The Sweet Smell of a Press Check

The deafening roar of machines and smell of ink really gets your adrenaline pumping for an early AM press check. After teaching prepress this past semester, I got to dust my InDesign skills and create an annual report for a new client which went to press this week. It was great working with Stacey and everyone at Print Corp of America (PCA) again. While at the press check, Stacey and I got to talking and both of us were in shock that we’ve been working together for fifteen years. It was great to see their upgraded facility and all the news toys they’ve acquired since I  last visited. It’s been a while since I had to hike it up to Timonium for a press check and I couldn’t believe the level of traffic volume. In the past I used to do the same commute north and it was easy since it was totally against traffic. I was trying to be positive while driving during morning rush hour, thinking that it least all these people on the road have jobs.

It’s great having a long-standing relationship with a vendor who knows your ins and outs. I don’t know what I would do without them. Stacey has been with me through all my milestones, learning so much from her along the way. On Monday I really felt blessed to have people like her and PCA on my team.

It’s interesting that now printers are asking for image files in RGB, converting your files to CMYK when they go to plate. For this job, I sent both. I had a lot of brown in the annual report. Past experiences have curbed my interest for using browns because it’s a color that’s difficult to replicate on press. The RGB files give them the ability to tweak if we see any issues crop up in the proof stage of the process. The browns came out perfect and even looked better when we got on press.

All in all, the experience gave me the printing bug again and I’m looking forward to working with Stacey and PCA this summer.