Digital proofing development process and process flow

Proofing is an important part of the printing process. In many cases, the key to the resolution of print orders is proofing. Whether or not an enterprise fulfills the needs of its customers and whether the customer needs to fulfill its obligation to pay depends on whether the printed matter matches the proofs. If the printed matter and proofs are within the margin of error, the customer must pay the cost; on the contrary, if the company fails to fulfill its promise, it will probably have to compensate the customer for losses, except for the power to not pay the customer. It can be seen that proofing is an indispensable link and an important means to protect the interests of enterprises and customers.

Today, the proofing methods in the printing field can generally be divided into two categories: traditional proofing and digital proofing. Traditional proofing is based on the steps from the original document to the film to the printing plate, and the printing plate is obtained and then analog proof is printed by the proofer analog printing method. Digital proofing, including digital proofing and screen proofing, is based on a digital publishing printing system. In the publishing and printing production process, the page's graphic information is processed according to the published printing production standards and specifications, and the data information is used to directly output analog printed proofs.

Traditional proofing is a kind of proofing method that simulates the printing operation process. To a certain extent, it is close to the printing environment. From this point of view, traditional proofing has unique advantages. However, according to the current development trend, the position of digital proofing to replace the traditional proofing is imperative, because the benefits of digital proofing for enterprises are visible:

1, the cost is reduced. The cost is divided into fixed cost and variable cost. The fixed cost of proofing is the proofing equipment, occupied factory space and consumables cost. The variable cost of proofing is of course the wage of the proofing operator.

Equipment costs. The traditional proofing machine imported monochromatic machines are all over 1 million yuan, and the domestically-made machines also need about 300,000 yuan. Digital proofing digital proofing requires about 130,000 digital proofing machines plus color management software and measuring equipment; the screen requires only about 90,000 monitors plus color management software and measuring equipment.

· Plant space costs. The placement of conventional proofing proofers requires about 50 square meters. Digital Proofing Whether digital proofing or screen proofing, a 10-square-meter room is sufficient.

· Consumables costs. Traditional proofing Every proofing must require the output of film and plates. If the original is a four-color output for color documents, then there is the cost of the ink paper when proofing. The number of digital proofing supplies in digital proofing requires relatively high, special ink and special paper, but no more consumption, the overall calculation still less than the traditional proofing costs; In addition, the digital proofing screen proofing, because it is a The soft proofing method has no specific proofs and no specific loss, so the cost of consumables is almost zero.

· Operator salary. In addition to the traditional proofing masters, the traditional proofing needs to have higher requirements on the film output and printing plate output personnel. No matter digital proofing is digital proofing or screen proofing, because the current operating software is very perfect and intelligent, as long as a simple training, many people can complete the operation. In general, the more professional people's wages are, the higher the salary is. For traditional proofing, the overall salary of the operator is much higher than that of the digital proofing operator.

Cost is the key to the profit and loss of an enterprise. No matter what the company is, the cost is their lifeline. For companies that have been using traditional proofing and production can be carried out smoothly, investment digital proofing is an unknown new attempt for them. However, from a long-term profit perspective, many companies still have confidence in this new proofing method.

2, speed up. With the acceleration of people's work and life rhythm, the printing production cycle is also constantly being shortened, and the speed of proofing is a key factor. If the sample draft is determined earlier, problems can be discovered earlier, and printing can also be achieved earlier.

·Preparation time. Traditional proofing must be able to proceed. First, there must be well-processed manuscripts, then output the film, and then get the printing plate, and finally the traditional proofing machine can be used for proofing. If this process is successful, it must be calculated in hours. If problems occur during the period, it may take half a day. Or day time. Digital proofing requires only processed originals, which can then be digital proofed directly on the digital proofer, or screen proofed directly on the monitor.

·Proofing time. Traditional proofing requires a device commissioning period. Because the traditional proofing is achieved by analog printing, similar to printing, the traditional proofer must run for a period of time before it reaches the stable state. Digital proofing generally does not have such a debugging period or the time is very short, which greatly saves time. In general, digital proofing now prints a pair of photo paper at a resolution of 1440 dpi by 720 dpi for about 14 minutes, and the screen proofing time is even shorter. As long as the screen is in normal operation, the ICC file can be loaded at any time to display the printing effect. .

There is no doubt that the speed of digital proofing is far more than traditional proofing, and that problems are discovered in time without wasting film plates. Especially in today's popular CTP (computertoplate) process, digital proofing caters well to process needs.

3, a good simulation of the printing effect.

· Content simulation. Traditional proofing is the use of printed plates for proofing. It is a mechanical operation. There is no loss of data. Text and graphic images are guaranteed to be consistent with the printed matter. Although digital proofing does not use printed plates to obtain proofs like traditional proofing, due to the development of modern technology and the improvement of the process, there will generally be no content errors, and previewing can be performed before digital proofing. Screen proofing can be resumed. And no loss, thus further ensuring the accuracy of the content.

Color simulation. The reason why the traditional proofing has not been abandoned by the company is because it simulates the actual printing environment is very realistic, printing plates, paper, ink and even mechanical operation conditions can simulate the printing conditions, so the color simulation is very real and very close. Although digital proofing does not have a true proofing environment like traditional proofing, due to the color management tools, the factors affecting the colors from prepress to printing and even postpress are all taken into account. Standard management can be performed to ensure digital proofing. Simulate the accuracy of printed colors. Moreover, due to the digital management of many processes, the entire production line is more standardized and the predictability of production is higher.

So far, digital proofing has been able to meet the needs of users well in the effect of analog printing. As with traditional proofing, digital proofing can be accepted by the user and used as a basis for the sample.

The development of digital proofing for digital proofing is an irreversible trend. Many printing equipment suppliers have seized this opportunity to continuously introduce a new generation of digital proofing technology to the market:

1, hardware

Digital printers. For digital proofing, digital printers are the most important hardware devices, and now the market's requirements for digital printers are: fast, accurate and precise. Fast, that is, the printing speed is fast, an important reason why companies choose digital proofing is the speed of digital proofing, but this requirement is not the end, especially for the time-consuming enterprises such as newspapers, speed is an important factor for survival. Quasi-accurate, that is, the accuracy of color, the printing summary can actually be a color copy process, for the current printing, the main direction of improvement is how to achieve the same color from the original to the printed matter, so the exact copy of the color of the digital printer is One must emphasize the factors. Fine, that is, the degree of precision, is the resolution is high, the resolution determines the clarity of the proofs, which is the key factor for customers to judge the sample.

For the current market demand for digital presses, well-known brands such as Epson, HP, Canon have introduced a new generation of digital printers. Epson introduced the Epson Stylus PRO7800/9800 eight-color printer specifically designed for digital proofing, and has greatly improved speed, ink and even media based on the original four series printers. HP introduced the new concept Designjet Z2100/Z3100, in addition to the introduction of the twelve-color ink color gamut technology, but also innovatively embedded the use of the Greiner i1 spectrophotometer measurement equipment to improve color management efficiency. Canon introduced the imagePROGRAF5000/9000. The most prominent feature of Canon is the adoption of the twelve-color ink color gamut technology, and the number of nozzles up to 30,720, enabling high-precision printing.

In order to seize the market of digital proofing, equipment manufacturers are striving to improve technology, reduce costs, so that printing companies to enter the digital proofing threshold is reduced, digital proofing technology to improve and promote the digital proofing further development.

·monitor. Need to screen proofing operation, the performance of the monitor can not be ignored. For screen proofing, the most important thing for a monitor is its wide color gamut and high stability. So far, the most frequently used screen proofing monitors are Apple and EIZO. The reason why they chose these two major businesses is because their monitors have indeed achieved a large color gamut and high stability. On the other hand, it is due to this. A series of displays of two merchants has passed the authoritative SWOP certification, which means that the use of this monitor for screen proofing is approved, which also gives customers and companies a basis for evaluation. The monitors currently recommended by Apple as screen soft proofing are APPLE20” CINEMA DISPLAY, APPLE23” CINEMA DISPLAY and APPLE30” CINEMA DISPLAY. These monitors are all high-definition, jitter-free, wide viewing angle, fast response, all-digital connectivity, and perfect integration with PowerMac G4. Outstanding features are Apple's new technologies to meet the needs of screen soft proofing. EIZO's EIZOCOLOREDGECG220, EIZOCOLOREDGECG210 and EIZOCOLOREDGECG21, CG series monitors are mainly used for artwork reproduction, high-end printing and screen soft proofing. Therefore, different models in the series are available. There is no problem with the monitor's cooperation with screen proofing, and there are also some big brand businesses such as Sony that are starting to enter the soft proofing market.

·measuring equipment. A key step in the success or failure of the digital proofing system is whether the color management is done well, the color management is able to get accurate bit color reproduction, the proofing simulation printing effect is good, if the color management is not done enough, despite the high performance of the digital printer or the display How beautiful the proofs come out, but it still cannot be matched with printing. The importance of color management is indisputable, and the accuracy of measurement equipment affects the effectiveness of color management. Therefore, measurement equipment has become another important object to be improved by merchants.

The measuring equipment that is currently used is X-Rite (it would have been Gelinger, but it is now acquired by X-Rite). The commonly used measuring equipment is the Eye-One spectrophotometer (with different versions), DTP70, The 500 series spectroradiometers also have the latest Eye-One Isis. In addition to a great improvement in accuracy, these devices have also made a series of improvements in terms of color difference formulas, color spaces, etc., making the measurement more accurate and using a wider range of data.

Although there are not many changes in the core of the hardware update, but in many aspects are more complete, to a large extent, adapted to the development of digital proofing.

2, software

Software configuration as a digital proofing system refers to color management software. Currently the most popular color management software is EFI (acquisition of Best, extension of Best's core), GMG, BM, StarProof and Founder photo. Each of these softwares has its own core technology and has its own set of operating methods. However, the purpose is the same. It is to establish the correspondence between the original and printed materials. No matter which software is used, it is very powerful as a color management function, and it also realizes the need for color reproduction.

Regardless of whether it is international or domestic, digital proofing has been used as a new technology to penetrate the internals of many companies. Regardless of how long it takes, digital proofing can always successfully replace traditional proofing, lead printing proofing to a more advanced era.