How To Become A Prepress Digital Technician: What It Is and Career Path

What is a prepress digital technician and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a prepress digital technician. For example, did you know that they make an average of $19.16 an hour? That's $39,859 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -14% and produce -1,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScorePrepress Digital TechnicianUS Average

Salary

3.1

Avg. Salary $39,859

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.2

Growth rate -14%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.66%

Asian 7.92%

Black or African American 8.02%

Hispanic or Latino 16.17%

Unknown 3.24%

White 63.99%

Gender

female 31.62%

male 68.38%

Age - 49.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 49.5

Stress level

5.2

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.3

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.8

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a prepress digital technician

Explore prepress digital technician education requirements

Most common prepress digital technician degrees

Bachelor's

41.9 %

Associate

38.1 %

High School Diploma

9.8 %

Start to develop specific prepress digital technician skills

Skills	Percentages
Mac	11.08%
Adobe Illustrator	8.31%
Adobe Photoshop	6.89%
Adobe Indesign	6.51%
Adobe Creative Suite	5.10%

Complete relevant prepress digital technician training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New prepress digital technicians learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a prepress digital technician based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real prepress digital technician resumes.

Research prepress digital technician duties and responsibilities

Administer and troubleshoot all computer systems, applications and networks.
Scan images on a desktop scanner and manipulate images using Photoshop.
Operate desktop publishing hardware and software to design and typeset forms, newsletters and other graphics.
Edit type and images according to mark-up copy usign photoshop, quark, illustrator and Indesign.

Prepare your prepress digital technician resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your prepress digital technician resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a prepress digital technician resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable prepress digital technician resume templates

Build a professional prepress digital technician resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your prepress digital technician resume.