Electronic Prepress Growing
More than three quarters of in-plants are handling design and layout, according to our recent electronic prepress survey. That's up from 65 percent two and a half years ago.
This was just one of the facts uncovered by our survey, conducted via our Web site and filled out by 91 in-plant managers. Respondents also revealed that the majority of jobs (82.3%) are sent to the in-plant digitally, PDF has edged out PostScript as a workflow choice, and computer-to-plate equipment is in use by more than half of them.
On average, respondents have between 29 and 30 employees, with about six of them working in design and prepress. More than half of the respondents were from university environments, with 10 percent from manufacturing and 8 percent each from government and insurance organizations.
Software Used
|
Percentage that use:
|
Design/Layout (InDesign):
|
41 %
|
Design/Layout (QuarkXpress):
|
88 %
|
Design/Layout (other software):
|
75 %
|
Imposition:
|
70 %
|
Trapping:
|
63 %
|
Preflighting:
|
62 %
|
__________________________________
Prepress Equipment
|
Percentage that use:
|
Macs:
|
85 %
|
PCs:
|
88 %
|
File Servers:
|
74 %
|
RIPs:
|
81 %
|
Imagesetters:
|
59 %
|
Computer-to-plate Equipment:
|
51 %
|
Scanners (Drum):
|
9 %
|
Scanners (Flatbed):
|
92 %
|
Digital Cameras:
|
58 %
|
Digital Color Proofing Systems:
|
53 %
|
Digital Imposition Proofing Systems:
|
35 %
|
Analog Proofing Systems:
|
27 %
|
Digital Storage/Archival Systems:
|
57 %
|
CD Duplicating Equipment:
|
43 %
|
Laser Printers:
|
95 %
|
Ink-jet Printers:
|
66 %
|
__________________________________
Services Rendered
Percentage of respondents who offer these services:
Digital Design/Layout:
|
76 %
|
Preflighting:
|
68 %
|
Digital File Archival:
|
54 %
|
Color Correcting/Retouching:
|
48 %
|
Digital Design/Layout:
|
35 %
|
Remote Proofing:
|
27 %
|
OCR Scanning:
|
25 %
|
Digital Asset Management:
|
20 %
|
Photography:
|
20 %
|
Database Management:
|
15 %
|
__________________________________
For offset jobs designed outside the in-plant, here is the percentage of work in-plants receive in the following ways:
|
For offset jobs designed in the in-plant, here is the percentage of work received from customers in the following ways:
|
__________
Networked
More than 80 percent of respondents say they receive digital files for offset jobs over a network. Here are the methods they use:
|
Percentage of respondents
|
E-mail Attachments:
|
94 %
|
FTP Transfers:
|
50 %
|
Dedicated Line, WAN/LAN:
|
44 %
|
Managed Network, E-Commerce File Transfer:
|
19 %
|
__________________________________
PDF By A Nose
Percentage of respondents who use the following workflows:
PDF:
|
86 %
|
PostScript:
|
85 %
|
CEPS:
|
13 %
|
Other:
|
23 %
|
__________________________________
|
__________________________________
Type Of Printing
Percentage of in-house printing produced in the following ways:
Offset:
|
60.1 %
|
Digital Printers/Copiers:
|
33.2 %
|
Analog Copiers:
|
6.7 %
|
__________________________________
Offset Color Soars
Color printing makes up 64% of respondents' offset printing workloads.
Four-color:
|
31 %
|
Multi-color:
|
33 %
|
Black-and-white:
|
36 %
|
__________________________________
Investing In The Future
Percentage of in-plants that have invested the following amounts in prepress hardware and software over the past two years.
Nothing:
|
5 %
|
Less than $10,000:
|
24 %
|
$10,000 - $24,999:
|
14 %
|
$25,000 - $49,999:
|
12 %
|
$50,000 - $99,999:
|
14 %
|
$100,000 - $249,999:
|
17 %
|
$250,000 - $499,999:
|
10 %
|
$500,000 - $999,999:
|
3 %
|
$More than $1 million:
|
1 %
|
__________________________________
Budgets
72 percent of respondents say they have operating budgets in excess of $1 million.
Under $250,000:
|
6 %
|
$250,000 - $499,999:
|
12 %
|
$500,000 - $999,999:
|
10 %
|
$1 million - $1,999,999:
|
24 %
|
$2 million - $2,999,999:
|
14 %
|
$3 million - $4,999,999:
|
16 %
|
$More than $5 million:
|
18 %
|
__________________________________
Industry Breakdown
The 91 survey respondents hailed from the following industries:
College/University:
|
51.7 %
|
Manufacturing:
|
10.1 %
|
Government:
|
7.9 %
|
Insurance:
|
7.9 %
|
School District:
|
4.5 %
|
Wholesale/Retail:
|
4.5 %
|
Banking/Finance:
|
3.4 %
|
Health Care:
|
3.4 %
|
Religious:
|
2.2 %
|
Utilities:
|
1.1 %
|