Discussion

By Jim Diehn on Jun 03, 2022

Thank you Frank. I live in a suburb of Milwaukee and your rant is right on. It really is a joke. I have been a subscriber of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for longer than I can remember, heck I used to deliver the paper when I was a kid. I think Gannet just wants to keep dragging the paper down so that people give up on the paper version. All they care about is getting the massive amount of ads in the paper. Once they decide to stop the paper version, I am done, I will not be part of their digital only world. So sad.
Jim Diehn

By James Kohler on Jun 05, 2022

Newspapers: The Erie Times use to be printed in Erie PA but the newspaper shut the great Metroliner down several years ago. Now all the reporters B-line/photos have to be In At 10:30 PM and not a minute later. Everything is then T1 to Austin TX where the newspaper is put together digitally then T1 to Butler PA (Near Pittsburgh) where it is printed. The paper is then tucked up to Erie early morning. I believe the paper is part of the Gannet organization.

By Dov Isaacs on Jun 06, 2022

WRT “blurry bar codes” or possibly even blurry QR codes on those ballots …

This is a common occurrence and I know of no situation in which the printer is at fault. Designers and software developers who often are the ones implementing the mass production of ballots and similar customized print products in PDF form often have no clue as the very basics of graphic arts. Such basics include both choice of graphic art object type as well as issues of color.

In the first case, both bar codes and QR codes vector objects. Any attempt to represent such codes via raster images is a setup for problems. Raster images are of a specific resolution and if that doesn't match the resolution of the output device, resampling can cause havoc. And that is not to mention issues due to lossy compression such as JPEG that you noted.

In the second case and often combined with use of raster images, “black” objects are often represented as RGB-based rich black images. This adds the scenario of multiple colorants being printed for such codes and the resultant “blurriness.”

Although the “blame” is truly on the customers' designers and programmers, the printers should do some rudimentary preflight to ascertain that this class of problem is not hiding in the PDF files sent for printing, simply to avoid finger pointing after-the-fact.

I believe that the underlying problem is that today's designers and graphic artists are increasingly illiterate when it comes to the basics including the differences between text, vector, and raster as well as color in general, not to mention print. Increasingly, it is fine if “looks good on the screen.” And teaching these concepts in university graphics programs is not a priority these days.

- Dov