Prepress Technicians and Worker Format and proof text and images submitted by designers and clients into finished pages that can be printed. Includes digital and photo typesetting. May produce printing plates.
Prepress Technicians and Worker is Also Know as
In different settings, Prepress Technicians and Worker is titled as
- Desktop Operator
- Electronic Prepress Operator (EPP Operator)
- Electronic Prepress Technician (EPP Tech)
- Plate Maker
- Plate Mounter
- Pre-Press Proofer
- Prepress Operator
- Prepress Specialist
- Prepress Stripper
- Prepress Technician
Education and Training of Prepress Technicians and Worker
Prepress Technicians and Worker is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Prepress Technicians and Worker
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Education Required for Prepress Technicians and Worker
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Degrees Related to Prepress Technicians and Worker
- Bachelor in Graphic Communications, General
- Associate Degree Courses in Graphic Communications, General
- Masters Degree Courses in Graphic Communications, General
- Bachelor in Printing Management
- Associate Degree Courses in Printing Management
- Masters Degree Courses in Printing Management
- Bachelor in Prepress/Desktop Publishing and Digital Imaging De
- Associate Degree Courses in Prepress/Desktop Publishing and Digital Imaging De
- Masters Degree Courses in Prepress/Desktop Publishing and Digital Imaging De
- Bachelor in Graphic and Printing Equipment Operator, General P
- Associate Degree Courses in Graphic and Printing Equipment Operator, General P
- Masters Degree Courses in Graphic and Printing Equipment Operator, General P
- Bachelor in Platemaker/Imager
- Associate Degree Courses in Platemaker/Imager
- Masters Degree Courses in Platemaker/Imager
- Bachelor in Printing Press Operator
- Associate Degree Courses in Printing Press Operator
- Masters Degree Courses in Printing Press Operator
Training Required for Prepress Technicians and Worker
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Prepress Technicians and Worker in different industries are
- Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators
- Printing Press Operators
- Etchers and Engravers
- Office Machine Operators, Except Computer
- Print Binding and Finishing Workers
- Patternmakers, Metal and Plastic
- Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Computer Numerically Controlled Tool Programmers
- Camera and Photographic Equipment Repairers
- Desktop Publishers
- Painting, Coating, and Decorating Workers
- Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Machine Feeders and Offbearers
- Electrical and Electronics Drafters
- Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Electromechanical Equipment Assemblers
- Industrial Machinery Mechanics
- Tool and Die Makers
What Do Prepress Technicians and Worker do?
- Enter, store, and retrieve information on computer-aided equipment.
- Enter, position, and alter text size, using computers, to make up and arrange pages so that printed materials can be produced.
- Maintain, adjust, and clean equipment, and perform minor repairs.
- Operate and maintain laser plate-making equipment that converts electronic data to plates without the use of film.
- Examine photographic images for obvious imperfections prior to plate making.
- Operate presses to print proofs of plates, monitoring printing quality to ensure that it is adequate.
- Examine unexposed photographic plates to detect flaws or foreign particles prior to printing.
- Examine finished plates to detect flaws, verify conformity with master plates, and measure dot sizes and centers, using light boxes and microscopes.
- Perform close alignment or registration of double and single flats to sensitized plates prior to exposure to produce composite images.
- Inspect developed film for specified results and quality, using magnifying glasses and scopes, forwarding acceptable negatives or positives to other workers or to customers.
- Punch holes in light-sensitive plates and insert pins in holes to prepare plates for contact with positive or negative film.
- Mount negatives and plates in cameras, set exposure controls, and expose plates to light through negatives to transfer images onto plates.
- Operate and maintain a variety of cameras and equipment, such as process, line, halftone, and color separation cameras, enlargers, electronic scanners, and contact equipment.
- Perform tests to determine lengths of exposures, by exposing plates, scanning line copy, and comparing exposures to tone range scales.
- Mix solutions such as developing solutions and colored coating solutions.
- Activate scanners to produce positive or negative films for the black-and-white, cyan, yellow, and magenta separations from each original copy.
- Select proper types of plates according to press run lengths.
- Analyze originals to evaluate color density, gradation highlights, middle tones, and shadows, using densitometers and knowledge of light and color.
- Set scanners to specific color densities, sizes, screen rulings, and exposure adjustments, using scanner keyboards or computers.
- Perform minor deletions, additions, or corrections to completed plates, on or off printing presses, using tusche, printing ink, erasers, and needles.
- Arrange and mount typeset material and illustrations into paste-ups for printing reproduction, based on artists' or editors' layouts.
- Scale copy for reductions and enlargements, using proportion wheels.
- Generate prepress proofs in digital or other format to approximate the appearance of the final printed piece.
- Proofread and perform quality control of text and images.
- Perform "preflight" check of required font, graphic, text and image files to ensure completeness prior to delivery to printer.
Qualities of Good Prepress Technicians and Worker
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
Tools Used by Prepress Technicians and Worker
- Automated film processors
- Commercial digital plotters
- Commercial digital printers
- Compact disk CD duplicators
- Desktop computers
- Digital printing presses
- Digital still cameras
- Digital video disk DVD duplicators
- Drum scanners
- Flat bed scanners
- Flexographic plate processors
- Gravure cylinder engravers
- Lithographic plate processors
- Newspaper platesetters
- Plate stackers
- Printing densitometers
- Thermal platesetters
Technology Skills required for Prepress Technicians and Worker
- Adobe Acrobat
- Adobe Creative Cloud software
- Adobe Director
- Adobe FrameMaker
- Adobe FreeHand MX
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe InDesign
- Adobe LifeCycle Enterprise Suite
- Adobe PageMaker
- Adobe Photoshop
- Corel CorelDraw Graphics Suite
- Corel Painter
- Esko ArtPro
- File transfer protocol FTP software
- Global Graphics Software Harlequin
- Hamrick Software VueScan
- LaserSoft Imaging SilverFast Ai Studio
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Word
- Multi-line optical character reader OCR software
- Operating system software
- ProjectSend
- QuarkXPress
- Web browser software