Intrigue Graphics – Design and Print (and Cool Apple Mac Stuff)

Printing Problems

This is a topic that is a periodic thorn in my side – solving printing issues. At Intrigue, we do a lot of color laser proofs in-house so we can check our layouts. Seeing it onscreen and seeing it on paper are very different experiences. Whether verifying the color or graphics, there’s always something about seeing the design on paper that is more appealing than viewing it onscreen. And it makes proofreading a bit easier as well.

However, if you print as much or as often as we do, inevitably problems will occur. It’s just the nature of printing – something will get out of whack over time. It’s just a matter of what the problem is and how serious it is to fix.

Bag of Tricks

As the “tech support guy” for Intrigue, I do a lot of maintenance on the workstations for the art department. By no means should this imply that we have considerable downtime. Rather it’s mostly proactive or preventative maintenance that is intended to PREVENT downtime.

My philosophy from a system support perspective is to stay on top of things BEFORE molehills turn into mountains. This applies to whatever brand or type of equipment that might be at hand. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a Windows box or the latest and greatest Mac. They will all develop issues over time that will need to be addressed and fixed. It’s like normal wear and tear that comes from driving a car. Over time, a car will get nicks, scratches and dings – that’s to be expected if it gets driven on a daily basis. Oil does need to be changed at regular intervals to prevent having the engine fry itself.

Same thing with computers. Just by running them on a daily basis for hours on end, they WILL develop a problem or two (or three) over time.

It’s always something…

Yep, I had a code RED situation on my hands. What to do? What to do? Panic? ummm… Sounds good but probably not the most constructive thing to do. OK, let’s take it slow and try to figure out where the @#$$@@&^* my email is and why I can’t get it working. It would seem [...]