So your masterpiece is finally printing. This is the big show and you, as the designer or art director,are about to attend the press check. You clear your calendar, you prepare yourself for a press time at any time of day and you wait for the final time. But do you know what to do when you get there? Here are 10 must-have steps when attending a press check.

1. Bring Account Service With You
This is perhaps the most important step in the process. Whether the client is present at the press check or not, an account service person is needed to make those tough calls that sometimes come up in the middle of a press run. Account service will be the person that is accountable to the client for the end product. For instance, if you need to pull a project off press, account service will need to be able to explain why you won’t make your delivery date to the client. Don’t leave the agency without one.

2. Sweat the Details and Want to Be There
This is your baby and you should know everything about it. You should know how many colors it’s printing, the final sizes, the number of versions, and the imagery involved. If you don’t care about the details of your piece you should consider a new profession.

3. Move Away from the Light Booth
Sure light booths give you white light and the opportunity to view color on a sheet in the most ideal setting. But the end user who picks up your piece will not have the same luxury. Make your color moves in the booth, but before you sign off on it, bring it outside in the sunlight and check it again.

4. Cut the Sheet Up
When checking a sheet for color, make sure you cut it up so that you may check color consistency throughout the entire sheet. Frequently, in pieces that are multiple pages, what may be printing on the left hand side of the sheet, when bound, may end up right next to the right hand side of the sheet. Cut a hole in a field of color on one side and then put it over the other side to check color consistency. You will be surprised how a seemingly consistent sheet could actually be a few ticks off color.

5. Look at the Sheet Upside Down
Now why would you possibly need to look upside down? The reason is simple. When viewing text upside down, you can more easily look at text as image not as readable words. This is necessary to check for hickeys and other spots that may be breaking up type. By viewing the text upside down it will be easy to spot imperfections instead of your eyes filling in gaps because you are reading it.

6. Be Willing to Sacrifice a Few
When printing multiple pieces on the same sheet, a common problem that arises is registration. Some times, in order to properly register 4 plates the furthermost corner piece may need to be sacrificed. For instance, one time I was on press to print membership cards. There were 48 cards on the same sheet. In order to solve registration issues one of the 48 had to be sacrificed. What that means is at the end of the run, the printer trimmed the cards and threw out the one bad card. Don’t be afraid to sacrifice one of the group to produce a better product. In my case, the printer simply printed a few more hundred sheets to make up for the bad card on ever sheet.

7. Demand N.G.
No, this isn’t some attempt to promote myself (NG is my last name). In printer’s terms, N.G. means “no good”. For situations like the one above in #6, the left corner card on every sheet was no good. To avoid a mistake in communication at the finisher, the pressman etched into the plate a big “N.G.” over that particular card. When in these situations, demand that “N.G.” is etched into the plate. Do not take the printer’s word for it that the proper one will be trashed.

8. Make As Many Moves as Possible…Early
Time, paper, and ink equals money. It is important to make all your color moves in the shortest amount of time and the fewest amount of sheets as possible. Every time you make a change it will typically require about 10,000 sheets to work up to color properly again. So don’t save any changes for later. Mark up the first sheet completely and succinctly and then communicate it to the printer rep or pressman.

The other big issue surrounding changes is when you are press checking the second side of a sheet. With the first side, you have a little more leeway in terms of changes. You after all, just have the supply of paper to worry about. But on the second side, you need to make sure you make your changes before the supply of approved, first side sheets run it. If you don’t sign off in time, you may be forced to put the first side on again and that equals more cost.

9. View Color with the Varnish or Coating on It
You may have seen a sheet and the color looks great. But make sure if there is going to be an inline varnish or aqueous coating that you evaluate the sheet with that printed as well. Sometimes coatings can yellow the color a tad.

10. Take Home Sheets
It is incredibly important to always take home at least 10 sheets of the round that you, yourself signed off on. This is for 3 reasons. Your creative director will want to see it when you get back to the office, the client may want to see it asap, and just in case the final product does not look like what you signed off on, you have a backup to prove you did not screw up.

Make sure you satisfy all of these checkpoints and you will end up with a great final product and a happy client.

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