Quality of Inexpensive Proofing Devices

摘要

The colours in printed products should be known before printing. There are now many inexpensive inkjet printers able to print colour. Using colour management systems (CMS) they can be used as proofing devices. The colour gamut and the stability of these devices were assessed. There are two main results of this project: We have developed a procedure and the tools to qualify proofing devices and we have shown that there are inexpensive devices suited for proofing newspaper print. The gamut is wide enough to simulate offset printing on uncoated paper and it is possible to simulate the colour tint of the paper on which the final product will be printed. It is possible to attain a small mean Delta E between such an inexpensive proof and the final printed product. This Delta E is often smaller then between an analog proof and the final printed product. The prerequisites are calibration of the printer and colour profiles of both the printer and the printing process to be simulated.