A study of Practicality Of Portable Document Format

Introduction

“ What is the current state of the interface between print design and print manufacturing?”

Current practice in magazine printing industry for converting customer files into finished data streams compatible with front end of print production process.

Conventional Process (Computer to Film)

Digital Technology (Computer to Plate)

Background

David McDowell Senior Technical Associate Kodak Polychrome Graphics (1998), three issues in printing and digital data exchange interrelated, impact upon each other:

Final data exchange formats

Print Process Characterization

Color Management

PDF/X1a become a standard an electronic approach to ads delivery to magazines for inclusion in page layout. Excerpt from The Ultimate PDF/X Guide, Enfocus Software, 2002

Zulkifli, Prepress Dept,Ultimate Print Sdn Bhd (2008) . Every issue of a national magazine receives ads prepared by many (sometimes hundreds) different advertising agencies or service providers, thus represent the greatest challenge for electronic data exchange.

Literature Review

Colloquium to discuss methodologies used to measure, track, and project the future of the printing industry held at School of Print Media, RIT emphasis that the panellists agree desktop publishing are the key changes in the printing industry for the last 20 years. Excerpt from Frank J.Romano Monogram; An Investigating Into Printing Industry Trends, 2004

Alan Pipes (2005) Jobs could be designed and produced by the originator and then sent to literally any printing service or, to an in-house printing device. In the past the printer controlled the metal and later the film: the printer essentially “owned” the job. Alan Pipes, 2005, Production for Graphic Designer; Fourth Edition, New York, Lawrence King Publishing

Today, the customer owns the job. Once print jobs were in a standardized form, they had to be delivered to the printing service. International Paper, 2000. Pocket Pal, Graphic Arts Production Handbook Millennium Edition, Memphis, USA, International Paper Company. Pp110

PDF/X1a become a standard an electronic approach to ads delivery to magazines for inclusion in page layout. Excerpt from The Ultimate PDF/X Guide, Enfocus Software, 2002

Statement Of Problem Zulkifli (2008), Prepress Dept, Ultimate Print Sdn. Bhd Magazine publishing, initially, advertisers were sending their files in all sort of formats. Nevertheless, PDF files format are widely known for its benefits, but many users do not know how to use the formats PDF/X1A and cannot distinguish between them. ( Lopez D, Alabrent no.206, Oct 2006 pp22-25 ). As result from this, issues of incompatibility arises that prohibit the files to be further process with the prepress front end system. To ensure compatibility between what the originators (print designer) intends and what the production stages produced still requires much detailed knowledge. -| Background | Literature Reviews | Problem Statement | Objective | Hypotheses | Context | Methodology | Significant | Limitation & Delimitation | Reference |-

To identify the practicality and suitability of PDF/X1a as a final file format among two parties involve in print production; designers and print service providers which improving designers ability to predict final appearance of the design.

To derived a shared of understanding of the workflow selection process within the advertising agency and printer.

Recommendation for advertising agency and printers on manual/techniques for driving digital technology into the existing workflow.

H0: The application of PDF/X1a in magazine publication significantly to make the data exchange more secure and help to save great amount of time and costs.

H1: Digital technology enables designers to create perfect files as input to the print production process. But digital technology also provides endless opportunities for designers to produce broken files that need to be fixed before they will work. The fixing of flawed files still involve for a major amount of rework in print manufacturing. However, the total value of rework attributed to flawed customer files across the industry has not been quantified. Factor contribute to this because of practical limitation, lack of knowledge of design for production which leads to designer failed to verified that PDF the produce comply with the printers specification.

H2: Customer files often need to be fixed by the printer before they are ready to feed into the production system.

The exchange of digital data has been a major concern ever since the introduction of the computer as a tool in the design preparatory process

The ability to use standard formats to exchange data is the goal of the industry

File formats used for file transfers as being compromises between flexibility and reliability

Berg (1989), Qualitative research refers to meaning, concept, definitions, characters, metaphors, symbols and descriptions of things. Excerpt from Berg,B.L 1989, Qualitative Research Methods For the Social Sciences. Needham height, Massachusetts:Allyn and Bacon.

In order to generate a depth understanding in the issues, qualitative research will be apply in conducting the research.

This study attempts to provide foundation of insight into PDF/X1a approaches adopted by Malaysian printer as a basis for directing focus for further research

Non-Random Sampling

The respondent will be carefully selected from the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents of Malaysia better known as 4A

Advertising Agency Respondent Criteria

A Malaysian owned agency.

Involved directly in Print advertising in local consumer magazine

Involved in the business more than 5 years

Proposed Respondent for Advertising Agency

• CODA Advertising

• Earth, Wind and Fire Advertising

• Bloomingdale

• Fixgo Advertising

Non-Random Sampling

The selections of the printer based on the list obtain from the Malaysian Printers Association (MPA)

Magazine Printers Respondent Criteria

• A Malaysian owned printing company

• Annual profit of sales of more than RM 3million per year.

• Involved in magazine and publication printing done in house and acquire a prepress workflow in addition to Computer to Plate system

• Involved in the business more than 5 years

Proposed Respondent for Printers

• Times Offset Sdn Bhd

• Ultimate Print Sdn Bhd

• Tien Wha Press Sdn Bhd

• KHL Printer

Qualitative research certainly excels at generating information that is very detailed. But in detailed quantitative research, the data themselves tend to both shape and limit the analysis.

Issues by collecting data on the following question:

• What are the publishing standards that would ensure that the production of a document would be correct if they were adhered to?

• How are designers effectively using PDF/X1a to improve their ability to predict final appearance?

• What shortcomings do they perceive in current workflow?

Case Study Approach drawing “conceptual frame working” base methodology to ensure rigorous and structured approach to the actual case study investigation

Involved structured interviews with design firm, prepress services and printing companies based on a interview schedule

Methodology | Data Collection Plans | -| Methodology | Focused Sampling | Research Design & Method of Analyzing | Data Collection Plans|- Planning & Literature Review • Define the purpose and outcomes of the project • Develop the timeline for the project • Determine who the participants will be • Write the questions in the interview guide • Set the locations, dates, and time for the sessions • Design the analysis plan • Specify the elements of the final report Literature Review 1. The prospectus (the broad scan) 2. The Proposal (the focus view) 3. The dissertation (the comprehensive critique)

Data collection with proposed methodology

will fine-tuning original plans, rather than just waiting for success or failure to occur. During the implementation of a research, there is a need for qualitative information that provides depth and context.

Data analysis and write up and assessment (final Presentation) Basic tasks related to analysis are the following: • Estimate the amount of time devoted to analysis • Organize the field notes, tapes, transcripts, and other data • Study the data to determine the key conclusions • Organize the products of the analysis to match the format of the final report • Prepare the final report 1st Semester Timeline: Jan 2008-May2008 2nd Semester Timeline: July 2008-Dec2008 3rd Semester Timeline: Jan 2009-May2009

Inconsistencies of the final output files from the designer have become a great concern in prepress environment. As far as print industry concern, bad files, error in prepress and untrustworthy proofs will lead to material waste and human intervention, which in turn increases cost, errors and delay both between the parties involved in a print job.

PDF/X1a is an application standard as well as a file format – it defines the correct behaviour for applications that read and write the files as well as specifying how the files themselves must be constructed