Prepress Technicians and Workers
Format and proof text and images submitted by designers and clients into finished pages that can be printed. Includes digital and photo typesetting. May produce printing plates.
- Median pay
- $48,690
- Doing it now
- 24,700
- By 2035
- Down 15.3%
- Usually needs
- Postsecondary nondegree award
a year
across the country
2,100 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Enter, store, and retrieve information on computer-aided equipment.
- Enter, position, and alter text size, using computers, to make up and arrange pages so that printed materials can be produced.
- Maintain, adjust, and clean equipment, and perform minor repairs.
- Operate and maintain laser plate-making equipment that converts electronic data to plates without the use of film.
- Generate prepress proofs in digital or other format to approximate the appearance of the final printed piece.
- Proofread and perform quality control of text and images.
- Perform "preflight" check of required font, graphic, text and image files to ensure completeness prior to delivery to printer.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Graphic CommunicationsSee 143 colleges that teach it
Who it suits
O*NET scores every occupation on six interest dimensions. This one leans hardest on these three.
Organised and precise
Hands-on and practical
Creative and expressive
Careers like this one
Where this comes from: the description and the task list are O*NET, which the Department of Labor maintains. Pay, workforce size, outlook and the education normally needed are the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections programme, 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections. Half of them earn more than $48,690 a year, which means half earn less, and what you would earn depends on where you work and how long you have been doing it. The fields of study come from the National Center for Education Statistics crosswalk.