5 Ways to Streamline Your Prepress Workflow

Maximize the potential of your prepress workflow with efficient prepress equipment and supplies from Anderson & Vreeland

Optimizing your prepress workflow adds to your bottom line. Whether you’re looking to accelerate prepress to get to production or are searching for solutions to improve preflight accuracy, Anderson & Vreeland has the tools you need to succeed.

5 Areas to Streamline Your Prepress Production

1. Preflight & File Management

2. Digital Prepress Workflow

3. Color Management

4. Proofing

5. Quality Control

From the time a file comes in the door to the time it’s converted into a proof to make a plate, your prepress workflow dictates the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of the final product.

These are the five common areas we see printers hindering their workflow and some of the solutions we provide at Anderson & Vreeland. If you’d like to speak with a prepress expert about the specific equipment needs of your business, contact us today.

1. Preflight & File Management

The Problem: You’re spending too much time in back-and-forth communications with clients to ensure the correct fonts, colors, and images are in place for error-free printing.

How to Reduce Errors in Preflight with File Management Software

First, don’t discount this all-important first step of prepress. If you’re not preflighting your files first, you’re creating an even larger problem down the road. Take the time to make sure all images and fonts are embedded and that the resolution is right for print.

To help you manage the preflight process and the corresponding file management, Anderson & Vreeland can help you maximize your existing software or find a software solution for your printing needs.

  • Preflight Software Solutions

Hybrid offers a suite of software solutions to manage your preflight process and beyond. Manage customer files, graphic files, assets, and workflows through an integrated system like Cloudflow and increase the efficiency of your preflight process.

Preflight Software Solutions

2. Digital Prepress Workflow

The Problem: Manual processes delay your digital prepress workflow from designing, trapping, separation handling, plate making, and beyond, but using numerous software solutions to manage your digital prepress workflow takes a significant amount of time and resources.

How to Accelerate Your Digital Prepress Workflow

To create an efficient and streamlined digital prepress workflow, invest in consolidated software solutions like these that simplify your process.

  • Streamlined Enterprise Solutions

Hybrid’s enterprise software provides a singular solution for the entire digital prepress process. From CRM to preflight, basic prepress editing, and more, Hybrid offers a high-end comprehensive solution to your prepress needs for your current production and for future growth.

  • Prepress Solutions for Narrow Web Printing

StudioRIP XF offers an intuitive solution for smaller narrow web printers looking to streamline their digital workflow at a comfortable price point. Within a single solution, your trapping, imposition, and preflighting can be managed in one platform—creating the fastest route from input to results.

3. Color Management

The Problem: You need to ensure consistent and accurate color across different substrates and printing processes while receiving color files from various sources. Regardless of where your files are coming from and the markets you serve, Anderson & Vreeland has the color management tools to allow you to work more efficiently.

How to Optimize Color Management for Flexo Printing

At Anderson & Vreeland, we offer a wide range of color management tools to optimize your flexo printing process. To find a tailored color management solution for your printing needs, contact a prepress specialist.

  • Improve Color Management

GMG’s Color Software Solutions increase the efficiency of your prepress and proofing process by ensuring that every print is precisely matched in color. Their suite of software includes an arsenal of color management tools for every step of the prepress process.

EFI’s Colorproof XF, Fiery XF, and eXpress create a formidable collection of proofing tools to master any proofing or printed task. Its automated prepress workflow solutions maximize your investment, reduce production time, and free up valuable specialized skilled workers to keep operations running efficiently.

4. Proofing

The Problem: Because of segmented workflows and limitations in proof quality, your proofing process requires significant time and resources before going to print.

How to Improve Your Prepress Proofing

To reduce the amount of time spent in the proofing process and improve the accuracy and quality of your proofs, incorporate solutions that integrate with color management, consolidate workflows, and improve your proofing accuracy.

  • Invest in Consistency

Epson Proofing Devices provide the most accurate proofs for validation. With a complete line of professional ink and media, online spectrophotometers, and saved profiles, you can print accurate, high-quality proofs and get to print faster.

  • Reduce Proof Production Time
  • Improve Proofing Accuracy

5. Quality Control

The Problem: You’re still operating manual quality control practices and aren’t sure where the inefficiencies lie within your prepress workflow.

How to Simplify Prepress Quality Control and Improve Accuracy

Simplifying your prepress quality control starts by reducing and streamlining your manual processes. With new QC technologies and tools, you can improve accuracy and quality while reducing production costs.

  • Consolidate Process Control and Reporting

X-Rite’s ColorCert Suite is an all-in-one solution for process control, color asset management, and real-time print quality reporting. Designed for your workflow, ColorCert simplifies quality control in each step of prepress to maximize efficiency and savings.

  • Measure and Capture Color Accurately

For specific flexo printing needs, you may need more accurate measurement tools like those offered by X-Rite. For both software and hardware solutions, X-Rite creates spectrophotometers, profiling solutions, and other color measurement tools to eliminate color variance.

  • Monitor Quality Effectively

Techkon offers a variety of tools and software solutions to monitor, manage, and control print quality. Software like Techkon’s ChromaQA allows printers of all sizes to digitally monitor print quality in real-time and reduce the costs associated with re-makes while multi-use tools like Techkon’s SpectroDens can manage and analyze print quality from proofs to the final product.

How to Streamline Film Setting in Prepress

The Problem: For those who still use film, imagesetting can stall your prepress workflow by needing to be outsourced to a third party or requiring lengthy chemical-based imagesetting processes.

  • Eliminate Need for Imagesetters and Film Processors

EXILE’s TechSetter 2 eliminates outsourcing large-format films with a compact and sustainable artwork production solution that can produce wide-format full-size films up to 1200 DPI. Produce your own on-demand film separations in-house without a darkroom, processor, or chemicals.

  • Accelerate Thermal Film Setting

The Liberator XE Thermal Film Setter  processes film from 18.25” to 54” width with unlimited lengths due to its roll-fed capstan device. The Liberator XE sets images with exceptional processing speed and reliability and can be further enhanced with automatic media saving capabilities, precision halftone, stochastic screening, and full raster preview when paired with the Harlequin RIP.

Connect with a Prepress Expert Today to Streamline Your Workflow

Anderson & Vreeland is dedicated to helping companies like yours succeed with innovative solutions for all your printing and packaging needs. With over 60 years of experience in the printing industry, we’re your one-stop solution for all things printing and can help you maximize your potential in the prepress process and beyond.

Talk with an Anderson & Vreeland representative today about finding the right prepress solution for your business.