As frequent readers of my column will notice, I have a fascination with watching how things historically have been done, and how they are done with new and improved tools and technologies. It is always useful to look not just how we do things the way we do, but why.
I remember when the emergence of “Desktop Publishing” turned into the evolution of “Digital Desktop Prepress”, and how that dramatically changed the landscape and workflow of typical print-production. All of a sudden, a small team of computer professionals could feed a large print/prepress operation, by providing plate-ready film flats, imposed, and ready for proofs.
These initial tools, while functional, lacked the refinement that two+ decades of field-hours of experience could bring. It was a miracle to be able to perform high-end digital prepress roles with software that was designed before such roles became apparent. We often were limited in the roles of Prepress, by the abilities of the tools that were available. (Photoshop’s first few versions could not even open or work on four-colour process images, and competitive products such as Letraset’s “Color Studio”, which are now long-since extinct, had those essential four-colour capabilities.)
Now, we have almost three decades of refinement behind the tools that were so revolutionary. Software applications are expanding in their capabilities to not only produce print material, but to streamline the process of print production, and they are blindingly fast on modern computers. Historically, the hardware/platform was the bottleneck to high-volume production, as print production required absolute state-of-the-art computer hardware to even perform these early roles. RIP’ing pages used to take hours per plate on complex pages, and now, any modern RIP can image a page in well under one minute. Time, and hardware evolution have negated those bottlenecks, and modern computers are more than capable of feeding very large-volume workflows. The next evolution, and we can watch it evolve as well, is workflow automation, and software configurable production paths.
The “Next-Gen” software tools such as Adobe’s Creative Suite, and Quark’s Xpress 7.0 have features and functionality that begin to address real-world professional workflow and production roles. Now that tools with these features have begun to hit the market, the users that make up their base are still unsure of how and where to adopt such tools and features. I find that many if not most of the users I encounter in the world, give a patent answer such as “Yeah, I looked at the collaborative/workflow tools and features, but we do things differently internally now anyway.” (Or some similar reason why these features are not required in their standalone workflows.)
Adobe has implemented and expanded the tools in it’s Creative Suite that allow it’s tools to work together in creative workflows, and Quark has implemented workflow tools that allow for streamlined document production in it’s new 7.0 version. Both of these bellwether applications have evolved these workflow tools from earlier endeavors, and they have begun to be refined by user-feedback and field-testing. While most users use them as standalone tools, they are truly becoming options for workflow solutions to growing small to mid-sized graphic production facilities.
What are these tools, and why have I not heard of them?
Interestingly enough, most users have these following tools available and perhaps even installed:Adobe has two useful additions to its Creative Suite applications, Version Cue and Adobe Bridge. These tools are for both production management and versioning, and span the types of files that the Adobe tools produce. Adobe Bridge serves as a small to mid-sized asset management utility that can provide for XML based metadata and searches amongst many media types for keywords and criteria. Version Cue acts as a production manager, by segmenting graphic production roles and tasks amongst users, and elements, and provides tools that are akin to much larger document production systems.
Quark too has implemented workflow and automation tools in their significant 7.0 release of QuarkXpress, and QuarkXPress Server 7. The Quark “Job Jacket” and “Composition Zones” functions in Xpress 7.0 allow for collaborative tools and workflows, as well as consistent document composition, creation and delivery. Job Jackets allow for document templates and conditions to be applied to produced documents; and to specify individuals as recipients of the final files. The resultant template files are tailored and pre-set to those specific delivery intents of that recipient. Users can share document production roles by utilizing Composition Zones in a dynamic Xpress document as well.
Quark also introduced Quark XPress Server 7 at Graphexpo this past autumn. This “Headless” implementation of XPress 7.0 is a server-based product that can be used to automate document production roles by offering a command-line capability to nearly every feature of XPress 7.0. This has far-ranging implications for automated catalog and document assembly roles, particularly with large-pools of legacy XPress documents in archive.
As long as they keep the presses running…
The obvious lesson, and trend here is that even the base, fundamental tools are thinking about, and implementing these formerly-high-end features. Roles that had traditionally been served by vendor solutions to much higher-level enterprise class organisations, are now available to the small to medium sized creative professionals and production facilities. While these tools may not be industrial strength enough to meet the needs of large enterprises, they likely meet the needs of a very large percentage of the increasingly cottage-industry produced print services.They are also evolving to make for extremely user-friendly, easy-to-implement solutions. For the first time, true workflow, content management and collaborative tools are just “In the box” with the applications that every designer is currently using. We, as print service professionals, are inevitably tied to this industry [desktop production tools] as we are at the end of a supply chain fed by these types of tools. They have become mission-critical aspects of print production.
So, take some time to learn these tools, and their capabilities and limitations. It is only a matter of time before you run across users/clients whom use these tools, and they may expect your cooperation. The features of the base applications that produce print are expanding, and we owe it to ourselves to be informed. Just as we used to need to know just the most current versions of press, and finishing equipment, we need to know the software tools that drive a modern print production workflow. The best part is, you do not have to buy anything to learn a bit about this: it is, after all, in the box. Who knows, you might be able to use some of this internally as well.
