Manson Group aims to diffuse the minefield of digital artwork supply with a new recruit and is boosting its workflow capabilities.

Toma Habashi is head of technical sales, a post created by the St Albans firm to ease workflows.

It is one thing asking customers to supply files in a certain way; its another showing them how to do it, said Habashi, who was previously an account executive at Polestar Imaging in Watford. By showing them how to do it, it will help us, and them, keep our production smooth and hopefully buy us loyalty.

Part of Habashis job involves using a laptop to offer support at customers desktops for pre-press and artwork supply.

Manson recently ensured total predictability of output with a JumpGate workflow producing PDF RS file format, which puts files through Postscript level 3.

This ensures ripping and screening so there are no surprises, said Habashi, who reports to sales and marketing director Neil Wass.

PDF RS is popular because it is safe and offers an easy transition to CTP for people who want their suppliers to take care of technicalities.

Manson has produced a 16pp guide to explain flight-checking, said Habashi.

Publishers are happy producing editorial pages, but ad copy can arrive in all forms such as Microsoft or Quark. However, few people used flightchecking because of confusion over different options.

We produced a simple guide with Markzware so people know how to check our required standards.

Story by Jez Abbott