Printing Press Operator Set up and operate digital, letterpress, lithographic, flexographic, gravure, or other printing machines. Includes short-run offset printing presses.
Printing Press Operator is Also Know as
In different settings, Printing Press Operator is titled as
- Digital Press Operator
- Flexographic Press Operator
- Offset Press Operator
- Offset Pressman
- Press Operator
- Pressman
- Printer
- Printing Press Operator
- Printing Pressman
- Web Press Operator
Education and Training of Printing Press Operator
Printing Press Operator is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Printing Press Operator
Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.
Education Required for Printing Press Operator
These occupations usually require a high school diploma.
Degrees Related to Printing Press Operator
- Bachelor in Printing Management
- Associate Degree Courses in Printing Management
- Masters Degree Courses in Printing Management
- 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 Printing Press Operator
- Associate Degree Courses in Printing Press Operator
- Masters Degree Courses in Printing Press Operator
- Bachelor in Graphic Communications, Other
- Associate Degree Courses in Graphic Communications, Other
- Masters Degree Courses in Graphic Communications, Other
Training Required for Printing Press Operator
Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Printing Press Operator in different industries are
- Paper Goods Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Prepress Technicians and Workers
- Photographic Process Workers and Processing Machine Operators
- Adhesive Bonding Machine Operators and Tenders
- Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Print Binding and Finishing Workers
- Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Cutting and Slicing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Rolling Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Etchers and Engravers
- Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Textile Cutting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Machine Feeders and Offbearers
- Office Machine Operators, Except Computer
- Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders
- Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Industrial Machinery Mechanics
- Grinding, Lapping, Polishing, and Buffing Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Lathe and Turning Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
- Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
What Do Printing Press Operator do?
- Adjust digital files to alter print elements, such as fonts, graphics, or color separations.
- Adjust ink fountain flow rates.
- Change press plates, blankets, or cylinders, as required.
- Clean ink fountains, plates, or printing unit cylinders when press runs are completed.
- Clean or oil presses or make minor repairs, using hand tools.
- Collect and inspect random samples during print runs to identify any necessary adjustments.
- Download or scan files to be printed, using printing production software.
- Examine job orders to determine quantities to be printed, stock specifications, colors, or special printing instructions.
- Feed paper through press cylinders and adjust feed and tension controls.
- Input production job settings into workstation terminals that control automated printing systems.
- Load presses with paper and make necessary adjustments, according to paper size.
- Monitor automated press operation systems and respond to fault, error, or alert messages.
- Obtain or mix inks and fill ink fountains.
- Secure printing plates to printing units and adjust tolerances.
- Start presses and pull proofs to check for ink coverage and density, alignment, and registration.
- Verify that paper and ink meet the specifications for a given job.
- Control workflow scheduling or job tracking, using computer database software.
- Direct or monitor work of press crews.
- Download completed jobs to archive media so that questions can be answered or jobs replicated.
- Maintain time or production records.
- Monitor environmental factors, such as humidity and temperature, that may impact equipment performance and make necessary adjustments.
- Monitor inventory levels on a regular basis, ordering or requesting additional supplies, as necessary.
- Set up or operate auxiliary equipment, such as cutting, folding, plate-making, drilling, or laminating machines.
Qualities of Good Printing Press Operator
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- 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).
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- 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.
- 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.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- 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.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- 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.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- 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).
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- 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.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- 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.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
Tools Used by Printing Press Operator
- Acoustic ear muffs or defenders
- Adjustable crescent wrenches
- Adjustable wrenches
- Air knives
- Allen wrenches
- Back joggers
- Ball peen hammers
- Chain hoists
- Claw hammers
- Collating equipment
- Color separation scanners
- Conductivity indicators
- Cutting equipment
- Densitometers
- Desktop computers
- Digital cameras
- Digital copiers
- Digital letterpresses
- Digital printing presses
- Drift punches
- Drum scanners
- Ear plugs
- Electric lifts
- External drum imagesetters
- Flat-bed imagesetters
- Flexo presses
- Flexographic presses
- Folding equipment
- Gravure presses
- Grease dispensing guns
- Grease guns
- Hand trucks
- Handheld magnifiers
- Hoists
- Infrared dryers
- Internal drum imagesetters
- Laminating machines
- Laminators
- Laptop computers
- Large format printers
- Letter presses
- Line gauge rulers
- Material conveyors
- Materials conveyors
- Measuring tapes
- Micrometers
- Multicolor presses
- Numbering machines
- Offset presses
- Offset printing equipment
- Offset printing plate processing equipment
- Packing gauges
- Pad printing machines
- Pallet jacks
- Paper cutting machines
- Paper drills
- Paper folders
- Paper joggers
- Perforators
- Personal computers
- pH indicators
- pH testers
- Phillips head screwdrivers
- Photocopying equipment
- Photopolymer platemaking equipment
- Platemaking equipment
- Platen presses
- Power paper cutters
- Printing densitometers
- Printing micrometers
- Printing platemakers
- Printing spectrophotometers
- Printing stackers
- Process cameras
- Putty knives
- Ratchet sets
- Ratchets
- Roll-fed offset presses
- Safety glasses
- Screen printing presses
- Sheet-fed presses
- Sheetfed presses
- Shrink wrap machines
- Silk screen vacuum printer frames
- Slotted screwdrivers
- Stackers
- Stapling machines
- Stitching equipment
- Strapping machines
- Thermal book binders
- Thermal platemaking equipment
- Torpedo levels
- Universal serial bus USB flash drives
- Vise grip pliers
- Web presses
- Workstation platforms
Technology Skills required for Printing Press Operator
- AABACH Graphic Systems DIGRA
- Adobe Acrobat
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe InDesign
- Adobe LifeCycle Production Print ES3
- Adobe PageMaker
- Adobe Photoshop
- Corel CorelDraw Graphics Suite
- Electronics for Imaging EFI Monarch
- Electronics for Imaging EFI Pace
- Email software
- Enfocus PitStop Pro
- Graphics software
- Image editing software
- Inventory tracking software
- Job scheduling software
- Job tracking software
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft Word
- Printers Software Inc. Presidio
- Printing management system software
- QuarkXPress
- SAP software
- Squeegee
- Word processing software
- Xerox FreeFlow Print Server
- Xerox ProfitQuick