Fashion in the pressroom

In well run printshops the owners will usually provide prepress and pressroom workers with clothing, in part to present a clean unified look to visitors and customers. However, there are some outfits that should never be seen near the press.

Here are two prime examples of pressroom-fashion faux pas:

From North America:
From Japan:
Apart from their difference in weight, what is their sartorial sin? In a word, color. The color of what is worn gets reflected into the press sheet color. It can be a difficult problem to be aware of since our eye/brains instantly auto-white balance - so white paper will still look white. Unfortunately, the red or blue outfits in the above examples will distort the hues of the color in the presswork and may lead to incorrect color adjustments.

However, the below fashionistas are more in keeping with the discipline of the press room:Grey shirts, grey pants, and optionally, grey hair. Grey balance on press and grey balance in the closet.

This rule also applies to print buyers/specifiers when conducting a press check. To evaluate color effectively wear the neutrals, black, white, grey.