Re: Mini-rant on the surreal world of "prepress"
Re: Mini-rant on the surreal world of "prepress"
- Subject: Re: Mini-rant on the surreal world of "prepress"
- From: Terence Wyse <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2010 09:19:12 -0400
Comments in-line....
On Apr 25, 2010, at 8:41 AM, edmund ronald wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 4:01 AM, Marco Ugolini <email@hidden> wrote:
>
>> Incidentally, a press can be profiled without necessarily being
>> G7-certified, and also if it is run according to a a host of very unique
>> parameters, like those used at VANFU in Japan for the presses on which Bill
>> Atkinson printed "Within The Stone".
>
> Obviously anything can be profiled, provided it is stable. And the
> more unique it is the more useful profiling it. In fact, one might
> argue that any standard "certification" or aimpoint for press will be
> extremely sub-optimal in gamut because a wide category of presses
> should be able to achieve this certification.
Hi Edmund,
I'll take slight issue with this as I think GRACoL Coated1 (and Fogra 39 across the pond) represent a fairly high bar for commercial sheetfed printing, not some "lowest common denominator" that anyone can hit that can scoop ink from a can into a fountain. Unfortunately, there's still this sentiment (sediment?) that standards and specifications represent a rather low bar and that most should aspire to print "better" than the standard. I think what printers should aspire is not to simply meet the standard/specification....the challenge for most shops is to not only match the standard but to do this day-in/day-out over months, if not years, of controlling their process. This almost complete lack of process control among printers is their biggest failing, not the fact that they can meet a standard/specification on a good day with someone watching over their shoulder.
Can most, if not all, printers meet or "exceed" a print specification? Yes. Can they do that consistently? Mostly, no, unless they're doing their job in terms of process control. It still amazes me that most pressrooms want to know that each proof they receive is within 1.0 dE of the last one and that each plate they mount is controlled to within 1% of the last plate....and yet when it comes to their own accountability, there basically is none. I've been to shops where even using a densitometer is an option for the pressman.
>
>
>> But how do you do that when no one on the printer/prepress side is able or
>> willing to describe the expected print specifications?
>>
>
> This is the useful thing about external specs and standards: clients
> can state that they expect this behavior to be achieved, or they take
> their business elsewhere, and management can hear this desire and
> enforce it internally, without the people manning the presses being
> allowed to argue too long about it.
>
>
> Let me add that I believe ICC color management at the working level is
> a semi-failure because it is a *process* that needs to be applied
> rather than automatic. people have to compute profiles, apply them,
> measure their equipment etc and it is a pain. Specs for press that
> have to be met are just that, specs, and I believe in many countries
> they are successful. The results work, the process is a pain.
Actually, I mostly agree with this. Color management in the pressroom (really, that means in prepress) is still too difficult to implement and has enough weaknesses that it's difficult to trust it with every job. I deal a lot with device link technology between prepress/pressroom and it's not to the point yet where it can be trusted to do the "right thing" for each and every job. It's getting there, but it's not there yet. Having said that, the alternatives are not very appealing either.
Regards,
Terry
______________________________________
Terence Wyse, WyseConsul
Color Management Consulting
G7 Certified Expert
FIRST Level II Implementation Specialist
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