Is There a Cultural Shift in the Advertising Workflow?

With the advent of digital workflow, new responsibilities emerge for the newspaper publisher and the ad creator

Ask most newspaper sales executives, and they’ll tell you just how competitive the market place is these days — how tough of a sell it is when other media forms are drawing the interest of advertisers like never before.

Newspapers must be able to compete with these other vehicles, present compelling circulation numbers, and provide excellent customer service to the advertising client. They must be able to accept, position, produce and print the advertiser’s copy and images, with particular attention paid to reproduction quality.

In the cases of ads supplied by larger agencies and experienced design firms, digital content may come in by way of “prepress-ready” file formats, all the elements present and accounted for, all the specifications for print met. But not all ads come in from clients well-equipped to supply these types of files. As a result, plenty of bad files come in the door — files rife with font, resolution or color space problems. And these “bad files” must then be fixed before they can be placed in the imposition, which, of course, takes time and money.

Fortunately, there are inexpensive software tools available to newspaper publishers and their advertising clients that smooth out these workflow wrinkles, and enables advertisers to supply well-prepared and accurate digital ad files to the publisher, as well as enabing the publisher to confirm that the files are “good” upon receipt.

The publisher’s role
Newspaper production departments have been long – (and well) equipped to receive any number of types of digital ad files — everything from native application QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign documents to more standardized, locked down PDF files.

As the publisher, accepting these digital ads, the newspaper production team is often equipped with software — referred to in the print industry as “preflight software“
– that will analyze digital ad files and alert the publisher to any inaccuracies in their preparation. Preflight software will sound an alarm when there may be missing fonts and graphics, improper color space (RGB vs. CMYK) or resolution discrepancies.

While preflight technologies have been a staple for newspaper and other print publishers for more than a decade, the workflow between advertiser and publisher remains replete with flaws, with publishers and printers reporting as many as 85 percent of the digital files they receive from their clients are ill-prepared and require some intervention before they can be printed.

Most publishers and printers agree that the ideal advertising workflow comprises digital fields that are supplied in good form that meet the ideal printing specifications established by the newspaper publisher and its printer. And there’s really no reason why advertisers — whether large, print-savvy agencies or independent designers — can’t supply their files in this way. The tools to verify their content before submitting it to the newspaper are inexpensive, easy to use and accessible. But if may fall upon the publisher’s production and sales staff those who have direct contact with the advertising client — to evangelize their use.

Fortunately, it isn’t a tough sell for clients who share the publisher’s goal — to produce good print ads. Increasingly the culture is shifting, and ad creators are more inclined to do whatever is necessary to ensure the files they release to the paper will process seamlessly and look great in print.

The agency’s role
These days, it’s no longer the publisher and printer who share the responsibility of quality control; it’s everyone’s responsibility — from content creator to production to prepress to press.

“I examine and check all the files before they’re released from the agency — whether they’re for outdoor media, newspapers or magazines,” suggests Donna Carroll, quality control manager, newspapers or magazines,” suggests Donna Carroll, quality control manager, print production, Crispin Porter and Bogusky (CPB Miami).

CPB produces graphics and ad campaigns for some notable clients, including Virgin Atlantic Airways, Burger King, Mini Cooper, and NOW HIV/AIDS, just to name a few. Carroll says that no matter the size and prestige of the client, it’s the agency’s primary responsibility to ensure their ads are visually spectacular when they appear in print.

To ensure that the digitial ad files she offers to newspaper publishers, Carroll uses a low-cost application called Flightcheck Professional from Santa – CA – based Markzware. The solution according to the developer, is designed to “look inside” the digital file — whether it’s a native application file (such as QuarkXPress or Adobe Illustrator) or a final-format PDF — and determine whether all of the file elements are present and accounted for.

“We have 20 digital artists who work on files before I get them, Carroll explains. “For each of them, their last workflow step is to use FlightCheck [Professiona] to check these elements and then collect them to a single file package. Not only is it a checkpoint for us at the creative stage, it is also a collection tool that gathers all the images and fots, so that within the package, you know that everything required for the job is in there, and whe it gets to the vendor, it’s not missing anything.
“Then , they send the files to me,” Carroll ads. “I use FlightCheck again to double check them before they’re released to a publication or printer. It’s our last line of defense.”

Remember the common goal
Like Donna Carroll, Kenny Berwager is a big proponent of preflighting digital ads before they leave the agency’s doors. He’s a graphic and production artist for Lois Knott Advertising, a small, more-than-35-year-old advertising firm based in Hanover, PA.

While the firm produces a wide range of advertising media — everything form print to radio and TV spots — the majority of jobs Berwager works on are bound for local newspapers.

He describes the typical newspaper ad workflow: “Lois [Knott] is the creative director. She gathers any materials I’ll need to produce the ad, and also provides me with a sample layout — just someting simple like a pencil sketch. I take that layout and begin the design — in [Adobe] Illustrator or InDesign, usually. We currently use the Adobe Creative Suite applications,” Berwager explains.

Once the ad design is complete and approved by the client, Berwager finalizes the digital file by putting it through a complete preflight analysis and then collecting the document or output to a flattened PDF file that’s both “camera-ready” and “prepress-ready.”

Preflight is absolute necessity to the Berwager’s workflow, he insists. Using FlightCheck, Berwager is able to see all the file’s guts.

“It checks for things that may be corrupt,” he says. “I can see if images are RGB but should be CMYK. I can tell their resolution. I can see all of these details about the images and the fonts, so if something needs to be fixed, I can go back to InDesign or whatever application I’ve created the file in, and make the changes, recheck it with FlightCheck and then save out my PDF. That way, I know, when the file leaves my desktop, it’s not going to land at the newspaper and cause all sorts of headaches there, or on press.”

Berwager claims that he’s quite happy to preflight his files before he releases them to a client, a publication or a printer. While it may be an added responsibility on his shoulders, he says that it’s worth the few minutes it takes to adjudicate the files — especially for his clients.

“[Preflight] ensures there are fewer mistakes in the print job and ultimately, that means that our agency or our clients won’t have nay extra, unexpected charges for fixing problems with the files we produce,” Berwager asserts.

Preflighting A Win-Win For Both Printer And Print Buyer

Never before has the world of graphic arts been so dynamic, so ripe with change and new opportunities afforded by emerging creative technologies. And no longer are the creations made in popular desktop programs – like QuarkXPress, Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Word – bound to the traditional constraints of print. These days, businesses create content for any number of purposes.

Even small to mid-sized businesses generate a significant amount of ‘content’ for dissemination in one form of media or another – brochures, marketing materials, advertisements, educational and training materials, presentations, Web site copy, and so forth. And no matter the output intention – whether the information will be printed and distributed, or used in some electronic fashion (the Web, an Intranet, a DVD/CD-ROM, email newsletter, etc.) – it’s up to the creator of that content to ensure that it reproduces with integrity.

While the ‘new media’ enables businesses greater opportunity for exposure and reach, it’s prompted those creating content to adapt and learn new skill sets.

David Creamer, owner of I.D.E.A.S. Training, Bonsall, CA says that there is greater burden on businesses to stay on top of the rapidly evolving world of graphic arts and electronic media.

Take a simple concept like PDF, for example. While most professionals are fairly familiar with PDF as a universally embraced way to share content, the mere act of creating a PDF document is quite complicated. Depending on where and how the information is being disseminated, the PDF file must contain certain attributes to drive output. A PDF file that’s being posted on a Web site is very different from one that’s intended to be printed. This is just one example of the nuances in the graphic arts workflow of which content creators may not be aware.

Like a Microsoft Word or a QuarkXPress file, Creamer asserts, ‘PDF is just a format. It can eliminate the problem of missing graphics or fonts, but there is still the issue of garbage in, garbage out.

That’s why a content creator’s continuing education is so critical these days. I’m not talking about how to design, but how to create files properly — when to use a spot-color guide, when to use a process-color guide, how much resolution is necessary, how to eliminate transparency issues, how to make PDfs, and so forth,’ Creamer stresses.

‘Everyone can make a PDF file on the computer simply by selecting the print-to-PDF option. It does not mean that it is a production-quality PDF.’ Stephen Shinnick agrees. Shinnick is the vice president of sales for All Systems Integration, an international graphic arts and printing integration firm. In his role, Shinnick consults with businesses across the globe, and suggests and implements technologies that help his clients create, manage and distribute content in the most effective and cost-efficient way.

Fortunately, content creators don’t have to be formally trained graphic artists to prepare good files, Shinnick suggests. There are very low-cost software solutions — commonly referred to as ‘preflight’ tools — to help ensure content is rendereed precisely the way you expect.

Fixing Corrupted InDesign Layouts

Not long ago, Markzware put out a cry for Adobe InDesign users to send in their bad, corrupted or otherwise not responding documents. We have seem a steady stream of crashing InDesign documents coming in, which is to assist our R&D team in making a recovery Plug-in, similar to MarkzTools. Keep sending them (to david AT markzware DOT nl), for we are making incredible progress. Those who want to see how we fix them currently, visit this site and lastly, here is a video up-date on the recovery process. We show a huge file getting fixed:

Listen To Markzware On Computer America

Click Here To Listen!

05-29-08 Show
Carey Holzman - Thursday, 29 May 2008, at 10:58 p.m.

Hour one: Markzware. This software publishing company, caters to the worldwide graphic, printing and publishing industries. FlightCheck Professional is a stand-alone application that can inspect over 45 layout application types and hundreds of image types. The amazing thing is that you do not even need to purchase Acrobat to perform quality control checks on PDF files!

Whenever print shop managers make the decision to adopt a PDF workflow, they need preflight and conversion tools that can easily accept a wide variety of file formats. Increasingly, customers are using business office software applications like Microsoft Word and Publisher. This is bad news for printers since they would rather be dealing with QuarkXPress or InDesign files.

The solution is a combination of Markzwares wide technical knowledge of file formats and our applications like FlightCheck, Q2ID, ID2Q and MarkzTools. All of these are easy-to-use, cost effective solutions for prepress and print shop managers. While plugins and XTensions like Q2ID, ID2Q and MarkzTools convert and migrate date from application to application, FlightCheck then checks those files, including PDFs to ensure proper printability.

Computer America listeners get 15% OFF! Enter code mark15 when purchasing any products from their website: 
http://www.Markzware.com

Click Here To Listen!

 

What Does Preflighting The Design Mean?

What Does Preflighting The Design Mean?

As a graphic designer, has this ever happened to you?

The scenario: Youve sent your marketing masterpiece that you have meticulously designed to your printer. The deadline is tight, but you made it. Then the phone rings. Its your printer calling to let you know they are having problems printing your piece. You are about ready to scream because the client is waiting to get this piece out to his customers.

What are some of the problems, you ask the printer. The response: Youve sent low-resolution graphics, and have missing files and graphic items that have the wrong color space. Whats more, the job has missing or stylized fonts. Ugh, you say. How come I didn’t know the file I created and designed was improperly prepared and has become a can of worms?

The reason is that the job that was created was not ‘designed’ correctly.

The word ‘design’ means more than making a product look pretty. Of course, a beautiful piece is very important. But possibly more significantly, is how the piece works and functions. The ‘design’s performance is the result of the designers objectives in terms of getting the reader to ‘think something’ and to ‘do something’.

To ensure the desired performance, it is imperative that the ‘mechanical design’ is accurate. Wikipedia’s definition of ‘design’ includes this statement: ‘… Designing normally requires a designer to consider the aesthetic, functional, and many other aspects of an object or a process, which usually requires considerable research, thought, modeling, interactive adjustment, and re-design…’

What preflighting software does is assist the ‘right brained’ designer, by providing a logical /mechanical software solution that does the left-brained work for him/her. Preflighting is a logical process. This process needs to be included within the overall design and construction of the piece to be printed. The end objective needs to be thought out well in advance. That is, that the piece will print as expected. Because, if this doesn’t happen, the entire design concept is worthless.

In the new era of digital design, graphic artists must think beyond aesthetics and accept some of the responsibility that prepress and printers once held. The idea of a quality control check, or preflight provides in macro terms the benefit of “lean” manufacturing for both designers and printers.

Preflighting for print and establishing an effective workflow also includes:
• identifying defective products
• eliminating overproduction
• excessive
• reducing work-in-process inventory
• avoiding over-processing
• stopping unnecessary movement of people and of products

• and waiting

Graphic artists of days gone by may have had it easier than their contemporary counterparts. Primarily, they could concentrate on the aesthetics of great content, allowing others—prepress and print production people, for example— to deal with the mechanics of producing it.

But the role of today’s graphic artist is a bit more complicated, thanks to the introduction of new electronic media and a shift of responsibilities. By and large, “prepress” has fallen by the wayside, leaving it up to creative professionals to be both designers and technicians, and to bridge the gap between design conception and final reproduction.

Clearly, a design’s destination (print, online, CD-ROM, and so forth) determines how a file should be created. A document bound for print will have different resolution, color-space, and trim-and-bleed requirements, for example, compared to content meant for the Web. Knowing the output intentions is important, but ensuring that digital files meet those specifications is equally as critical.

The bottom line is to follow the basic rules of print production, preflighting utility programs should be used to check designs. A systematic check of files before they go to a print vendor or are printed in-house is the best way to ensure error-free output.

One of the easiest ways to save is to pay close attention to prepress expenses. The costs of film, direct-to-plate or creating PDF files for print are enormous. And when there is a problem resulting in the job to be re-printed the costs add up, exponentially.

The printed word is a very reliable format for reaching potential audiences. Creating eye-catching flyers and marketing material has been greatly enhanced by digital technologies. Page layout programs, such as QuarkXPress and Adobe’s InDesign, have helped streamline the design and production process, which encompasses acquiring materials, designing the piece and checking the integrity of the file before final print.

Preflighting the design just takes moments. Those few seconds can save graphic professionals hours of misery fixing problems that will show up after film or plates are created. The financial savings in time and materials can be tremendous to marketers eager to get the message in the hands of potential new customers.

Markzware Friend, David Watson of Ultimate Dies

I am saddened by todays news of David Watsons death.

David was a visionary and a gentleman. He always made it a point to visit me at all the GraphExpo and other tradeshows to share a word or two with me.

I have known David personally since 1996. He was a typesetter from the old days. We both shared an affinity with each other as I was a typesetter and we could relate to each other.

Not too long ago, shortly before drupa he gave me another one of those [out of the blue] phone calls. It was to invite Markzware to demonstrate our wares at the Hewlett-Packard booth. 

I will miss David.

Click here for the full press release

FlightCheck vs StickMan

Inspired by the “Animator vs Animation” Flash animated film by Alan Becker (click here to see that one), David Nieuwenhuizen, the Markzware Europe design-intern and student at Grafische Lyceum Rotterdam or GLR for short, created this cool piece. What we like about it is that it is not only showing animation and flash in a fun way, but also giving you a tour of FlightCheck Professional, highlighting some of the more important features and interface items. The FlightCheck eagle has his talons full with this pesky image, the Stickman;

FlightCheck vs Stickman

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7lu2IKZIVU&hl=en">

PDF, Designers & Bicycles- FlightCheck User Interview

More and more printers and publishers are reverting from demanding print-ready PDF jobs only. PDF and the various standards out there like PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-3, cPDF and the great work by the GWG (Ghent PDF Workgroup) are excellent initiatives, but not the cure-all. The reasons for this have to do with preflighting and last minute file corrections. Editing a PDF is not a trivial task. Yes, a prepress expert well trained with tools like Enfocus PitStop or Callas PDFToolbox can get away with some, but not all changes. (We will cover this in a future blog post.)

Here is an interesting FlightCheck user interview with Mr. Paul de Boer which goes into further detail on this exact topic. Paul is a freelance graphic designer from The Netherlands whom specializes in laying-out books for artists and historical societies amongst other more standard design products.

De Boer on why he bought FlightCheck on a sunny Friday afternoon; “I want this weekend to have the time to correct them [the 100 page book] properly. Now InDesign, the program (Adobe) InDesign you can have a sort of ‘FlightCheck’ as well, but I am searching for perfection and FlightCheck from Markzware is giving more detail.”
Paul de Boer, freelance book designer – http://www.pauldeboer.eu

Hear about the run-in with his printer over delivering PDFs, open InDesign files and why he uses FlightCheck Designer- even on the weekend via this YouTube interview from MarkzwareTV:

It was a pleasure servicing Paul’s order, especially since he personally picked it up on his bicycle with payment in cash! Not all of you can come into Markzware in southern California or our European office in South Holland, but still feel free to send in your videos about how and why you use your Markzware product- all entries win a t-shirt just for entering! See contest rules and regulations here:

http://www.markzware-europe.com/contest/

Testimonial from Paul de Boer:
I used FlightCheck when I was working with Quark. Then Adobe came with InDesign, and I thought:
Well, now I can check it within that programme. What a mistake !!!.
Ok, InDesign checks some basic elements, but I am a pro, and I deal with many print companies, each with their own (unique) demands. And some of those demands are not seen by InDesign.
Some people told me: You can also check it all by a programme like PitStop. Yes, but I don?t design with PitStop, I design in InDesign. So if I make adjustments or corrections, I want to make them in the original files in an easy and fast way, and FlightCheck professional gives me that opportunity.  PitStop has indeed its place in the workflow, but on other moments.

Last week I was finishing a 100 page book, and there was no time left for errors and delays. (yeah, yeah, the famous deadlines !!) and InDesign could not guarantee me a perfect job. So I put up the phone and called Markzware in Rijswijk (the Netherlands) and asked theme if they could help me instantly (it was Friday, and I only had the weekend left for corrections). Normally the software has to be bought by resellers, but due to the time limit I could come to the firm. I jumped on my bicycle and  went for a 30 minute ride (I live in The Hague, Holland) to meet David Dilling of Markzware at his office, and I can only say that I was indeed helped instantly with great service !!

It’s really refreshing that a company gives so much service. You people are really great !!
And also important: I indeed could fix a (minor) mistake, because of FlightCheck (was not seen by InDesign), and still had time left that weekend to go to the beach.
So David, I make you a promise: I will promote your company and software programmes wherever I can, because like I said: You people are really great (as well as your software programmes) !!!

All the best,

Paul de Boer

Q2ID Return On Investment (ROI) over 1,000%!

Below is a press release from IT Enquirer on a recent, detailed ROI (Return On Investment) report they did on Markzware’s Q2ID or QuarkXPress to Adobe InDesign conversion plugin. As you can see in this chart, a single license of Q2ID can have a first year ROI of over 1,000 %*! That is amazing. See exhibit from IT Enquirer report here:

* Make note: This report is using ONLY five files over a year period as an example and even with only so few, the ROI is over 1,000 percent- likely many publishers and advertising agencies will have many more than that, making the return on investment really incredible.

You can download the complete report for free here. They put a lot of attention to costs, time and complexities between QuarkXPress and InDesign, for all layout or DTP programs are not created equal. This is a great resource for publishers or agencies that often need to first prove ROI to purchasing managers or executives before getting approval for buying software licenses. Here is the full press release from IT Enquirer below;

IT Enquirer publishes Q2ID ROI report

On Monday, IT Enquirer, a leading cross-media publishing industry website, has released a report on Markzware Q2ID, a conversion tool that translates layouts from QuarkXPress 7 and earlier to InDesign CS3. The report contains the return on investment for one-seat and five-seat licenses of Q2ID. It calculates the Return of Investment (ROI) for 1 to 5 documents. The measurements that led to the ROI results are included with the report.

The Markzware Q2ID ROI report is the first of a series of ROI reports planned for publication on IT Enquirer. This first report is a completely free download –no prior registration required. The following ROI reports that will appear on IT Enquirer will be available to V.I.P. subscribers only (a 95.00 EUR / year subscription fee).
Planned ROI reports include a report on Workflow Automation with PowerSWITCH, Preflighting, the value of early-in-the-workflow preflighting, XML cross-media publishing versus other methods, etc.

The Q2ID ROI study can be downloaded for free by right-clicking the following URL:

http://www.it-enquirer.com/media/q2id.pdf

About IT-Enquirer
IT-Enquirer is an online publication for digital designers and publishers. It contains reviews, technical background information, and feature and trend analysis.

Erik Vlietinck has over 12 years of experience as a freelance journalist for magazines in Belgium, the Netherlands and Great-Britain. He has written manuals for software such as Smart Connection Pro and Enterprise and the Unisys Hermes system, and technical and market analysis papers for the photo- and large-format printer divisions at Hewlett-Packard and Ricoh.

Media Contacts:
Erik Vlietinck • erik@it-enquirer.com • +32 495 206795 or +44 208 816 8082
http://www.it-enquirer.com/

Preflight- a brief history

Preflight, in the graphic arts sense, is the process of checking a digital document before it goes to plate, print or otherwise output (exported – such as to PDF). It traditionally is a way to check quality before going to the printing press, digital or otherwise, but can also be used to check online banners and gifs. Preflight is best done on the source document, such as those created in Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, QuarkXPress or Corel!Draw as some examples, before becoming a PDF (Portable Document Format). Similar to a pilot whom walks around and performs a pre take-off pre-flight check, preflighting for designers and prepress operators should be a must.

The term preflight was first used during a presentation in 1990 by Chuck Weger, a well know industry consultant. There were some early on postscript (rips) that interperted data and provided a preflight report of sorts. However the first true preflight application came from Markzware and was wisely called FlightCheck another term pilots also use.

Even before FlightCheck® was out on the market, Markzware applied for and was dully granted a U.S. Patent Number 5,963,641 – ‘Device and method for examining, verifying, correcting and approving electronic documents prior to printing, transmission or recording.’

As a way to ‘break-out’ from under Quark’s wings (Markzware started with QuarkXPress XTensions), and to become more ‘independent’ as a software development company, a key decision was made for FlightCheck to become a stand-alone application including additional value such as compatibility with file formats such as formerly Aldus PageMaker, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and others.

FlightCheck was released during the Seybold Conference at San Francisco in the fall of 1995. Although the product did not ‘officially’ ship, until December of that year. During those three days at Seybold, Markzware sold nearly 500 units! Fast-forward to 2008 and, although Markzware develops plug-ins and Xtensions for preflighting and conversion, FlightCheck Professional remains a stand-alone application. Easy to use via a drag-and-drop interface it now validates some 50 file formats including of course Adobe InDesign and PDF, FlightCheck is even more important than ever to tens of thousands of printing, publishing and creative companies, worldwide.

Other preflighting tools have come along, including the popular Enfocus PitStop, which also is more of a PDF editor and other generally PDF orientated checking devices. Although some of the page layout tools offer limited preflighting, it is virtually un-comparable to Markzware’s FlightCheck.

Preflight is a process that you do in PREperation, before you send off to others or hit command-P (print). Postflight is the process that is administered on the resulting PDF file. Many will loosely use the term “preflight” to cover both preflight and postflight.

The importance of preflighting can be seen in the exhibit below:

To learn more about Markzware’s FlightCheck, visit their web page here:
http://www.markzware.com

To purchase FlightCheck, click here:
Markzware Online Store

The invention of preflighting may not be on the same level as Gutenberg’s printing press, however I am quite sure Johannes would have used FlightCheck – watch YouTube Movie here:

http://www.youtube.com/v/x_H6V58eJfg&hl=en