Prepress

Prepress is everything between a customer's finished file and a plate or press-ready PDF: preflight, colour management, imposition, proofing, and platemaking. In a digital workflow the plate step is replaced by RIPping to the press; the rest of prepress is unchanged.

Also called: pre-press · prepress workflow · print prepress · platemaking · prepress software

In depth

Prepress used to mean a separate department with film, plate-burners, and a colour-managed proofer. In a modern shop most of that work is automated: a JDF ticket arrives from the MIS, the prepress workflow runs preflight, applies the imposition, generates a press-ready PDF, and sends it to either a CtP (computer-to-plate) device for sheet-fed offset or directly to the digital press queue.

The remaining human work in prepress is mostly judgement: deciding what to do with marginal customer files, approving press proofs, and handling the edge cases that the automation flags. A well-run prepress operation in 2026 has one or two skilled operators handling the work that used to take a department of six.

For an SME shop, the easiest entry into modern prepress is a tightly integrated MIS + preflight workflow. PeakSpitz wires the customer file upload directly into preflight, surfaces the result on the operator queue, and only routes clean files to imposition and press queue — keeping the human in the loop only where they add value.

Common questions

Do I still need a dedicated prepress operator?
Smaller shops often combine prepress with estimating or production scheduling. The dedicated role makes sense once volume passes about 50 jobs per day or when the customer base routinely supplies challenging files (large packaging, brand-critical photography, complex die-cuts).
What's the difference between prepress and preflight?
Preflight is one step inside prepress. Preflight checks an incoming file for production-readiness; prepress is the whole pipeline from file receipt to plate or press queue, including colour management, imposition, and proofing.

Related terms

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