Current situation and Prospect of the hottest digi

The current situation and Prospect of digital proofing technology

the new feature of today's printing industry is that the expectations of end users are constantly improving, the requirements are constantly increasing, and the pressure from shortening the production cycle and reducing costs is also increasing. Digital proofing technology can provide a variety of different levels of layout and contract proofing, so that the majority of printing enterprises can face these challenges. Moreover, many printing enterprises have benefited from the color management of digital proofing technology. Digital proofing combines flexibility, integration and production efficiency to the greatest extent, which can improve customer satisfaction and optimize workflow, thus saving time and cost. It is being adopted by more and more printing practitioners

development of digital proofing technology

the color management technology of digital proofing has been greatly improved in the past few years. Recently, the American IPA (a professional organization for prepress design, printing and publishing, packaging and other fields) analyzed a variety of digital proofing software in today's printing field. After comparing the digital proofing products of 30 different manufacturers, it was found that they can reach a small △ e. it can be seen that color difference is no longer the main problem of today's digital proofing technology, The average color difference AE of digital proofing and printing products of many manufacturers has reached 0 ~ 15. Nowadays, the evaluation of digital proofing system will pay more attention to the workflow and its versatility and ease of use. Therefore, major digital software companies have launched a digital proofing platform based on network client/server architecture, which makes the operation of digital proofing simpler. In order to achieve smaller △ e, many software companies have launched new cyclic color correction tools. For example, EFI company of the United States has launched a closed-loop correction tool based on the general ICC technical standard of bestcolor technology. Through this tool, RGB, CMYK or multi-channel high fidelity color cyclic correction can be realized in EFI coiorp roof XF. At the same time, GMG company also launched a cycle color calibration tool based on 4-color printing. Through this tool, high-quality 4-color calibration can be carried out in GMG software. Through the closed-loop correction tool of ICC technical standard or 4-color cycle color correction tool technology, Beida digital software company has greatly improved the color tracking ability of digital proofing

digital proofing spot color solution

another development of digital proofing technology is that it can better support spot color and multi-channel high fidelity digital proofing. Digital proofing has been recognized by the majority of printing enterprises in the field of publishing and commercial printing, but in packaging and printing enterprises, digital proofing will face a strict test of spot color proofing. First, on the color engine of digital proofing software. At present, major software companies have launched color libraries that meet the digital spot color standard of p a NT 0 ne. At the same time, they have successively developed multi-color high fidelity color engine EFI colorpr, which shows that its tenacity is the result of synergy. Therefore, "National Engineering Research Center of engineering plastics" The operation of XF in South China sub station supports the input and output of 6-color multi-channel images, and the latest software launched by oris and GMG can also complete the output and printing of 6-color high fidelity images. These functions greatly meet the needs of packaging enterprises. However, bright and accurate colors have always been the pursuit of packaging users. How to improve the accuracy of spot color also needs the support of hardware and ink. The hardware platform used in digital proofing can be roughly divided into two types: one is the general inkjet printer, and the other is the specially developed digital output device. At present, the widely used digital proofing hardware in China is Epson series large format printers. This series of printers has a complete ink color gamut covering 4-color printing, which is simple to use, occupies less land, and consumes very economical energy. However, in spot color proofing, some colors (such as fluorescent orange, green, etc.) are outside the ink gamut of inkjet printers, so at present, digital proofing equipment based on ordinary inkjet can restore 80% - 85% of Pantone spot color. Other special equipment, such as Kodak ApprovaI xp4 fujl's FL Nai p roof, has a wider color gamut, but the cost of such systems is higher

screen soft proofing is a new force of digital proofing

the expansion of digital proofing to screen soft proofing is a development direction in the future. In the American}pa evaluation, many manufacturers have provided a new generation of screen soft proofing scheme, dallm's dlalogue ICs' rem. teDj rect。 R has very good color performance. They can accurately display 4-color and spot color on Apple or Eizo color monitors. It can be predicted that screen soft proofing will become a new force of color proofing

color standards and optimized color correction tools

after the extensive implementation of digitalization in the printing industry, Chinese printing enterprises are facing more challenges, and the digital proofing system of many enterprises is facing new challenges, that is, printing enterprises have larger working groups, the whole system needs to support the common}cc color process, many people work together, and more complex network environment systems and personnel need to be expanded. At the same time, with the development of inkjet printer technology and digital proofing materials, printing enterprises also have new requirements for the color of digital proofing. Many customers hope that their company's products can achieve color unification, meet domestic or foreign color standards, better complete the production of overseas orders, better communicate with customers, sub printing points, and outsourcing processing points, and achieve digital colors that meet international standards. In order to meet the needs of users, major software companies have also launched optimized color correction tools to achieve the same color standard and color of multiple printers. The Colorproof XF 3O software of e FL company directly supports the correction of color standards, and completes the color unification and consistency adjustment of multiple printers through embedded tools, which greatly meets the higher requirements of printing enterprises for color. Many enterprises directly use PDF files and LCC parameters to complete digital proofing, so the support for PDF files and ICC general standards has also become a major reference point for enterprises to weigh digital proofing systems

customized modular products

digital proofing, as a necessary part of modern printing, is also changing to meet the needs of modern printing enterprises. Every user, whether printing houses, prepress companies, agencies, printers, or the photography industry, has different requirements for software solutions. All major software companies have launched modular products, which makes it more convenient for printing enterprises to customize their requirements. It can be predicted that customization will be a trend of digital proofing system in the future

true proofing technology

there is a true dot proofing technology in the digital proofing technology. Its biggest advantage is that it can directly use the image setter or the 1-bit TIFF file after CTP rip for color proofing. It does not go or hang up again in the whole process. It really retains all the output information. This proofing method greatly improves the security of digital proofing. At the same time, dot proofing technology also integrates digital proofing into the plate making workflow of printing enterprises. Because the input file of dot proofing technology is a 1-bit TIFF file after rip. Users can directly proofing the result of rip without worrying about double bytes and various RLP output traps

the core and key of 1-bit TIFF proofing technology. This technology directly supports the use of 1-bit TIFF files after imagesetter or CTP rip to complete safe color digital proofing. This technology has two cores. First, how to use the color engine to complete the color conversion. Second, how to use the existing ordinary inkjet equipment to output high-precision hanging documents (1-B i t tlff). The hanging file of 1-bit TIFF has only very limited information, 0 represents o% and no point 1 represents 1OO% point. Therefore, it is difficult to carry out color printing on 1-bit tlff and launch a massive technical article database. Relying on five magazines to gather 10000 articles www.keyin.cn management

at present, the most widely used LCC color management is based on continuous tone, with 8-bit 256 gray levels between 0 and 1OO%. For example, it is the core and key of dot proofing technology to directly combine LCC files and 1-bit tlff to complete digital proofing

for outputting 1-bit TIFF files and color management, various software companies have developed different schemes, because ICC files and 1-bit TIFF completely use two data platforms. At present, some companies use the non LCC color engine to complete the color management of 1-bit tiff. The dotproof software of starproof~1]gmg company uses the internal color management engine to combine 1-bit tlff into color images for color management analysis and hanging output to inkjet printers. This kind of scheme uses internal color management and color conversion, and optimizes the inkjet printout of 1-bit t}ff files, Users can directly output 1-bittl [f, the disadvantage is that only the internal color conversion engine can be used, and LCC parameters cannot be used. There are also true point proofing schemes using LCC files in the market, such as the 1_bit interface of EFI Colorproof XF. ICC can be used for color conversion at the same time, and 1-bit tlff files can be directly output and printed. This software uses the transition of point edges to implement LCC color conversion on images. This effectively combines the two technologies, so that 1-bit TIFF and LCC color management can be the same It greatly simplifies the user's color calibration process. At the same time, it is also integrated with other digital color workflow

how to output high-precision 1-bit TIFF proofing and how to directly output high-precision 1-bit TIFF on inkjet printing equipment have always been of concern to everyone. Suppose we use a 1440dpi inkjet printer to output 2400dpi bit tiff. This is the internal conversion in the software. The temperature of each color plate mold of the 4-color printing operation should be controlled at 100 ⑴ 40 degrees, and the resolution is 2400dpi. The inkjet printer has 6 colors (C, y, m, K plus cyan and magenta). The resolution is 1440dpi. use variable ink drops (2bit inkjet points). Print output resolution is 2400dpi × 1 bit × 4colo rs=96oobits. The printer resolution is 1440dpi × 8bits × 4coIors=46080bits。 Therefore, during dot printing, the information exchanged and completed color management is 46080bit s, and the coefficient is 4.8 (46080/9600). There is enough information to complete digital proofing. It can be seen that the information capacity of color processing for 1-bit tlff is huge. To complete dot digital proofing, a high-end computer needs to be configured to complete calculation and processing. The development of computer and chip technology has greatly improved the calculation speed. Most of the current dot digital proofing software can match various printing speeds and meet the needs of daily production

the development of digital proofing technology will move towards process, and improving versatility and simplicity is also the development hotspot of major manufacturers. The new generation of pdf1.6 documents have better security and complete printing information. They fully meet the requirements of modern printing. It can be predicted that more and more people will use PDF for digital proofing directly

reprinted from: Printing Technology