Pittsburgh, Pa., May 6, 2003 — To assist printers and other prepress service providers establish competitive pricing practices for digital prepress services, a new edition of Chargeable vs. Nonchargeable Downtime in Prepress has been published by EPS—the Digital Workflow Group, a special section of the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation and the Printing Industries of America. Including statistics from similar surveys conducted in 1999 and 2001, this is the first edition that provides business owners with significant trends on pricing policies and practices. As more companies move to a digital workflow, how a company handles fixing prepress problems for their customers can make the service a profitable or nonprofitable part of its business. Prepress is critical to the success of the job, but deciding whether to charge for various prepress activities can be a difficult decision for the business owner. The data indicated that prepress/service bureaus and larger commercial printing companies are more likely to charge, and to charge more, for services provided. “In an economic climate where customers are demanding jobs be produced faster, better, and for less money, smaller and mid-sized printers are trying to attract and retain customers by refraining from charging or significantly reducing charges for prepress services. However giving away services may not help you survive in the long term,” cautions Dee Gentile, manager of EPS—the Digital Workflow Group. The study reports the results of survey questions on client training, system maintenance at the client site, archiving, retrieval of archived materials, digital proofing, and computer-to-plate pricing. The study also addresses policies for fixing “easy” preflighting problems (e.g., converting RGB to CMYK, missing fonts, correcting obvious typos, trapping, converting spot color to process color, etc.). Chargeable vs. Nonchargeable Downtime in Prepress, 2002–2003 Edition (ISBN 0-88362-433-8) is available for $50 ($25 for GATF/PIA or EPS members), not including shipping. Study methodology is described in the 44-page booklet. Orders may be placed by contacting GATF by phone at 800/662-3916 (U.S. and Canada) or 412/741-5733 (all other countries); fax at 412/741-0609; or online from the GAIN Bookstore. Mail orders to GATF Products, P.O. Box 1020, Sewickley, PA 15143-1020. Indicate Order No. 13043.