CIP4 Tutorial – Issues in Digital Printing

Sunday, October 7, 2007Foster City

Issues in Digital PrintingPresenter

Steve HiebertSoftware ArchitectIndigo Digital Press DivisionHewlett-Packard Company

Alternate Chair, Digital Printing WGChair, Capabilities WGChair, Product Description WG

Issues in Digital PrintingOverview

• Compatibility• Workflow• Prepress• Press• Post Press

Issues in Digital PrintingCompatibility (1 of 2)

• Digital printing systems are diverse in terms of integrated capability

• DP Vendors offer equipment with varied levels of integrated prepress, press, and post press capability

• Commercial Digital Printing (CDP) ICS

Issues in Digital PrintingCompatibility (2 of 2)

• Commercial Digital Printing (CDP)ICS– Work in Progress

– Comprises• Layout Creation Service

• Layout Creation to RIP ICS

• RIP Service

• Raster Digital Printing Service

• Digital Finishing?

– Will provide conformance options for such devices of

varying capability

Issues in Digital PrintingWorkflow

• Workflow– Digital printing workflow, in general, has no established

“convention” as does CTP/offset • CTP and offset printing are often referred to as “conventional

printing” within CIP4

– No intermediate plates• Greater opportunity for maximizing automation of the prepress and

print production processes

• It’s all data until colorants are applied

Issues in Digital PrintingPrepress (1 of 5)

• ColorSpaceConversion• Imposition• RIP• VDP• Photo

Issues in Digital PrintingPrepress (2 of 5)

• ColorSpaceConversion– More likely to specify ColorSpaceModel than ICC profiles

– The dfe/press typically has pre-installed output profiles

specific to press setup

Issues in Digital PrintingPrepress (3 of 5)

• Imposition– Smaller sheets

• Less concern about waste – E.g., A4 two-up on A3

• Usually on a simple grid, step-and-repeat

– Z as well as X,Y – business cards, cut and stack

– Data driven dynmic sheet marks (e.g. OMR, device ctrl

barcodes, etc.)• Integrety checks

• Spoilage recovery

Issues in Digital PrintingPrepress (4 of 5)

• RIP– RIP intensive, especially with VDP

• Real-time RIP

– Often multiple RIPs to keep up with the press

Issues in Digital PrintingPrepress (5 of 5)

• VDP– Static – no variation

– Versioned – coarse grained variation, e.g., regional issues

– Personalized – fine grained variation, e.g., marketing

collateral

– Photo – every page is different

Issues in Digital PrintingPress

• Reduced setup– Very little “planned waste”

– Makes short runs profitable

• On press collation– Produces documents, not sheets

– Multiple media

• Reduced clean-up – not as messy– Ink-jet

– Electro-Photography• Dry toner (EP)

• Liquid toner (LEP)

Issues in Digital PrintingPost Press

• Postpress– Need quick setup to maintain profitability

– VDP• Usually means marks, e.g., barcodes

– May need to marry covers from one press-run with

bodies from another• Color vs. black&white

Issues in Digital Printing

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Questions?