More than 150 prepress professionals turned out for the Foundation of the Flexographic Technical Assn.'s 2002 Digital Prepress Conference held Oct. 10-11 at the Wyndham Anatole Hotel in Dallas. Thirty-two speakers drove home several points, namely: Approval cycles are getting shorter; errors are not being tolerated; cost controls are being put in place; and value-added services are attracting the eyes of print buyers.

Steve Smiley, director of color engineering, Vertis Inc., and Tom Cooper, manager of digital printing technology, Alliance Group, co-chaired the event. "Flexography's prepress shops must create a new culture," they said in opening the conference. "Business drivers are changing. Hardware is changing. Software is changing. Cost is one of the biggest issues. Speed to market is another. Time is money."

Steve Miller, package printing applications specialist, Creo, pointed out that downward pricing pressure is continuing and says, "Printers must decrease costs, reduce cycle times and fully automate processes. Likely steps they will take involve the introduction of content-workflow systems and job information workflow systems, both of which are designed to facilitate digital job flow. Management Information Systems (MIS) will be designed to work with open standards. Prepress systems will become database-driven. The important thing is that data will be able to be repurposed and printers will be able to go digital-start-to-finish."

Mark Mazur, product manager/digital waterproof, DuPont Cyrel Packaging, predicted, "The next 10 years will bring more change and more remote proofing. The future is fast-to-plate."

Sam Ingram of Clemson University urged prepress professionals in attendance to embrace a newfound fictional friend, Signore PASOCCI. The name emphasizes seven essential steps in the prepress process: 1) Prepare 2) Analyze 3) Stabilize 4) Optimize 5) Calibrate 6) Characterize 7) Improve. The common goals in all steps, Ingram explained, are "consistency, repeatability and predictability."