Dug up some advanced printing info elsewhere:
Chris Botkins Yes. The printing process, while it’s changed quite a bit in 30+ years, remains relatively the same in terms of putting ink on paper. The main difference now is that “camera ready” artwork and “separation transparencies” are no longer used. They print direct to a big plate machine now. The printing plates are event bent, cut and formed all out of that same machine as well.
The proofing process is all digital now too. Unless specified by the client. Those high quality color prints such as Kodak’s, Chromalin’s, “blue lines”, etc are too expensive to produce consistently. So the printers just send digital files for approval now.
The PDF’s that clients send to big printers all have to adhere to strict prepress settings in order to further streamline the proofing process. And each printer has different settings they want/require.