CPISC Executive Director in Hall of Fame

CPISC’s executive director, Marie Eveline, was inducted into the Algonquin College Media Hall of Fame in a special ceremony at the college last month. The hall of fame was established by the college’s Media Studies Department in 2008 to recognize people for their contribution to media industries related to courses offered by the department. These are individuals who have earned a reputation for excellence, innovation and contributions to the field and who they hope will inspire students studying at the college’s three campuses in Ottawa, Pembroke and Perth, Ontario.

“Being inducted into the Algonquin Media Hall of Fame is a testament to the strong partnerships that are being developed within the industry through the work of the Canadian Printing Industries Sector Council,” says Eveline.

“By working with employers, employees and educators like Algonquin, we’re helping to bring together a variety of views on how best to deliver much needed skills development and human resource tools to the industry.”
Congratulations, Mary.

Grafik’Art Show set for April 23 – 25

Grafik’Art Trade Show will take place at Place Bonaventure in Montreal, Quebec from April 23 to 25, 2009. Press, pre-press, sales, marketing and print management will be but a few of the topics covered.

Exhibit spaces are filling quickly according to show organizer Louis Bernard, so you should make your booking as soon as possible to reserve the best booth locations. You can do it directly at www.grafikart.ca. Show visitors can also order tickets online.

The show is a great opportunity to make new contacts, see old colleagues and interact with the experts in our industry. More than 120 exhibitors including GBC Canada, Epson, Heidelberg, Komori and several others plan to attend, as will Konica-Minolta with its complete line of new copiers.

For more information call Louis at (514) 916-8102 or e-mail louis-bernard@videotron.ca.

Coming events here and south of the border

The 2009 Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) National Convention and Showcase Forum will be held in Toronto, April 27-29, 2009 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. If you’re looking for innovative ways to increase your business, you’ll likely find some great ideas at the show.

The Printer-to-Printer Business & Technology Conference, Offset and Beyond, will be held at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada May 4-6 and covers business opportunities and trends while featuring comprehensive technology and production sessions for printers, regardless of process.

IMI’s 2nd Digital Printing Presses – The Next Era Conference is May 6-8 at the Crowne Plaza San Marcos Resort in Phoenix, Arizona. It will feature speakers from Amica Software, Digital Graphics, Direct Group, Eastman Kodak, HP, I. T. Strategies, Lake Image Systems, Oce, Pivotal Resources USA, PrintCom Consulting, SPF-Inc., TTP and Xerox.

The 20th Annual Thermal Printing Conference will be May 11-13 at the Radisson Resort Orlando Celebration in Kissimmee (Orlando), Florida.

The 7th Int. Paper & Coating Chemistry Symposium 2009 will be June 10 – 12 at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.

The Graphic Arts Show Company’s PRINT 09 Media Days will be June 16-17 in Chicago in advance of the global PRINT 09 trade show and conference at Chicago’s McCormick Place September 11-16. The six-day, “myPRINT” themed trade show will be customized this year to provide a personalized show experience for commercial printers and attendees from nine other key market segments.

The annual CPISC Forum is an opportunity for people in the printing and graphic communications industry to network and hear from leading industry speakers about current industry issues. This year’s forum will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia June 12 at the Renaissance Vancouver Hotel Harbourside.

Industry managers, supervisors and prepress operators braved the January cold to join sponsors, Digital Imaging Association and PaperlinX for firsthand insight into the brilliance of Adobe CS4.

The Creative Suite

Sebastian DiStefano, Canada’s “Guy from Adobe,” provided an in-depth look at Adobe’s second release of the Creative Suite since the merger with Macromedia. DiStefano also showed examples that instantly demonstrated the robust features that augment productivity and premedia workflows.

This is more than a software upgrade. Attendees learned first hand how imbedded tools and revamped menu access will change your workflow. Everyone can benefit from this enhanced workflow and increased productivity!

Content creators will appreciate the integrated software and services that will enable them to produce richly expressive work purposed for print, Web, interactive, video, audio and mobile media. And, the tools render a common look and function throughout all your media choices. The full suite delivers the robust provisions to design across media more efficiently using simpler ways to complete common tasks and innovative new approaches moving from one medium to another. The new tools also facilitate real-time client approvals and will enable collaborative discussions with service providers, like printers, to ensure reproduction fidelity. DiStefano’s demonstrations of the ability to review graphically rich files on the fly and in shared environments were extraordinary.

Tip to users – take a look at Adobe Bridge – it was part of CS3 as well – use it once and you’ll use it forever. It bridges you to a file without actually having to open it. Content creators and prepress production operators, just think of the time this will save you.

Improvements to all applications within CS4 address many of the things users have requested – and some that they didn’t even imagine to be possible. Things like increased speed in Photoshop as well as features in curve adjustment that allow on-image correction and an application called content aware scale are just some of the improvements. In Illustrator, Adobe has added multi-page support as just one example of this software’s enhancements. Functionally, Illustrator is still recognized as an artist’s tool – and artists will still find that they can use it in the same way they have been accustomed. With the launch of CS4, InDesign is now the well-designed layout look Adobe set out to provide. Said DiStefano, Adobe has added all the features that Quark is lacking.

Printers will appreciate CS4’s preflight panel. They can advise their clients on what preflight selections they should choose. The report identifies errors, and with a single click, you can go to each error and fix it. The demo showed how the notification disappears instantly once the error has been fixed. The panel then travels with the file so printers can check to see if everything is okay with the file – instantly.

Part of the Family – Acrobat 9

Mark Lewicki, Adobe Canada’s PDF product manager, talked briefly about Acrobat 9, which continues to be a standalone software option, but is also included as part of many of the versions of CS4. Adobe Acrobat has become the de-facto cross platform resource to dispense documents.

Lewicki highlighted the new and enhanced options. Among those is an embedded audit trail to enable all file recipients to check profiles. Acrobat 9 also addresses the digital print space, both static and variable. Additionally, this latest version includes robust security features. But, the real breakthrough is the PDF Print Engine. It was introduced at IPEX in 2006 and sold through OEM partners. It is now shipped with all platesetters. And, what this means to the print workflow is that it’s no longer necessary to convert to PostScript at the RIP. While this is indeed a breakthrough, it does not mean the end of life for PostScript because there are still a lot of PostScript devices.

Summary

Adobe CS4 will appeal to many different types of people from those who just like cool new software to industry leaders who are seeking quantifiable workflow augmentation to service providers who continually demonstrate to their clients that they are in the forefront of technology.

To top off the evening, Adobe donated a free copy of CS4 for an attendee; Congratulations to Russ Graham.

So, you’ve researched the latest technology in pressroom or prepress equipment, determined your needs, considered the environmental aspects and decided on your purchase.

The immediate impacts of your decision on your business would require careful planning for the installation. Think of how to reduce the disturbance to current workflow as much as possible. Then, there are the extra costs involved, like electrical, water or compressed-air hook up, delivery, installation and staff training. Unless you have negotiated these or some of them into the initial price, they can add up.

Be aware of the warranty conditions, limitations and effective period; why not ask for more? They can only say no. Is there a performance guarantee? Does the stated criteria meet your real world expectations?

You want as seamless a transition into your new (or new to you) piece of equipment as fast as possible, but don’t forget one important and sometimes neglected legal requirement. Under Ontario Regulation 851 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (and other provincial equivalents), a pre-start health and safety review has to be conducted.

Check out section seven in your “little green book” that has to be available and posted in any industrial establishment for full details. Failure to do this before the apparatus is in operation contravenes this regulation. Should it not be done and an accident occurs, subsequently requiring an MOL inspection, it will have serious consequences. Your due diligence defense as an owner, employer or supervisor will be negated no matter how diligent you have been otherwise.

The regulation has a table under section seven that lists all the criteria covering the requirement for conducting and documenting this review. It covers just about all the prepress, pressroom and bindery equipment I can think of, plus lifting devices (eg: cranes, tow motors and fork lift trucks), flammable liquids dispensing and dust collectors that may be added to bindery equipment. As such, a pre-start health and safety review has to be conducted by a professional engineer. So, try to offset this cost during your negotiations with the supplier. They probably have access to professional engineer services that can be included in the deal, though they are not required to do so. If not, it is far better to have it done during the installation as part of your own agenda than that of a Ministry of Labour inspector who will require the device to be shut down while the review is arranged and conducted. If you do need help I can arrange for a review quickly and at a competitive cost.

Back to environmental issues; be wary of “green washing,” if the claims of the supplier include such terms as “environmentally friendly.” What does this mean? Unless it is solar or wind powered and has zero waste or emissions, there will be a negative impact on the environment. For example, it could be a claim such as eco-friendly “waterless printing,” but such a unit can use more energy than a traditional equivalent, creating more green house gas emissions, and just how much water are we saving for the additional costs?
If the new piece of equipment, such as a plate or CTP processor or press dampening system, is to be hooked up to a drain, and only a sanitary sewer drain is permissible, then determine if there is some form of treatment device included. This should not include any device that uses municipal supplied water for dilution purposes. Dilution is not the solution and is stated as a no-no in sewer bylaws.

They vary from municipality to municipality, but they all have limitations and bans on listed pollutants, dyes and pH levels amongst other criteria. Under no circumstances should you hook it up to a storm sewer, as this will probably contravene both municipal bylaws, provincial water resources acts and the federal Fisheries Act – and you do not want to go there. Your choices will be to either collect the effluent for pickup by a licensed waste hauler or investigate the various on site treatment systems on the market.

Another option is to install a closed loop-recycling unit to reduce chemical costs, usage and waste. This can be combined with a treatment system or licensed disposal of the residue. I recommend having your facility effluent tested on an annual basis to see if they meet your local sewer bylaw requirements. This offers both due diligence and peace of mind.

For waste chemical containers or ink/toner cartridges does the supplier or OEM take them back? They should acknowledge their cradle to grave responsibility for them. This will and is starting to become a regulatory requirement. Enjoy your new equipment; I hope it makes a bundle for you.

Q. We continue to get complaints from PC users that we send email using Apple’s Mail application. They get the message as an attachment and don’t see the attached files. Often they end up running the wrong file in our ad because they miss the instructions in our email. How can we avoid this?

A. Email messages are encoded so they can survive transport over the Internet. The messages are also segmented automatically so that the servers and mail clients that handle them can determine what makes up the message. Generally, email consists of “plain text” and/or “html text” as well as attached files. As a rule, file attachments should also always have a “file extension” in the filename.

Some email clients such as Outlook and Outlook Express have trouble deciphering the elements of a mail message – especially if they originate from Apple’s Mail. So, some receivers may get a partial message or a blank message with the content for the message as attachments. The safest way to send email is in “plain text” with files properly encoded and attached.

In Apple Mail, choose “Attachments” from the “Edit” menu before you create a message and make sure the following are checked:
“Always Send Windows-Friendly Attachments”
“Always Insert Attachments at the End of the Message.”

Otherwise, the parts of the message may get misinterpreted by receiver’s email client application.
Also get in the habit of pressing the “Attachment” icon. If you drag and drop, the attachment goes in the mail message – inline – with the text. If you use the setup mentioned above, attachments should drop to the end of the email and appear as attached by receiver.

When sending files to a publication, you should always use a “zip” archive. Like a “Stuffit.sit” archive, it should contain the required ad elements. You can create a ZIP in the Finder by selecting files or folders and choosing Compress “Folder-name” from the contextual menu (right-click or control-click on the item). The Finder will create an “Archive.zip” file – which you can rename.

Q. My iMac wouldn’t turn on this morning. I checked all the connections, and they were good. I, then, unplugged it from the back and plugged it back in. After that it started up. Is this a normal thing? Is it a potential problem?

A. I wouldn’t call that situation “normal,” but I have seen it before. By unplugging your iMac’s power cord, you have reset the SMC chip, which controls power settings. All Macs these days have a System Management Controller (SMC), which manages all of the power functions of your computer. These include power and thermal monitoring, sleeping and the battery. It also controls the fans, the Sudden Motion Sensor in laptops and the power switch.

We’ve also heard from MacBook users who have trouble waking their Macs from sleep. (Closing the lid, waiting until the LED pulses and then re-opening the lid often works). The method for resetting the SMC on laptops varies – you can check out how to reset your Mac model at http://www.apple.com/support/. The fact that Apple put in an SMC chip means that it is “normal” and that it could lead to potential issues.

Whether it’s a potential problem is also a good question; power is always a potential problem especially in older homes. The best advice I can give is that all of your desktop computers should be on a “smart” UPS, which is an uninterruptible power supply with a line conditioner. It is basically like a car battery with a line conditioner to absorb spikes in voltage/amps. They range in price from $100 - $2000 depending on the protection you need.

An inexpensive model for the iMac (BackUPS 350VA) would be around $70. One that could cover three Macs (BackUPS 1200VA) would be around $200. I have the latter in my office for my Mac and Internet modem, router and Time Capsule. That would give you between 10 – 15 minutes of runtime if the power went out and generally provide “clean” power to the equipment. Models for larger Macs and servers, which would give about an hour of running time, would cost about $1500 and up.

During tough economic times, organizations try to cut every cost they can; anything unnecessary goes. A hand-to-mouth attitude takes over.

Activities that don’t immediately contribute to profits are classed as disposable.

In many organizations, one area of the business that is viewed in this light is human resources. Unfortunately, human resources management is frequently seen only as an administrative function or a theoretical “nice thing to have” and not seen as an area of management contributing to the long-term success of a business. The result is that HR activities are curtailed or eliminated.

HUMAN RESOURCE PROGRAMS ARE NEEDED

Instead of being a disposable, I would contend that human resource programs are needed more than ever, both for the present and for the future:

• Undoubtedly, some employers are ignoring, either through lack of knowledge or because of desperation, the rules that apply to termination of employees. Currently, in the Toronto area, a local law firm has realized this and is advertising its services to individuals that feel that they have not received proper compensation at the time of their termination.

If a company is going to terminate employees or even lay them off for extended periods of time, it is necessary to follow the rules set out in the Employee Standards Act. Failing to do so will only incur greater costs.

• Performance management is an activity that is often poorly carried out even in the best of times.

‚Ä¢ Formal appraisals aren’t carried out on a timely basis and are often less than candid.

• Aside from formal appraisals, parts of performance management are also not carried out effectively. Verbal warnings or reprimands are not properly recorded. As a result, when it comes time to appraise staff and determine who should stay and who should go, there are only anecdotal references to support the action.

‚Ä¢ A good appraisal program should contain development plans for the individual. These plans need to continue to be pursued even though business is tough. Otherwise, the business won’t be able to compete in the future.

‚Ä¢ Safety is an area that needs greater attention than ever during difficult times. Unfortunately, some organizations believe that they don’t have the time or resources to continue their safety program.

• In the first place, certain actions and activities are required by law and are not a nicety that an employer can dispose of when they have less staff or everyone who is still employed has to work harder.

• Accidents have a tendency to increase when employees are concerned about their future employment. Some individuals believe that they will be better off on workers compensation than on unemployment insurance. Therefore, every accident needs to be investigated carefully or the organization will find that its WSIB premiums will be escalating.

• Employers and managers have a duty and responsibility to ensure that work is being carried out in a safe manner even if the safe way takes a little longer. Failing to do so can lead to criminal charges.

• Benefit programs can be abused during a recessionary period in much the same way as workers compensation programs. It is important that there is an HR responsibility to monitor any significant changes in benefit usage, particularly short and long-term disability benefits.

• There is never a better time to look at organization structure than during tough times. Reviewing and revising an organization structure is often a traumatic experience for individuals. Sometimes power and scope of position is taken away and employees have a hard time dealing with this. However, during difficult times, people are more likely to support and assist in helping an organization design a more effective way of doing business.

The advantage of revising and improving organization structure and processes is that the benefits will flow over to the time when business improves.

NEED HUMAN RESOURCES DURING DIFFICULT TIMES?

Human resource management doesn’t mean having a big HR staff. Any HR department that might exist should be subject to the same review for performance and organization effectiveness as any other part of a business.

Many smaller businesses may not even have HR departments, but they do have HR issues. These issues need to be addressed and dealt with in difficult times as well as when times are good.

All aspects of human resource management need to be brought together in an effective way to ensure that your people costs are as good as they can be. In most organizations, after raw materials, people costs are the next largest expenditure for a business.

We have all been reading that automation is the key to saving money, eliminating errors, increasing capacity and getting the most out of our existing equipment and resources.

Getting started can be made easy with do-it-yourself software and your own server. The following are some suggested server setups that can be implemented with relatively low costs.

1. FTP Notification Server

Give your customers professional 24-hour service with software to automatically monitor numerous ftp sites. Notify customers directly via email of successful downloads or issues. Automatically file jobs on the server, print PDF proofs and notify sales and CSRs of new jobs. Enfocus LightSWITCH software installed on a Windows server can accomplish all of this.

2. Preflight & Package Server

Solve PDF creation issues with Creative Suites automation. Use packaged fonts and images to create PDFs to your specs. Files are opened and saved on the server so design work is not interrupted. This server can operate 24/7 so PDF files are saved and uploaded or sent to press automatically. In a Mac environment FullSWITCH with Creative Suites on an OSX server can service several users submitting Indesign, Quark and Illustrator files.

3. Collect, Check and Rip Server

Receive and check PDF files for press using Flightcheck. Automate existing hot folders for imposition and submission to press. Rip jobs overnight for printing at start of morning shift. Automatically create and print custom lists for press and production. Timed job release keeps a steady stream of data processing. FullSWITCH with Creative Suites and a Flightcheck plug-in on a Windows or Mac Server can accomplish this.

4. JDF Workflow Server

Prepare jobs and data for high-end workflow systems with PowerSWITCH. XML and JDF capabilities enable this server to pickup existing data and format it for use in other workflows. Reducing data entry and automating job information eliminates routine tasks and errors.

5. Integrated Web-to-Print Server

Use scripting to communicate with existing online sites, pickup XML data for use in data entry and job reports. Automate online downloads and collect files for digital or offset printing. PowerSWITCH running on a Mac OS X server has built-in Applescript, Javascript, XSLT, XML, JDF and XMP capabilities to customize the setup for each site.

It is always a good time to look at your workflow and see where you can improve it, update it and speed it up. Automation 24/7 is possible and can run on existing hardware and software.

These five configurations are simple suggestions. The power of these workflow tools to customize any workflow is immense. You are basically controlling your communications, your information and your file generation. These tools make it easy to do it your way.

Information on automation workflow tools and plug-ins can be found at www.crossroads-world.com and at www.enfocus.com.

If you read the headlines in most newspapers today, or watch the news on TV, or listen to the radio, all you hear is doom and gloom. “The New York Times could stop publishing in May 2009,” “Transcontential cuts 1,500 jobs,” etc., etc., etc., ad infinitum. This is what we’re facing every day. Is this how we want to start our morning and end our workday? What’s a person to do?

I would suggest the first thing you should do is stop listening to the media and start thinking for yourself. Imagine if you turned off the television and radio and didn’t read a newspaper for one week. I’d bet that you’d be in a much more positive frame of mind – yet the world would still be the same, right? Stop worrying about what you can’t control. We have been through recessions before and this one will pass as well.

Besides, a recession is not the end of the world – technically, it’s two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Yes, unemployment is now estimated at 7 – 9%, but that means that over 90% of the population is still working. A lot of our negative media reporting permeates Canada from the U.S., but the economy there is in much worse shape.

Furthermore, Canadian foreclosure rates are less than half of 1%. The International Monetary Fund recently ranked the Canadian banking system as the most stable and secure in the entire world! But, does that information make it to the front page? Compare that to Britain, ranked 40th, and the U.S. banking system, ranked 44th. As a country, we have the goods that the world needs – food, fuel and much more. As the stimulus packages here and in the U.S. kick in, we should see more activity and an improved economy.

As this is our “Green Issue” (aside from St. Patrick’s Day, of course), I would like to congratulate all the winners of the Environmental Printing Awards. I would especially like to congratulate, Matthew Alexander of Colour Innovations who picked up three awards. See his interview on page 50 with Brian Collins. Be sure to read our lead article on page 18 by Gail Nickel-Kailing on environmental issues in print. And on page 24, John Piggott has practical advice on reducing waste in your printing business.

Finally, as a Canadian who was born in Ireland, I would like to wish all our readers a happy St. Patrick’s Day, March 17. May the luck of the Irish be with you for the rest of your life.

Until next time, stay positive and stay focused.

“How do I ask my customer?”

Think back to the days when you were about 12 years old. You really wanted to have some candy before supper, but your mom said no. If you were anything like me, the very next thing you did was run and ask daddy to see if he would say yes. Why is this important to you today?

When we have a question to which we know what we would like the answer to be, we have the skills and abilities to fish for it. However, what happens when you objectively want to know something? The truth is that you can make survey results say anything. How do you get the truth from your customers and prospects without influencing the outcome?

Who do you ask?

When we talk about surveys from the standpoint of statistics, the first consideration is always that you have to ask the right people. When you are able to ask everybody, you are using the population. Most of the time, however, you do not have access to everyone, and even if you did, not everyone would answer your survey. This is why we use a sample. You will often hear the term “representative sample” to describe a situation in which you take a piece of the population, and the results would be the same if you were to question the whole population.

If you know who your customers are, you can make sure that when you get your surveys back from a few of them that the responses represent all the non-respondents accurately. There are many biases that can alter these results. Let’s say, for example, that we wanted to know what our readers value about our magazine. Ideally, we would get responses from all of our readers. If we were perfect, we may even analyze non-readers to understand what is missing for them. Instead, we send surveys to everyone signed up to our email newsletter online. This would likely get us responses that indicate that our customers value online content. Perhaps, there would be a high percentage of individuals who work in prepress within the sample. That is, however, not a representative sample for our magazine. There may be many individuals who only receive and enjoy the print version of our magazine. In this case, we would never find out what they like about us.

Sampling goes back to the idea of asking mom first, then trying dad, except that we don’t recognize that we are altering results. It is very important to make sure that you understand as much about your population as possible. Make a list of customers that are likely to do business with you. Start sorting into business size, location, revenue, etc. At the end, you can say something along the lines of “my population (as best as I can describe it) is a small-to-medium size real estate company in the Winnipeg area.” From then on, every time you conduct a survey you think about how closely you match that sample. While there are statistical methods to help shape the sample to your whole population, you must also think about how the sample might affect your results.

What do you ask and how do you ask it?

The most important thing to understand about surveys is that people will not give you more than 10 minutes of their time to finish them. This means that the questions must give you the most bang for your buck without going past that amount of time. There are different types of questions you can ask your customers – but they should all be relatively painless to answer, otherwise you’ll get no responses, or even worse, inaccurate responses. For example, “how much did you spend on paper last year?” might work. “How much did you spend on recycled paper with 30% or more post-consumer waste?” will at best give you a guess. Unless you are paying your customers to fill out the survey, they won’t look it up.

Simple questions that require the customer to rate something on a scale fare very well. If you are using a Likert scale, or any kind of scale for that matter, it is best to tell the customer what the numbers mean. As a simple example, you can say 1 = strongly disagree, while 5 = strongly agree.

As a tip, if you know who the clients are, don’t ask them to re-describe themselves. Do the work to look it up for yourself. For example, don’t ask what they print, unless you don’t know. If you have a reasonable idea and have seen most of their work, don’t waste their time asking the question. In addition, be careful with dichotomous questions. As an example, we often ask people if they are male or female in surveys, while the answer may in fact be “other.” Creating your survey with a group of people really helps in that regard. The great thing about customer surveys is that we are all customers. Think about the things that you would want to be asked, and ask them.

In today’s market, client data is very valuable and surveys are highly cost effective. There is no need to spend thousands, or even hundreds of dollars, to survey your clients. When you are wondering about your population, you may look to purchasing market survey reports (ex. NAPL). When you have a good grasp of who you would like to know about, and have access to them, you can use online tools that are very cost effective. No more difficult than setting up an email account, you can use software to ask your questions. The list in the table above is just some examples to get you started. They are all user-friendly and cost effective. You can begin by practising in the office, then moving the surveys out to clients.

Happy surveying as I leave you with my favourite stats joke of all time: “75% of statistics are made up on the spot!”

“How do I manage my fonts with Font Book?”

Font issues are often at the top of the list for prepress problems. However, few of us outside of the prepress department know how to manage our fonts. For those who are Mac users, font management is a necessary and simple exercise using Font Book, an application that is already included in the OS.

It was this time last year that I stubbornly placed myself in the Page 6 spot for Graphic Arts Magazine as the new associate editor. As I look back at the issue, I remember the enthusiasm and excitement I felt writing that column. You would think that by now I would have calmed down a bit!