Prepress ( Eng. Prepress ) is the process of manufacturing electronic mock-ups of printing products using desktop publishing systems. An employee of a printing house or prepress bureau , whose duties include prepress preparation of layouts for printing, is called a prepress (prepress, PrePress). In addition to the basics (placement of mock-ups / mock-ups, technological scales and labels on a printed sheet, knowledge of the technical features of various printing machines both generally and in a particular printing house, etc.), the pre-printer can specialize in strip descent , color correction , retouching , etc. .
Prepress stages
- Development of the design or general concept of the final printing product.
- Production of an electronic breadboard model using software ( layout program).
- Proofreading / editing the text content of the layout.
- Making the necessary corrections to the layout, taking into account the peculiarities of printing and post-printing equipment ( color correction , trapping , etc.).
- Color proofing (color sample of the final product)
- Production of electronic descent of strips , taking into account the subsequent post-printing processing of the product ( creasing , folding , cutting, etc.).
- Making color- sealed transparencies (film output) or sending electronic strip slides to a CTP device for making printing plates .
- Production of printing plates for printing equipment for subsequent printing of the product.
Each stage is included in the process or excluded from it depending on the production need.
Process Description
To obtain a predictable product print result, it is necessary to have complete information about the final product at the stage of design design and prepress preparation of the product. Namely: the final size of the product (cropped format), color (color), the profile of the printing equipment on which the product will be printed, and it is also necessary to describe the entire chain of post-print processing of the product.
A significant role in the quality of printing printing products is played by the profiling of printing equipment. This procedure is carried out for a specific model of the printing press and the type of printed material and is subsequently used to develop the design of the printing product, prepress and color proofing. If the printing company is certified according to any printing standard, this procedure is not required, and initial prepress and printing are carried out according to the standard that the company follows.