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Prepress digital technician vs preflight technician

The differences between prepress digital technicians and preflight technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a prepress digital technician and a preflight technician. Additionally, a preflight technician has an average salary of $50,553, which is higher than the $39,859 average annual salary of a prepress digital technician.

The top three skills for a prepress digital technician include mac, adobe illustrator and adobe photoshop. The most important skills for a preflight technician are troubleshoot, customer service, and adobe photoshop.

Prepress digital technician vs preflight technician overview

Prepress Digital TechnicianPreflight Technician
Yearly salary$39,859$50,553
Hourly rate$19.16$24.30
Growth rate-14%3%
Number of jobs21,9655,361
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 42%Bachelor's Degree, 59%
Average age4848
Years of experience44

Prepress digital technician vs preflight technician salary

Prepress digital technicians and preflight technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.

Prepress Digital TechnicianPreflight Technician
Average salary$39,859$50,553
Salary rangeBetween $27,000 And $57,000Between $35,000 And $71,000
Highest paying CityPhiladelphia, PA-
Highest paying stateAlaska-
Best paying companyWestRock-
Best paying industryMedia-

Differences between prepress digital technician and preflight technician education

There are a few differences between a prepress digital technician and a preflight technician in terms of educational background:

Prepress Digital TechnicianPreflight Technician
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 42%Bachelor's Degree, 59%
Most common majorGraphic DesignGraphic Design
Most common collegeUniversity of Texas at AustinUniversity of Texas at Austin

Prepress digital technician vs preflight technician demographics

Here are the differences between prepress digital technicians' and preflight technicians' demographics:

Prepress Digital TechnicianPreflight Technician
Average age4848
Gender ratioMale, 68.4% Female, 31.6%Male, 75.0% Female, 25.0%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 8.0% Unknown, 3.2% Hispanic or Latino, 16.2% Asian, 7.9% White, 64.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%Black or African American, 9.0% Unknown, 3.4% Hispanic or Latino, 18.4% Asian, 6.8% White, 61.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8%
LGBT Percentage13%13%

Differences between prepress digital technician and preflight technician duties and responsibilities

Prepress digital technician example 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.
  • Update and troubleshoot prepress software to continue productivity.
  • Assemble and output advertisement using macintosh and windows workstations.
  • Show more

Preflight technician example responsibilities.

  • Supervise modernization of prepress department from letterpress to fully electronic and train incoming staff in typesetting and electronic prepress.
  • Implement pre-flight procedures that eliminate costly re-prints and increase production speed and accuracy.

Prepress digital technician vs preflight technician skills

Common prepress digital technician skills
  • Mac, 11%
  • Adobe Illustrator, 8%
  • Adobe Photoshop, 7%
  • Adobe Indesign, 7%
  • Adobe Creative Suite, 5%
  • Quark, 5%
Common preflight technician skills
  • Troubleshoot, 21%
  • Customer Service, 19%
  • Adobe Photoshop, 17%
  • Mac, 13%
  • FTP, 11%
  • Adobe Creative Suite, 10%

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