Unfortunately, I couldn’t moderate last week&Mac226;s program on press OKs because of an illness in my family. I&Mac226;m sure I missed a lively discussion among printers, designers, and buyers. Let&Mac226;s hope no one was booted off the panel, a la “Survivor.”

Thinking back, I remember how scary it was for me, as a new print buyer, to do a night-time press OK. Here’s how it went:

I was ushered into a darkly lit waiting room by someone other than my salesperson and told it would be a few minutes until I got a sheet to review. Eventually, two heavy black doors swung open and a pressman brought me a sheet to OK. He stood back, not saying much, and I began the slow task of scrutinizing every image, every bit of content, every color, on every page. Squinting, reading, double-checking the sheet against my OK’d blueline and/or previous proof, I hoped I wouldn’t see anything that made my throat catch.

When I questioned a full-color image that didn’t seem quite right (I never pretended to speak the secret language of printing), the pressman (never a presswoman) said he could “bring up”” or “bring down” this or that color, and out he’d go for another 30 - 50 minutes, until we started the process again.

A handful of sheets and several hours later, I’d say “OK” and sign a sheet, and we’d both heave a sigh of relief.

Nine times out of ten, everything worked out well. occasionally, I’d have to compromise an image, color-wise, which led to my explaining to my bosses (in layman’s terms) why the corporate color wasn’t quite what they’d envisioned, or why we saw a bit of ghosting on a solid.

Press OKs were hairy. Part of it was because I didn’t have a technical background. Not knowing what was causing the colors to shift ever-so-slightly with each new press sheet was intimidating and frustrating. Part of it was realizing what a heavy responsibility it was, for most of my OKs were on expensive annual reports in quantities over 200,000.

What would have helped? I would have liked the following: a bit more warning about what to expect, more knowledge about what was/was not reasonable to ask of the pressman (and the press!), better lighting with which to do a press check, and the company of my salesperson.

I was lucky to have worked with some mighty fine pressmen. In particular, I remember Mr. Ed Garneau of Nimrod Press in Boston. Ed had a way of making the whole experience OK in every sense of the word. He never made me feel stupid. That was worth a lot.

So printers, take a look at how you treat buyers on a press OK. Are you friend or foe?