pre-press plants and Xerox

[Chantel Reynolds <Reynoldb -at- ZIAVMS -dot- ENMU -dot- EDU>]

        I can understand how people feel about having their text messed
with by the printers because of a summer job I held.
        Four years ago after my first year at college, I worked in
Nashville, TN for American Color which is one of many pre-press plants.
Our most illustrious client was the _National Enquirer_, which didn't
notice if any changes were made to the text or not.  Otherwise we did
Sunday-newspaper-ad-inserts with little text and a great deal of graphics.
But about a month after I began there, the company landed a Xerox account
and gave it over to me because "well, you're an English major" under the
supervision of a guy who wasn't terribly clear on the use of periods.   My
first reaction was terror because I'd seen what had been done to text
before.
        Xerox did something pretty smart though.  They sent us the files in
such a way as to prevent us from tampering with anything.   All I could do
was transfer the text over to a Macintosh computer, print it out on film,
send it to stripping and then check to make sure we had all the pages we
were supposed to.  But I couldn't touch the text itself; I couldn't even
read it until after it had been printed on film.  I was so happy I did
little dances.  It made up for everything I'd watched my supervisor do to
the _Enquirer_.
        Of course, most people don't have the options Xerox had, but
wouldn't it be nice if they did?
        Chantel

Lost In Translation....

Barra Chantel Reynolds
Writing & Internet GA/Tutor-ENMU
ACS instructor-ENMU
Macintosh Lab-ENMU
(Reynoldb -at- ziavms -dot- enmu -dot- edu)