Home > Preparing Files for Print Training: Electronic File Preparation for Print

PrePress Overview:
Electronic File Preparation
for Print

Prepress is a term used in the printing industry to describe the process of preparing a electronic document before it can be printed on a professional traditional or digital press. Although it's usually used in connection with making the plates used in a printing press, prepress now also refers to the process of making a document ready for print and distribution in any environment, including digital printing formats and PDF (Portable Document format).
The steps generally involved in preparing files are proofreading, editing, layout, scanning, and color separations. The layout and other graphical tasks may be part of a graphic design department. Other steps in prepress include converting any digital files into a format that is usable by the printing company, for example, distilling a document into
Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format).
Prepress has become easier since the advent of desktop publishing, and often the work of several prepress staffers can now be done by only one person. Sometimes, the prepress work is done by the graphic design department along with the composition of the documents.

LPI / DPI / PPI
Photoshop image size, resizing
Raster vs vector
Industry file formats
RGB and CMYK
Colour models
Spot colour vs Process colour systems
Understanding the printing press
Prepress file trapping
Output and PDF options
File management, including: naming conventions, cross platform problems, raster image processing (RIP) problems, compression formats, font management, service bureau specifications & instructions
Program specific concepts in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign and QuarkXPress