You might be curious if there's any difference
in the way a job is handled in Prepress.
If it's running on a digital press as
opposed to being printed on a conventional offset press.
And the answer is that some things are the same and some things aren't.
Now some things never change.
Prepress is still going to check for common problems.
Such as a file built the wrong size, or
any missing content, such as missing graphics or absent fonts.
And of course, they're going to be
looking for typographical errors and any misspellings.
If they have to perform any corrections, they're going to do that,
and they may submit a new proof for the client to approve.
But some things are a bit different for digital printing.
Proofing may actually be performed on the press that's going to run the job.
Since every impression is unique, it's just as easy to run a proof on that
press as it is to run it off an ink jet printer, if the schedule permits.
And then you know that finished job is going to
match your proof, because it was generated by the same device.
Imposition may require that they use different layouts, because
of the smaller sheet size on a digital device.
Some other things that are different for digital printing are color handling.
For example, RGB content may be acceptable,
and in fact may sometimes even be
preferable, because the colorants that are used
on digital presses have a wider color gamut.
And they can render a wider range of color than
the color than the colorants used on an offset press.
So ask your printer.
That you may find that they're okay with RGB content and in fact, may
be able to do a nicer job on your printer project with RGB content.
And something else to consider.
Most digital presses don't run spot colors.
Now some do, but there's a limited range of spot colors that they can render.
However, even though they're using CMYK
colorant, those colorants, again, because they have a wider gamut, may do
a better job of approximating spot colors than an offset press could do.
So again, ask the printer, but if you've specified spot colors in your design,
you may not be required to convert them to CMYK before you submit the job.
It may, in fact, be better to leave them specified as spot.
And then let the front end for the digital
press determine the best way to render those colors.