How is a printing press calibrated and how much does it cost?
How is a printing press calibrated and how much does it cost?
- Subject: How is a printing press calibrated and how much does it cost?
- From: "Jorge ." <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2016 07:53:50 +0200
Hi,
I think I have a decent understanding of color management from image input,
display and PDF output related to desktop publishing and photography
editing software, etc. but I am not familiar with what goes into actually
having a printing press calibrated and being able to produce accurate and
predictable color from different printers, inks and papers from the POV of
someone operating the printers themselves.
I have the suspicion that the person I interface with when communicating
with the printer I have no option but to work with, and who holds the
responsibility and decision power of what and how to tweak in either the
files I send or the printers themselves, is not particularly versed in
current color management concepts either. I actually have the suspicion
that he is stuck in mid-90s ways to do stuff, doing manual tweaking of ink
output levels and so.
I am meeting with that person in order to know why the magazines we print
with them all seem washed out and seem to have a blue-ish shift in all
pages, why they feel they need to tweak the ink balance of the PDF files we
send them (if I understood correctly that that is what they feel they need
to do each time we send them something), and how we should be sending them
our stuff in order to make their lives easier and less prone to unexpected
colors.
Without one bit of intention of sounding like a jerk to that person (I have
to work with him and them whatever the conclusion), I would like to
anticipate what concepts that person should be familiar with in order to
know, well… whether he knows what he is doing and there is something we can
do to have better output, or whether he knows his stuff but there are other
determinants (like cost) that limit how nice our prints can be or whether
we are stuck with someone that does not know his job.
When I send a PDF to the printer, and they will use, say, 5 different
printing machines to print it, what goes into having them all print the
same source consistently?
I assume different levels of color consistency and predictability have
different associated costs. What would be different "leagues" in printing
press calibration related to how much equipment, software and calibration
process would cost? What can those costs add up to for the printer?
If the printer is able to handle RGB objects in a PDF (which they seemingly
do), is there any benefit **from their POV** in me providing a PDF/X-4
instead of a PDF/X-1a and use RGB where it seems it makes sense (like
pictures and other elements where I am not concerned about what/how many
inks with what halftone pattern they use but with having their colors print
predictably)? (I would assume so, if they somehow need to apply color
conversion to my files to their particular CMYK color space, but I do not
know).
Up until know we have been generating the PDFs with Adobe's
UncoatedFOGRA29.icc as output intent without really confirming whether that
is appropriate for their printers (besides just knowing that the paper is
uncoated). What our output intent should be is one of the answers I would
like to ask, but I would like to anticipate whether this person can
actually provide an answer to that.
Jorge
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