Operate photographic developing or print production equipment
Little of this can be handed to software today.
This happens in the physical world, so software agents do not touch it. Automation here means robotics and machinery, which is a different market from the one mapped on this site, on a much slower clock.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Physical, manual and inspection work |
| Jobs that do it | 7 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | None |
| O*NET activity | Controlling Machines and Processes (4.A.3.a.3) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 7 occupations that perform it.
- Assemble, typeset, scan, and produce digital camera-ready art or film negatives and printer's proofs.
- Prepare digital files for printing.
- Develop and print exposed film, using chemicals, touch-up tools, and developing and printing equipment.
- Photograph or videotape client artwork for inclusion in client records or for promotional purposes.
- Operate and maintain laser plate-making equipment that converts electronic data to plates without the use of film.
- Start presses and pull proofs to check for ink coverage and density, alignment, and registration.
- Create prints according to customer specifications and laboratory protocols.
- Generate prepress proofs in digital or other format to approximate the appearance of the final printed piece.
- Produce color or black-and-white photographs, negatives, or slides, applying standard photographic reproduction techniques and procedures.
- Perform "preflight" check of required font, graphic, text and image files to ensure completeness prior to delivery to printer.
- Reprint originals for enlargement or in sections to be pieced together.
- Operate presses to print proofs of plates, monitoring printing quality to ensure that it is adequate.
- Set or adjust machine controls, according to specifications, type of operation, or material requirements.
- Scale copy for reductions and enlargements, using proportion wheels.
- Produce timed prints with separate densities or color settings for each scene of a production.
- Thread filmstrips through densitometers or sensitometers and expose film to light to determine density of film, necessary color corrections, or light sensitivity.
What we would actually use
Nothing in our landscape addresses this work. That is the honest answer rather than a padded list: this activity needs a person present, or a machine rather than a software agent.
Nothing on this site applies. Automation here is robotics and machinery, a different market on a much slower clock, and no software subscription moves it.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
7 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Operate industrial processing or production equipment”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.