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What Do Prepress Technician Do?
Career Description Format and proof text and images submitted by designers and clients into finished pages that can be printed. Includes digital and photo typesetting. May produce printing plates.
Prepress Technician Responsibilities
- Arrange and mount typeset material and illustrations into paste-ups for printing reproduction, based on artists’ or editors’ layouts.
- Maintain, adjust, and clean equipment, and perform minor repairs.
- Operate presses to print proofs of plates, monitoring printing quality to ensure that it is adequate.
- Operate and maintain a variety of cameras and equipment, such as process, line, halftone, and color separation cameras, enlargers, electronic scanners, and contact equipment.
- Enter, store, and retrieve information on computer-aided equipment.
- Examine photographic images for obvious imperfections prior to plate making.
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What Every Prepress Technician Should Know
Prepress Technicians state the following job skills are important in their day-to-day work.
Active Listening: Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
Speaking: Talking to others to convey information effectively.
Critical Thinking: Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
Monitoring: Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
Time Management: Managing one’s own time and the time of others.
Reading Comprehension: Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
Other Prepress Technician Job Titles
- Scanner Operator
- Form Setter
- Blueprint Cutter
- Stereotyper Apprentice
- Terminal Makeup Operator
Are There Job Opportunities for Prepress Technicians?
There were about 34,600 jobs for Prepress Technician in 2016 (in the United States). There is little to no growth in job opportunities for Prepress Technician. Due to new job openings and attrition, there will be an average of 3,000 job openings in this field each year.
The states with the most job growth for Prepress Technician are Idaho, Maryland, and Nevada. Watch out if you plan on working in Kentucky, Kansas, or North Dakota. These states have the worst job growth for this type of profession.
Average Prepress Technicians Salary
Prepress Technicians make between $24,940 and $62,420 a year.
Prepress Technicians who work in District of Columbia, New Jersey, or Delaware, make the highest salaries.
How much do Prepress Technicians make in different U.S. states?
| State | Annual Mean Salary |
|---|---|
| Alabama | $33,710 |
| Arizona | $39,910 |
| Arkansas | $35,880 |
| California | $42,670 |
| Colorado | $41,840 |
| Connecticut | $44,620 |
| Delaware | $51,020 |
| District of Columbia | $84,120 |
| Florida | $38,320 |
| Georgia | $40,320 |
| Hawaii | $37,310 |
| Idaho | $39,150 |
| Illinois | $48,110 |
| Indiana | $38,280 |
| Iowa | $35,930 |
| Kansas | $33,300 |
| Kentucky | $40,950 |
| Louisiana | $33,470 |
| Maine | $38,550 |
| Maryland | $44,840 |
| Massachusetts | $45,110 |
| Michigan | $41,320 |
| Minnesota | $48,000 |
| Mississippi | $35,990 |
| Missouri | $39,380 |
| Montana | $37,870 |
| Nebraska | $43,250 |
| Nevada | $45,000 |
| New Hampshire | $41,430 |
| New Jersey | $53,580 |
| New Mexico | $42,760 |
| New York | $45,860 |
| North Carolina | $40,830 |
| North Dakota | $36,840 |
| Ohio | $40,800 |
| Oklahoma | $36,590 |
| Oregon | $44,520 |
| Pennsylvania | $42,180 |
| Rhode Island | $40,810 |
| South Carolina | $38,940 |
| South Dakota | $33,930 |
| Tennessee | $37,480 |
| Texas | $38,980 |
| Utah | $38,050 |
| Vermont | $45,160 |
| Virginia | $42,770 |
| Washington | $41,750 |
| West Virginia | $35,880 |
| Wisconsin | $38,950 |
Tools & Technologies Used by Prepress Technicians
Although they’re not necessarily needed for all jobs, the following technologies are used by many Prepress Technicians:
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office
- Web browser software
- Adobe Systems Adobe Acrobat
- Adobe Systems Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Systems Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe Systems Adobe InDesign
- Adobe Systems Adobe Flash
- Corel CorelDraw Graphics Suite
- Adobe Systems Adobe PageMaker
- QuarkXPress
- Adobe Systems Adobe FreeHand
- Adobe Systems Adobe FrameMaker
- Corel Painter
- Adobe Systems Adobe Director
- File transfer protocol FTP software
- Adobe Systems Adobe LifeCycle Enterprise Suite
How to Become a Prepress Technician
Education needed to be a Prepress Technician:
How Long Does it Take to Become a Prepress Technician?
Where Prepress Technicians Work
The table below shows the approximate number of Prepress Technicians employed by various industries.
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References:
Image Credit: Auburn University College of Architecture, Design and Construction via Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International
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