For Position Only: The Only Other Sites Print Pros Need

Anita Dennis

If you’re like me, you used to save hard copies of all the design, prepress, and new-economy publications you could fit on your shelves. And if you’re like me, your bookshelves have thinned considerably over the last few years, as you increasingly rely on the Web to stay abreast of the world of graphic design and production.

In addition to editorial, association, and vendor sites that offer news and community-building resources, at last count there were more than 200 sites that offer online services to designers and publishers: everything from e-printers to print auction sites to online print production services. If I weren’t such a control freak (and if my job didn’t depend on it), I wouldn’t worry, but I feel compelled to know about each and every resource out there.

I do suspect you’re like me, so let’s help each other out. Below is a two-part list of a hodge-podge of design and production-oriented Web sites. First are sites that I visit frequently to stay abreast of trends; second are sites that offer B2B services, most of which I haven’t used but whose offerings I find intriguing.

News, Community, Connections
I’ll get the self-promotion out of the way first: For design and publishing reviews, how-tos, news, and commentary, I start here at creativepro.com. And it’s not because creativepro.com sends me a check every month (although I’m not complaining); rather, it’s because the site focuses on products, news, and analysis geared for design and publishing. As you probably already know, the site also includes some great, free online services, including Preflight Online and Stock Photography Search, along with numerous useful directories. You don’t have to be a member to take advantage of most of what creativepro.com offers, but the free membership lets you sign up for the weekly Creativeprose newsletter and weekly giveaways.

To see how publishing technology news is covered for the general public, I’m also a frequent visitor at ZDNet News. ZDNet aggressively covers everything from the Napster case to the AOL-Time Warner merger, to spiraling dot-coms, to the latest installment of the “Steve-Jobs-Saves-Apple” serial.

While these news sources keep me abreast of what’s going on, I also like to hear what designers themselves are thinking and saying. For that, Adobe’s User to User forums are an excellent resource. They’re active and unabashed, and Adobe product managers chime in regularly to answer questions. For prepress topics, there’s PrintPlanet, which hosts e-communities on topics that range from CTP to asset management to XML.

As for networking (of the human, not 100BaseT, variety), check out Aquent, which calls itself “the world’s largest talent agency for creative, Web, and tech” needs (Aquent partners with creativepro.com to offer career services). Among Aquent’s notable features are a biweekly newsletter with job listings and career advice, and the Web-zine 1099.com, which addresses the needs and concerns of freelancers.

E-Production Services
This brings me to the plethora of B2B and B2C e-print service providers. Most of these I haven’t used; from what I can tell, you haven’t either. Still, some seem valuable — the auction and bidding sites such as 58K.com for example, aren’t going to appeal to producers of books and periodicals that have long-term contracts with printers, but for graphic designers they provide a good reality check regarding pricing, even if printers are ultimately chosen based on longstanding business relationships.

Then there are the collaboration, procurement, and fulfillment services such as Collabria, Noosh, PrintCafe, and Sprockets. For the life of me, I don’t understand how some of these will ever succeed. Why, for example, do you need to go through a site like Sprockets to share files online and to manage communications such as job schedules? Seems to me that involving such a third-party would only complicate matters, especially when most design organizations and departments have all the resources they need (e-mail, FTP sites, phones) to handle those tasks just fine, thanks.

Some of these sites have much more potential. Collabria and Noosh, for example, develop systems that integrate with printers’ workflows, managing billing and proofing and other processes that tend to run amok if not kept in check. Because each printer has a unique legacy system, customer base, and press specialties, it seems to me that at least a handful of these e-print service providers will eventually stand out from the crowd.

I believe a few of the dozen or so actual e-printers will also emerge. My money’s on iPrint.com, which has done an excellent job of exploiting a niche (making it easy for folks like myself to get decently designed corporate collateral, fast and cheap). Although it’s a struggling dot-com, I think it will ultimately be profitable if it can hang on long enough to develop a reputation and in-roads into the corporate sector. (Disclosure alert: iPrint runs a Small Business Printing Center in partnership with ImageX.com, creativepro.com’s corporate parent. ImageX.com also competes with some of the other services mentioned.)

Your Turn
Now it’s your turn to share. Which sites do you frequent the most for a sense of community? Have you ever used Internet services to streamline production, or are you too busy actually producing content to invest time in them? Which sites have you tried that are a waste of time, and which ones might make your job easier next year, if not next week? Use the Vox Box at the left to let us know.