Prepress Technicians Job Description

The Prepress Technician sets up and prepares material for printing presses.

Duties

The Prepress Technician enters, stores, and retrieves information on computer-aided equipment as part of their job function. The Prepress Technician enters, positions, and alters text size, using computers, to make up and arrange pages so that printed materials can be produced. The Prepress Technician maintains, adjusts, and cleans equipment, and performs minor repairs. The Prepress Technician operates and maintains laser plate-making equipment that converts electronic data to plates without the use of film. The Prepress Technician examines photographic images for obvious imperfections prior to plate making. The Prepress Technician operates presses to print proofs of plates, monitoring printing quality to ensure that it is adequate. The Prepress Technician monitors contact between cover glass and masks inside vacuum frames, in order to prevent flaws resulting from overexposure or light reflection. The Prepress Technician transfer images from master plates to unexposed plates, and immerse plates in developing solutions to develop images. The Prepress Technician examines unexposed photographic plates to detect flaws or foreign particles prior to printing. The Prepress Technician lowers vacuum frames onto plate-film assemblies; activate vacuums to establish contact between film and plates, and set timers to activate ultraviolet lights that expose plates.

Knowledge

The Prepress Technician needs knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming. The Prepress Technician needs knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar. The Prepress Technician needs knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media. The Prepress Technician needs knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.

Skills

• The Prepress Technician needs the skill to give 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.
• The Prepress Technician needs the skill to understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• The Prepress Technician needs the skill to understand the implications of new information for both current and future problem solving and decision making.
• The Prepress Technician needs the skill to manage time in order to complete the job assignment in a timely manner. They also need the skill to manage the time of others on the team to make sure that everyone is working the project in a manner that will have it completed on schedule.
• The Prepress Technician needs the skill to adjust their actions in relation to others’ actions in order to complete the project in the manner the customer expects.
• The Prepress Technician often works as a troubleshooter in that they must have the skill to determine causes of operation errors and decide what to do about it.
• The Prepress Technician selects and uses training methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
• The Prepress Technician uses logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• The Prepress Technician must have the skill to teach others how to do their part of the job function in order to work as a team and get the project completed on time.
• The Prepress Technician talks to others to convey information effectively knowing that it is their responsibility to keep the team working together and the client informed as to how the project is progressing.

Abilities

The Prepress Technician needs the ability to see details at close range in order to perform their job function. The Prepress Technician needs the ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences. The Prepress Technician needs the ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem. The Prepress Technician needs the ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.

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