According a recent study commissioned by GATF (Sewickley, PA) and NAPL (Paramus, NJ), printers cited excessive color variation as the No.1 reason for partially or completely reprinting a job at their own expense in the past year. Questionnaires were mailed to 700 past attendees of the GATF/NAPL Sheetfed Pressroom Conference and GATF Continuous Improvement Network. Seventy-two usable surveys returned with 60 percent of the respondents representing commercial printers.
The respondents chose from 26 probable causes for rework and were asked to rank them by most common. After color variation, those surveyed ranked print defects such as hickeys, short counts, wrong copy or images/corrections not made, and problems with digital files the highest. The survey also asked respondents to indicate all causes of partially or completely reprinting a job at their expense in the last year. Print defects and wrong copy or images were identified as the most common causes.