COMPUTER-TO-PLATE -- CTP Editions

"We truly don't have a preference," Bacsik says. "We explain the options, including the pros and cons of each file format. Even a vector file will work well if it is made correctly."

Over the course of the last three years, Bacsik says the percentage of ads submitted to Perry Judd's as film for copy-dot scanning has dropped from about 80 percent down to around 10 percent. The majority of incoming files are still in native application formats, but the central prepress facility also regularly receives TIFF/IT and standard PDF files, he notes. Bacsik has yet to see a PDF-X file come in.