A Prepress service bureau is also known as ‘service bureau’ for short. The company is involved in providing various DTPs. A DTP is an acronym for ‘Desktop Publishing’, a system that gives you the advantage of using various typefaces, specifying justifications and margins, and embedding graphs and illustrations within the text directly. The powerful DTPs are able to generate illustrations, whereas the less advanced systems allow you to insert illustrations made by some other program.
With the advancement of technology, word processing programs are becoming more advanced and the demarcation line with DTPs (Desktop Publishing Service) is becoming increasingly blurred. However, on an overall basis, it can be said that DTP applications provide you greater control over various typographical facets. A distinct advantage with desktop publishing service is that you are able to see the actual appearance of the document on the display-screen, even before the printouts come. A system that provides this facility is called WYSIWYG (acronym for ‘what you see is what you get’).
The various service bureaus, apart from DTPs, are also involved in providing scanning services and general consultancy services. Certain service bureaus rent out their computers that have DTP- software installed. Although the ambit of services varies from one company to another, there are some core jobs that are done by most of the service-providers. These include image editing, various color correction tasks, digital-file trapping, scanning of high resolution B/W or colored images, digital proofs, typesetting services, color separations, etc.
Once you have armed yourself with all this knowledge, the next task is finding a prepress service bureau that would be able to perform your required tasks in a competent manner. If you do not have any prior knowledge of dealing and working with any service bureau, you might feel confused about how to proceed. You need to remember that the task is pretty similar to searching for a professional photo-lab. You need to discuss with those friends and acquaintances, whom you feel have knowledge about this domain. Ask them about the various bureaus and also clearly mention your budget.
You also need to try out the services provided by the various bureaus, by sending them some test digital files. After you receive the output from the various bureaus, you would be able to compare the quality of services provided by each one of them. This would include various aspects, like the output quality, punctuality of delivery, price charged, etc.
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