Author: Xue wave
At present, color digital proofing technology is changing in terms of both cost and technology. What kind of proofing method will we use in the future? Which part of the prepress process will be proofed? These are the choices we will face in the future. Today, after the CTP process was adopted, digital color proofing has become very important to us. This also means that there will be no film in the future, and no traditional, analog color proofing will be conducted. For the CTP process, digital color proofing has become the most basic configuration of the system.
Today, various technologies are gathered in the field of color proofing, and great changes will also occur in this area in the future. The more common technique of the digital proofing system is dye sublimation. This device is about less than 10,000 US dollars. It uses special materials and its quality is still acceptable. There have also been some interesting developments in this area, especially Sony's new printers. However, this technology is relatively backward and cannot represent the future development of digital proofing.
Inkjet continuous proofing The most acceptable technique for proofing uses continuous tone inkjet to print continuous images. According to this theory, the size of each dot is different, and the result of the proofing is the same as that of the high-resolution laser imagesetter. The two main suppliers of this technology are: Iris2Print and Iris4Print (previously known as Realist) manufactured by Iris Graphics of Seychelles, and Digital Cramalin Printers by DuPont. Iris has improved this technology using new inkjet head technology to achieve a print resolution of 600 dpi. In the future, it will also simulate halftone dots, and another ink jet technology that has a serious impact on color proofing is the PolarJet printer from Polaroid. Instead of using liquid ink, it uses a solid ink ball to create a hue change. It can be directly proofed using the same paper as when printing on the machine, and its size also reaches the top four that can accommodate 4 A4 pages. The use of this technique for high-resolution imaging is considered to be extremely promising, and half-tone dots can be printed later. Because it can be proofed on newsprint, it is an ideal proofing method for newspaper proofing.
Another very interesting technology is the PicroProof printer from Fujifilm. Although it is a photographic process, only a very small amount of distilled water is used for flushing. It is specially designed for office use and the system provides a very accurate color proofing. Its main advantage is its fast print speed. It can print out the first sheet with more than 2 A4 sizes in 90 seconds, and then the same sheet can be printed in 60 seconds. This product has great potential as remote printing. The reason for this is that it is very easy to perform color corrections to ensure that the system usually works under defined standards. Accurate color correction is the basis of any remote proofing.
Halftone dot printing
Although the continuous color proofer can print extremely good colors, it is much more accurate than the analog proofer color compared to the final product on the press. But people still need the printer to be able to print the same halftone dots as the final print. Over the years, we have only one printer, Kodak's Approal printers are too expensive and therefore difficult for users to adopt.
Kodak has now produced a new series of Approval printers, including the Big Four Open Approal XP. However, now Polaroid has surpassed Kodak. Its PalaProof large-size printer has recently been identified by GATF as the best proofing printer.
The principle of these half-tone proofing techniques is to use a high-energy thermal laser to transfer the pigment dots to the transfer paper, and then use a film device to transfer the pigment dots to the same paper as the final print because it is extremely printable. Consistent, so proofs from such printers are currently the best.
Direct plate making machine
Another way based on this technique is to use a specific thermal plateetter for proofing, of course using special materials. Currently, Matchpprint laser proofing materials from Imation can be imaged on Presstek's Pearlsetter platesetter, or on Cren's modified Trendsetter platesetter. Kodak will soon introduce similar materials. Using such materials for proofing, it means that the same equipment is used for proofing and PS version.
However, the following reasons indicate that this is not a good proofing method. First, it constrains the direct platesetter. The plate-making machine worth more than 250,000 U.S. dollars was a serious waste of resources. Second, if using a plate-making machine of size A4 (big-split) on page B, the proofing of page B size has little significance. For the user to confirm the use of proofing, generally only used to check a single page or page. Generally, for a booklet, a page with a maximum size of 4 pages is enough. Third, we just want to see a two-page format, a halftone dot, pigment transfer technology, and a proofer with less than $750,000. Why is it necessary to spend more money than this to upgrade the platesetter to a prototype machine?
For a printer, a large-sized color printer is required, and the page size is 8 pages or 16 pages. Usually, a printer has a blueprint to check all the graphic locations on the plate. The new blueprints are full-color, double-sided, and large. The new printer uses a 42-inch (106.68 cm) or 54-inch (137.16 cm) color inkjet printer. Hewlett-Packard, Encad, and CalCorrp Companies and Other companies provide. These inkjet printers have been improved by many companies to color proofing systems, such as Barco's Impress double-sided proofer, DuPont's Digital Dylux materials and Hewlett-Packard's inkjet printers, Saigler's IrisWide using CalComp inkjet printers. , can also provide double-sided printing, Iris system prints accurately to 720dpi, almost close to the print quality, but can not provide halftone dot.
Low cost proofing
The main changes in color proofing are not from the previously mentioned technologies and systems. Instead, it comes from new, low-cost inkjet printers. For inkjet printers such as Epson, Lexmark and Canon, we have already felt the impact from Epson Stylus Pro5000 printers and similar products. The device is packaged and sold with EFI's Fiery hard RIP. Using DuPont's special proofing materials, the price is less than 10,000 US dollars, the proofing quality of the system is better than those who use dye sublimation technology.
This is just a hint for the future. The cost of a hard RIP is much higher than that of a printer. It is also too discordant. Such a system will in future become an outstanding soft RIP installed on a Macintosh or a PC, and the system's The price will be below $2,000. This year, there will be a better printer, providing better print quality.
Change of engineering process
The impact of these less than $2,000 proofing system will change the future of proofing. The main change at present is the change in the traditional division of work in the production process of digital pages. Now, image scanning is almost as simple as operating a copier, making color scanning a designer's job. The designer will make all the page content and send it to the printing plant. At the same time, the printing plant will also receive digital proofs submitted by the designer and produced by itself. Finally, the printing house will print according to this proofing.
In the future, proofing will not be provided by intermediate service providers, nor will it be provided by printing companies. The proofs produced by the printing plant will be only large-format "blueprint" proofs, used to check whether the position of the graphic on the page is accurate before printing. If the customer insists on looking at halftone dot proofing, the printer will use a two-page halftone proofer. The price of the device is below 75,000 US dollars. The printer may purchase this proofer. It may also be purchased by an intermediary service company.
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