Just Run It! An Experimental Evaluation of Digital Printing Performance

摘要

Digital color printing has had a significant impact on the commercial print market and has proven itself as a viable short-run alternative to lithography. As more digital presses move into a commercial environment, the market becomes more competitive. In many cases the print quality from digital devices is consistent; however there is variation between devices. In addition, in many cases there is not a color managed proof, hard or soft, that is used to confirm the accuracy of the print run. This study examined the best practices needed to become an efficient and profitable digital printer in a commercial environment. It evaluated not only the productivity of the equipment, but the print quality, the manufacturing process and operations as well. The study was carried out exclusively with commercial digital printers. The participating commercial digital printers were supplied the same print job, and through recording all steps it was possible to track this job through the entire production cycle, documenting key steps and processes. From this data it was possible to determine where the largest variations in the process were and the opportunities that arise to improve productivity. The results presented show that there are large color deviations between the different printers, with the control on the file giving rise to gray balance issues between the presses and printers. Both RGB and CMYK separations were used and these were not handled correctly by the different workflows. The analysis of components within the test form also indicated significant issues with the RIPs used and these will be discussed at length.