Reasons for loss of funds in desktop publishing and prepress

Recently I have been thinking about desktop publishing in this area. Larry Hunt, a fast-printing expert, recently published a special report on desktop publishing productivity in his best-selling newsletter: High Speed ​​and Color Copying. The final conclusion of the report is that the productivity of desktop publishing is inferior to that of fast and small-sized continuous printers. And because it tends to erode the profits of other parts of the company, it becomes the company's financial black hole.

Most printing service companies still have 20% of their funds lost from the DTP/prepress department. In fact, this is not immutable.

Hunt found that although DTP production capacity has improved since 2003, most printing service companies still lose 20% of funds in this sector. The wages and costs of employees have continued to increase, but printing companies have adjusted their hourly pricing very slowly, failing to keep up with the growth of the former, and it is difficult to compensate for the increase in wages and costs. This phenomenon is in fact not immutable, but there are still many businesses trying to deceive themselves, telling themselves that in the DTP desktop publishing, the loss of these funds is normal. They believe that if they want to get prints for printing presses and digital presses, they will have to abandon the charges in prepress.

With the development of digital printing machines and computer-to-plate systems, many print jobs have to go through the DTP department. Whether the DTP department can retain funds and make profits has become a crucial issue. Printers should understand that if they want to create benefits for the company, they must consider the cost of the prepress department.

Some companies have accumulated the working hours of the DTP department and converted them into service fees.

Some small companies are always deceiving themselves with the hourly budget and think that the desktop publishing system can make money for them. The desktop publishing system and the pre-press department have hourly charges, but they don't use it. As far as I know, when most employees were asked what the hourly billing budget was, their answer was just what they thought was the concept. Most people can't really explain clearly, and it's unclear how the hourly charge is calculated. Some people think that computers can automatically calculate prices. Others speculate about prices and hope that prepress people can tell them when prices are low. . I have seen a company that has accumulated time in the DTP department and converted it into a basis for service charges. I also saw that some companies also recorded time, but the fees charged never matched the real value of the time, because the customer service department thought that charging based on real time might push the price too high.

If a printing company enters into a pricing process and implements it strictly, it can make the prepress department profitable. The smaller the print service companies are, the less they dare to charge customers for prepress service fees. They need to stand firm and fight for a reasonable profit for the prepress department.

Prepress personnel may be subject to criticism and criticism in terms of production capabilities. The DTP department loses funds and is not profitable. Prepress personnel are criticized. In fact, the root cause of the DTP department's business failures lies with the managers and owners of the prepress department. They failed to give employees the right tools and standardized fee-charging procedures; they also did not have the right to charge prepress staff; they did not train customer service personnel and sales personnel; and they did not show up on the design skills of prepress staff. Any funds to invest.


In my opinion, the DTP department's production capacity is much higher than the hypothetical hourly pricing. Actually, this is not something that has not been done. In most cases, printing companies have not charged this part of the work, or they have devalued the work of DTP department employees. If the printing company boss stops providing free services to customers, the DTP department will no longer be the company's financial black hole.

Grab the foundation

If printing companies want to stop the DTP department from losing money, it is better to start from the basics. The DTP department should charge the customer for the production fee, design fee, equipment use fee, and guarantee the normal printing costs. Printing companies have already created a sense of free service for DPT departments, especially when dealing with customers' own documents. Doing so now will affect your own business, and this influence will weaken future operations. However, if the printing company wishes to charge for the prepress service for variable data printing in the future, it must begin to charge the current service. In fact, most printing companies will not be willing to introduce variable data printing services unless they are charging a reasonable amount for DTP services.

Surveys show that most printing companies have about 25 large customers, or fewer. If printing companies only start collecting DTP service fees from other customers, the prepress department can also see some profits.

Customers do not pay because the price is too high for them to afford. Printing companies should first look at the total budget. For most companies can increase the cost of 10-25 dollars, and will not lose orders. A printing company increases the order fee by 10 US dollars a day, so that 10 orders increase by 100 US dollars. This means that the prepress department has an extra $2,000 in monthly revenue. So if every prepress job increases $20 and there are 10 jobs a day, what will happen? Without extra work, printing companies can earn an extra $4,000.

The cost of providing DTP and prepress services: To purchase equipment and software and upgrade the software; to pay employees salaries and taxes; and to pay the company's management fees. Printing operators must realize that providing DTP and prepress services is part of the business operations. The customer must pay for these services.

Hunt's report tells us that in the next three years, printing companies will reduce the loss of funds in the prepress department by 5%. Maybe other improvement work will take three years before we can see the results, but if the printing company charges the prepress service according to the actual situation, then it can begin to make money tomorrow.

Yang Lifu

Reprinted from: Ke Yin Network

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