---
title: "Prepress Technician and Worker"
description: "Format and proof text and images submitted by designers and clients into finished pages that can be printed. Includes digital and photo typesetting. May…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/prepress-technician-and-worker"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Prepress Technician and Worker

**Category:** Production · **SOC code:** 51-5111 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 51-5111.00

Format and proof text and images submitted by designers and clients into finished pages that can be printed. Includes digital and photo typesetting. May produce printing plates.

Also advertised as: Desktop Operator; Electronic Prepress Operator (EPP Operator); Electronic Prepress Technician (EPP Tech); Plate Maker; Plate Mounter; Pre-Press Proofer; Prepress Operator; Prepress Specialist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $48,690 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $23.41/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $35,810 to $66,080, with the middle half between $40,930 and $58,580
- **Total US employment:** 23,840
- **Typical entry education:** Certificate
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -15.3% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 2,100 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 30/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 23,840 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $35,810 |
| 25th | $40,930 |
| 50th (median) | $48,690 |
| 75th | $58,580 |
| 90th | $66,080 |
| Mean (average) | $50,800 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DC | $100,980 | $91,883 | 180 |
| MD | $60,770 | $57,899 | 480 |
| MA | $57,250 | $54,134 | 460 |
| NJ | $56,840 | $52,240 | 880 |
| VT | $55,880 | $57,045 | 40 |
| NV | $55,680 | $55,692 | 130 |
| OR | $54,360 | $52,592 | 230 |
| CA | $53,860 | $48,645 | 2,020 |
| WA | $53,770 | $50,246 | 380 |
| AR | $52,800 | $60,734 | 160 |
| NY | $52,420 | $48,573 | 1,110 |
| MT | $51,910 | $54,847 | 40 |
| CO | $51,730 | $50,198 | 150 |
| GA | $50,280 | $52,216 | 320 |
| NC | $49,760 | $52,753 | 600 |

31 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 46 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/prepress-technician-and-worker/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/prepress-technician-and-worker.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 24,700 in the 2025–2035 base year to 20,900 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 3,800 jobs, or -15.3%. Declining: -15.3% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 2,100 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Postsecondary nondegree award (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 39.3% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 23.2% |
| Some College Courses | 20.7% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 9.5% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 5.2% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 2.1% |

## What the work involves

- Generate prepress proofs in digital or other format to approximate the appearance of the final printed piece.
- Enter, store, and retrieve information on computer-aided equipment.
- Proofread and perform quality control of text and images.
- Enter, position, and alter text size, using computers, to make up and arrange pages so that printed materials can be produced.
- Perform "preflight" check of required font, graphic, text and image files to ensure completeness prior to delivery to printer.
- Maintain, adjust, and clean equipment, and perform minor repairs.
- Operate and maintain laser plate-making equipment that converts electronic data to plates without the use of film.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Time Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Computers and Electronics — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Design — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Near Vision — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Visualization — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Visual Color Discrimination — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Conventional (C), Realistic (R), Artistic (A).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 5.76 |
| R — Realistic | 5.01 |
| A — Artistic | 3.10 |
| I — Investigative | 1.96 |
| S — Social | 1.65 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.35 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 84.7 |
| ISFJ | 77.5 |
| ESTJ | 68.6 |
| ISTP | 67.9 |
| INTJ | 64.0 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Photographic Process Worker and Processing Machine Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/photographic-process-worker-and-processing-machine-operator) — median $40,610
- [Printing Press Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/printing-press-operator) — median $45,780
- [Etcher and Engraver](https://nuecareer.com/careers/etcher-and-engraver) — median $43,310
- [Office Machine Operator, Except Computer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/office-machine-operator) — median $40,960
- [Print Binding and Finishing Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/print-binding-and-finishing-worker) — median $42,290
- [Patternmaker, Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/patternmaker-metal-and-plastic) — median $58,000
- [Milling and Planing Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender, Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/milling-and-planing-machine-setter-operator-and-tender-metal-and-plastic) — median $52,800
- [Paper Goods Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/paper-goods-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $50,270
- [Extruding and Drawing Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender, Metal and Plastic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/extruding-and-drawing-machine-setter-operator-and-tender-metal-and-plastic) — median $47,720
- [Computer Numerically Controlled Tool Programmer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-numerically-controlled-tool-programmer) — median $68,120

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/prepress-technician-and-worker