Prepress Training Blog

ALERT: Internet Scam Targeting Printers

2008-07-25T06:54:00.000-07:00

This is an actual email we received, today.

RE: Flyers Orders

Dear Customer Service
My Name Donald Baker and i will like you to email me back with a total cost of these Quantity of these Flyers
8.5 x 11 brochures
1/1 on 100# gloss text
Text: God Bless Africa
Quantity:150,000 pcs
Colour-Black Ink /White Paper
front and back
tri foled

And also i will like to know if you accept credit card for payment ?

Thank You
Don Baker
Baker and Company

Now, since we don’t offer printing, I would have typically replied that they had reached the wrong company. However, since I’d recently seen an article from PII about this, I found some blog posts referencing a similar Printing Scam. Please take a moment and read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

There’s even a follow-up post that shows the same email I received a few weeks ago from the same good “Reverend” requesting flyers for “Feed the Children.”

Here’s how the scam works:

Receive incoming email from overseas requesting price quote with request for credit card payment.

You provide a quote and they graciously accept it.

They request that you use their shipping company.

You contact their shipping company and request a shipping quote, which is provided.

You send the revised total with shipping to original requester.

The original requester emails you their credit card info and you process it for the total amount.

You wire the shipping money overseas and never hear from either of the two parties involved, again.

The true owner of credit card disputes their charge, they win, and that money is automatically deducted from your account.

Please, take the time to read these resources and don’t get caught in the scam.

Photoshop Anywhere. Photoshop Express.

2008-07-15T22:45:00.000-07:00

Adobe has done it once again. Now, with Photoshop Express beta, you can use many of the powerful photo manipulation tools from any computer with the internet. Upload your images from a digital camera or access any of your galleries from your favorite online photo albums. When you’re done editing a photo, e-mail it to a friend or generate HTML code for your Myspace page. All off this comes to you through a clean and powerful flash interface. You can even join the Photoshop Express community and vote on other peoples photo albums.

This is a great tool to use on the fly for anyone who enjoys keeping pictures online. The Flickr integration creates an easy workflow for any computer user to get their pictures off of their camera and out to the web.

Yippee – an Audit !!!

2008-07-11T11:48:00.000-07:00

As many companies enter a new fiscal year, hearing the word Audit can stir up feelings of anxiety, fear and panic. But in this context, an Audit is just what the doctor ordered.

No, we won’t dig through mounds of your accounting records, but we will – at NO RISK – complete a workflow audit for qualified companies.

There are so many processes and procedures that must be adhered to daily, the task of monitoring them can seem overwhelming. There are ways to make your LEAN efforts more effective and identify processes that can be improved in any area of your operation. It’s guaranteed to improve your bottom line by $50,000 or you pay nothing.

Happy Fourth of July!

2008-07-03T10:17:00.001-07:00

I don't know about all of you, but my favorite part of the festivities surrounding the fourth of July are the fireworks. Perhaps there's a smidge of pyromaniac in me, but there's also the sheer delight of watching the sky light up in a multitude of colors, preceded and accompanied by whizzings and bangs!

One of the more important things that we should be celebrating, but often neglect, is something the chairman and CEO of Kodak wrote an article on -- Our Founding Printers. So, when you're out there, lighting your fireworks on the night of the fourth (and some nights before and after), be sure to send out a barrage of sparkly thanks to our nation's founding printers!

Here is a list of links related to the fourth of July festivities and fireworks, to aid you in further enjoyment of our nation's freedom-day celebration:

Fireworks Safety

AssociatedContent's Fireworks Do and Don'ts

The Fireworks Alliance's Glossary of Firework Terms

Pyrotechnic Product Demo Videos

2008 Cake (non-edible) of the Year

MSNBC's The Inner Workings of Fireworks

AllRecipe's Fourth of July Favorites

Independence Day Quiz

I Can Sing a Rainbow…

2008-07-01T12:47:00.001-07:00

Okay, I might not be able to actually sing a rainbow too well, but what about printing one? I just wanted to share a great article by Stephen Beals, one of our course authors, on the Keys to Color Management. Stephen presents twelve critical factors in implementing a successful color strategy.

Enjoy and may Roy G. Biv live on, forever!

Got Muda?

2008-06-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

I don’t think anyone can argue against the concept of Lean Manufacturing, given today’s economy. Lean is about doing more with less: less time, inventory, space, people, and money.

Lean is about speed and getting it right the first time. It is a systematic approach to identifying and eliminating waste – or Muda – through continuous improvement – making training a necessary component.

I want to share a comment I recently received from a medium-sized commercial printer embracing Lean: “One of my primary responsibilities is to ensure that operating procedures are documented and our prepress employees are sufficiently trained in all applicable software. We are just now starting to embrace Lean Manufacturing, which puts a huge emphasis on investing in our employees through training so they are more efficient and produce error free work… Quite an overwhelming task without seeking the help of a company such as yours.”

If you company is still deciding whether or not to implement Lean, check out this guide.

Then, know that this Lean Green Training Machine stands by your side to make your efforts a success.

Take On Me, Take Me On

2008-06-19T08:40:00.000-07:00

...we are not responsible for your painful 80's flashbacks...

OK, you've seen how to make your own sketch images quickly and easily in Photoshop. Now, check out the original inspiration from the 80's: A-Ha's "Take on Me".

A Tip-of-the-Hat to Warner Bros. Music and Members Only Jackets.

Submit Your Own Coke Bottle Design

2008-06-11T10:01:00.000-07:00

Coca-Cola is following Pepsi’s winter promotion by allowing anyone to design and submit their own Coke bottle, all in preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

It’s really fun to watch your own bottle come alive, so I recommend you spend a few minutes at Design the World a Coke.

There are some awesome submissions already, so be sure and check out the gallery. Here’s a recent submission that I really like.

There are commissioned designs as well at http://we8.coca-cola.com/index.jsp.

Behold a Better Online Pic Viewer

2008-06-03T08:32:00.000-07:00

Imageshack, Photobucket, Flickr, MySpace... The list of online photo galleries goes on and on. Forget clunky, unintuitive searching through those pic sites and use PicLens. PicLens is a great add-on for Mozilla Firefox (it runs inside your Firefox browser). Just click the PicLens arrow inside a pic of your photo library and PicLens takes you away to a better world of online image navigation.

PicLens
A Tip-of-the-Hat to PicLens and cooliris.

Fun with Photoshop

2008-05-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of fun and interesting-looking photoshop tutorials I found while browsing the web recently, instead of doing my work.

How to Make a Color Photo Look Like a Black and White Sketch

This one is quick and easy (two of my favorite things). I used it to make the picture for my blog profile, transforming this handsome visage...

...into this!

Excellent! I am now ready to be in that video by A-Ha.

The tutorial for this was provided by the fine folks at wikihow.com:
http://www.wikihow .com/Make-a-Color-Image-Look-Like-a-Sketch-in-Photoshop

The second tutorial is a bit more labor-intensive, and I haven't actually tried it out myself, but it sure looks cool.

How to Create a Spectacular Grass Text Effect

Here's the final product: And, the tutorial can be found at the psdtuts.com website:
http://psdtuts.com/text-effects-tutorials/create-a-spectacular-grass-text-effect-in-photoshop/

Digital Print for 1¢

2008-05-28T10:53:00.000-07:00

I know it sounds too good to be true, but as Drupa opens today, we will be hearing about new advances that will provide printers a way to increase profits.

One release that caught my eye is Kodak’s new Stream, a digital printer that will give offset a run for the money. Kodak stated the per page cost could be a penny or less.

Just one more thing to put on my must see list for Graph Expo.

Love Fonts? Hate Fonts? Indifferent? Test your Font IQ

2008-05-25T16:24:00.000-07:00

Think you know fonts? Quantify your skills with this fun little online Font Identifying game. Rack up the highest score you can and then challenge your friends to best you. Be sure to check out the Hall of Fame as well. We'll see you there. By the way, we can't do any better than 17/34. Good luck.
Test Your Font Knowledge

A Tip-of-the-Hat to ilovetypography and Kari Patila.

Summertime = Backyard BBQ!

2008-05-23T16:20:00.000-07:00

We love smoked salmon and pork, but don't want to pony up for an actual smoker...here's how we did it: A DIY Smoker!

Save some scratch, be resourceful, and make your own. Be sure to save some grub for us, please.

A Tip-of-the-Hat to Make Magazine's Blog Contributors and backyard BBQ pros, everywhere.

Off with their heads

2008-05-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

The immortal yearbook photo… brings back ugly memories for many of us. That awkward age captured in perpetuity. The hair-do you’ll never live down.

But here’s one you wouldn’t expect: head switching.

A Texas high school requested that the heads on all student photos be made the same size with the eyes at the same level.

Can’t you just hear the prepress staff’s muffled screams of agony? People come in different shapes and sizes, so why shouldn’t their heads?

I guess the prepress staff found a way to escape the boredom and have some laughs.

But it was, "an unfortunate lapse in judgment by an employee” that landed them all in the unemployment line.

How’s that saying go? He who laughs first…...

Firefox: Fantastically Fantastic

2008-05-16T11:22:00.000-07:00

I can't say enough good things about Mozilla's Firefox. In fact, I enjoy and use both Firefox and Thunderbird; Mozilla's seemingly limitlessly customizable web-browser and e-mail client. In the coming posts, I will likely do small features on certain aspects or neat tricks I enjoy about both of them. For, now... I've got one to share with you that's easy and a time-saver.

Did you know that you can quickly and easily open your favorite or most-frequented websites without having to type in the entire URL or selecting its bookmark? Again, this is a really simple, little-known feature (among the many) that Firefox affords its users! If you're interested, I'll give you a step-by-step (there are only two) example:

Say you want to make it easy to get to Gmail. Firstly, you'd make a bookmark of the sign-in page and, from there, you would go into your Bookmarks drop-down option at the top of your Firefox browser.

1.) Hovering your cursor over the bookmark for Gmail, you right-click on it and select 'Properties.'
2.) In the field named 'keywords,' you enter your shortcut for the site. Let's say you chose the letter 'g' to represent Gmail. Click OK and you're done!

Then, to make use of your handy-dandy shortcut for Gmail, in any tab, in the URL field, type the letter 'g' and press . Viola! Gmail begins to load, automagically!

Hope this little tip makes things a bit more fun and streamlined for you! More to come, in the future. Have a great weekend!

Minority Report, anyone?

2008-05-14T10:15:00.000-07:00

Steven Spielberg's movie Minority Report was a fun, exciting flick that pushed the ideas of the future. After Apple came out with the multi-touch surface for the iPhone, it would be expected that other companies would release similar technology.

Without further adieu, here is Microsoft's take on touch interface control.

Read the entire article at Engadget.com.

Can it be true? File > Export > Flash?

2008-05-07T10:38:00.000-07:00

Will all your InD files become fodder for Flash? Supposedly, Macromedia is working on incorporating a Flash export setting for InDesign, making it easy for every Joe Schmoe layout artist/designer to easily transform their InDesign files into functional Flash pieces. We'd love to see this become a reality. Sooner rather than later, please.

InDesign's Future Flash Export Function

A tip-of-the-hat to Creativepro.com and Terri Stone.

Training Online vs. Face to Face

2008-05-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

A recent Graphic Arts Online article caught my attention, Online vs. Face to Face Training by NAPL expert Howie Fenton. I think Howie brings up a good point-– too often online education is disguised as online training, leaving the learner frustrated. Corporate education is important, but is not ideally delivered via e-learning. So, I agree with Howie’s comments, from that standpoint.

However, work flow, or process training is best delivered through a consistent, repetitive environment, which often cannot be accomplished one-on-one, and if it is, it is typically not cost effective.

The important thing, no matter what type of training delivery you are using, is that the training program should meet certain criteria. We’ve created a couple to tools to help you out, if you are considering implementing a training program or if you want to evaluate your current training efforts:

The Ideal Training Program

Management Decision Maker Checklist

If you are leaning toward an online delivery, here’s a great evaluation tool I found: Measuring the Total Cost of e-Learning by Kevin Kruse.

We also offer an ROI calculation specific to your company. Just contact us at info@prepresstraining.com to get yours.

Training is extremely important as the economy tightens, so no matter what type of training you do – just do it!

What in the World?

2008-04-28T11:02:00.000-07:00

Surely, you have heard about Google Maps "satellite feature", by now. Maybe you have even flown across the world with Google Earth. Thanks to the folks over at MapOfStrange.com you can now surf the globe for the weirder things out there captured by the satellite!

Be sure to check out some of our personal favorites:

Hot Air Balloon

Another Tipped Truck

Burning Field

Superbowl Corn Maze

What do these companies have in common?

2008-04-23T09:54:00.000-07:00

Crescent Printing Company, Onalaska, WI
CRW Graphics, Pennsauken, NJ
McNaughton & Gunn, Inc., Saline, MI
Midland Information Resources, Davenport, IA
Royle Printing, Sun Prairie, WI
PrintingForLess.com, Livingston, MT
Schawk, Inc., Des Plaines, IL
Source4, Chicago, IL
St Ives Inc USA, Hollywood, FL
The Sheridan Press, Hanover, PA
Communicorp Inc., Columbus, GA

1. Each of them won a 2007 Best Workplace in the Americas Award.
2. Each of them has utilized Prepress Training Solution.

Now, you might ask yourself what the big deal is, but if you think about it, happy employees make loyal employees and that is generally good for your business. Employee attitudes ARE conveyed to your customers and DO effect the bottom line.

Ron Davis, PIA/GATF Chief Economist, named specific areas in which profit leaders outspend profit challengers, and one of those key areas is training.

As the list above proves, employee training and development IS a key factor in making your company successful.

Deadline for 2008 entries is September 30, 2008.

Color Me Aquarius

2008-04-21T13:34:00.000-07:00

We admit it; we're geeks for cool tips and tricks. These are some we've been checking out, recently.

Here's a fun site sponsored by PANTONE that allows you to explore the color palette of your birthdate and astrological sign. Astrology may not be a true science, but PANTONE knows their color science. Pick the proper color for your sign.

A tip-of-the-hat to PANTONE and Colorstrology.com!

FIGHT DEMENTIA: DO IT DIFFERENT & EXERCISE YOUR BRAIN

2008-04-14T11:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, I’ve hit my afternoon slump when I need to do something different or I’ll run screaming through the office. It is amazing how a little thing like a few moments of doing something different will rejuvenate my brain before I go back to what had just been driving me nuts. I think it is the process of changing gears and reengaging again that makes me refocus with a new perspective and energy.

I read somewhere that as we age we need to continuously exercise our brains, just like the rest of our body. Some workshop I went to suggested we try doing something we do every day and don’t think about in a different way, a different order, or with a different hand. You know, like if you get dressed, putting your clothes on in the same order everyday, mix up the order in which you put on your clothing. It’s not much, but it will make you notice something you do probably without thinking about it.

I’ve worked so many places with such a variety of work spaces that I’ve learned to use my mouse with either hand. Well, I switched to a roller ball mouse with clickers at work and at home, but I have them on different sides of my desk in each place. I changed the settings on one, so they are opposite each other. Well, for me it doesn’t really seem opposite since I use my thumb to do the same things on both. Yes, my brain works in strange ways! My work mouse is on the left and I use it left-handed (duh) because I can, and the settings are reverse of what most people do. (Yes, I do have to respond to the “I didn’t know you were left handed?” a lot, but it lets me use the word ambidextrous, which I like, and don’t often get to use otherwise). I don’t have any problem going from one mouse to the other, unless I’ve been away from both for a few days. Even then, it only takes a conscious second to adjust my brain and again start clicking away on either mouse. Well, the IT guys at work are great, but every time they come to my desk to assist me they go nuts because that’s the mouse on the left with the button settings changed. Thankfully they don’t have to deal with my mouse settings very often.

So am I rambling for the sake of rambling? A little, because it means a little longer before I go back to the usual tasks. But, this got me thinking about how many tasks do I do daily that I just do, but might be done differently. Probably lots! And how many of those other ways would save me time? That’s what learning is all about – finding different ways to do things and having an arsenal of choices so we can choose the best, most efficient means to an end. Sometimes we save time, sometimes we just find a way that is more satisfying, and sometimes both. Oh, sometimes we reduce waste (a biggie for those efficiency experts and environmentalists).

Try doing something you do everyday, in a different way, and let me know how it goes…

Going Green

2008-04-11T12:11:00.000-07:00

Every trade magazine I’ve looked at recently has an article about being “Green,” covering issues from FSC Certification to the Do Not Mail legislation. Heck, I even got an email the other day with a PS reminding me not to print the email and save a tree.

Course, I’d have to not print 8,333 emails to save a tree, according to the facts presented by a software company specializing in environmental conservation. (Lots of cool facts there so check it out.)

So I want to introduce another issue in the mix – Green Training. That’s right. As part of your company’s efforts to “Go Green,” consider your training efforts. Are they green?

I’ve often referred to our company as a Lean, Mean Training Machine, as we are able to leverage technology to create and produce efficient and effective training. But we’re now going to refer to ourselves as a Lean, GREEN Training Machine. Why?

Our online training does not utilize paper, reducing paper consumption.

Our online training does not require travel, reducing fuel consumption and
travel related carbon emissions.

Our training teaches best practices concentrating on fewer output errors,
ultimately reducing waste.

So as Earth Day approaches on April 22nd, hug a tree and know that your training solution is the Greenest it can possibly be. Be sure to check out Earth Day activities in your area.

I Can Taste the Colors, Man

2008-04-10T05:49:00.000-07:00

We. Love. Color.

There, I said it. Being business types, not creative types, we don't always get to flex our color muscle like we wish we could (which is a good thing, trust me.) But, watching others flex their color muscles is great fun. Want to see color palettes created by some of the best and brightest? Want to submit your own color schemes? Check out the kuler project at Adobe Labs. For those of you with color deficiency, use this as inspiration!

See tons of color schemes at kuler.adobe.com.

A tip-of-the-hat to Adobe.com and kuler.

Managing a Training Program with a Carrot or a Stick

2008-04-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, so you’ve made the decision to offer some training, and you’ve gotten the bean counter’s blessing, so now what? How do you manage the training initiative and still get your job done?

Get out the proverbial carrot or stick? Luckily it’s much simpler than that.

Have a plan. It can be as simple as a written note, or it can be formal plan. The important part is having a plan. Here’s a few things to keep in mind:

1. What results do you expect from the training program?

     Reduced time spent on preparing files?
     Reduced waste?

2. How will you measure it beyond test scores?

     Line items on your financial statement?
     Labor dollars? Over-time? Waste?

3. How will you use these results?

     Will employees be rewarded for successes such as incentive programs?
     Will results be included in performance reviews?

4. Develop a schedule.

     Dedicate specific timeframes for training.
          (Interestingly enough, our peak training time is the lunch hour.)
     Run usage reports periodically to monitor overall and individual progress.
     Send system-generated reminder emails if needed.

Feel better now? It’s really not that complicated, so jump in, and know that we are here to help you. However, we do not recommend you use this method.

Happy Training!