Nearly two hundred print technology aficionados gathered at the Pittsburgh Airport Hyatt Regency Hotel February 6-8 for the thirteenth annual PIA/GATF Tech Alert Conference. The Graphic Arts Technical Foundation puts hundreds of hours of staff resources into testing the latest print applications and sharing the results with attendees at this forum each year. Suppliers and manufacturers participate in advance by processing digital files through their leading edge offerings so that the Foundation can compare their results with those of competitors.

This year’s tests included 1) the impact of various PDF workflows on color management efforts, 2) the adverse impact of coatings on trying to match digital proof to press, 3) how to prevent blanket piling when stochastic printing, and 4) how to minimize the quality degradation on digitally printed products subjected to the high speed Postal Service sorting equipment. Additionally the latest information on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and its future role in the printing industry was presented.

The CEO of Electronics for Imaging (EFI), Guy Gecht, expects the future speeds of digital print engines to move logarithmically from the current top out of 200 pages a minute to 2,000 ppm. For printers to take full advantage of the most productive digital technologies they should 1) integrate content and business management systems, 2) build their IT infrastructure on the industry standards of Job Document Format (JDF), 3) web-enable their business and 4) link their output systems to their MIS systems.

Gecht projected that many printers will work with software vendors who offer the application service provider (APS) model. This means that all software is resident on the vendors’ large-scale systems with printers and their clients accessing the software and databases via the Internet 24/7. In this fashion the graphic solutions provider avoids much hardware and software investment while on site IT expertise is also less intensive.

The pressure to collapse total cycle time or turn the product out quicker has resulted in many printers coating their printed sheets so that these sheets can move more quickly into their various finishing operations rather than waiting in staging queues for the ink to dry. The various coating methods prevent the ink from scuffing as they rub against different mechanisms in folding, collating, cutting, etc. Unfortunately these coatings create a major color shift in the background, which can prevent the press sheet from matching the digital proof.

Dr. Mark Bohan, GATF’s new Director of Integrated Technology, presented the Foundation’s tests which will help printers know what to expect and to adjust appropriately to this densitometer reading variance due to this coating dry back phenomenon. For example, aqueous coating in line with conventional inks on gloss paper will experience higher densitometer data reads especially on black and reflex blue while all data reads on matte coatings will be significantly less on all colors. There is only a small difference in read data between in and off line-coated material, which would tend to reinforce the desire to coat in line as a productivity enhancement. With ultraviolet cured coatings the densitometer readings for all colors tend to increase with black and reflex blue experiencing the most significant shift. Regardless of which coating is used varying substrates will definitely experience different density read results.

Printers are universally eliminating moir' effects when printing certain textile images by incorporating stochastic screening software with their computer to plate technology. The use of virtually any of the various stochastic screening software used to generate the earlier film intermediary met with mixed print quality results. GATF tests presented to earlier Tech Alert Conferences also confirmed that stochastic screening results in less ink being consumed. On the negative side many printers have experienced an increased level of blanket piling which in turn creates delays and spoilage while the blankets need to be cleaned.

While color management has been slow to gain mainstream acceptance in the printing industry, there are clear advocates for the benefits of this discipline. One of the stumbling blocks has been the slow, yet evolving nature of the industry standards for a print-enabled PDF, namely PDF/X-3. GATF coordinated a series of tests among color-managed PDF workflows. The immaturity of this new X-3 workflow was reflected in the fact that only nine of the twenty-four vendors offering workflow solutions actually participated in the study. The reason is that most are simply not yet able to handle this element in their workflows. GATF’s Senior Prepress Technologist Joe Marin presented these test results.

The purpose of these tests was hopefully to verify that in a color management environment the same PDF/X-3 file should provide consistent output at different locations. Ad agencies clearly want consistent results at different printing plants. Unfortunately at this stage of development the tests concluded “the same color management system using the same profile renders color differently on different systems.” Hopefully further enhancements will allow the Foundation to present tests perhaps next year that verifies that this objective can be achieved.

John Parker, Director of Engineering for Graphic Solutions International (GSI) headquartered in Burr Ridge, Illinois gave the current status of radio frequency identification (RFID) and how it might impact certain print niche product applications. GSI (graphicsolutionsinc.com) started out printing labels a couple of decades ago and has evolved with their proprietary security printing technologies. They printed their first conductive product in 1995.

RFID is “a wireless transceiver (sends and receives) system used to track or locate goods or people. It is a wireless bar code” according to Parker. A radio and antenna transmits a signal to a label and then the label sends back its unique 96+ bit identifier to the radio. The radios, called “readers” are about the size of a cigar box, power their antennas, which can be placed at doors, within warehouse bays, offices, or secure areas. Readers operate from standard building power though they may have battery backup systems.

RFID can track inventory, control secure access, build reliable databases, record storage temperatures and track the drug distribution chain to name five high value uses.

The RFID tags may be “active” and therefore include a battery or be “passive” with no battery. Passive tags have a printed or etched antenna and a “chip” cost as little as 15 cents a unit, have a read distance of about 12 feet and a read accuracy of about 83%. The active tags cost as much as $5, can be read from 100 feet away and have a 100% read accuracy.

While the physics and electronics for RFID have been known since WWII, the “premium” applications for the past quarter century have been hospitals and toll systems, for example. Big box retailers and better microchip technologies have increased the demand as well as the potential supply of these tags resulting in cascading prices and many additional lesser valued applications.

The most lucrative future print production applications anticipated is variable data digital printing used in one to one marketing initiatives. While this is expected to be produced and dispersed via multi media, there is little doubt that the postal service will be a favored distribution channel. One potential nagging issue is that digitally printed products almost universally experience more transit damage than does conventionally printed direct mail. 

One of the longstanding traditions and in fact highlights of this Tech Alert Conference is the presentation of the annual Technology Forecast. Attendees receive the first copies with PIA/GATF membership receiving theirs in a subsequent mailing. This 104-page publication contains 49 articles discussing projections and trends pertinent to every firm in the graphic communications industry throughout the world.

Historically, the printing business has concentrated on the goal of getting the work out. In that context, leadership was mainly a reactive process, focused on supervising and managing the workflow in response to customer requirements. Companies gave little regard to their actual work process—the sequence of steps that got the work done or the staff involved in it. Even companies that hired appropriate levels of management to direct the process and staff on their day shift often left their off shifts to lead hands who oversaw production work only.

Today things have changed because:

1. Printing has become commoditized and viewed mainly as a product of industrial manufacturing. Formerly, because printing is service-oriented and customized, it was not classified with traditional manufacturing processes.
2. Communication has become fragmented into other media and services.
3. New technology has made print production more automated, freeing more staff to turn their attention to the business of managing.

The result has been a paradigm shift in management within the printing industry. According to PrintLink’s Managing Director Myrna Penny, “The new thinking is that if printing companies manage and supervise people and processes effectively, then work completion at a profit will follow.”

“Along with a renewed interest in management, companies are also becoming more precise about the types of supervisory skills they require,” says Penny, who points out that, although the terms “lead hand,” “supervisor,” and “manager” are sometimes used interchangeably, in practice they are not the same. Normally the lead hand oversees the crew and the work on one particular shift, while the supervisor directs the work of all the employees in a department and has discretion over hiring and firing recommendations and/or decisions. The manager’s authority includes not only overseeing the supervisors, but also has fiscal responsibility for the departmental or company budgets and control of resources and expenditures,”

The Leadership Challenge

In view of the paradigm shift, the printing industry faces an increasing need for people to fill all three management functions. Companies can proactively seek out opportunities to hire experienced leaders wanting to advance their careers with employers who recognize the value of leadership and management. Yet because leadership skills have not traditionally been cultivated among staff of printing companies, there are simply not as many lead hands, supervisors and managers to go around. And more supervisors in particular are needed than ever before, because companies have to run 24 hours a day just to stay in business, says Penny. So it seems that the industry has reached a developmental stage requiring initiative and foresight to ensure that its present and future leadership requirements are met.

Assessment and Training

“Since leaders are in short supply, it makes sense for the industry to create more of them. It also makes sense to try and choose staff members who already have the advantage of a good grasp of your company’s production process and promote them to management roles,” says Penny. “But in this scenario, there are two keys to success: assessment and training. Without either one of them, you’re just setting someone up to fail.” 

Here’s why: “First of all, when you promote somebody internally who has done good production work into a leadership role, all of a sudden that person is in the position of having to supervise friends on the shop floor. Although this situation can be handled effectively, the majority of people require specialized training in advance to help them cope with it. Even if you hire someone with a production background from another company to assume a leadership role in yours, the new employee may still have difficulty adjusting to a supervisory role because he or she identifies with the people on the shop floor—so again supervisory training is often your best option. Training of this type is available from numerous sources,” says Penny.

Penny also recommends that, prior to investing in training or hiring someone with documented experience, companies should assess their supervisory and managerial candidates for leadership aptitude: “We recommend this be done using any one of the many systems for profile testing that are commercially available. Profile tests can cost as little as a couple of hundred dollars per assessment and can be completed in an hour or two via the Internet. The testing enables you to assess employees for their leadership potential or their ability to assimilate leadership training. Conversely, if you select the wrong production people without testing and give them all the management training in the world, you are still inviting them to fail as leaders.”

It’s that time of year when, like Christmas, 'giving’ has implications to the pocketbook. Yes, the taxman cometh. And if you own your own business, the taxman has the habit of dropping by twice: once to see how your business is doing and once again to see how you are doing.

To help you make the most of the taxman’s visit, here are 12 tax-planning strategies for the owner manager that has their own incorporated business. Due to the complexity of tax laws and that every corporation and owner manager has different facts and circumstances, it is important to consult with qualified tax and/or legal advisors before taking any action on the strategies below.

• Consider employing lower income family members and pay them a salary that is reasonable based on the services they are performing. The salary will create RSP contribution room and generate CPP/QPP pensionable earnings.


• Consider paying dividends from corporate earnings to spouses and adult children shareholders. Canadian dividends are taxed lower than salary. However dividends will not create RSP contribution room or CPP/QPP pensionable earnings. Dividends paid out to benefit related minor children are taxed at the highest marginal tax rate under the “kiddie tax” rules.


• Consider an estate freeze so that the capital gain on the future growth of the business is deferred and attributed to the next generation but the control of the business can remain with the parents.


• In certain circumstances, consider setting up an RCA or IPP to increase the retirement savings of the owner-manager and lower the tax burden of the corporation.


• Consider corporate owned life insurance for funding buy-sell agreements, funding tax liabilities, key person protection, etc.


• Use corporate funds to make the RSP contribution for the owner-manager. The cash used to make the RSP contribution will be considered employment income (reported on the T4 and thus will create future RSP contribution room) but the offsetting RSP deduction will avoid taxation on the increased salary.


• If possible, pay bonuses to employees to reduce the company’s taxable income to $300,000 since the first $300,000 of small business active income (2005 value) is taxed at low tax rates (17% - 22%).


• Consider deferring employee bonuses up to 179 days after the corporate year-end. The company will get a tax deduction in the current corporate tax year but does not have to pay the bonus in the current year. The employee though will declare the bonus in the year of receipt, which in certain cases may lower the tax liability for the employee on the bonus. However withholding tax will continue to apply on the bonus.


• Ensure a legally binding shareholder’s agreement is in place. Among other things a shareholder agreement can help to ensure an orderly manner for settling shareholder disputes; can set restrictions on selling shares to third parties; can provide a framework for the purchase of the shares of a deceased shareholder; competition clauses, etc.


• Determine what the Paid-Up Capital (PUC) is on the shares. If the PUC is not nominal, an amount per share up to the PUC may be paid out to the shareholder tax-free in a complex series of transactions. This can assist shareholders requiring cash in a tax-effective manner. However, this tax-free pay out will reduce the ACB and PUC of the shares going forward.


• To minimize net corporate tax due to “integration”, consider paying out dividends to the shareholders in the same year that passive investment income is earned in the corporation (however before doing this consider other issues such as creditor protection, U.S. Estate Tax, etc).


• Ensure that the corporation qualifies for the $500,000 qualified small business exemption prior to a disposition of operating company shares. If not, certain transactions may need to take place prior to disposition in order to “purify” the shares for purposes of the qualified small business exemption.

JANUARY

• 15th - Deadline for an employee to inform their employer of any deferred stock options benefits related to a stock option exercise from previous year.
  
• 30th - Deadline to pay interest for previous year on a family loan at prescribed interest rates.
  
• Consider making maximum lump-sum RSP contribution for current year.
  
• Consider making $2,000 lifetime over-contribution to your RSP.
  
• Review your personal financial plan, including your estate plan to ensure it is still appropriate.

FEBRUARY

• 28th - Deadline for employers to send in T-4 summary to the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA). In addition, a copy of the T-4 slip must be delivered or mailed to the employee by February 28th.

MARCH

• 1st - RSP contribution deadline. If it’s a leap year, the deadline is February 29. This deadline applies for regular RSP contributions, retiring allowance RSP contributions, or Home Buyers’ Plan or Lifelong Learning Plan RSP repayments.


• 1st - Labour-Sponsored Fund contribution deadline. If it’s a leap year, the deadline is February 29.


• 15th - 1st quarterly Canadian tax installment is due.


• 31st - Inter-vivos/Living Trust tax return deadline. If it is a leap year, the deadline is March 30th.


• If you are expecting a tax refund, consider filing your personal tax return early—but only after you have received all your necessary tax information.

APRIL

• 15th - U.S. resident tax return or four-month extension request deadline. Deadline for extension request for non-resident aliens who are subject to withholding tax. Deadline for the balance owing to avoid interest charges.


• 30th - Deadline to file your Canadian personal tax return and pay any balance owing, to avoid paying interest and a late filing penalty.

Here's the scenario. You have spent most of the night retouching and colour correcting images. You've calibrated and profiled your monitor, hard-proofed on your inkjet printer via a profiled and calibrated RIP and you always view your proofs under controlled D50 lighting. As well, you insisted that the printer supply a proof, just to be sure. It would seem you have covered all the bases. Nothing can go wrong. You will sleep soundly tonight knowing you did everything possible to ensure perfection is achieved.

A few days later you get the call from the printer that your job is ready to go to press. You drive confidently to the printer, windows down, music playing and a smile on your face. When you arrive at the printer you can see that your images are not printing as expected, the images are dark; there is a significant loss of shadow detail. You’re no longer smiling.

So what went wrong? You did everything possible, didn’t you? Well, almost everything. Chances are your proofing setup was targeting a coated stock and not the super absorbent uncoated stock actually being used. Paper plays a key role in how your images will reproduce.

How you converted your images (RGB > CMYK or CMYK > CMYK) and what profile you selected also plays a very vital role in how those images will reproduce on press. Before you convert your images you need to know what paper it is going to be printed on, what type of press and the recommended Total Area Coverage. TAC means how much ink is laid down in the darkest regions of your image. TAC is the addition of all four inks in the your blacks.

So what can you do to ensure your day isn’t ruined?

1. Check what ICC profile your image has been converted with.
2. Ask your printer what TAC (Total Area Coverage) they recommend for the paper you are using.
3. Adobe Photoshop utilizes four ICC profiles for CMYK reproduction and each has a unique TAC. (See Chart)
4. Using too high an ink limit will have a negative impact on the quality of your images.
5. It is possible to use Photoshop’s “Convert to Profile” command to re-convert a CMYK image to a more appropriate ink limit. For example, if your image was converted using U.S. Sheetfed Coated V2.icc and your printer recommended a Total Ink Limit of 300% you should re-convert your images via the Convert to Profile option to U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2.
6. If you have no idea where the job will be printed and on what stock it will be printed on, your best option would be to convert your images using U.S. Web Coated (SWOP) v2. This would be the safest option.

Total Area Coverage amounts
for Photoshop Profiles:

Total Area Coverage and Paper Type Chart

Over the past few years, many of us have made the switch to either Mac OS X or Windows XP. From my perspective, they are very similar operating systems. Both operating systems have many timesaving techniques that could be put to use to make your day a little easier. Here are a few:

In the old(!) world of computers, Macs were mostly controlled by the mouse and Windows was controlled with keyboard commands. In fact, Unix and DOS systems were exclusively controlled by the keyboard. Command line purists prefer to use the keyboard and we have explored navigating with the keyboard in past articles. With the popularity of computers in the work place and also at home, it follows that the two approaches would converge – to our benefit.

The first trick is one that lets you switch between applications quickly. On a Mac OS X you can go to Dock at the bottom of the screen to click on open programs. Similarly in Windows, open windows are also accessed through the “Task bar” – also at the bottom of the screen. However I think there is a faster and easier way – you can use the keyboard.

Hold down the “Tab” and “Apple (Command) key on the Mac.

Or

Hold down “Tab” and “Alt” on Windows.

On both systems, the open applications will appear with icons in the middle of the screen, and you will “toggle” through the open applications. As you continue to press the keys, you will keep switching from left to right. Add the Shift key to Tab and Apple and you will toggle in reverse order. I use this trick to save time.

If you ever wonder whether you saved the document you’re working on in Mac OS X, take a look at the red “close” button on the current window. If you haven’t saved your document, the button will have a little black dot in the center. The yellow button hides the current window in the Dock and the green button expands and contracts the window. (On Windows they call that “maximizing” and “minimizing”. I wonder where Apple got that idea – Hmmm?)

If you work in Excel, or you’re entering information in a web form, you can use the Tab key to jump from one field to another. You guessed it! You can also jump backward by adding the shift key. Try it the next time you have to enter another web form. But wait, there’s more…

If you’ve been playing with the Terminal application, here are a couple of major time savers. As you may remember, you have to type out the entire path to manipulate files and folders. However, you can type a few characters and then hit the “Tab” key and the Terminal will fill in the matching name. If there are two or more matching possibilities the Mac will beep and show the choices. You’ll find yourself saving a lot of typing using this trick.

While we’re still in the Terminal, you can save yourself a lot of grief when you can find a file you want to manipulate in the Finder. Simply drag the file or folder onto an open Terminal window and the entire path will appear in the Terminal. This can save a lot of typing, especially with files buried deeply on your computer.

The last timesaver I’d like to share is how to efficiently capture what’s on the screen. You may or may not know the old keyboard command for taking a screen shot – “Apple” – “Shift” – “3”. The command makes a screen shot of the entire screen. It’s very useful for remembering that error or for printing out the contents of a directory. Mac OS X prints this to a PDF file on your hard drive. (Look for “Picture 1”.) The cool version of this is to use “Apple” – “Shift” – “4”. With this variation, the cursor turns into a cross hair and you can drag it across your screen to capture only what you’ve highlighted. Windows users can use “Alt” “Control” and Print “Screen” to put the image of the current window on their clipboard. Then open “Paint” Accessories, paste the image and save it.

A friend of mine once told me the trick to typing is to know the location of the “Delete” key. I hope you’ll agree with me that the “Tab” key is just as useful.

It is one of the hardest things you'll ever do — letting go. Letting go of what you know so you can learn and experience something new.

Years ago when the tug-o-war between Pagemaker and QuarkXPress was in full gear, I camped on the Pagemaker side of the equation. There was no compelling reason for the choice; Pagemaker was installed in the shop where I worked. Using it daily creates habits and you come to expect certain things to be and move in certain ways.

Years later, I became the publisher of newspaper where Quark was the software of choice. For those who know the programs, the end result is fairly even but the route there is quite different. It’s not just learning different keystrokes, tips and tricks; the two rivals approach the interface from different ends of the stick. It requires a new orientation. After months of arguing the Pagemaker advantage, I faced the inevitable and opened Quark.

“Learning Quark is easy,” said Michelle who was hired to help me make the switch. “I can teach you the basics in a couple of hours. However, getting you to let go of the way you’ve been doing page layout could take several weeks.”

Letting go of what you know. I’ve attended several management and leadership workshops where ‘letting go’ was the major exercise for developing character and building trust. In one such case, the exercise involved climbing up a 25-foot pole that had a 9-inch square platform nailed to the top. The challenge was to stand on the platform and leap off and grab another rope—stretched horizontally—a few feet away. Thankfully, we were tethered to a safety line.

If you ever land up in a similar exercise, the most difficult part isn’t leaping off. The platform, small and shaky as it was—plus the comfort of seeing what you’re reaching for—provides a degree of comfort. And of course, there’s the optimism that things will go as planned!

No, by far the most difficult part is transitioning onto the platform. Climbing up is relatively easy because you have something to hang on to—much like climbing a ladder. Once you reach the platform however—remember it’s only a 9-inch square—you no longer have a place above you to put your hands. Holding on to the platform and trying to get your feet up requires great agility. And should you be lucky enough to get to a squatting position, standing erect on a pole that’s ‘to-ing ’n fro-ing’ requires incredible trust and balance. We spent an afternoon conquering our fears on that pole, and never really got good at it.

The instructor made it look easy and he would show the possibilities by doing it blindfolded. “The point is,” he would say, “we like to cling on to what we know. It feels safe. But if you want to grow, you have to let go.”

The challenge for many business owners is to let go and share decision-making power with others. Having done it ‘their way’ for however many years, these owners want to be involved in everything from the biggest decisions to the tiniest details. What they don’t realize is that this attitude is holding them—and their business—back. If you want your business to grow, you have to let go.

When the owner or manager tries to do it all, here is what usually results:

Opportunities are missed – With a mindset to stick with existing activities and practices, new opportunities are not seen.

Employees are less productive – Instead of being excited and taking initiative to improve performance, employees simply do what they are told.

Employees leave – With little opportunity to grow and take on more responsibility, employees will find other employers who recognize their talents and will appreciate them.

The business stays small – That way, the owner keeps the business manageable.

Planning suffers – Since the day-to-day operation occupies all the manager’s time, little attention is paid to where the business is or where it is heading.

The owner burns out – No person can do it all. It’s not only the business that takes a toll; the owner usually lands up physically and emotionally depleted as well.

It is so easy to see patterns of ‘holding on’ in our friends and associates, patterns that prevent so much more from happening. The thing is, those same friends and associates are seeing similar patterns in us. Is there something you will let go of today? Or will you just turn the page?

We live in a high-pressure world. Your customers demand more from you than ever before, your boss expects greater results in less time and by the time you have mastered one technology, it’s often obsolete. The constant change in the marketplace and in society is so vast it makes your head spin. More new information was produced in the past 30 years than in the entire 5000-year period from 3000 BC to 1965. The effect of these new challenges has been to create an invisible epidemic, one that has the potential to rob you of your productivity, creativity and effectiveness like no other. The name of this culprit? Stress.

Here are 7 of the stress mastery lessons for mastering stress and staying focused in these turbulent times:

Reframe the Negative as Positive

Stress is essentially a matter of perception. While giving a presentation to a group of 100 prospects might strike fear in the heart of one sales professional, it will be viewed as a superb business opportunity to another. Stress management is all about thought management and the more effectively you can reframe seemingly negative events as positive circumstances, the more inspired, productive and energetic you will remain.

Continuously Grow

The best way to manage change is to keep on growing. Ironically, by clinging to old pathways of thought and action in the hope of finding a little security in these change-crazed times, you are actually putting yourself in the most insecure position possible. Make the decision to become a change master and begin to see yourself as a lifelong student. Read for 30 minutes a day, go to training seminars and listen to educational and motivational audiocassettes in your car. By expanding your own professional knowledge base you will be in a position to add greater value to your organization.

Focus on the Worthy

With all the demands on your time, you simply cannot do everything. The person who tries to do everything ultimately achieves nothing. Peak performers have a clear sense of the activities that are worthy of their time and those that contribute little to their professional and personal missions. Focusing on the worthy is the golden key to time management and life fulfillment. As management guru Peter Drucker observed: “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

Plan Your Time

If you don’t make the time to schedule your priorities in your daily planner, someone else’s priorities will get scheduled into your daily planner. All peak performing men and women understand that time is their most precious resource and guard it wisely. Set aside 30 minutes every Sunday night for your weekly planning session and ask yourself this very powerful question: “What goals do I need to accomplish over the next 7 days for me to feel this week was a success?” Remember, the days slip into weeks and the weeks slip into months and the months slip into years. If you don’t act on life, life will act on you. Get control of your time and make your weeks count.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Tear yourself away from the outdated mindset that says “to be more productive, you must work harder.” In these pressure filled times, that’s a recipe for disaster. Adopt a new, more enlightened way to manage yourself and understand that the key to increased effectiveness is to work smarter. Stop focusing on the time spent behind your office desk and, instead, begin concentrating on getting results.

Manage Your Environment

We live in an increasingly negative world. Massive corporate downsizing, ever-increasing levels of competition and constant access to mind-numbing news stories are only a few of the influences that can adversely affect our attitudes and thought-processes if left unchecked over time. To master stress and maintain high levels of enthusiasm, meticulously guard the information you expose yourself to. Avoid anything that detracts from the clear, focused mindset you know will lead you to success. As Gandhi said: “I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.”

Make Time for Yourself

Ultimately, the best way to manage stress effectively is to manage yourself effectively. Have the wisdom to understand that success on the outside truly begins within. Carve out time every week to commune with nature or listen to beautiful music or get a relaxing massage. Discover the renewing power of visualization and meditation and ensure that you find a few minutes during your busy week to enjoy a little silence. Begin to manage yourself better. Get to know yourself and craft a serious action plan for personal development. You will quickly meet with higher levels of success and feel far less stress.

Apple has announced a new website, www.apple.com/pro/color to help designers and print professional who want to understand and integrate color management into their workflow. Thanks to Apple, getting started with virtual color proofing is easier than ever. Virtual color proofing used to require many different hardware and software devices and constant intervention and fine-tuning. Today, digital technology has refined the process.

What You Need to Get Started

At the heart of Apple’s color managed workflow is the Mac OS X  Panther operating system — a prerequisite for accurate virtual color proofing. Mac OS X Panther takes a system-wide and always-on approach to color by integrating ColorSync, based on the International Color Consortium (ICC) standard for color management, into every phase of the workflow: capture, edit and output. This ensures that color accurately translates from one device to another across your entire workflow. You will also need to run your application programs on a Mac G5.

Apple Cinema Displays

There are three models in Apple’s display line. The 20-inch Apple Cinema Display features Apple’s innovative wide screen format, offering a large workspace for design use. Customers working with multipage layouts and video find the 23-inch Apple Cinema HD Display ideal, while the breakthrough 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display meets the needs of the most demanding professional users. Today’s best LCDs deliver about twice the brightness, sharpness and contrast of a CRT display. They are also flicker-free and resistant to many of the environmental factors that affect the visual performance of CRTs.

Calibrating Your Monitor

The first step in good virtual color proofing is to verify that what you see on your Apple Cinema Display is actually correct. This means that your display must be properly calibrated and profiled to ensure that what you see on the screen matches what you and your clients will see in virtual proof and final output. The Apple website www.apple.com/pro/color, will provide you with a step-by-step sequence. Your Macintosh will automatically query your display for industry-standard information. Based on this data, ColorSync automatically creates and assigns a factory display profile. This means every Mac running Mac OS X 10.3 (or later versions) can display color accurately without any effort on your part.

Advanced Monitor Calibration

For even better color results, consider calibrating and creating a custom profile for your particular display. For the ultimate in color accuracy, consider investing in a hardware device for calibrating and profiling your display such as the MonacoOPTIXxr. The MonacoOPTIX colorimeter calibrates and profiles your display by mimicking how the human eye sees the color on your display. Onscreen help in the software package guides you through the process of calibrating and profiling your display using hardware devices. The software offers predefined settings and automated processes if you don’t want to develop customized settings. Experienced users can create their own custom settings for brightness, white point and contrast using Advanced Mode. Once the profiling kit has calibrated your display and created a custom profile, Mac OS X makes your display’s custom profile accessible throughout your system to all of your applications.

Next you will have to ask your clients to calibrate their displays as well so that they, too, can trust what the color they’re viewing exactly matches your intent.

Embedding a Printer Profile

Once you and your clients can mutually trust what you see on your displays, it’s time to “tag” your image or layout to an output device profile for the printer, proofer or other device. You can acquire this device profile from your commercial printer or call me for a color technician to come on-site and provide this service.

Once this stage has been completed, the Apple website will guide you through the next steps to follow in setting up Photoshop, QuarkXPress and InDesign applications. Now you can easily create a virtual proof by converting the color in the source document or image to reflect the color capabilities specified by the profile of your output device.

Once you’ve established a virtual color proofing workflow to share your projects with your clients, you should set yourself up to work with commercial print providers to complete the all-digital workflow.

Connecting With 3rd Party Virtual Color Proofing Solutions

The world’s largest print service providers are leading the trend toward virtual color proofing. They are taking advantage of Apple Cinema Displays, ColorSync and Mac OS X to deliver software applications and systems that let you reliably evaluate color images and documents online, annotate soft proofs and approve them. Whether you use built-in Mac OS X applications such as Preview, or new applications from print service providers, accurate virtual color proofing is easier, more reliable and more accessible than ever. Once again Apple’s new website illustrates proprietary software that is being offered by ShareStream, ICS Remote Director and Matchprint Virtual Proofing System to help to complete the workflow.

Benefits of Virtual Color Proofing

Apple presents us with a strong presentation in the area of virtual color proofing using their Mac OS X Panther, a dual-processor Power Mac G5 and an Apple Cinema Display. The ultimate decision will be up to you, but I would highly recommend you looking at Apple’s new website to help you explore these new opportunities.

Our congratulations to Webcom President, Warren Wilkens for being the recipient of the annual Graphic Arts Leader of North America award. Warren, along with Mario Cesar de Camargo, President of the Brazilian Association of the Graphic Industry who received the award for South America, were on hand to accept their awards before hundreds of industry leaders at the 22nd annual Gala Awards banquet. Warren was very involved in the Canadian print industry and later in the American print industry and has served as chairman of both the Canadian and US Printing Associations.

A loud round of applause to Chris Price and Graphics of the Americas for putting on an exciting show in Miami in February. Graphics of the Americas is one of the largest international trade shows for the printing, converting and design trade industry, with participation from over 450 companies occupying more than a half million square feet of exhibition space.

I was speaking to one of our clients recently and he made a simple statement about his business attitude, “Competing on price always results in loses. Delivering value, integrity and meaningful customer service always results in gains.” It’s hard to argue against such a simple business philosophy!

If you received a subscription renewal form with this issue, please complete it and send it back by mail, email or via our website at www.graphicartsmagazine.com  It’s all you have to do to continue receiving your free subscription to The Graphic Arts Magazine. Should you require a CCAB audit statement for making your advertising decisions, we’d be happy to provide it.

As an Irishman, I’d like to wish you a “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” and go easy on the green beer!

Until next time,

“May the road rise to meet you,
may the wind be always at your back
and may God hold you in the palm of His hand
and may the luck of the Irish be with you throughout the year.

As always stay positive.

“I hate making marketing calls. I don’t know what to say and how to say it. I’ve been assigned to find new clients and in the past four weeks I brought in zero new clients.”

Do you ever feel this way? Are you tired of being turned down? Are you frustrated by your limited success selling on the phone?

Making any of the mistakes below takes the fun out of your job and can kill your sales.

Using Push Versus Pull Marketing

Most of us don’t like pushy people who talk about themselves all the time. Think about your marketing. Are you constantly pushing information out about yourself, your products and services? This may be pushing prospects away when what you want to do is pull them in.

Not Generating Enough Qualified Leads

Marketing is about starting conversations with prospects so you can learn what they need and help them understand the solution you provide. To bring in more business, help more people understand what you do and prompt prospects to contact you.

Responding To Inquiries With an Email or a Letter

Nine times out of ten, when you send a prospect a written response to a query, it won’t result in a sale. Pick up the phone and you can use their questions to start a conversation. With just a couple of additional questions you can learn what their objectives are and then you can sell them the solution.

Quoting Price Too Soon

When prospects call, one of the first questions they ask is about pricing. Tell them right away and you risk ending the conversation and losing the sale. Dollar figures by themselves are meaningless. When a prospect asks what you charge, don’t tell them until you’ve had a chance to learn what they want. Then put the price in the context of the value and quality solutions you provide.

Wasting Time With People Who Aren’t Buyers

No matter how good your system is for qualifying leads, you’ll end up on the phone with people who can’t afford your services or won’t benefit from your products. Conversations like these can take up way too much time.

Use your qualifying questions and their responses to determine within the first three minutes of a conversation whether or not the person you’re talking with is a promising prospect. If not, thank them for their inquiry and move on to your next call.

Talking Too Much

You know your services and products inside out; you could talk for hours about product features or benefits. Don’t. You’ll lose your prospects attention, especially if you’re marketing over the phone.

Not Clarifying Value From the Client’s Perspective

You have a crystal clear idea of the benefits of your products and services; you want prospects to understand these benefits from their point of view. To help prospects understand the value you provide, get them to define what they are looking for and what it’s worth to them.

Not Getting To “Yes”

Your primary objective is to get the prospect to say, “yes” when you ask them whether they want to place their order or sign up for your services. Set up a pattern of “yes” answers and you’ll increase the chances they will say “yes” when you ask them to buy.

Neglecting To Ask For The Sale

If you want people to buy your products and services, you need to ask for the sale. This sounds obvious, but the tendency is to wait for the prospect to say they are ready to buy.

Why do we do this? Until you gain confidence in your phone selling technique, you’re afraid of getting turned down when you ask for the sale. If you’re working with qualified leads, many of the people you are talking with want to buy your products and services. Help them clarify the value and then help them make the purchase.

Forgetting To Follow Up On Sales

When you make a sale it may seem like the end of your marketing effort. Think of your first sale not as closing a sale but opening the door to a long-term relationship and you’ll increase future sales. When a prospect becomes a client, they’ve provided tangible evidence of their trust in you and your products and services. Follow up with a phone call to find out how the product or service is working and there is a good chance you’ll uncover a need for more of your products and services.

You don’t have to hate marketing on the phone. Learn what to say and how to structure the conversation and you’ll have more fun and make more sales.