O.K. I need to hire a press operator. With all the knowledge from this group, I would like to know if I am better off with a pre-press type person or someone with a background as a pressman/woman? What are your thoughts? Ideally this person would be performing some post-press functions as well since we are a small shop (easy to learn stuff). I want to get this right, even though we are small we are growing rather fast.

Personally, I divide the press operation and pre-press.

If you have a prepress person, get someone who has a bindery / maintenance background who can see color. With proper tools and calibration, you don't need a prepress person running a press.

If you don't have a prepress person to prep and fix file issues, then go with someone with a prepress background that doesn't mind doing their own oil changes.

Just my two cents...

In my eyes and through my experience. A prepress operator should be your number one choice... Pressman don't think the same and Post work can be taught easy enough. Someone who has the right additute (love for the industry), prepress background and knows color theory is ideal....

Dale Zahnke

Greetings. I would seriously look at anyone with a bindery background looking to get into a new part of the production process. They will be able to lend considerable insight on how to best run jobs that require post processing and be able to participate in that. Additionally, those are the guys that know all the tricks for dealing with less than ideal circumstances (ie. environment negatively effecting paper). The will also probably be very comfortable and good at the maintenance that some digital presses require (and all benefit from).

Cheers,
john

Thanks for the advice! That's the beauty of this forum.