Problems with proofing

Now digital printers can make prints meet high quality requirements. Do you still need to purchase expensive digital proofers?

You may remember that at the beginning, probably at Ipex or at some exhibitions, when you walked past the booth of Epson or the Hewlett Packard Stand, you saw that the color inkjet printers sprayed quite fine patterns on thin paper. In fact, when you look closely, you will feel that the image is of good quality. People who are not professionally trained will think that it is almost printed.

But why does an ordinary printer become an "old school" who often fouls India? The reason is that they may have very good qualities and the labor force is cheap, but they have wasted so much time that they have increased costs and the colors are so inconsistent that they failed to meet the requirements for qualified proofing.

With the emergence of the first digital proofing machine, the hardware level has greatly improved in just a few years, and RIP technology has also made great breakthroughs, which has attracted many companies to adopt this proofer. In any case, it is still rare for companies to use digital proofing as the final step before printing. why? The first-class digital proofing machine is worth a house in the printing company, whereas you will pay the price of a trolley. When you can save these expenses, will you still have time to re-examine what is a qualified sample?

Cromalin Crocodile Pre-proofing Device is still the standard digital Cromalin is still the standard of digital proofing quality, customers need to pay 20,000 to 50,000 pounds for this system. Of course, you will also see the advantages of cheap equipment. “We did work closely with Epson to develop RIP products, which are not as bad as we thought. The prints they produce look very good, but most people use them to check the imposition effect or color problem. This does not detect whether it is a qualified sample because they cannot provide consistent results for systems like Cromalin or Kodak.

So what is the quality of qualified proofs? When customers may not know what they really need, do they really need to have high-quality, clear dots but expensive samples?

Mr. Bates, who had heard many of these questions before this, replied: “It depends entirely on the needs of our customers. If you want to print advertisements in a parish magazine, or if you want to print a fashion advertisement, the quality standards required If you are willing to accept HP-printed proof-free prints, but he comes back and tells you that the colors are wrong, there will be trouble, and with Cromalin, the printer can guarantee that the samples are tested.

So, there are some printers who oppose it being listed as proofs. Interestingly, you can also find supporters in the Epson camp. Martin Johns, Head of Proofing Product Management in the United Kingdom, said: “Epson's product equipment can never be used as a proofing device, but only as a device for proofing and proofing.”

Excellent quality Epson did occupy some of the markets in the three years after the color proofer Color Proofer 5000 entered the market. At that time they also introduced the 9000 series. As a result, the high-quality Epson Micro Piezo print led the proofer to a very high quality, and as Mr. Bates said, Epson and Dupont and Efi jointly developed Epson. The "complete industrial solution" slogan.

Mr. Johns said: "The whole topic of digital proofing technology depends entirely on who you want to say. Some customers need precise halftone dots, but we can provide high quality and correct colors, so this can only be judged with the naked eye. Evaluation."

Hewlett-Packard's technical manager Steve Chattaway said: "The purpose of proofing is often to check the printing results, and finally we can achieve results that are closer to the printed color than digital Cromalin proofing. Digital Cromalin proofing may be slightly reddish or dark, but HP5000 It is a six-color printing that achieves printing results closer to similar proofing effects."

Despite this, Mr. Chattaway emphasized the advantages of the HP DesignJet 5000 product and its quality is not a selling point feature. “The product market response to the development of the advertising and drawing market has responded well. However, although the Epson 5000 and 9000 products are of good quality but very slow, HP’s products are fast and well-known, with HP. 5000, for example, can achieve an output speed of 7~10m2/hr on glossy paper, so fast speed can meet the needs of most customers.In terms of quality, I think Joe Public will tell you about our sample quality and Epson's What is different?” Mr. Chattaway not only responded to critics of Dupont and Kodak who claimed that professional printing customers were unsuitable for digital proofing, but also counterattacked: “If you see Kodak’s system, it may have Word template junction boxes and other equipment, but here digital junction boxes are radically different from traditional offset printed wiring boxes. Only a densitometer with automatic calibration or similar equipment that adapts to the system will give it exactly the same color."

High Water also has this attitude, Cheltenham company developed a system called PressMimic, it is Epson's professional printing equipment as proofing equipment to meet almost all printing needs. The developers of the system initially started digital proofing for themselves not as an attempt to accurately inspect the product before printing. According to Mr. Chattaway’s idea, the company stated that there is no system that can check the quality of printed products before printing.

You can purchase Epson 9000 while purchasing this system, which costs about 5,000 pounds. In comparison, Kodak Approval costs more than 100,000 pounds. Such a cost saving is quite attractive. HP also introduced the DesignJet 5000, which is more suitable for the proofing market. As the developer of the Californian company called Seecolor, this product looks more promising.

The question of price This kind of system uses the same data to act on the image or plate recorder, and it works under the same method. Because the DesignJet 5000 is a 6-color printing device with cyan and magenta colors, its software allows printing of halftones and produces dot gain and wet embossing. So the problem lies in the price.

However, Eddy Houba, product marketing manager for proofing and color management at CreoScitex, said: "Although the software for these devices is advanced, ink jet printer technology is still not suitable for proofing."

"But Mr. Houba, what did you just say because you feel threatened from those manufacturers?" "When our equipment was just introduced to the market, I think we perceive the existence of a threat, especially since Epson 5000 has a good The technology, but now the threat no longer exists, many customers who previously purchased Epson products have returned to our side."

"But what is the most important thing for a device like Iris is that you can't just look at the initial investment costs, but rather how much you'll pay for each proof."

Predictability is the key The definition of a qualified proofing machine you need is simple: “The key is full-print predictability with complete data.” He agreed with Mr. Chattaway’s opinion that there is no device that can replicate 100% of the time. But the tools provided can effectively control the entire process and these can be overcome.

Is HP and Epson leading the world's development in order to dispel doubts of those skeptics? One thing that looks optimistic is that they provide a good level of quality and print consistency, and that future sizes are already on the agenda. Epson hopes to be able to offer a variety of sizes. On the contrary, HP wants to reduce its size.

Proofing depends on the requirements of both the printer and the customer. This requires a combination of both. If your customers are well served, then a professional equipment with a wide range of applications should be sufficient. But if your customer is new or worried about the quality of the prints, they need to make sure that the question is: How can you feel at ease when making proofs with proofing machines?