Archive for March, 2007

#51: Proper Press Fingerprinting takes Commitment

Published
by
Jim Raffel
on March 21, 2007
in blogging, calibration, color, curves, education, measurement, press run and process capability
. 0 Comments

In this installment we will address the third question Dale raised in #47. Dale’s first two questions got answered in #48 and #49 which can be reviewed at JimRaffel.com.

Now, onto Dale’s third question:

3. In fingerprinting our presses, we’ve run up against the dreaded “Hurry up and do it, but don’t put too much work into it.” What are your recommendations for impressing upon the higher ups that doing color balancing and working out the calibrations takes time?

I would suggest you have your management read JimRaffel.com. The reality, however, is that the culture required for completing successful fingerprints starts at the top and does not get worked up from the bottom. I spent the better part of the first ten years of my career trying like heck to change the culture of a printing company (now out of business I might add) from the echelons of lower and middle management. While I hesitate to use the words “It can’t be done” (and not because my Mom the English teacher told me to never use contractions), I believe this is one place where this expression applies.

I have been very fortunate in my career. At 21 years of age before I had even graduated from RIT I was able to observe one of the pressruns used to set the early SWOP press standards. A lot of very smart people participated in this run and the scientific procedure was impressive. Then, not a year later I was the guy doing all the print quality measurements on a brand new Baker-Perkins G14 that cost about 9 million dollars back in 1986. While I was just one member of a very large team, the owner of the company made it quite clear that he was not making his first lease payment until we had a press that was printing correctly.

Over the next 3 years I had the same responsibility as 2 more new presses started up in that facility. In both cases, the purchase contract was very clear that we did not make lease payments until the press met our print quality standards. While the company in general had an difficult culture, in the case of all three of these press startups the message from the very top of the organization was “Do whatever it takes to get a solid press fingerprint.” The reason was simple, without a solid benchmark at startup how could we ever know what condition the press was in later?

Dale, it takes a great deal of time, money and a great team to perform a successful and meaningful press fingerprint. During the press startups above, the fingerprinting process could go on for a week or more. The press was fully crewed and lots of paper was run during this time. All the support staff had to be available from pre-press, plating, maintenance, materials handling, and more. I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that these fingerprint cost $100,000 or more.

Now, not all fingerprints need to cost that much. I took part in a very successful fingerprint within the last 30-days that probably cost no more than about $10,000 including our software and professional services time. It is, however, a matter of scale. The client for the 10K fingerprint was simply making the first investment in end-to-end color process control. All the key players in this organization participated in the meetings and remained on-site during the 2 (14 plus hour) days required to complete the fingerprint.

The results on the second day (and in follow-up calls the last three weeks) continue to be impressive. In the case above the press is not brand new but instead a fairly old and well worn pieces of iron which is now printing at an impressive level.

My conclusion is simple. If senior management of a PRINTING company is not willing to invest the time money and effort necessary to perform a proper PRESS fingerprint, one must really question the value of performing the fingerprint.

Golden Nugget #50: Understanding Training Resources

Published
by
Jim Raffel
on March 15, 2007
in blogging and conferences
. 0 Comments

As I mentioned last week #47 generated a comment from Dale, which contained three good questions, the first of which I answered in #49. You may also recall that I promised to blog from the floor of the PMA show. I did so, and the PMA blog entry can be found at JimRaffel.com.Now, onto Dale’s second question:

2. In doing color management, what would be the best options as far as training? On-site consultations or seminars?

As I prepared to answer Dale’s question it occurred to me that without knowing more about his personal learning style I would be unable to answer the question correctly. This is the same dilemma we face when our ColorMetrix customer’s ask if they really need on-site training. Several options will be discussed below. The options increase in cost from very little to very expensive. Keep in mind the less an option costs in dollars your investment in time is usually greater.

Books: The options available to someone seeking Color Management training are many. While there are not a lot of good books on the subject yet, there are a few. Space prevents me from listing any, but Amazon or another search engine can show you the way. I generally recommend books to someone at the beginning of the color management journey. This is the stage to create your blueprint for what you will do and what you will not do. It’s the same for our customers who need to gain a deeper understanding of what process control can do to improve their overall bottom line.

Online Tools: The next option is to utilize the manuals, built help, and online help/training facilities provided by the manufacturer of the color management solutions you select. As we all know the quality of these resources varies greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer. We are moving toward collaborative tools like our ProofPass.com Wiki online resource. While today only ColorMetrix employees may add and edit pages, in the near future we plan to give that same option to some of our trusted users. (Interested in helping with the project? Drop me a line and we can discuss getting you editing privileges.)

Remote Control / Assistance: Many manufacturers now offer some form of online web based one-on-one or group-based training. In our case we utilize Webex. Webex is a very powerful tool which allows us to take control of your computer thus allowing us to show you how to use our tools on your machine. Sometimes this level of support is included in your software purchase, and sometimes there is an additional cost. Even if there is a cost it is typically much less than having someone on-site. First of all no travel expense is incurred and training can be scheduled in smaller time blocks. The best part is we can see what is happening on your computer and any set-up or configuration changes we help you make can then be preserved on your computer.

Seminars: This is one of my favorite ways to learn. Not only do you get to attend sessions normally conducted by some of the most experienced experts in your industry, but you also get to network with your peers. I normally find the networking and interaction which occurs away from the session to be of most value. This, however, is changing as more and more of these events offer lab sessions with computers set-up to fully try out an application with a qualified instructor. The downside here is that in a 1-2 hour session only so much detail can be covered so much of the detail of making it work still falls back to you and the three tools I have previously listed.

College Courses: Many community colleges and four year colleges now have educational programs that cover Color Management. While often the cost is not great, the time commitment is and is spread out over an entire school term normally. Having once taught one of these classes I find them to be a great blend of the four options listed before. You normally walk away with a great text book, have experienced hands on training and projects; and have met and networked with other professional from your area who are in the class.

On-Site Professional Services: While this option is expensive, there is no better way to jump start a program that needs to get off the ground quickly. There are many excellent color management consultants in our industry, and because they work in many different businesses they bring a unique point of view that will allow them to think outside the box. Many of these consultants also have a focus of specialty like the pressroom, or advertising agencies, or pre-press houses. The key is that if you pick well, you will be up and running before they leave your building. Also, most provide low or no cost telephone consultations for an extended period of time after the on-site visit.

Thoughts on PMA Show

Published
by
Jim Raffel
on March 10, 2007
in blogging, conferences, monitors, proofing and wide format
. 0 Comments

As I mentioned in my last post, my primary reason for attending PMA was to conduct meetings with key ColorMetrix business partners.  I did, however, have a few hours to roam the show floor yesterday afternoon and came away with a few observations.

While I am still impressed with the caliber of this show, it has made a shift to the consumer market.  Most of the wide format ink jet vendors had a presence, but it was really just part of a booth dedicated to consumer photographic equipment.  Some pro equipment could be found but the overall emphasis as I observed it was on point and shoot consumer cameras.

GE has entered the photographic market with both cameras and photo printers http://www.general-imaging.com/  They even baked cookies in the booth in a GE oven.

In the desktop and wide format ink jet market, very few RIP vendors showed up.  This leads me to believe that the vast majority of photo printing is happening through the print drivers provided by the print vendors.  I still see the photographic market as a growth one for ink jet RIP manufactures.  As more and more proofing moves from hard copy to virtual (monitor based) graphic arts RIP sales will continue to flatten and maybe even decrease.

I believe that photo printers (professionals and Labs) who are used to tight process controls for processors will look at ink jet proofing and ask how can we ensure that this device is stable and producing color the same as when we set it up months or years ago.  (There’s a little clue as to why I was at the show).

#49: Dialing in an Image setter or Plate setter

Published
by
Jim Raffel
on March 6, 2007
in blogging
. 1 Comment

#47 generated a comment from Dale, which contained three good questions I intend to answer over the next several weeks. Also, later this week I intend to blog from the floor of the PMA show where my activities at JimRaffel.com have qualified me for a Press pass to the show. While my main purpose for attending the show is to conduct several meetings with strategic business partners who will be there I also plan to take a good look at how wide format ink jet printing is progressing in the photo market.

Now, onto Dale’s first question:

I have a question. I know this might sound simple, but: 1. For a beginner who is given an Imagesetter, several jobs and told “Go output films and get it right” what should be the first step?

My first thought was wow, Dale this is not a simple question. The answer to this question is an explanation of end-to-end color process control. Having just spent two very long days implementing end-to-end color process control at a client facility the steps are fresh in my memory. Suffice it to say that the events of two 12-14 hour days can be summarized in this article, but space will not allow for the level of detail needed to call this a step by step procedure.

First, I am going to assume that the image setter in question is actually a plate setter (I know from Dale’s question it is not but read on). The process is very similar, and to begin discussing all the concerns I would have with a film based image setter (Dmax, Dmin, chemistry replenishment, exposure frame for getting film to plate, etc.) would be an article or two in itself. I will say that if you are still outputting film give some serious thought to moving to Computer to Plate (CTP).

So here is my take on implanting end-to-end color process control:

  1. Follow all of the manufacturer’s procedures to calibrate and linearize the plate setter. We will need a set of linear plates very soon. Output a plate with a full tone ramp and measure with the best plate reading device you have to confirm plate linearity.
  2. Create a press test form containing the elements that are critical for your application. I would go into more detail here, but I have never used the same press test form twice. Most printers print for niche markets that demand reproduction of different colors and images that need to be on the form in addition to grey balance bars, tone ramps, slur and double targets, etc.
  3. Without applying any color management output the test form to the plate setter.
  4. We will now run these plates on press with a typical middle of the road paper you run day in and day out. Also, while we do not want brand new blankets on the press, we also do not want a set that is about to be changed. The whole point here is to run to the “middle of the road.” (Again, this step alone could be an entire article or two.)
  5. Run single colors over a wide density range, from starved to piling. Using the Print Contrast method, determine the optimum density for each ink color.
  6. Next, run the test form as 4/color at the densities determined in #5. This step is to have a visual comparison of before and after as well as to collect the Tone Value Increase (TVI) values of the entire tonal range and other print metrics like Trap.
  7. Note: from here on I assume a color managed workflow solution. Many organizations simply look at the 4/color tone ramps and create cut-back curves for the plate setter to achieve desired TVI. While this method works pretty well it is somewhat difficult to create proofs for.
  8. Run a color management target on press which is supported by your color management solution. Run to the densities determined in #5. Also, confirm that the pull sheets have TVI close to those determined in #6.
  9. Use 6 or more of the sheets collected in #7 to create an averaged press profile.
  10. Apply the press profile to the images in the test form created in #2, and output new plates. It is very important that you do not apply color management to the entire test form. We need the color bars to remain linear.
  11. Mount the plates and run to the densities from step #5. In every plant that I have applied the above procedure, the results have been pretty amazing.

The important thing to remember is this is just a starting point. Process control steps must be put in place to ensure; that the plate setter does not drift; to confirm that the press is still printing to the correct densities and TVI; that materials like ink, plates and fountain solutions have not changed.

Also, in order to obtain end-to-end color process control, additional steps like monitor calibration and proof certification will need to be instituted. There is a book titled Quality is Free, and I disagree. Quality is an investment with a Return on Investment. The largest part of that investment is time. If you are working in an organization that is not willing to commit the time necessary to follow a procedure like the one above and you want to be part of a quality printing operation…here’s the link for Monster.com.