The Datum Report

Occupation 5421 · Skilled trades occupations

Pre-press technicians

Half of full-time pre-press technicians in the UK earn more than £27,497 a year, and half earn less.

Pre-press technicians prepare, format and compose text and graphics in a form suitable for use in a variety of print processes.

How people enter it

There are no formal academic requirements although some employers may require GCSEs/S grades. Training is typically received on-the-job. Apprenticeships are available as well as BTEC certificates and diplomas and other vocational courses at NVQ/SVQ levels 2 and 3.

What the work involves

• determines from specification the kind and size of type to be used
• uses computer applications to generate images and text
• scans and retouches digital images to create sample proofs, plans and lays out artwork to match planned design
• examines proof copies, checks for quality and accuracy and makes any necessary alterations
• processes filmsetting or desktop publishing output to produce image on film and transfers to printing plates and digital output
• arranges and pastes printing material onto paper ready for photographing

Also called

Compositor · Plate maker · Pre-press manager · Pre-press technician · Type setter

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for pre-press technicians, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 0 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Print finishing and binding workers · Printers