We have been using the term automation for decades in the print industry. It is a favorite term for business owners because it generally assumes cost savings, increased efficiency, and potentially a more competitive offering (e.g., reduced turn times). Virtually all automation today involves software. This is when the “automation dream” experiences some reality as the word software generally equates to money, time, and effort to most print owners.

So we have this dream of automation mixed with this reality of using software to accomplish it. No automation is free, but it sure has gotten a lot more accessible these days. Let's begin by defining automation for the purposes of this article: “a workflow or task that operates independently or without human oversight.” I generally like to use the term “auto-magically” as a way of keeping those who are scared of technology changes in a good mood. 

Automation is a strategy. It doesn’t fit everywhere. For example, almost every time there is any demonstration of automatic prepress checking of customer-submitted files, some print owner believes they can magically get rid of their prepress department by just telling the customer what’s wrong with their files. We all know that is very far from the truth. This is a great example of delusion. Telling a customer they haven’t embedded their fonts is not fixing their font issue and if the customer doesn’t know what a font is, all you did was confuse them by telling them they forgot to embed it.