Will “Plate Maker” be Replaced By Robots? 🤔

97% Chance of Automation

“Plate Maker” will almost certainly be replaced by robots.

This job is ranked #660 out of #702. A higher ranking (i.e., a lower number) means the job is less likely to be replaced.

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Job Description

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.

Job Details

The SOC (Standard Occupational Classification) code is 51-5111.00
The Mean Annual Wage in the U.S. is $ 40,640.00
The Mean Hourly Wage is $ 19.00
Currently, there are 33,340 people on this job

☝️ Information based on the reference occupation “Prepress Technicians and Workers”.

Also Known As…

Tasks for “Plate Maker”

Perform minor deletions, additions, or corrections to completed plates, on or off printing presses, using tusche, printing ink, erasers, and needles.
Perform "preflight" check of required font, graphic, text and image files to ensure completeness prior to delivery to printer.
Maintain, adjust, and clean equipment, and perform minor repairs.
Scale copy for reductions and enlargements, using proportion wheels.
Mount negatives and plates in cameras, set exposure controls, and expose plates to light through negatives to transfer images onto plates.
Perform close alignment or registration of double and single flats to sensitized plates prior to exposure to produce composite images.
Arrange and mount typeset material and illustrations into paste-ups for printing reproduction, based on artists' or editors' layouts.
Inspect developed film for specified results and quality, using magnifying glasses and scopes, forwarding acceptable negatives or positives to other workers or to customers.
Activate scanners to produce positive or negative films for the black-and-white, cyan, yellow, and magenta separations from each original copy.
Operate presses to print proofs of plates, monitoring printing quality to ensure that it is adequate.
Proofread and perform quality control of text and images.
Examine photographic images for obvious imperfections prior to plate making.
Examine unexposed photographic plates to detect flaws or foreign particles prior to printing.
Select proper types of plates according to press run lengths.
Operate and maintain a variety of cameras and equipment, such as process, line, halftone, and color separation cameras, enlargers, electronic scanners, and contact equipment.
Enter, position, and alter text size, using computers, to make up and arrange pages so that printed materials can be produced.
Generate prepress proofs in digital or other format to approximate the appearance of the final printed piece.
Operate and maintain laser plate-making equipment that converts electronic data to plates without the use of film.
Perform tests to determine lengths of exposures, by exposing plates, scanning line copy, and comparing exposures to tone range scales.
Analyze originals to evaluate color density, gradation highlights, middle tones, and shadows, using densitometers and knowledge of light and color.
Set scanners to specific color densities, sizes, screen rulings, and exposure adjustments, using scanner keyboards or computers.
Punch holes in light-sensitive plates and insert pins in holes to prepare plates for contact with positive or negative film.
Examine finished plates to detect flaws, verify conformity with master plates, and measure dot sizes and centers, using light boxes and microscopes.
Enter, store, and retrieve information on computer-aided equipment.
Mix solutions such as developing solutions and colored coating solutions.

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