PAPERWATCH: Getting Down With Digital

To market its new Xerox iGen3 110, commerical shop Keiger Printing, Winston-Salem, NC, created a 130-page, five-part sample book that demonstrates an incredible range of images, text and finishes on a broad array of substrates. Creative director Deborah Wentworth sought out paper stocks to challenge the digital press. With headings like “Color Detail” and “Surface & Light,” the piece is populated with rich, full details including flesh tones, grayscale and effects like ghosting and texturing. Pages of the limited-edition piece were hand cut, diecut and bound.

“We've made 25 sample books,” says Wentworth, “but everyone we show it to wants to keep it.” That makes things complicated and expensive given press time, hand collating and materials cost involved in the custom short-run project. But because of customer interest, Keiger proceeded to tool dies so it could at least automate the time-consuming hand cutting process.

A key point of this exercise was to run everything except digitally certified papers. One featured mill was Neenah Papers, whose full range of offerings was used. For Classic Laid, an image from Venice was chosen that included an old building with plaster and brick and peeling paint, which suited the finish and features of the stock. For Eames Architecture paper, a thin, wispy sheet almost like tissue, the image was a curtain blowing.

Another print possibility shown pertained to digitally printed blacks. Keiger demonstrated the subtle differences in a chip chart of 12 Pantone blacks and darks, including process black (“the blackest”), giving customers a chance to see effects of green or purple in black from a digital press—which were dramatic.

The pages showcasing various blacks and the facsimile of metallic gold used Productolith gloss 80-lb. cover (now a NewPage brand), Keiger's house stock for coated freesheet. Most samples used gloss, matte, dull and satin grades, as well as a number of really special grades. In the production notes, each specification is defined.

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Shaping up press for paper

Keiger Printing ran the components with minimal adjustments to the iGen3, except for normal parameter checks for heat, speed, acoustic transitions and other on-machine settings. (iGen3 printers use an acoustic transfer assist process, invented by the firm’s engineer Christopher Snelling, that enables Xerographic printing onto the uneven surfaces of textured papers like Classic Laid and Columns.) Toner was not changed. 

“Compared to offset inks, the digital ink is quite opaque,” notes Wentworth. “Coverage is much better in situations like when a light yellow is used with a purple or deep shaded paper or background.” 

Metallic ink and paper presented another challenge. The iGen3 makes a close approximation of metallic gold with CMYK conversion settings. The challenge lies in matching the image to the paper, and the paper to the image, stretching the customer’s vision to imagining application of new stocks or new ink settings. 

Paper should be conditioned before every job. Every step of the supply chain changes a paper’s moisture and compression profile (i.e., its caliper becomes thinner due to changes in environment and storage techniques. The paper should be staged at the printing station with sufficient time to adapt to that environment to avoid curl, jams and other problems associated with moisture profile change.

Keiger's Digital Imaging Sample Book won Best in Show at the 2007 international Xerox PIXI awards in September. Go to the GAM Photo Gallery for a complete list of winners.