Both digital and traditional prepress services have their place in the world of printing, though digital is slowly wedging its way into position as the only necessary service. There are a lot of differences between digital prepress, and traditional, and after analyzing them, you can understand why many people simply go digital.
First off, both traditional and digital prepress have pretty much the same processes to go through, on paper. The biggest difference is that many of the jobs involved with traditional prepress have to be done physically and by a specialist, whereas with digital prepress many of the jobs are done on a computer, and can be handled by one or several people who specialize in the process as a whole.
Due to the differences between the two types of prepress, digital has merged many of the jobs with that of a graphic designer. For example, a graphic designer in a digital prepress shop might also take on the roll of typesetter, and paste-up (or layout design) specialist. This is because it’s much easier to manipulate these factors with a desktop publishing program than they might have been traditionally where it actually required the physical modification of various aspects of the job. This isn’t to say that the person who takes on these jobs in the digital world is somehow less valuable and therefor has to take on these tasks, it’s merely an example of added efficiency thanks to technology.
Digital prepress has also created some new types of jobs. With new technology comes efficiency, but also new aspects that need to be mastered. For example, someone has to essentially proofread the digital aspects of the job and ensure everything is accounted for and formatted correctly, this is called pre-flighting. This is essential so when the program is sent to the RIP (raster image processor) the program is able to blend all these elements together into a bitmap, or raster image, which is a single image made up from all the digital components of a digital prepress job. RIPping is essentially the final stage before printing. Another job that is needed for digital prepress is that of color management. Proper color management ensures that the integrity of the represented color remains uniform across all forms of media. Assuming the devices producing the images have similar image quality abilities, the image should look exactly the same whether it’s being viewed on your computer screen, or in print. Proper calibration across these mediums is required to ensure this takes place.
Though it may seem like digital prepress is taking over, you should be able to find prepress services to meet your needs, whatever they may be. There are still many quality traditional prepress services available.
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