The Print Industry in Today's Digital Landscape

Week two came and went, and my study of Pre-Press continues.

Of particular interest to me throughout the week has been the past and the present of the printing industry, particularly the pre-press process, prior to and throughout the digital and internet revolution.

Oscar, who runs the digital press, and the entire Pre-Press Department (Jim, Tim, and Chris) were really instrumental in my investigations of printing's laborious former processes, including hours and hours of cutting film, as well as the leading digital programs of today's pre-press repertoire. I shadowed Tim most of the week since he is a natural teacher and even got to sit in front of the Mac to prep and edit a few jobs using Workshop, Preps, Prinergy, Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop, and In Design. I helped by loading the Integris, which outputs preliminary print proofs.

Tom Sheffield, a leader in the Sales Department, was employing an exacto to cut a dummy (a mock-up of a particular job, which, in this case, was a folder) when he helped inspire my mini research project."This is what's been missing in the printing industry of today," he told me. "Because everything's so digital, we lose some of this hands on approach."

However, from my keen observations, this hands on approach still thrives here at Watermark Press. I see it with the meticulousness that pervades every department, in the proofing and re-proofing, in the quality control that matches the ink colors just right...There is no doubt that these employees take great pride in the pursuit of printing perfection.

Many of the long-standing employees here have been in the industry for twenty or thirty years. Through experience, these veterans of print have cultivated various ways of accomplishing the same task. They have archived in their minds all the trouble shooting they've pushed through, insisting that (as Jim says), "Doing print right is about making mistakes, and then learning from those mistakes. That's the only way to learn: doing things wrong once or twice or thrice before you get it right."

Oscar shed some light on this too, reflecting on his 19 year career with Watermark and his, quite literally, lifelong career in print. He shared his view that there's a real difference, between learning through experience and interaction with the craft, and a one-way, absolute way of thinking. The latter, I've seen, is how computers, the machines themselves work. This printer has a higher resolution than the other one. This program can do this, but not that. It takes skilled professionals, like the ones we have here in Pre-Prep, and years of experience to make the magic happen. Computers can only do so much on their own.

That being said, here's something to stew on regarding technology as we know it today, and how we may very well come to know it in the future...It is moving and shaping our global society and our professional landscapes at exponential rates.



In other news, I have had my first encounters with the "zen" of working in print. As Tom suggested to me, I have a journey ahead which will enable me to explore that further. He advised me to enjoy myself, to make friends with my colleagues, and to embrace the experience, even if I am entering the printing industry at a tough time economically in a rapidly evolving communications market. I'm ready now to make mistakes, and learn through direct experience and context. Challenges will continue to present themselves, and I am hopeful about rising to meet them.