According to people in this career, the main tasks are...
| Task | Importance |
|---|---|
| Generate prepress proofs in digital or other format to approximate the appearance of the final printed piece. | 93% |
| Proofread and perform quality control of text and images. | 93% |
| Enter, position, and alter text size, using computers, to make up and arrange pages so that printed materials can be produced. | 91% |
| Perform "preflight" check of required font, graphic, text and image files to ensure completeness prior to delivery to printer. | 90% |
| Operate and maintain laser plate-making equipment that converts electronic data to plates without the use of film. | 89% |
| Enter, store, and retrieve information on computer-aided equipment. | 88% |
| Operate presses to print proofs of plates, monitoring printing quality to ensure that it is adequate. | 88% |
| Select proper types of plates according to press run lengths. | 87% |
| Examine finished plates to detect flaws, verify conformity with master plates, and measure dot sizes and centers, using light boxes and microscopes. | 85% |
| Punch holes in light-sensitive plates and insert pins in holes to prepare plates for contact with positive or negative film. | 83% |
| Examine unexposed photographic plates to detect flaws or foreign particles prior to printing. | 83% |
| Inspect developed film for specified results and quality, using magnifying glasses and scopes, forwarding acceptable negatives or positives to other workers or to customers. | 81% |
| Arrange and mount typeset material and illustrations into paste-ups for printing reproduction, based on artists' or editors' layouts. | 80% |
| Examine photographic images for obvious imperfections prior to plate making. | 80% |
| Maintain, adjust, and clean equipment, and perform minor repairs. | 80% |
| Scale copy for reductions and enlargements, using proportion wheels. | 77% |
| Operate and maintain a variety of cameras and equipment, such as process, line, halftone, and color separation cameras, enlargers, electronic scanners, and contact equipment. | 77% |
| Perform close alignment or registration of double and single flats to sensitized plates prior to exposure to produce composite images. | 77% |
| Perform tests to determine lengths of exposures, by exposing plates, scanning line copy, and comparing exposures to tone range scales. | 77% |
| Mix solutions such as developing solutions and colored coating solutions. | 76% |
| Analyze originals to evaluate color density, gradation highlights, middle tones, and shadows, using densitometers and knowledge of light and color. | 74% |
| Activate scanners to produce positive or negative films for the black-and-white, cyan, yellow, and magenta separations from each original copy. | 69% |
| Set scanners to specific color densities, sizes, screen rulings, and exposure adjustments, using scanner keyboards or computers. | 69% |
| Perform minor deletions, additions, or corrections to completed plates, on or off printing presses, using tusche, printing ink, erasers, and needles. | 63% |
| Mount negatives and plates in cameras, set exposure controls, and expose plates to light through negatives to transfer images onto plates. | 56% |
