My first work in newspapers was as assistant composing room supervisor at a publishing company in downtown Seattle that owned six weekly newspapers and printed over 60 commercial jobs monthly. The most valuable lesson I learned in that position was that it was very important not to leave a zero off the quantity on a job ticket, as there was a lot of difference between 3,500 and 35,000 to the pressroom foreman.

What do you like most about your job?

The best aspect of prepress is that you are constantly in a learning mode. You may have just finished an installation or project and there is always another looming that you have to research and plan for.

Software is constantly changing, and you must keep up so that you can make appropriate decisions. And then there always is the digital file that requires some aspect of troubleshooting. There is a continual educational dialogue that goes on between pre-press staffers, sales and clients and you are often “the source” for the definitive answer.

What do you like least?

Dealing with the integration aspects of making different systems work together to get the final product to press. There are many challenges in making sure systems work together. Just because a system does one aspect of newspaper creation well doesn’t mean that it will link smoothly with the next stage of the production process. Sometimes we are forced to live with systems that are in place because of the expense involved in changing them.

What was the Journal’s most recent prepress purchase?

Earlier this year we purchased an HP Designjet 1055CM large format printer. This printer allows us to print color proofs on newsprint. It is ideal for producing color keys for the press for editorial photos. In addition, color proofs for advertising more realistically represent how the ad will look in the newspaper.

Until we purchased the 1055CM, we were printing color proofs on a Tektronik Phaser 300i using a white bond paper and the color was very misleading. We chose the HP 1055CM because it could produce the volume we needed quickly and it had a proven track record of reliability and quality.

What is the biggest challenge the Journal is facing in prepress?

We are still dealing with a significant volume of camera-ready materials. Currently that means that a percentage of our news pages must be output on imagesetter paper and ads still pasted in.

Ideally we want to be 100 percent paginated with all pages going to film. To accomplish 100 percent film output, we are contacting our camera-ready clients and encouraging them to submit digital files. In addition, we are looking at purchasing a copy dot scanner that will enable us to scan any remaining camera ready materials.

What prepress trend are you keeping your eye on?

Computer-to-plate. CTP is a necessity in our business if we wish to remain competitive and maximize quality.

Is there a tip or trick for dealing with a problem in prepress that you would like to share with the industry?