, you should be looking for a new printer. Technology has made it possible for clients to completely eliminate AA’s associated with copy or color alterations. Combine this with calibrated proofing in your office and AA’s can be eliminated all the way up to the press. Do I have your attention? Are you wondering what is necessary to do this? Good!

Automation can be simple or very complex. It is based upon establishing a working relationship with your printer and establishing some simple rules to trigger automated actions. Naming conventions, predefined layouts and accurate file preparation are the three most important factors that make or break automation. A willingness to take on the challenge is the first step to achieving the results every budget minded professional as been dreaming of. The choice is up to you. For more information or a live demonstration of the process, please feel free to contact me 847-561-5639 or your current sales representative at Lake County Press!