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Volume 2, Issue 1 No Longer Singing the Blues
At the 1998 Folio:Show, a United Litho sales representative stood in the exhibit hall and asked publishing professionals one simple question as they walked by: "Have you ever seen a full-color blueline before?" For years the blueline had been the staple of print production proofing materials. Often all that stood between the original file and the finished piece, the blueline was functional, but flawed. Color breaks needed to be hand-marked or represented on numerous separations. Changes were costly, since the blueline was created after film had already been generated. A separate color proof was often necessary to confirm registration and color. First generation digital color proofs proved equally disappointing—the high densities of magenta in them made color unreliable and inaccurate, often necessitating additional proofs. In mid-1998, United Litho changed the face of proofing forever—by bringing full color to the blueline. United’s color "bluelines," actually a Hewlett-Packard product, provide a vibrant alternative to traditional blue dylux proofs. Created digitally prior to film output, the HP color proofs are easier and less costly to correct. Unlike Irises or other digital color proofs, the color blueline is calibrated to United Litho’s presses, so color is truer and easier to check. And unlike other proofing processes, the HP proof has a device-independent RIP, meaning that it is rasterized only once, instead of separately for separate output devices. The result is a proof and a final product that are produced from identical electronic files. Once the proofs are approved, United Litho imposes the pages electronically and generates plate-ready film. The color blueline, along with advertiser-supplied proofs, is used by the press operators during the printing process to ensure color match. Since the color blueline offers better representation of the printed piece, a higher level of quality comes to the entire production process. Since instituting the color bluelines last year, United Litho has used them successfully in numerous print jobs. Terrence Poltrack, vice president of editorial services at the Newspaper Association of America says, "We are encouraged by the results . . . nice inking, obvious attention to detail, a close relationship between proofs and the finished product. Such radical changes in procedures can be unsettling, to say the least. However, I think we experienced a minimal amount of angst... and I look forward to new time and cost efficiencies that may come out of the process." Clients aren’t the only ones singing the praises of this new leap in proofing technology. The United Litho staff has been glad to implement the accurate and easy-to-use process. "It saves time," says United Litho operations leader Chris Azbill. "Clients get and approve their proofs more quickly. And the device-independent RIP process means no surprises at press time." It looks like the HP proof is well on its way to becoming a hit. For more information about United Litho’s color proofing process, contact your sales representative or the main office at 800.368.6100. Chris Azbill, Operations Leader: Charting the Course Chris Azbill, operations leader, steers a major portion of the printing ship at United Litho. Fundamentally, he’s responsible for the entire production process, from the time the materials and information leave our internal planning department to when a product is shipped. He presides over all functional manufacturing areas including prepress, pressroom, finishing, bindery and mailing. He focuses on meeting schedules, print quality, and waste management and reduction. Essentially, he’s responsible for producing a quality product on time. What does he like best about his job? The environment. "The entire management team here is totally dedicated to continuous improvement," he explains. "We, as the management team, are constantly seeking ways to improve our service and our quality." Not only his co-managers, but also the facility and United Litho’s operations personnel, make life enjoyable for Chris. "It’s a new plant with new equipment and long-term employees. United Litho’s values and commitment make it the most refreshing place I’ve worked in." With more than 20 years in the printing industry and a master’s in business administration, Chris has been involved in a variety of work environments, including both large and small printing companies. This has enabled him to easily adapt to the work environment at ULI. "Additionally, Chris has sales experience—a rare commodity for manufacturing managers," says Ken Garner, president of United Litho. "This experience is beneficial as Chris considers customer needs and changing developments in all manufacturing decisions." Chris joined United Litho in 1997. His direction over manufacturing has been a key link in the company’s growth this past year. "Making decisions for a company that is willing to invest in maintaining appropriate manufacturing resources is exciting. You can see results." Among the improvements Chris has instituted in his time with United Litho:
Garner adds, "Chris thrives on challenge—there’s plenty of that in our industry. He is extremely committed to the success of ULI and is willing to do whatever is necessary to ensure that success. Chris’s values, principles and integrity are solid and consistent with what we feel is important in our company." SyQuest, creators of digital storage media, declared bankruptcy in November 1998. SyQuest will be unable to guarantee any support for this media. United Litho is recommending transferring to a different media storage source (see "Compatible Media" section of the digital ad specs article) to all our customers using SyQuest disks. SyQuest may have found a buyer in Iomega. However, Fred Forsyth, Iomega president of professional products, has not decided what to do with any SyQuest products at this time. Source: EMedia Weekly (1/25/99). United Litho Digital Ad Specifications The following are guidelines for submitting digital ads to United Litho. However, if you have a situation where something falls outside of these specifications, please feel free to contact us to discuss it. Software We prefer QuarkXpress for Macintosh. Please note the following supported software programs:
Any other applications (e.g., PowerPoint and Word) are unacceptable. Fonts
Scans
What to Send On Your Disk
What to Send With Your Disk
Compatible Media CD ROM
Magneto Opticals
Zip Disk
Electronic Transmission
Miscellaneous
Names & Phone Numbers Ron Moore, Digital Prepress Coordinator: 703.858.1051 Larry Pattajo, Color Systems/Scanning Mgr: 703.858.1009 Andrew Moore, Technical Representative: 703.858.1000, x2508 Craig Leggere, Technical Representative: 703.858.1000, x2517 Earl Douglas, Systems Manager: 703.858.-4205 Customer Service Fax Number: 703.858.1030 United Litho Wins 25 Print Awards United Litho is excited to announce winning 8 FIRST PLACE AWARDS and 17 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE in the 1998 PIVA (Printing Industries of Virginia) Graphics Communication Competition. With new presses installed in Spring 1997 specializing in short-to-medium-run publication production, United Litho has made it our business to maintain superior mechanical print quality for our customers. And now, recognition has come in a valuable form—through the 1998 PIVA competition, which received more than 1,500 entries. The competition is held in November each year and is organized by PIVA, our regional affiliate for the Printing Industries of America. Judges are chosen from the most knowledgeable source-members of GATF, the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation. GATF has long been considered the research haven and manufacturing procedure guru of the printing industry in North America. Judging criteria include mechanical print quality, technical difficulty and overall production of the submitted piece. We are honored to be acknowledged by the industry experts at GATF. Our thanks to our customers-whose publication excellence is exhibited in this competition—and to our press crews, digital prepress, customer service, planning and sales staff—who do an outstanding job and have concern for every detail of our clients’ publications! Awards were received for the following publications: First Place CUA Magazine—Summer
1998 Awards of Excellence At Home Magazine—Edition
#8 An Extraordinary Service Experience: Interservice According to Herman Marshall, editor and publications manager for Interservice magazine, everything about United Litho reflects consummate service. From better presses that remove production headaches and new double roll stands speeding up the printing process, to value-added services like customer training, United Litho is always working to improve its service. The summer 1998 issue of Interservice, a publication of the American Logistics Association, marks a three-year partnership between United Litho and the magazine, which has been published for 82 years. "United Litho is infinitely better than our previous printers," Marshall said. "Their whole approach to doing business is better. By having open dialogue and listening to new ideas, they customize their service to meet our needs. They also put up with our idiosyncrasies." "I interviewed a number of printers when I wanted to change vendors," Marshall added. He mentioned to his United Litho representative that the company could provide a great service by establishing customer workshops explaining United Litho’s preferred way of doing business. He reasoned that few people know everything there is to know about publishing, and by taking advantage of training, United Litho customers could learn how to do more or how to do it all better. "The next thing I knew, they were giving workshops," he continued. "I was very impressed." Marshall said United Litho makes him feel like part of the family. He said the company invited him to a dinner in Washington, D.C., last winter. Thinking it was a holiday affair, he was surprised to find that it was a meeting to explain changes in United Litho’s internal structure and how the changes would benefit the companies. "I was flattered that they took the time to talk with their customers about the changes. It certainly helped ease the transition." "Rarely do you find companies that make quality imperative to every part of their business," Marshall said. "United Litho makes quality a reality. They have helped our staff in ways that go beyond printing, such as in ways to help us sell more ads." "My whole United Litho service team is flawless," he continued. "I trust them to make many of my decisions so I don’t have to be bothered with every detail." "They have also been terrific about meeting my deadlines," Marshall said. "I don’t always help keep the process on schedule, but they do. I get my magazines on time, when and where I need them. They make me look good." Herman Marshall has recently accepted a position with Leiner Health Products, Inc. New Training Opportunities at ULI United Litho has set the pace for providing specialized customer training, fulfilling the needs of designers, editors and publishers. This year is no exception—1999 brings new opportunities to make the most of your publication and your budget. During the second quarter of this year, United Litho plans to add a technical trainer to our staff. Not only will this provide us with the opportunity to enhance our on-site training curriculum, but it will also allow us to take our training package on the road! We’ll still offer prepress software application courses and web press seminars, but to that we’ll add new classes with topics such as paper knowledge, printing cost-saving tips and specific prepress hurdles such as font management, scanning, perfect preflighting and managing corrections. We’re excited about the positive changes we’re making in our courses. Check your mail and the next issue of PressProof for updated schedules. FutureCustomer Symposium Survey Creating value-that’s what we’re about. And in that light, we are planning to host and sponsor a new publishing symposium for 1999 to be held in the Washington, D.C., area. Our previous symposiums have helped our customers learn more effective ways to produce their publications. We’ve brought in industry experts to explore issues important to special interest and association publishers. As we begin planning for the next symposia, we would appreciate your input! Please indicate the issues in which you would be most interested.
Fax this page back to Lisa Bowman, Marketing
Assistant, at 703.858.1020. TechTip: Recovering Damaged PageMaker Files This issue we’ll take a look at recovering damaged PageMaker files. In this past month I was contacted by one of our customers who had worked all night on their magazine only to have the file get corrupted, and therefore lost all of their hard work. A publication may become damaged due to low disk space, low system resources, or system conflicts. When an error occurs while PageMaker is reading or writing to a disk, the open publication may become corrupted. Working directly off a networked drive or removable drive increases the likelihood that communication errors will occur and damage a publication. Damage may also be caused by a corrupt style, font, indexed item, link or object. A lot of errors we see are due to corrupt printer fonts, which are accessed when trying to draw the page on the screen or while printing. A font used solely in an imported EPS file is especially tricky since it won’t be listed in the font menu. If you can get the file to load, try performing a diagnostic recompose, which checks and repairs specific types of inconsistencies: press option + shift [Mac] or control + shift [PC] and choose Type > Hyphenation. (Anyone know why they chose hyphenation of all things?) You’ll hear a beep when it first starts rebuilding, and another when it ends. Then save your file using File > Save As and choose a new file name, keeping your old one for a backup. Another PageMaker feature that helps solve problems is the slide show: while holding down shift, choose Layout > Go To Page. This will display every page in your document. After all pages have been displayed at least once, press any key to stop the slide show. When PageMaker displays each page, including master pages, it repairs link information. Another trick is to save your corrupt document as a PageMaker 5.0 publication, then re-load it back into PageMaker 6.0. Note that some features such as multiple master pages and polygons are not retained when you save a 6.0 publication in 5.0 format. Now, what if you can’t open your publication at all? First, remove or reinstall your fonts temporarily to make sure they are not the cause. Check out what system extensions or add-ons you have installed (Could they be causing the problem? Are you having troubles in other programs besides PageMaker?). And if all of that fails, you may recover your stories using the story importer. Create a new publication, go to File > Place and select the corrupt file. You will then be able to select the stories you want to reimport. Granted, it’s a lot of work to rebuild your files, but it’s better than having to re-key in your articles! Here’s a nice tip if you want PageMaker to redraw your screen without having to scroll the screen or switch views. Type command + J [Mac] or control + J [PC] twice. These shortcuts turn PageMaker’s ruler and margin guides on or off and also force a screen redraw. One final tip for Photoshop users: you can save some space in your saved graphics if you turn off "Photoshop 2.5 compatibility", which by default is turned on. Of course, if you still use Photoshop 2.5 occasionally, leave it on! Next issue we will dive into PDF files and try to make sense of how they will fit into your publishing workflow.
Copyright 1997 - 2008, United Litho, Inc. All rights reserved. |
