Basic knowledge of printing, DTP, and localization — for students, job applicants, and new Crestec staff.
Offset vs. digital: offset printing transfers ink from a plate to a rubber blanket to paper — best for large, consistent runs. Digital printing goes straight from file to press — best for short runs and fast turnaround, with no plate costs.
CMYK: printed color is built from four inks — Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (black). Screens use RGB light instead, which is why on-screen colors and printed colors never match exactly without color management.
Production steps: a print job moves through prepress (file checks, proofs, plates), press (the actual printing), and postpress (cutting, folding, binding, finishing like lamination or foil stamping).
What DTP is: desktop publishing is the craft of assembling text, illustrations, and photos into finished page layouts using software such as Adobe InDesign, FrameMaker, and Illustrator.
Why it matters for multilingual work: when a manual is translated, the text can grow or shrink by 30% or more, scripts change direction and fonts, and every page must be re-fitted — that re-layout work is multilingual DTP.
Prepress: before anything prints, DTP files are checked for bleed, margins, resolution, and font embedding so the printed page matches the approved layout.
Translation vs. localization: translation converts words between languages; localization adapts the whole product — units, date formats, examples, imagery, and tone — so it feels native to the target market.
CAT tools: computer-assisted translation software stores every approved sentence in a translation memory, keeping terminology consistent across documents and reducing cost on repeated content. CAT tools assist human translators — they are not machine translation.
Why native translators matter: only a native speaker reliably catches the nuance, register, and cultural fit that make a manual or marketing text read naturally.
What a technical writer does: turns engineering knowledge into instructions a user can actually follow — user manuals, service manuals, and training material.
Manual structure: good manuals follow a predictable skeleton — safety information first, then setup, operation, maintenance, troubleshooting, and specifications — so users can find answers fast.
Why documentation starts at development: writers who join while the product is still being designed catch usability problems early and ship accurate manuals on launch day, instead of reverse-engineering a finished product.
The design process: packaging moves from a structural brief (what must the box protect, hold, and communicate?) through dieline design, material selection, and pre-production sampling before mass production.
Materials: common choices include coated and uncoated cardboard, corrugated board, and craft paper — each balancing cost, strength, print quality, and environmental impact.
Finishing: lamination, UV coating, foil stamping, embossing, and die cutting turn a plain box into shelf presence.
What design thinking is: a human-centered way of solving problems — understand the user first, then define the real problem, generate many ideas, build a quick prototype, and test it with real people. Not a straight line: teams loop back as they learn.
From brief to delivery: a design project moves through consultation, research, and brainstorming before anything is built — then creation, customer review, and final delivery. Defining the goal and the end user early is what makes the rest go smoothly.
Why prototypes matter: a cheap, rough model tested early catches mistakes while they are still cheap to fix — before real money is spent on the wrong idea.
What fulfillment is: the complete back-office of getting products to customers — receiving goods, storing them, controlling stock, picking, packing, and shipping each order. Handing it to a partner frees a business to focus on product and sales instead of the packing table.
Warehouse vs. fulfillment: a warehouse stores; fulfillment ships. Warehousing is space for bulk goods over the long term. Fulfillment works order by order — pick, pack, deliver — with stock counts updated in real time.
Assembly & kitting: parts become ready products before they ship — a manual, an accessory, and a box combined into one finished set, checked and sealed.
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