Should digital proofing be used?

Ten years ago, when the first color digital proofing system worth US$250,000 was born, the digital proofing technology and its related equipment, products and solutions were in full swing in the printing industry ------- Various types of printers of various grades, various types of RIPs, and a variety of solutions have emerged. As more and more printers began to adopt digital proofing and more and more manufacturers joined the fierce market competition with different products, people began to think: Can digital proofing really replace traditional analog proofing? Is digital proofing just a simple combination of RIP software and printers? What is the core technology of digital proofing? Can you use foreign things directly?

The so-called digital proofing is a kind of proofing technology that directly outputs electronic manuscripts after digital manuscripts are processed in electronic publishing. It uses digital format printers to directly output proofs to replace traditional lengthy proofing processes such as film making and printing. Compared with traditional proofing, digital proofing has the following advantages:
1) Digital proofing is stable and objective in quality effect.

2) The traditional proofing needs the copying machine supporting the copy printing equipment, plus the required staff and considerable investment in the plant; and digital proofing only need to invest in the printer and RIP, color management software, so the investment in digital proofing The rate of return is much higher than traditional proofing.

3) Digital proofing also has great advantages in terms of performance, mainly production speed, a variety of simulation capabilities and a variety of format capabilities. The speed of digital proofing imaging is fast, and ordinary printers in the market can complete a high-quality half-page layout within 20 minutes, while the traditional proofing generally takes 30-40 minutes. The color gamut expressed by most digital proofers (that is, the full range of colors that can be expressed by one device) is richer than ink. The rich color gamut with good color management software enables digital proofing not only to simulate the effects of prints, but also to simulate other effects. Production effects such as screen printing, digital printing, inkjet posters, etc.

In China's printing industry, everyone knows about digital proofing technology, and some people hold an attitude of approval. However, traditional analog proofing still dominates the market. Most people still take a wait-and-see attitude towards digital proofing. The main reason is that the customer believes that the price of digital proofing is too high; he believes that the colors are deviated; he is concerned that the proofs are inconsistent with the colors of the printed matter; printing cannot catch up with digital proofs and start disputes. The real reason is the application of color management in digital proofing.

Digital proofing has developed quite well in foreign countries. However, due to differences in the characteristics of color reproduction, such as scanners, monitors, printing machines, or proofing equipment, the space for color development is also different, resulting in scanning, display, and printing (or proofing). The color is distorted. Can not be consistent with the display color and printing color (dyeing color), it is impossible to match the color of the proofing with the printing color. Therefore, we can see the significance of color management technology for digital proofing. Only the use of globally popular color management technology can unify the characteristics of the above devices to reproduce color, manage the color effect of the entire printing process, and ensure the color uniformity of the entire printing process. On the other hand, in China, due to the inconsistency of many factors in the process of printing and printing, such as paper, ink, temperature and humidity, printing conditions, and production conditions, it is difficult to maintain a stable and normal digital proofing effect. There are often significant differences between customer response numbers proofs and prints in terms of tone and color. This is one of the bottlenecks in digital proofing applications.

Therefore, it is difficult to imagine that only the RIP software can be adjusted according to foreign standards to achieve the effect of analog printing. Therefore, the definition of “RIP+printer=digital proofing” in the simple sense abroad cannot be realized in this special market in China. We must combine the actual conditions of China with the secondary development of color management technology to develop a color management module that suits China's national conditions, so as to obtain a true digital proofing system that can adapt to China. We oppose simple comedians.

The core of digital proofing - color management technology

The core of digital proofing technology is the application of color management technology. At present, some manufacturers claim that their printer's color gamut is larger than the printing color gamut. In fact, almost all ink-jet printers have gamut larger than the print color gamut. The key to digital proofing is color management rather than the print gamut that the printer can reproduce. Because only the use of an appropriate color management system can uniformly print the color reproduction characteristics of displays, proofers, printers, and various devices throughout the entire process, ensuring uniform color throughout the printing process.

The important role of color management technology in digital proofing is unquestionable, but what kind of color management is best and most applicable? What are the criteria we choose?

At this stage, there are many factors in China's printing industry that are not conducive to the development of digital proofing.

First, the incompatibility of printability brings a lot of inconvenience to digital proofing, and there is a lack of uniform standards for digital proofing equipment; the color between various printing equipments is not stable and true color management cannot be achieved. The proofing machine speed, humidity, humidity, ink volume and the surrounding environment are all factors. Secondly, the international digital proofing color matching is based on European standards and is not suitable for the standards of existing printing factories in China. Again, there is a mismatch between the management software of digital proofing and matching equipment such as printers and photo-composing machines. These factors constitute the bottle strength of digital proofing development and promotion in China.

Based on this status quo, China Hewlett-Packard Co., Ltd. and Beijing Rainbow Digital Technology Co., Ltd. jointly launched a new "Hypertech Digital Proofing System." The system is based on HP large-format printers, combined with color management data blocks developed by Rainbow Dijet and suitable for China's national conditions. It can adjust the differences between domestic printing standards and international standards. Designed specifically for China's printing and publishing industry, it has received approval from a number of experts from the Beijing Printing Association's Science and Technology Committee and has strong promotion potential. It is a true digital proofing system that is suitable for China's national conditions.

The hardware of the HP Dijet Digital Proofing System is newly launched by Hewlett-Packard Co., Ltd. The “Hands-on” A3+ Format hp designjet 10ps/20ps/50ps Series Digital Design Proofer and Hewlett-Packard’s “Speed ​​and Quality” All-Around hp designjet 5000 Large Format The printer is used as an output terminal and is composed of the rainbow color management system CMS developed by Beijing Rainbow Dijet Digital Technology Co., Ltd. This new digital process proofing combination improves the deficiencies of traditional digital proofing products, making the entire workflow easier and time-saving.

The rainbow color management system CMS uses the ICC standard to manage the gamut space of different devices in the workflow, and consists of three parts: one is the device-independent CIE reference color space; the second is the device's ICC profile PROFILE; and the third is The color management module CMM in the management process. Among them, the color management module CMM is the core, it is the use of professional digital proofing software combined with other color management software, fine-grained data integration of color space conversion. These data are concentrated on commonly used printed materials and processes in the country, and are subjected to a large number of in-depth color space model experiments under different production conditions to simulate the printing and proofing results, so the data is accurate and comprehensive.

When rainbow color management system manages the color of proofing, it usually goes through the following three basic steps:

1: Generate an ICC profile that reflects the proof or print characteristics. For traditional proofing or printing standard ISO IT 8.7/3 color block diagram, rainbow ink control data management standard, software PrintOpen (or ProfileMaker, ColorFlow), and spectrophotometer X-rite DTP-41 (or GretagMacbeth SpetroScan), Generate ICC profiles that reflect printability.

2: Generate an ICC profile that reflects the characteristics of the color printer and the printer paper used. For color printers that print ISO IT 8.7/3 color block diagrams without color management, the same software and the same spectrophotometer are used to generate the printer's ICC Profile.

3: Color gamut conversion. The ICC Profile of printability and the ICC Profile of the printer are used in the digital proofing software, and the data conversion of the color space is performed using the HP Dijon Color Management Module CMM, so that the image and the corresponding printability of the image printed by the HP printer are printed out. The standard proofs achieve the same color.


Pre-sale training, after-sales service and other technical support

Hewlett-Packard Company has rich experience and strong technical support in the printing industry. It can be described as a pioneer in the industry and can provide complete and systematic pre-sales training and after-sales services. HP has strong and difficult-to-compare advantages in terms of hardware facilities, software cooperation development, and technical support. This is one of the important reasons why people choose HP.

Now, we can answer people's questions with certainty: Digital proofing has many advantages, and it is the last barrier in the printing field, the traditional proofing attack, with the continuous development and improvement of the corresponding product technology, and the continued promotion of the market. Digital proofing will replace traditional analog proofing with its strong vitality. Digital proofing is a set of emerging technologies. It is a technology that is continuously improving and is not only a simple combination of RIP software and printers. The core technology of digital proofing is the color management technology, and the key is not the printer-reproducible printing color gamut. We must choose the appropriate color management software based on the actual production conditions and the printability of various materials, select the appropriate digital proofing system, and can not simply use the foreign things. We must use our brains and let our eyes go!