Input Phase

In the first phase of the prepress process, you need to gather the raw materials -- text and images -- and put them into digital form.
To capture images you can use:

* Scanners
* Digital cameras
* Photo CDs and stock photography

You can also use several types of graphics applications to create artwork from scratch, or to use existing digital files to create new illustrations.

During this phase, you also need to acquire text, either by keying it in a word processing application or using an OCR (optical character recognition) scanner to scan long documents of existing text.

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Design & Layout

Sometimes, the text and images may be provided already in digital format (that is, stored on a computer disk), other times, you'll need to create the text or images from scratch. These steps usually happen separately, but concurrently. While one department (or person), writes, enters, and edits the text, another department (or person) designs, creates, and gathers the artwork.

Scanner takes an image, either a photograph, a 35 mm slide, or line art, and using a light source, electronically converts that image into binary data to store the image on a computer. How the scanner converts the original to bits (binary data) depends on the type of scanner. The type of scanner you need for your jobs depends on the types of originals you want to scan. Depending on your originals, you can use a drum, transparency, or flatbed desktop scanner.

Digital cameras combine the technology of cameras and scanners. Instead of taking a photograph, developing it and scanning the print or slide to electronically record the colors in the image, digital cameras store the image on disk without ever needing to develop film. Depending on the type of camera, the captured image may be immediately stored on a disk for later transfer to a computer, or the camera may be directly connected to a computer and transfer the image data as the picture is taken.

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Output Phase

The output phase of production includes plain-paper proofing for layout, digital color proofing of images and layout, photographic output of film negatives, and analog or off-press color proofing of the film negatives. Specialized devices have been developed for these tasks: black-and-white laser printers for layout and typographic proofing; color printers for digital color comps and proofs; high-resolution, high-accuracy laser film recorders for film negatives, and press-accurate color proofing systems for proofing four-color separations.

To output jobs, you need to know about:

* PostScript RIPs (Raster Image Processors)
* Image Recorders
* Screening
* Platesetters
* Proofing
* Photomedia Processor

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