Archive for June, 2007

#58: I Still Love the Smell of Ink in the Morning

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Jim Raffel
on June 28, 2007
in calibration, color, color bars, density, measurement, press run and process capability
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I have been so immersed in virtual proofing over the last several posts, that I had almost forgotten how much I still love the smell of ink in the morning. Last week I had the privilege of spending two days assisting a customer in the set-up of our software primarily for use as a pressroom monitoring tool.

The experience reminded me of #55: Just Measure It! The customer is a web offset shop and has the same problem that most of our digital printing customers have (Oh, I love the smell of toner in the morning too!). The problem is that their press product is finished product and has no trim. Color bars are not an option on production work, and changing the design to incorporate color swatches would also be impractical at this time.

The solution turned out to be the same solution we employee with our digital printing customers. A test form is put on press twice a day and the results of those measurements are used to verify conformance to density standards across the web. A second control strip can be scanned to gather other print metrics like TVI, Print Contrast, etc.

The results in a sister shop have been improved consistency from day to day and the ability to monitor changes in density and TVI from morning (cold press) to afternoon (warm press). In a perfect world I would love to see color bars on every job, but we thought outside the box and found them a solution that allowed us to measure. Once they started measuring quality and consistency improved. Profitability and productivity are never far behind quality and consistency improvements.

I raise the challenge again…today start measuring something in your color workflow that you are not measuring today. Within seven days those measurements will point the direction you need to go to improve the quality and consistency of that process.

#57: On Virtual Proofing Thoughts after IPA

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Jim Raffel
on June 20, 2007
in blogging, color, conferences, monitors and proofing
. 1 Comment

While at the IPA Technical Conference earlier this month, I had the opportunity to run through the evaluation of the five virtual proofing systems on display. The combination of the evaluation experience and the release of our ProofPass.com [Virtual] product have solidified my thoughts on virtual proofing at this moment in time.

Virtual proofing will continue to replace hard copy proofing in the perishable weekly printing market. In this very specific market which includes weekly news magazines, Sunday newspaper supplements, and weekly sales mailers virtual proofing will replace hard copy proofing over a relatively short period of time. While the obvious reason (and a good one at that) is cost, I feel the real reason for a rapid move to virtual proofing in this market is time compression of the production cycle. The Sunday supplement market competes almost exclusively on price and the weekly news magazines compete almost exclusively on up to the minute in depth coverage of the week’s big news stories.

In other printing markets such as packaging, specialty products, and high end coffee table work virtual proofing will make significant gains as the intermediate proof. I do not, however, feel that the contract press side proof will become a virtual proof in this market anytime soon. I truly think it will take a full work generation to see virtual proofs replace physical hard copy samples in this market. I pick the full work generation, because we will need individuals in charge who have “grown up” looking a critical color on an LCD monitor.

Another factor to consider in the virtual proofing world is that those $2,000 to $5,000 LCD’s are the new proofing consumable. As you plan your virtual proofing strategy remember to factor in monitor replacement every 12-24 months depending upon the number of hours the monitor is actually turned on each day. Also, watch high end monitor prices drop like rocks just as flat panel televisions have.

So, what did I think of the IPA soft proofing evaluation? While the evaluation was blind I saw two of the systems stand out head and shoulders above the rest of the pack. You need to do your homework before investing in any of these systems. Even with the best two I would not replace hard proofs except for perishable weekly work.

56-4: Tuesday IPA Observations

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Jim Raffel
on June 7, 2007
in blogging
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The Expo: One of HELIOS Software GmbH’s core tenants is that they run on almost any platform, so they coded it to run on a Playstation 3 that is on display in their booth at the show. I also found the Gencia Creator technology which is being combined with Kodak Approval proofs to be quite interesting. Approvals can be laminated to almost any substrate and the Gencia unit allows a package to be very carefully cut, scored, etc and a very accurate mock-up made.

Color Management and Creatives: Dave Hunter moderated a great panel of experts to address adoption of soft proofing. An audience member started us off with a powerful comment that sums up some of the expectation problems with soft proofing. He stated that the trust, education, and hand holding required to get end-user acceptance of soft proofing are costs the average early adopter are not willing to incur. The room also seemed to agree that soft proofing is not yet an out of the box solution. Some issued to still be resolved are how do we get paid for soft proofs? Also, Ty Kang from the panel made a good point that click charge based systems are counter intuitive to increasing the usage of soft proofing. At his company LA Graphic, they do not want user’s worrying that every time they make a proof they are running up a bill.

Wide Format: Case Studies in Workflow Integration and Business Success

OK, I am being a little bit lazy, but the reality is reproduction of the content of two of the slides really does a much better job summing this session up than I could have.

  • Cost of replacing business, few repeats
  • High Research and Development Costs
  • Many failed ideas (lenticular, Glass tiles)
  • Long time to market (3 years for carpet)
  • New Investments required
  • New printers with higher quality
  • New capabilities like die-cutting and dye-sub

Opportunities for manufactures

  • Diversity of services is an advantage
  • Meeting unique needs preserves price
  • Thinking outside the box helps win deals
  • Strategic partnerships can add value
  • Retain and wholesale printing programs
  • Partnering with smaller ships represents a win-win situation.

I will have one more post on the IPA conference with some general thoughts and recollections. Look for it next week as my next Golden Nugget post.

#56-3: More Monday Observations

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Jim Raffel
on June 6, 2007
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Bill Peterson of RR Donnelley gave an informative presentation on the successful implementation of the new GRACoL and SWOP data sets.  He also stressed that we will need verification system that rely upon standard color bars to ensure compliance.

The Expo: I should get more time to find new and updated technology stories from the Expo Tuesday, but I did find one to talk about today.  EFI ColorProof is now providing a true client server architecture which allows some pretty cool implementations of remote proofing.  Using a VPN a single server can drive multiple ink jet proofing devices in multiple physical locations.  What makes this unique is that the VPN connection allows users utilizing the client software to not only send proofs to the printer which might be in their facility, bit also to printers that could be at a facility around the world.  In addition with the new HP z series printers and their on-board spectros  you can collect measurement data remotely for calibration, profiling and most importantly color verification of each proof.

G7 Curvelink software: I sat in briefly for the hands on lab of the new Curvelink software from IDEAlliance and Chromix.  While I am not a user of this software some of the people I discussed it with after the presentation seem to think this new release addresses some “issues” (OK, as a fellow software developer let’s call em what they are BUGS!) have been fixed in this release and some nice new features added.

Variable Data Proofing issues: I caught a few minutes or Rick Littrell’s Data Driven Production session.  I found this session interesting because proofing for the variable data market is quite different than we would expect in the conventions print world.  One of the panelists spoke of a job with over 400 proofs.  400 proofs you say, why!  Well, with all the elements being variable you have to try a whole lot of combinations of first name last name lengths, image swap outs, paragraph lengths, etc.  So, are all these proofs color accurate?  Could we maybe soft proof these combinations?  Just a couple silly questions I thought I would ask.

#56-2 IPA Live: Keynote: The Future of Workflow Frank Romano

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Jim Raffel
on June 5, 2007
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As one would expect from a Frank Romano presentation, it was overall, an excellent combination of workflow history, humor, and sobering reality. Frank pointed out that the workflow is now digital and going even more digital. He went onto express what many of us know that at this moment in time workflow solutions are basically chaos. (A concept unfortunately confirmed by a user of workflows systematic of many of the problems outlined as we go on).

Frank has a concern that “standards” or lack thereof is a huge problem in our industry today. He expressed concern that we need to all remember the industry comes first or there will be no industry and we will all be looking for work. One of his main concerns of standards is that by and large they are “fake” because a bunch of manufactures get together and create “standards” that only they conform to.

So, Frank asked rhetorically “Who speaks for the user?” Unfortunately, the answer right now is no one. Associations have become dependant upon vendor sponsorship to remain healthy as membership dues alone can no longer support an association. Even standards committees are most often made up of who can afford to go which happens to be…use guessed it…the suppliers.

Workflows abound; many still utilize sneaker-net; hot folders remain highly utilized and perhaps even effective; PDF is obviously viable and widely used; and some workflows are simply application based.

It was time for a moment of levity as Frank told us about the curse of the creative types. Frank asked his son who is a designer what he does for a living. He son responded, “I change my mind.” I know as printers we don’t actually find that funny do we?

Because everybody in our industry is doing everything we now have too much overlap in our industry. Digital print technologies in particular are driving what Frank terms printing process roulette. Printing process roulette is the work flowing from one process to another. At the same time there is a reduction in volume. We have lost 14% in the lost decade to electronic media. (Oh, you mean like people who blog?)

Frank’s final concern (that I was able to catch – this guy moves fast) is that the industry is a pyramid. Big printers are at the top, middle size printers, and small printers are in the middle and there are 30,000 of them today producing less than 12 million in sales a year. Frank sees about half of these players going away through mergers and attrition over the next several years. If this happens who is going to be purchasing all these cool chaotic workflow tools all the vendors are putting out there.

Frank closed with a very simple slide

  • What we need
  • A buzzword translator
  • A unified field theory that shows how all this stuff works together
  • Neutrality and objectivity
  • Strategies for legacy systems
  • Strategies for multiple process environments
  • Young people are important

#56-1 IPA Live: GRACoL Summit

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Jim Raffel
on June 4, 2007
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The summit was kicked off by Steve Smiley who stated that the Print Properties Committee prepares the TR00 documents for CGATS.  Steve also stated that proofing can now be done by the numbers using methodology developed and tested at IPA conference last year.

Don Hutcheson took over and let us know there are now downloadable profiles – These are NOT official profiles, Don would actually prefer that “us” color professionals use the characterization data to create our own profiles (Thanks to X-Rite for providing the profiles for download).  Here are the profile names.  Just do a Google search as it sounds like they are available for download in multiple places now: (GRACoL2006_coated1v2, SWP2006_Coated3v2, SWP2006_Coated5v2).

There is a new P2P25 Target that requires the new IDEAlink Curve software v1.1 (beta 5) to be properly utilized.  An updated G7 How-To version will be coming soon (Don said he would be working on it over the summer now that he has committed to it!).

A new G7 working group is/will be providing expanded guidance and tools for the pressroom.  This will likely lead to separate documents for process and press types.

A new ISO 12647-7 Color Control Strip was presented publicly for the first time.  The following is a reproduction of Don’s bullet points:
-    For individual proof verification
-    Confirms G7 curve gray balance as well as general color
-    Challenge to do it in 52 patches!
-    Basis for new proof registration program

And that Proof Registration Program is:
-    IDEAlliance initiative asked for by print buyers
-    Web-based registry for individual proofs
-    Returns reg #, bar code and delta E by patch, but no “Pass / Fail” report (until standard tolerances exust user determines own tolerance
-    Open to all vendors – IDEAlliance is host
-    Does NOT replace SWOP / GRACoL Proof certification
(OK, I can’t resist…sounds an awful lot like ProofPass.com for all you early adopters who have been using ProofPass.com for 2 plus years  )

Matt Fenn; Q & A
Don asked if another characterization data set was to be created which one would people want?
FM Set
Inter-station drying set
Wide gamut set – Looks like this one had the most votes

#56: JimRaffel.com Live from IPA

Published
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Jim Raffel
on June 4, 2007
in blogging
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Beginning this evening (Monday June 4, 2007) I will be blogging live from the IPA Technical conference. My IPA posts will appear on JimRaffel.com and they will also be cross posted at Graphic Arts Monthly’s (GAM) new blog. While the GAM Blogs are just getting started, I view them as a good industry resource worth taking a look at if you have not already done so.This evening I will attend the GRACoL Summit. Before the summit concludes at 8pm I hope to have posted comments and observations about the event (baring technical difficulties of course).

On a bit more fun note, Michael Woods and I both thank you for making the iPhone Friday Fun post one of the most viewed ever on JimRaffel.com. Seems a rather timely place to mention this as the first of the iPhone ads are now running on television. Let me just say my wife is really not used to be asking her to be quite during commercials ;).