Files & prepress
What is prepress?
Prepress is everything that happens to a job between receiving the artwork and printing it — checking files, fixing colour, adding bleed, imposing layouts and producing proofs.
In a sign shop, prepress is usually one person and a checklist rather than a department: is the file vector or high enough resolution at final size, are fonts outlined, is the colour set up for the printer, does it have bleed, has the customer approved a proof. Every skipped step surfaces later as a reprint.
The discipline that pays is refusing to let production start before prepress finishes — most expensive shop mistakes are prepress problems discovered after the media was burned.
The print file checker does the resolution half automatically →
Related terms
Software that speaks the trade
PrinterFlo runs print & sign shops on one board — quotes that price by size and material, proofs approved from one link, and a production checklist the quote writes for you.