When you submit a document file to us, our first step is to examine it in a process we call preflight, a term borrowed from aeronautics. Before beginning a flight, aircraft pilots run through a standard checklist to be sure the plane is airworthy and ready for flight. Similarly, we inspect your file against specific criteria to qualify it as ready to enter the production workflow.

Before prepress became digital, “preflight” consisted of reviewing mechanicals – the artboards used to make film or photomechanical press plates – for quality and completeness. Preflighting a digital file amounts to the same thing: checking the file to be sure all required elements are present and that no mistakes have been made in file assembly. The checking can be done manually or with software tools.

http://macgra.com/0410Printips.pdf

It has been more than a decade since Adobe announced PDF version 1.0 at Comdex Fall 1992 and won the “Best of Comdex” award. Originally an internal project of Adobe Systems conceived by founder John Warnock, PDF was developed for office communication use so document files could be displayed on any computer using any operating system.

Adobe Acrobat, the tool to create and view PDF files, was first released in June 1993. Early PDF adoption came from the corporate setting, including the Internal Revenue Service, which distributed forms as PDF files. As adoption spread, support for multimedia functionality (adding audio or video data to a PDF document) was added, followed by features needed by the prepress community, then the ability to link PDF files to HTML pages on the Internet. The acceptance of PDF is best indicated by the widespread use of Adobe Reader – by 2003, over 100 million copies had been downloaded from the web.

http://macgra.com/0409Printips.pdf

Long ago we learned that our success is directly tied to what our customers think of us compared to the experience of buying from other printers. To make our company distinctive, we’ve invested a lot in developing the technical expertise as well as the customer service skills of our inside and outside sales staff. This enables us to analyze a printing requirement with an eye toward suggesting alternatives or options that will help our customers realize success in buying printing.

Whether you buy printing regularly or occasionally, in this issue of Printips we’ll offer you some keys to successful print buying.

http://macgra.com/0408Printips.pdf

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – we love our customers. Nothing delights us as much as delivering a quality printed product on time and at the agreed-upon price. In fact, we have set up an entire production management system for the purpose of being the kind of dependable printer that businesses, organizations, and individuals need.

But did you know that you participate with us in the success of your job? Especially when you are providing critical job elements to us – a digital file, copy and photographs, or art direction – you have joined the production team. In case you’ve never thought of your relationship to us in this way, we’d like to let you know what you can expect from us and what we need from you to make your printing project go smoothly.

http://macgra.com/0407Printips.pdf

As a printer, our job is to have the right kind of equipment available to produce your printing project. Years ago, being a printer meant having offset printing presses. Today it also means having digital printing equipment and high-speed copiers.

For some printing projects, the choice of which equipment to use is strictly a production consideration – which piece of equipment has an opening in the production schedule at the appropriate time. For other projects, there is only one piece of equipment that can be used. And for yet others, the choice of equipment is a complicated decision based on a variety of factors.

In this issue of Printips, we’ll explore how the technology of each type of equipment helps determine its range of use.

http://macgra.com/0405Printips.pdf

We love our customers. Honestly, we do. It gives us great satisfaction to be trusted with your print project and to deliver it on time, on budget, exactly as you ordered it and with no surprises. To stay on time, on budget and meet quality requirements, print projects must adhere to production standards and specifications. Ours is a custom manufacturing environment, and production control is the tool we use to manage our environment. That’s not something we made up – production control is a standard part of any manufacturing process.

http://macgra.com/0210Printips.pdf