Workflows in Color

Placing a digital color press into an offset workflow environment presents unique challenges. For some traditional offset printers, digital press color management systems—or the perceived lack of them—continues to be a sticking point in considering adoption of high-speed digital presses. But those who have taken the leap agree that digital press color workflow technology is sufficiently mature to make the transition relatively painless.

If you are already using color management in conventional offset print, it's essentially the same technology for digital printers. Key differences will be found in the generally wider color gamut inherent to printing with toners, and the chemical simplicity and automated electronic color controls found in industrial-grade digital color presses. Another challenge is stability. Users say they must continuously recalibrate digital color presses, though the latest high-speed models introduced in the last year are addressing those issues—including use of onboard ` measurement for on-the-fly color adjustment. In fact, even light-duty, entry-level machines, 50-ppm or slower, are now shipping with automated color management systems. With other models, especially earlier ones, you must be sure to continuously calibrate and monitor performance.

“Achieving color quality for digital is going to be more and more prevalent,” says David Hunter, founder of Pilot Marketing Group, a digital color print consultancy. “The problem is that right now most companies that print color on digital presses achieve pleasing or good enough color—good enough because you get the benefits of digital. But as the industry matures, the demand from users will go up in terms of quality,” says Hunter, a color guru for PIA/GATF. “Anyone who is on that path understands.”

Color management will soon be mandated for all digital print solutions, believes Ian Mackenzie, marketing VP for Chromaticity, a color management solutions distributor. “We do a ton of work in this space and it usually involves color managing digital presses as well as monitors, inkjet printers, or hitting targets or standards like SWOP or GRACoL.”

Chromaticity sells an array of solutions from X-Rite, Eizo, ICS and others. When its technicians set up color management systems in the field, they bring their own custom 3700-step color target.

“We are huge fans of EFI's Color Profiler Suite for the DP market as its black channel generation feature is unrivaled” Mackenzie says. “If the 50,000 press run matches the 500 digital run that matches the 50 banners that matches the five billboards, then that print provider has just solved his client's or agency's biggest problem: how to achieve cross-platform, device independent color management.”

The Color Management Group (CMG), an alliance of independent color management experts, initiated a “Test Drive a RIP” program at Graph Expo in September. Visitors were invited to hands-on demos of a selection of industry-leading RIPs developed by ColorBurst, EFI and GMG. The demos illustrated the outcomes of varying approaches to color management in RIPs and servers, as different machine manufacturers process the data coming from them.

Pilot Marketing's Hunter, who also represents Alwan Color Expertise, a marketer of several color management products, suggests following an offset model and maximizing Grey Component Replacement, or GCR. This can result in using less of the more expensive color toners by substituting them with less expensive black toner, which not only reduces costs (depending on your click charge and support contract), but can also deal with inconsistency issues inherent in some digital printers, he says.

“You still need to ensure that the devices are consistent to themselves,” Hunter says. “You still need some mechanism to assure that the device is consistent over time.” He also offers this bit of advice: Don't touch the customer file. “When you hit that file with a curve, you are changing it.” He says that in the “Test Drive a RIP” demos at Graph Expo, output of identical files printed on different devices didn't match. The files have to be adjusted to output device profiles, not for CMYK dot percent values in the file. “Do you want to match their numbers or their color?” he poses.

For firms driving multiple brands of digital devices or the mix of digital and offset, this is the perennial challenge: creating a file that will achieve consistent output on all machines. Formed last year to address digital color file standards, the AFP Color Consortium (www.afpcolor.org) includes IBM, Kodak, Lexmark, Océ, Xeikon and Xerox. The group is especially active in the transpromotional print arena.

Adding to the complexity of file management is integrated finishing, since these drivers now must also tell the color machines how to deliver print output. RIP manufacturers are busy trying to build in support for all of those different drivers. Because each file must be configured uniquely depending on which machine it will deliver to, the operator must go into the driver set-up to detail to the printer what to do. A consortium of digital print and finishing manufacturers is addressing some of these issues with UP3I standards. UP3I enables all the machines in an integrated production line for digital printing to communicate with each other.

Software supplier Apago says it will soon offer a plug-in developed by Richard Roundtree for his company, Prinux. The plug-in embeds all the information the printer drivers need for finishing instructions directly into the PDF file. Apago hopes to build in support for as many different devices as possible. The job ticket remains independent of the device, which still controls color management. Currently supporting devices from Canon, Kodak, Heidelberg, Xerox, Konica-Minolta, Hitachi and Ricoh, the Windows-based application is not yet JDF compliant.

Speaking with a number of commercial printers who have made the decision to get into digital printing provides a real-world perspective. What is most remarkable is that digital presses can fit into nearly any commercial print market space. Commercial printers revealed they do serious homework before buying into specific market niches.

Range Printing, Brainerd, MN, has gone from the small-town sheetfed shop to a three-shift operation with nationwide sales of over $7 million. With 52 employees working three shifts, Range was well entrenched in digital workflow for offset before adding a 5-color Kodak NexPress 2100. The prime motivation was variable-data printing.

“Turnaround wasn't a big reason for our choice, but it was a pleasant surprise,” president Shawn Sundquist says. The choice was largely based on the fact that they already had moved from a Brisque workflow to Prinergy InSite, including the latest Storefront component of that Kodak workflow suite. So the front end was already there to support the Kodak machine, and they were comfortable with existing support. Range also believes digital machines should be treated like presses, not office machines. The NexPress leasing model, has no per-copy “click” charges and facilitates printers doing their own machine maintenance.

Range started with black-and-white digital printers last year; it also runs one MCS and two Videojet inkjet variable-data label printers. The NexPress went online with the InSite Storefront front end this summer. One of the major decisions Sundquist had to make was relatively easy: the press was placed in a completely separate department.

“It is its own show run by prepress people, not a pressman,” Sundquist says. Keeping the machine in its own room was also a matter of security. Many runs are confidential financial documents.

Sundquist considers color management a “non-issue.” The firm has chosen to “dumb down” color from the NexPress to match its sheetfed offsets in the next room, though it is capable of a wider gamut. “We just generate an ICC profile to match,” he says. Two Heidelberg Speedmasters, a 74 and 102, both have CPC color control.

“I've been told most printers are under 20% variable. We're closer to 50%,” says Sundquist. He cites a recent 33,000 run for a financial institution, a complex piece with image swaps, credit ratings and so on, that generated $15 million in revenue for the client. While the original job was done on a Darwin variable digital application, the data was later migrated to InSite Storefront so the client could simply upload its Excel files and the software populated the document automatically.

RP Graphics Group, a commercial printer located in suburban Toronto, has also seen wide-format digital print as a growth area for its commercial print operation. It recently installed an Inca Digital Spyder 320+ 6-color flatbed printer. The $16 million, 65-employee company started in letterpress, moved to offset, CTP, then digital (running Xerox Nuvera, DocuTech and iGen3s) along with wide-format print.

Digital print has fit easily into RP Graphics' existing Prinergy workflow, says George Mazzaferro, president. Machines and measurement devices are calibrated daily.

At The Adam Group, near Nashville, a traditional 13-person offset printery acquired two years ago has been turned into a highly automated operation specializing in personalization and fulfillment. Its first HP Indigo press, added last year, runs 12 hours daily. The head count is now 35, and plans are in the works for a second Indigo. Rob Seaver, VP development, likes the redundancy of two presses.

Offset operations use an EFI OneFlow PDF workflow driving a Mitsubishi platesetter. OneFlow also feeds the Indigo, but more often jobs channel to it through a Printable Web-to-print solution integrated to HP's Production Manager digital front end. But jobs come in through other portals, even via fax.

“The Web ordering is the best path to take,” says Seaver. “[Then] there's no need to go through a CSR.” He'd like to see Web-based input increase from its current 10% of all jobs to 60% or even 80%. As they adapted to using Printable, “We went through a learning curve with our customers and ourselves,” Seaver notes. “We trust it more now. We are learning how to put together a better solution.”

The company often runs the same jobs on both digital and traditional offset presses. He says the Indigo tends to give a slightly heavier magenta cast due to the difference between the pigments in Indigo liquid toner and offset inks. But the bottom line is that the average customer really can't tell the difference.

Odyssey Printing, a digital printer since it opened its Tulsa, OK shop 1996 with a Xeikon press and wide-format inkjet, now boasts a 33,000-sq.ft. plant, 55 employees and 11 different printers: three Xeikons, a Presstek DI (its lone offset press), two roll-fed inkjets, two flatbed inkjets and a HP/Scitex Turbojet. “They are all well suited to producing point-of-purchase materials,” says company president John Roberds. About 85% of the firm's $8 million in sales are from point-of-purchase products. The Xeikons are particularly useful because they are web presses and can produce signs that are up to 30´ long. The company developed its own workflow tracking system. In most cases, Odyssey opts to get the full color gamut from its machines, which makes it problematic to match each device. “Because digital machines, except the Presstek DI, can print one copy, we proof almost every job on the printer that will run the job. We profile our machines,” says Roberds.