Tradecraft

A few Fridays ago Terry Herbst, longtime press operator at our shop, retired after twenty years with the company. To give you an idea of his tenure let's note he printed one of our client's newsletters one hundred and sixty five times, and did so without any memorable problems. (Years prior to his stay here, Terry's Army unit in Vietnam also read newsletters that he printed.) Reflecting on Terry's career got me thinking about the things that have changed in our business, and, more importantly, the things that have not.

It's tempting to lump press operators into the larger category of skilled trades such as fabricating or construction. All trades involve the application of basic methods to accomplish the task at hand, but the skills required to run a printing press go further. This is true because of the intangible and fluid nature of the process, and the leap of faith required every time a press operator cranks up on a production run.

The leap of faith is necessary because, at the top of a run, press operators know that they only have limited control over what is going to happen next. Also, that no matter how it goes, they will be held responsible. Those factors that are not under their control include: the quality and personality of the paper; the atmospheric conditions in the shop such as temperature and humidity; the skills of the personnel upstream in the production process; and the fact that wet ink looks different than it will twelve hours later when dry. If you are about to commit $3,000 of the company's paper to a job it takes a lot of guts to push that "RUN" button.

So, what's changed? What makes the life of a press operator different than ten years ago?

The easy answer is digital pre-press and the high quality plates it produces. The elimination of hand assembled film in the platemaking process, and its replacement by laser platesetters, allows for a highly precise process. The plates delivered to the press are cleaner, line up faster, and require less tinkering. All of this gets you to the top of the run quickly; with less frustration and fewer false starts. No operator I know would willingly switch back to the "good old days".

The more complicated trend is the move to all-digital printing, (currently for shorter runs), with no plates at all. These machines are fundamentally different than conventional offset presses.

This leads to a conundrum in the operator's life, because it upsets the balance between art and science. (By art I refer to skill based on intuition.) There is much less interaction between the machine and the operator, and finely tuned adjustments cannot be made during the run. This could relegate the operator to the role of "mouse jockey", but fear not; here comes the basic fact which will never change.

Customers care deeply about the quality of work they receive. (I learned this firsthand at a print shop where I made all my own customer deliveries.) In order for the high-fives and victory lap to commence a lot of people have to do a lot of things right...and key to that success are the tradespeople who put the image down on the sheet. Any tradesperson "worth his salt" knows that the customer will scrutinize the work, and takes the steps necessary to be proud of what goes out the door.

This pride has always been the source of good tradecraft. Regardless of the level of technology, high quality work comes from equipment that is well cared for, run by people who give a damn about what they're doing. The knowledge that their extra effort make a difference, and that the customer deserves it, is what distinguishes a tradesperson from someone just punching the clock.

With sincere thanks to Terry for his millions of good impressions, and best wishes to him and Linda in the years ahead,

Hugh Butler
Your friend in the printing business