A clue to print technique?

[YooDooRight]

Im designing an album cover and the record label production office said my Quark documents containing 'overprint' trappings for text aren't possible. As they seem reluctant to discuss the quality of printers they are using would this lead you to assume that no overprinting means my quark documents are about to be rasterized and subjected to cheap digital printing or could there be another reason?

Ta'

YDR

[rickself]

...would this lead you to assume that no overprinting means my quark documents are about to be rasterized and subjected to cheap digital printing or could there be another reason?
No, not really. This would lead ME to assume that they don't like the way that your black is overprinting (I hope I'm not reading too much into that statement).
I, on the other hand, in my prepress department, want complete control over whether the black is overprinting or not. There may be a color issue that the black would look like crap if it did overprint, or maybe the rip wants to apply trap...who knows. I'd ask more questions...nicely...and not assume anything.

It sounds like you're attacking the credibility of their printer and their own knowledge of your file. Attack mode is not good.

[Jalan]

Yes, I agree with Rickself. When receiving files from customers in Quark we prefer all trapping and overprinting left off. Each shop handles these things differently depending on their equipment and workflows.
I sure hope that they aren't planning to go to digital printing without telling you. That'd realy suck. It's also odd they don't tell you which kind of machine they are going to use to print this on. I find that someone unprofessional and a red flag.

[YooDooRight]

It sounds like you're attacking the credibility of their printer and their own knowledge of your file. Attack mode is not good.

No attacking been done, this forum's been my first port of call on the subject... i'll raise some questions nicely with them tomorrow but just wanted some opinions first so thanks all. In addition to the question, what are the likely options they have for printing apart from digital then and what is considered good quality? As you can tell i'm in need of a little press knowledge before asking them dumb questions.

YDR.x

[rickself]

Sorry, YDR, I didn't mean to sound gruff. I guess I get my hackles up when someone has questions about Quark files not printing right.

I would simply ask what they need, as opposed to what you have to send them. I'm not quite sure why they just couldn't change your trap defaults when they rip the file. There's just not enough there to come up with a real answer. I get the feeling that they may have an older rip...that's just a gut feeling.

See what else you can find out from them and let us know when you do.

[urstwile]

YDR, you mentioned the production office in your original post. Are these the people doing the actual production, or are they more a CSR fielding questions and answers from the actual pre-press department?

I've often found that when I have production questions, that if I try to get a hold of the people actually doing the pre-press I get a more complete and understandable answer than if I'm talking to someone who's possibly fielding things as an intermediary, without understanding what the pre-press folks are actually talking about. Kind of like the old telephone game where answers get so garbled by the time they come to you that they no longer bear any relation to the original question.

[cornfed]

I recently had the awful experience of finding out that my regular cd manufacturer (who is actually a middle man between me and the printer) switched printers on me. Come to find out, they were buddies with these guys out of Texas who needed them to switch all of their printing to them in order prevent the printer from going bankrupt. In another attempt to stay out of bankruptcy, the owner of the printing company fired everyone and tried to run the press himself. That's about when my job got printed. It looked like mud. I sent it back three times to get reprinted. Get a proof. Even if its direct to plate and you can only get an iris print, still get it. It was the only leg I had to stand on when it came time to decide who would be paying for the reprint(s). I found out that my job and a few others were the only ones that got sent through my manufacturer before he left them. I've yet to find a manufacturer who has mastered direct to plate.

[D-Frag]

this might help...

http://www.rainborecords.com/Templates.html