Richard writes: >> >Ellie, on your last post which I did not quote...the cost of drum scans is >almost a buyers market, well at least it is if you go to a repro house. <g>
Dear Stephen I wonder if the above is the case world wide with many houses giving up their expensive equipment in favour of more productive flat beds with lower operator demands? Soon I suspect we will have a shortage of these skills and the equipment too and only a small number of places continuing to offer drum scanning as a regular thing. << Hi Richard, where do I start in my reply? The last place I worked had a very high turnover of internal scans (publisher of about ten magazines), so the drum paid for itself years ago with in-house work and a flatbed could not match it for results (productivity or quality). The imaging services offered to external clients was icing on the cake in that respect, but it often made the internal work suffer - but you can't knock back scanning work in Sydney. The prepress trade imploded about five to eight years ago - there is hardly any places left in Sydney doing high end stuff compared to days gone by. The wage earned by folk like me has dropped by 1/3 to 1/2 of what it used to pay, with more expected of you from an employer - if you can find one. Apprentices used to be the backbone of the print trade, but with no shops and no tradesman to pass on skills - it seems that more than just drum scanning is being lost. After around fifteen years in the prepress game, I am ready to call it quits - only problem is that this is all I know. I survived typesetting, but will I survive prepress and digital imaging? Anyone out there in Sydney looking for help? >> >The only reservations I would have about drum mounting above what Richard >states are the possibilities for some originals to crack or lift if bent, or >if there are concerns about the mounting tape used to secure the image to >the drum (you could require a half inch or so border free around the >original that could be sacrificed to the adhesion gods). I would not want to miss out using a sheet of overlay film as this would give the means of drawing the artwork into close contact with the drum ensuring good focus. At the same time it would ensure that there is maximum safety for the precious original, as there would be wide mounting tape on all sides of the overlay film and thus the original to keep it in position. No need to loose any image area for taping too. << Good one Richard - not being a drum operator I did not think of placing a foil over the original and taping that down as with a tranny. I only recall seeing reflective mounts done right on the drum, but I have only worked in two shops with drums so my experience in the ins/outs of drum scans from an operators viewpoint is a bit limited - my concerns have always been in post drum scanning imaging. Stephen Marsh. =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
