The Print Guide

Drupa 2012 - With a song in my heart

2012-03-02T14:29:00.001-08:00

Like any major trade show - and the 2012 edition of Drupa certainly ranks as such - a stirring theme song is used to get everyone excited and motivated to attend.

Drupa's 2012 song is: "Get Ready to Succeed"

Drupa 2012 has even spawned a tribute "The Magic Of Drupa" by Alex Kunst and Laurel Brunner.

The previous show - Drupa 2008 had a similar dance-based beat with more words than you could imagine would fit into the tune of: "One World One Drupa"

To get an idea of how far the industry has come, one has only to listen to the painful theme from Drupa 1986:

Drupa 2012 takes place May 3 - 16, 2012 in the Düsseldorf Fairgrounds. If you're in the graphic arts you owe it to yourself to attend at least one Drupa in your lifetime.

How to subdue the Reflex Blue Blues

2012-02-24T11:57:00.000-08:00

Reflex Blue (a.k.a. Red Shade Alkali Blue, Pigment Blue 61, Reflex Blue R 54/R 56) is one of the most commonly used spot colors - especially for corporate colors - and it is one of the most problematic inks to use on press.

Reflex Blue suffers from excessive marking, low scuff resistance, poor lightfastness and poor, very slow, drying qualities. It also has a bronzed look that causes it to shift color, from Blue to Purple when viewed at different angles.

And when mixed as part of another blue spot color, Reflex Blue effectively contaminates that ink color with its poor performance characteristics.

Reflex Blue Blues - slow drying

Printing inks are made primarily with resins, varnish, linseed oil, soybean oil, or a heavy petroleum distillate as the solvent (called the vehicle) combined with organic pigments. The resins and varnish control the tack and gloss of the ink while the solvents control press stability and fluidity. Drying oils control surface strength, drying time, and set, while the pigment acts as the coloring agent.

Although each ink pigment is unique, most have fairly uniform shapes and surface areas. Reflex Blue pigment on the other hand has jagged, irregular surfaces and shapes. To blend Reflex Blue ink, ink manufacturers must add surface active agents to the mix that allow proper wetting of the pigment. As a result, the ink retains a higher level of moisture than other ink formulations and therefore takes longer to dry.

Offset inks are generally designed to dry by two methods: absorption into the paper and evaporation from the surface. As the ink dries, the small, uniform color pigments settle close together and leave a flat ink film surface. However, when Reflex Blue pigments set they have a rough ink film surface. Although the ink may feel dry to the touch, just a light rub will break the surface and expose the wet pigment underneath. This results in unsightly scuff marks and color transfer (set-off) to surfaces that come into contact with it.

Reflex Blue Blues - color shift/burn out

Reflex blue color-shift or "burnout" can occur when the printed ink film is over-coated with aqueous, or UV coating. This affect results from a chemical reaction due to pH incompatibilities between the alkaline aqueous coating and certain alkaline sensitive ink pigments like Reflex Blue. The chemical reaction basically changes the way the color pigments reflect light. Individual press sheets pulled during the press run or top sheets in the pile are rarely as affected as the sheets within in the press loads. This indicates that heat and oxygen deprivation are contributing factors in accentuating and accelerating, the color-shift effect. Unfortunately the color-shift may not be apparent immediately off press and may take 24 hours or longer to be noticeable.

Tips for subduing the Reflex Blue Blues

1 Don't use it. If that's too drastic then:
If you are a printer, speak to your ink vendor. Most will stock an "imitation" Reflex Blue substitute. The most common is a Carbazole Violet & Phthalo Blue mix. Note that the imitation Reflex Blue may have a slightly different hue than the actual Reflex Blue so do a drawdown of the ink and get customer approval.

If you are a print buyer/specifier, speak to your print supplier about selecting an "imitation" Reflex Blue substitute. Get drawdowns of the ink and, once satisfied with the hue, document the ink manufacturer, ink series and name so that the same ink can be used for all your Reflex Blue needs.2 Print the job using UV inks since they dry immediately.

2 Print small lifts. Shorter stacks of paper at the press deliver facilitate faster drying by allowing more air to circulate between sheets enabling gasses to escape. Shorter stacks will add a small amount of extra run time on press. Wind the printed loads as soon as possible to reduce unnecessary exposure to high heat builds captive in the pile.

3 If the shop runs a five day production schedule then print on Friday to allow the sheets to dry over the weekend before printing the second side or sending the presswork to the finishing/binding processes.

4 Consult with the printer/ink vendor to determine whether reformulating the Reflex Blue ink by adding drying agents. Note that doing so may increase cost and/or compromise the inks on press performance in other ways - e.g. it may adversely affect te quality of screen tint areas.

5 Apply a varnish, aqueous or UV coating to help seal the ink and eliminate scuffing, fingerprinting, and bronzing of larger ink areas. Use a low-amine or heat-resistant aqueous coating with as low a pH as possible (less alkaline). Inform your ink supplier of the need for alkali or fade resistant inks compatible with aqueous or UV coating and also consult with you coatings supplier and are assured of these pigments’ compatibility with their product. Confirm that the coating to be applied has been thoroughly tested prior to running the job.

6 Beware that UV coating, in particular, does not coat well over Reflex Blue and will sometimes fade or change the ink color. Pre-test Reflex Blue, especially tint solids and screens, by wet-trapping half the image with selected coating and then expose both samples to a high-heat source such as a heated saddle dryer. On-press testing is usually required to simulate actual production with ink and fountain solution. For side-by-side comparison, cut the coater blanket packing half-way through the printed ink film to be tested. Then expose the coated and uncoated print samples to a heated dryer saddle immediately off press. Burnout and color-shift will usually occur during heat application. If time permits, wait 24 hours, then reapply heat, and again compare the color integrity of the test samples. Test, test, test.

Other alkali sensitive pigments that can have similar issues to Reflex Blue include:
• Rhodamine Red - (Y.S. Rhodamine Red)
• Purple - (B.S. Rhodamine Red)• Warm Red - (Red Lake C)
• Violet - (Methyl Violet)
• 072 Blue
• Rubine Red - (Lithol Rubine)
• Fluorescent inks

Understanding paper brightness and whiteness

2012-02-14T16:08:00.001-08:00

For most printers and print buyers, the terms brightness and whiteness are interchangeable. However, when describing the characteristics of paper there are some important differences between the two terms.

Brightness refers to the percent reflectance of blue light, as measured at a wavelength at, or about, 457nm. The choice of that wavelength is based on the sensitivity of the human eye to blue and yellow light. Brightness was originally a test in paper manufacturing to measure the effectiveness of the bleaching process in removing yellowness from pulp. When paper is bleached, the spectral reflectance curve increases the most in the blue and violet range, at about the 457nm point. This has also made the measurement of brightness well suited for measuring the aging of paper because paper yellows with age. Most white papers are in the 60 to 90% brightness range.
Paper brightness requirements for ISO 12647-2. Currently there are no specifications for ISO 12647-3 (newsprint), ISO 12647-4 (gravure), ISO 12647-5 (screen printing), or ISO 12647-6 (flexo).
Whiteness, on the other hand, refers to the extent to which paper reflects equally the light of all wavelengths throughout the visible spectrum. A truly white sheet of paper will not absorb one wavelength of light energy more than another. For example, if a sheet of paper is placed under a full spectrum light, most of that light will be reflected back equally and the paper will appear white. However, if some of the wavelengths of light energy are absorbed, the color of the paper will shift to the light which was not absorbed, but was instead reflected back to the viewer. That is why a red sheet of paper appears red in white light because it absorbs all the other colors and reflects only the red.

Addendum:
In the draft of the new ISO 12647-3 there is a value of 58% for paper brightness specified. The paper whiteness is "To be defined by the paper suppliers".

Some idle time on the interweb

2012-02-11T11:32:00.000-08:00

I recently spent a bit of time wandering aimlessly on the interweb, just following links to see where they'd take me. The web is really amazing - we sometimes take for granted how lucky we are to have it at our disposal.

A printer's invoice from 1936 showed up for sale on eBay:W.E. Baxter was a printshop located in Lewes, Sussex, England - the town where I lived when I was a little boy.

The invoice is made out to a Miss. Bradley and a bit more searching on the internet turned up this photograph of the young lady:
It appears the Baxters had ink in their veins. George Baxter (born July 31, 1804, Lewes, Sussex - died Jan. 11, 1867, Sydenham, Kent) was an engraver and printer who invented a process (patented 1835) of color printing that made reproductions of paintings available on a mass scale. He was the son of John Baxter (1781–1858), printer and publisher at Lewes, who issued the popular illustrated “Baxter” Bible.
The building in Lewes where they did their work is identified by this beautiful sign painted directly on the building wall:
And for those of us not fortunate enough to be able to visit the building in person, Google's Streetview provides a lovely vantage point with the W.E. Baxter building on the right center of the view:
Today the W.E. Baxter building houses rental accommodation rather than printing presses. The commercial print operation of W.E. Baxter moved from Lewes to a property in South London in 2002 but continued to experience losses. It was moved again in May 2004 to the nearby premises of Pegasus Colourprint where, as far as I can determine, it remains today.

Who is responsible for print shop color?

2012-02-03T17:43:00.000-08:00

In basic terms:

It is management's responsibility (with input from prepress, press room, and sales) to establish what the presswork color targets and tolerances (dot gains, standards, specifications etc.) are for the presswork - because those are marketing/business decisions. Then provide the tools (training, resources, equipment) to allow prepress and pressroom to achieve those targets.

The responsibility of prepress is to align proofing to the target established by management as well as to maintain proofing within the tolerances established by management because tolerance targets are also marketing/business decisions. Prepress must also output plates that enable the press operators to align their presswork to the proofs with the press performing in a repeatable, stable, cost-effective condition.

The responsibility of the press operator is to manage the press in such a way that the films of the appropriate inks are laid down in a manner that meets the targets and tolerances (hue, trapping, etc.) established by management and that the halftone dots on the plate are reproduced with fidelity on the various substrates (avoiding slur, doubling, etc.). Also, the press operator needs to make sure that all press-related consumables (fountain solution, inks, etc.) are within the tolerances needed to achieve the management defined targets for pressroom output.

In One Quarter of a Second on Press

2012-01-20T14:21:00.000-08:00

Printing presses whether they're an older manual model (like the one pictured) or a modern computerized system, share one purpose in common - they must be able to lay down a film of ink with remarkable precision and consistency.

For a typical offset press, one ink tower delivering one of the four primary colors in full color printing lays down an image covering an area approximately 40" x 28". That image is formed by splitting a film of ink 4 microns thick (a tenth the thickness of a human hair) twice (plate to blanket then blanket to paper), while at the same time emulsifying it in a chemical solution (made primarily of water) to a depth of a few molecules. Too much water and the ink washes away. Not enough water and ink starts to print in the background. The ink is carried by approximately 19,250,000 halftone dots averaging in size from 10 to 60 microns. The final film of ink deposited on paper over the whole 1,120 square inch area of the image and is held to a thickness of about 1 micron (one fortieth the thickness of a human hair) with a tolerance of +/- one-tenth of a micron. The positional accuracy of the image is held within one-three hundredths of an inch - about 40 microns. All in one quarter of a second on press.

AM screening - 150 lpi Elliptical Halftone Dot

2012-01-20T14:19:00.000-08:00

[click "Play" to view animation - may take a moment to buffer]
Note that the dots are not exactly the same at each percentage. In part, this is to avoid single channel moiré. Also note that in the very light tones (as well as in the darkest tones) as you go through the tones, sometimes there are dots one pixel is size with gaps between them which are then fill with more one pixel sized dots. Then slowly some of the single pixel dots become two pixel dots mixed in with the single pixel ones. This is because a RIP will only image full individual pixels to form a halftone dot. So, in the case of a 2,540 dpi device, each pixel is 10 microns in size (10.6 microns for a 2,400 dpi device). Therefore, if, for example, the the dot diameter needs to be 15 microns in size, since the RIP cannot image a half a pixel to achieve 15 microns, instead the RIP will alternate between 1 pixel dots (10 micron) and 2 pixel dots (20 micron) which results in an effective 15 micron dot average for that tone value.

The elliptical dot shape attempts to avoid the "optical bump" at 50% seen with traditional Euclidean (round/square/round) dots by splitting the point at which dots first touch to 40% and 60% rather than solely at 50%. While it's commonly used, it is not an optimal dot shape in a CtP environment, due to the fact that individual dot shapes are different at each screen angle and that they are directional in nature. When used at low frequencies (<120 lpi), the chaining of elliptical dots at the 40% and 60% tone can cause lines to appear in skin tones.

FM Screening - Second Order 20 micron FM/Stochastic Screen

2012-01-20T14:13:00.002-08:00

[click "Play" to view animation - may take a moment to buffer]

This is a second order FM screen (Kodak Staccato). In a first order FM screen, dots of the same size are added to simulate darker tones. In a second order FM screen, dots of the same size are added to simulate darker tones – however at a certain tone value no more dots are added. Instead the existing dots simply grow, in one or two directions, in order to simulate darker tones.

Slur

2012-01-20T14:13:00.001-08:00

Slur is often confused with doubling as their initial appearance is very similar. However slur is invariably an elongation of the dots in the sheet travel direction. The usual cause of slur is either over or under cylinder packing. Loose blankets, too much plate-to-blanket pressure, too much ink on coated paper, and ink rollers set too hard will also cause slur.

Doubling

2012-01-20T14:11:00.002-08:00

Doubling is often confused with slur as both exhibit an elongation of halftone dots. However, slur is usually an elongation in the direction of sheet travel through the press while doubling can be in any direction. Doubling (and slur) often manifest as a problem with the range of tones available in the presswork being compressed and loss of detail, particularly in the shadow areas (a.k.a. muddy halftones). Doubling can be caused by many of the same factors as slur. When the cylinders rotate the halftone dots are not placed in exactly the same position with every revolution. As a result the dots print up as double or multiple images. Doubling between units occurs when a blanket picks up a previously printed ink film. This is known as backtrapping. Examine the dots, or line art graphics, under a loupe to confirm whether the problem is doubling or slur.

Change “survive” to “thrive”

2012-01-20T14:11:00.001-08:00

01 Realize that poor economic climates create opportunity.
02 Focus on your core strengths and eliminate weaknesses.
03 Lead against your competition, don’t follow.
04 Raise the bar – set the standard.
05 Treat every job you have as if it were your only job.
06 Talk to new people.
07 Question your business habits and processes.
08 If you can’t do it yourself, get someone who can do it for you.
09 Make bold moves and then tell the world about it.
10 Have fun.

Avoiding "GIGO"

2012-01-20T14:10:00.000-08:00

‘GIGO,’ or Garbage In – Garbage Out, is one of the key barriers to the printer achieving an effective, lean, manufacturing process. This is often the result of having to accept client-provided materials that haven’t been created with the technical needs of print production in mind. Why not improve the process by hosting customer training sessions in proper document creation? Keeping your customers current with printing practices will help position you as an indispensable resource for them rather than merely a print provider. A well executed management initiated customer education program will also take the burden off of your individual sales reps to train print buyers and designers.

One effective method is to contract an outside “guru” to provide the instruction. You should charge a fee to cover expenses as well as to emphasize in your customers' minds that you will be providing real value in the sessions. Then, offer to rebate the session fee on the next print order. This way the customer gets valuable training “free” and an incentive to print with you. While you, on the other hand, get better-prepared files as well as improved customer loyalty.

Print buyers don’t buy printing

2012-01-20T14:09:00.000-08:00

No print buyer has a need for presswork for the sake of being surrounded by more print. Instead, they see print as a media that fills a communication need more effectively than other, often less expensive and less troublesome methods, such as the Internet. In short they are looking for the unique value that only ink on paper can deliver.

However, if you look at print buyer needs simply in terms of print products and specifications, you may be trying to sell what they are not buying – nor what they value. Instead, try going beyond the specs and look at what your customer is trying to accomplish with their project for themselves, as well as for their customer. Then see if there is a way that you can leverage your print knowledge and techniques to help them better accomplish their print communication goals. Rather than simply parroting printing specs in your quote, acknowledge your uniqueness by translating and describing your technical and service capabilities into differentiating value for their project in your quote.

Kodak files Chapter 11

2012-01-19T18:00:00.000-08:00

Ink and Paper - a video portrait

2012-01-07T17:56:00.000-08:00

Film maker Ben Proudfoot has made a beautiful short documentary about two, next door neighbor shops - one a paper shop and the other a print shop - both struggling to survive.

Aardvark Letterpress
2500 West 7th Street
Los Angeles, CA
(213) 388-2271
http://www.aardvarkletterpress.com/

McManus & Morgan Paper
2506 West 7th Street
Los Angeles, CA
(213) 387-4433
http://www.mcmanusmorgan.com

Until 2012

2011-12-17T17:54:00.000-08:00

Workin' In A Printer Wonderland - a terrific promotional video by Advocate Printing & Publishing Ltd. Pictou (and several other towns), Nova Scotia, Canada. Don't miss watching the out-takes at the end.
And then a bit of conversational artificial intellegence:

Things that make me go Grrrrrrrrrrr...

2011-12-09T17:53:00.000-08:00

I recently bought a new (actually used) vehicle and typically with such purchases, there was no printed owner's manual. However, I was able to download, in PDF form, a digital version from the manufacturer's website.
But...
Why on earth is the manual a screened PDF with all the associated artifacts?It's a PDF after all! It doesn't cost any extra to publish it digitally using continuous tone greyscale images or even in full color.

Then there's the weird demo guy.

First he has a fixed Botox-like smile that never changes:
And the same illustration is used for different actions.
However, despite his Botox frozen facial expression, he somehow manages to change his hair style and color from page to page:

Grrrrrrrrrrr...

The Wayback View - At the print shop

2011-12-04T17:51:00.000-08:00

The lyrical update to Walt Disney's well known song says it best: "I owe, I owe, it's off to work I go." And with that little ditty in mind we'll take a look at the trade workers inside the print shops of yesteryear.

Click on images to enlarge.
The art room and print area of Walling Press - a silkscreen printer.
The offices of the Government Printing Office, Washington, DC in November 1912.
Louis Gitney, a young type compositor earns $7.00 a week in a Sixth Ave. New York printing office 1917
Press room at Richmond & Backus Co. Detroit circa 1901.
The typesetting department - 1910.A poster on the wall in the above photograph reminds employees "Do Not Spit on the Floor".
Horace Lindfors is a 14-year-old helper at Riverside Press, 1st Ave. New York in February 1917.
Management pretending to check a press sheet at the Government Printing Office, Washington, DC in 1937.
Printing postcards. As in the previous photograph, note the lack of safety enclosures on the press. Watch your fingers!
Keep those presses running!
The "Old Castle Print Shop" has its name prominently displayed on the shop floor wall. Perhaps to remind employees about where they work?
Upon closer examination, some old shop photos reveal bits of interesting information. For example, in this print shop interior dated January, 1922, there are two small posters on the back wall.The smaller poster proclaims this to be a union shop.The first successful strike in the U.S.A. was organized by printers in Philadelphia in 1786. It won the workers pay raises.

The other bit of interest in this photograph is the poster on the right hand side: The words read:
'Help the private soldiers and sailors legion establish a Soldiers' Club here.
For the Unemployed and Hungry Ex-Service Men.
"We are as buddies"
Help us to help them.'
The U.S. entered World War 1 in April, 1917. The war ended in November 1918. But as this poster indicates, four years later help was still needed for the soldiers who fought in that conflict.

Inspecting unemployment forms at the Government Printing Office in 1937.The Great Depression originated in the U.S., starting with a fall in stock prices that began around September 4, 1929 and became worldwide news with the stock market crash of October 29, 1929. From there, it quickly spread to almost every country in the world.

Automated bindery, 1910. Looking not that different from what you would see today.
Manual bindery (1912), also similar to what you'd see today.
An in-house print shop in Vanier College c.a. 1940. Even nuns enjoyed a turn at the press.

"DPI" and the misuse of graphic arts terminology

2011-11-26T17:48:00.000-08:00

The prepress and press worlds are some of the worse misusers of terminology with the all too frequent resulting confusion in sales, marketing, specification, and production. Here is one of the most misused: "DPI" (or as it is spoken of in the rest of the world: DPCM).

"DPI" - Dots Per Inch is a term used for a variety of things that properly speaking it shouldn't.

DPI - when used to describe the resolution of a computer to plate imaging device or filmsetter. E.g. "This is a 2400 dpi CtP device."

"Dots" in this case refers to the laser "Spots" of energy that expose the printing plate or film. However, while DPI, identifies the number of dots per inch - it doesn't actually describe the resolution of the device or size of the spot of energy. Instead it defines the device's "addressability." In other words, dpi tells you how many locations per inch a spot of energy can be focussed on – not the actual size of the spot of energy.

This graphic shows plate media being exposed at 2,400 dpi by six different CtP devices:Note that they are all 2,400 dpi - that is that they all can hit the target location (address) with their beam of energy - however the exposing spots of energy are all different sizes, in this example ranging from about 2 microns on the left to about 30 microns on the right.

Resolution vs addressability is explained in more detail by clicking HERE.

DPI - when used to describe the resolution of an inkjet printer. E.g. "This inkjet proofer prints at 2880 x 1440 dpi."
In the case of an inkjet printer, the clue to this misuse of dpi to wrongly mean resolution is revealed with asymmetrical dpi specifications. So, an inkjet proofer that has the specification that says it prints at 2880 x 1440 dpi does not mean that the resolution is finer, or that the droplets of ink are finer in one direction. Instead it simply means that the paper is moved more slowly in one direction - i.e. the addressability is changed - while the physical size of the droplet of ink, and hence its resolution remains the same.
On the left a symmetrical inkjet addressability grid (600 x 600 dpi). On the right the same printer set at 1200 x 600 dpi. The addressability has changed but not the size of the cyan droplet of ink and therefore the actual resolution of the device remains the same.
In any case, the actual size of the mark the droplet of ink makes on the paper is unknown. For a 600 or 1440 "dpi" ink jet printer it most certainly is not 1/600ths or 1/1440th of an inch in size. As a result, with some inkjet printers, reference is sometimes made to "picoliters" in addition to dpi when the resolution of the device is described in the specifications. A picoliter is a unit of fluid volume. A lower minimum ink volume tends to yield a smaller minimum droplet size of ink allowing more dots of ink to be in the same area thereby yielding higher actual resolution. While picoliter is a better indicator of the relative size of the splat of ink on the paper it is still a unit of volume and not area. So it suggests a difference in resolution but doesn't actually specify it.

DPI - when used to describe the resolution of an image scanner. E.g. "This is a 600 x 2400 dpi scanner."
An image scanner—often abbreviated to just scanner—is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting, or an object, and converts it to a digital image. The resolution of Digital images is usually expressed as dots per inch or pixels per inch. As a result the resolution of scanners is often expressed in terms of dpi (and sometimes "ppi" pixels per inch). The more accurate description is "spi" which stands for "samples per inch" since scanners sample the document they are scanning.

A related issue with defining scanner resolution is that manufacturers typically refer to the scanner's interpolated resolution - which is a software upsampling algorithm method to increase the pixel density - instead of using the scanner's true optical resolution. If the scanner's dpi is asymmetrical (e.g. 600 x 2400 dpi) then the smaller number usually indicates the particular number of individual samples that are taken in the space of one linear inch while the larger number is the interpolated samples.

DPI - when used to describe the resolution of an image. E.g. "This is a 300 dpi image."

Once an image has been digitized, either via scanning or captured with a digital camera, it is in the form of a raster image made up of pixels (picture elements). In graphic arts usage the pixels are typically square in shape and 8-bits (256 grey levels) in depth per channel (greyscale = one channel, RGB = three channels, CMYK = four channels).

Because pixels are generally thought of as the smallest single component of a digital image, the more pixels that are used to represent an image, the closer the result can resemble the original.As ppi, a.k.a. "dpi", increases so does the amount of image detail that can be rendered creating the impression of greater apparent resolution.Pixel counts can be expressed as a single number, e.g. an image at 100% reproduction size being 300 "dpi", or as in a "three-megapixel" digital camera, which has a nominal three million pixels, or as a pair of numbers, as in a "640 by 480 display", which has 640 pixels from side to side and 480 from top to bottom (as in a VGA display), and therefore has a total number of 640 × 480 = 307,200 pixels or 0.3 megapixels.
Again, the measures dots per inch (dpi) and pixels per inch (ppi) are sometimes used interchangeably, but have distinct meanings, and although dpi is often used to refer to digital image resolution the proper term is "ppi" - pixels per inch.

How to extend the life of your inkjet proof

2011-11-19T17:47:00.000-08:00

A great deal of effort is put into the making of a contract quality inkjet proof. However, if it is not properly taken care of, its useful life can be shortened and its integrity as a color reference compromised.

How the inkjet media and proofs are stored and handled, as well as their exposure to ambient office or light booth lighting, affect the color of the proof and its color integrity over time.

Here are a few simple things you can do to help maintain, or extend, the color integrity of your inkjet proofs.

• Depending on the surrounding ambient temperature and relative humidity, it can be several minutes, or even hours before an inkjet proof is dry enough to handle. So, before handling a proof, make sure that the ink is actually dry.

• Handle the proof by its edges to avoid leaving fingerprint smudges on the imaged area. Fingerprints may also leave residual oils on the media which may repel ink when the proof is imaged. After the proof is imaged fingerprint oils may dissolve water-based proofing inks leaving unsightly marks on the proof. Try to always use lightweight cotton gloves when handling proofs.

• Avoid bending the corners of the proofing media.

• If you will be stacking proofs, always place a light-weight slip sheet between the proofs.

• Store proofs in cool, dark, low humidity shelves or envelopes away from light or dust as inkjet proofs will fade with exposure to ambient office or light booth lighting.

• Keep all unimaged media in their boxes when not in use and store in a cool dry place away from light and dust.

• Always allow the proofing media to acclimate for 48 hours in the proofing area before printing.

• For optimal results, if available, follow the recommended environmental conditions provided by the proofing media manufacturer.

Pantone color shifting - the problem with coatings

2011-11-12T17:45:00.000-08:00

I think that most of us have been hit with an unpleasant surprise when a Pantone ink color shifts after being UV or aqueous coated. As one example, Reflex Blue (arguably the most difficult color in printing) prints as dark blue but will dry with a reddish sheen that will not dry properly. To try and make it dry faster the printer might run it through the press a second time to apply a coating, either UV or Aqueous, to seal the ink. This causes an immediate color shift which will continue to shift over the course of a few days.

The colors in the table below, as well as any spot color recipes that use them in the formula, will shift color (a.k.a. alkalinity burn) when subjected to the alkalinity of a aqueous or UV coating.
In order to avoid the costs involved with reprinting a spoiled job, when mixing and/or specifying PMS colors it's critical to inform your ink vendor that you will be aqueous or UV coating the job.

Special thanks to Bob Peterson of Superior Ink for his contribution to this post.

Printers and Ink - wherever you go, there you are!

2011-11-07T17:39:00.000-08:00

Printers Alley, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Ink Street, Carletonville, Gauteng, South Africa
Printers Alley, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, United States
Ink Wells Drive, San Antonio, Texas, United States
Printers Place, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
Ink Road, Iowa, United States
Printers Lea, Balgrochan, United Kingdom
Ink Street, Rochdale, United Kingdom
Printers Lane, New Haven, Conneticut, United States
Ink Lane, North Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Printers Alley, Middlebury, Vermont, United States
Ink Drive, Redding, California, United States
Printers Parkway, Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States
Graphics Way, Lewis Center, Ohio, United States
Graphics Drive, Tinley Park, Illinois, United States
Graphic Way, Westerville, Ohio, United States

Is this blog being censored? And some housekeeping.

2011-11-02T17:37:00.000-07:00

I found this graphic in my blog's visitor history (the company name is blurred out):
I know that this blog is censored in China so visitors from that region of the world have to use methods to get around the great firewall. But I didn't realize that companies in the west censored the site. Has this happened at the company that you work for? If so, I would love to hear about it and how you dealt with it. I'm also interested in how common it is for companies to censor their employee at work internet browsing.

On another note. Comments on blog postings are always appreciated. However, if the comment contains a link to a commercial web site I will consider it as spam - no matter how flattering the comment is.

And a reminder, if you find this blog of value then I'm sure you'll feel great by sending a donation. Don't be shy.

On-press stability and consistency

2011-10-26T17:35:00.000-07:00

A printing press is a device for laying down a film of ink onto a substrate. Each component on each press unit, from ink ductor rollers to ink train oscillation moves or rotates with a repetitive frequency and this shows up as solid ink density variation. When the natural solid ink density variations through the press run are graphed, the result is sometimes referred to as the "heartbeat" of the press because of its resemblance to the rhythm of a human heartbeat.
The heartbeat of a press - the solid ink density variations measured over through the press run. Each of the 3 sections contains 100 press sheets from the beginning, middle, and end of the press run. Each "heartbeat" in each section is the solid ink density variation between 10 sheets. So, each of the three sections contains the SID measurements of 100 sheets.
The human heartbeat.
Every press design has its own "heartbeat" profile that represents its normal condition. What one looks for are abnormalities in the heartbeat profile itself as well as in comparison between different press units. Plotting the heartbeat of the press, just as it does with humans, can help diagnose problems in the system that may need correcting.

Solid ink densities varying naturally through the press run cause dot gains - tone reproduction - to also vary which in turn causes color shifts in the presswork. Below, courtesy of data provided by Alwan Print Standardizer, is a movie showing dot gain variation through the press run.
Click on the expand icon (the four arrows) to enlarge the video for greater clarity. Then click on the play arrow.
It's fair to say that a printing press in proper working condition is stable - but not consistent. And that fact applies equally to the presswork itself. Therefore, since variation is an integral characteristic of the printing process, the important thing is to establish, and communicate between buyer and print provider, what the target for presswork color should be, how it will be measured, and what range of variation is acceptable based on the needs of the specific job at hand.

Printing Standards and Specifications

2011-10-12T17:29:00.000-07:00

Printing standards and their associated specifications bring an independent, authoritative, and concrete basis for file preparation, proofing, presswork, and output evaluation. They reduce proofing cycles and enable faster approval processes. They also help synchronize expectations between print buyer and print provider.

I'll begin with a few definitions.

A Standard according to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines a standard as:
"A document established by consensus and approved by a recognized body that provides for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context."

A Specification is not a standard. Rather, it is a detailed description of the criteria for a piece of work. Specifications for printing can include characterization-data, ICC-profiles, PDF preflight criteria, calibration targets for the print process, etc.

A Method is usually defined as a way, technique, or process for doing something. It is a recipe.

To use a cooking analogy - a standard represents the desired final outcome, for example a cake.The specifications describe the ingredients needed to make the cake. The method describes the steps required to make the cake. There can be many different methods to achieve the desired standard based on the specifications.

The most important standards for print production are:

 • ISO 12647  which describes color for different types of presswork (sheetfed, heatset web, coldset web, etc.). Of all of the standards within the Graphic Arts, what is of most importance to most printers and print buyers are contained within the ISO 12647 family.
ISO 12647 is broken down as follows

ISO 12647-1 Parameters & Measurement methods
ISO 12647-2 Offset Lithographic processes
ISO 12647-3 Coldset Offset Lithography on Newsprint
ISO 12647-4 Publication Gravure
ISO 12647-5 Screen Printing
ISO 12647-6 Flexo Printing
ISO 12647-7 Proofing process from digital data

 • ISO 2846-1  which describes ink color and transparency. 

• ISO 3664 defines lighting conditions for viewing color copies and their reproduction with either incident or transmitted light.

 • ISO 15930-X  (PDF/X) for data exchange in print production. 

• ISO 15076 for the ICC color profile format. 

• ISO 12640 for the data format from which ICC profiles are calculated.

The most important specifications for standardized print production are:

 PSO Process Standard Offset printing developed by FOGRA / bvdm / ECI 
This implementation of ISO 12647-2 is included with most digital proofing solutions used in Europe and is pre-configured with the UGRA FOGRA Mediawedge for verification.
Grey balance target values in PSO are done by comparing K- and CMY-patches with similar grey side by side. PSO does not contain procedures and tolerances for judging grey balance by measurement.
PSO also includes the possibility of a certification for pre-press and printing.

 GRACoL/SWOP managed by IDEAlliance  
These standards take their basis from ISO 12647-2 but place a higher importance on grey balance during calibration and the press run compared with the PSO. Most proofing solutions for the North American market include the needed setup to produce proofs that represent the GRACoL/SWOP target.

 System Brunner  
System Brunner is a standardization method for print production. It places a very strong emphasis on grey balance (in combination with TVI and Solids) for controlling and certifying the press run. System Brunner is included with some printing press manufacturer's press control solutions. It can also be combined with PSO, SWOP, or GRACoL.

There are various ISO 12647 standards according to the main types of printing methods. Here I will try and cover the essentials of just one of these - ISO 12647-2 - as an example of the type of specifications that guide printers to achieving the standard. Note that specifications do change over time, so, although the information I present is correct (as far as I know) the actual current published standards should be your guide.ISO 12647-2 specifies a number of process parameters and their values to be applied when preparing color separations for four-color offset printing by one of the following methods: heat-set web, sheet-fed or continuous forms process printing, or proofing for one of these processes; or offset proofing for half-tone gravure. Note that the specifications are based on plates imaged in a film, not CtP, workflow.

ISO 12647-2 is
▪ directly applicable to proofing and printing processes that use color separation films as input
▪ directly applicable to proofing and printing from printing formes produced by filmless methods as long as direct analogies to film production systems are maintained
▪ applicable to proofing and printing with more than four process colors as long as direct analogies to four-color printing are maintained, such as for data and screening, for print substrates and printing parameters
▪ applicable by analogy to line screens and non-periodic (i.e. FM) screens.

ISO 12647-2 Type 1 for offset lithographic processes on gloss-coated paper specifies:
Ink: ISO 2846-1
Substrate: L* 95 a* 0 b* -2
Primary Colors (black backed): K: L* 16, a* 0, b* 0 , C: L* 54 a* -36, b* -49, M: L* 46, a* 72, b* -5, Y: L* 87, a* -6, b* 90
Secondary Colors (black backed): R (M+Y): L* 46, a* 67, b* 47 , G (C+Y): L* 49 a* -66, b* 24, B (C+M): L* 24, a* 16, b* -45, C+M+Y: L* 22, a* 0, b* 0
Solid ink densities: (informative information)*
Halftone screen: 133 lpi, 150 lpi, 175 lpi, 20 micron FM
Dot Gain/TVI: 12 -16% or 18 -22%
Grey Balance: 25%-19%-19%, 50%-40%-40%, 75%-64%- 64%
Neutral definition: substrate or equivalent tone of black
ISO profile: ISOcoated_v2_eci.icc
Characterization data: Fogra39L.txt

GRACoL 7 The General Requirements and Applications for Commercial Offset Lithography publication that is a common reference in North America and is based on ISO 12647-2 specifies:
Ink: ISO 2846-1
Substrate: ISO 12647-2
Primary Colors: ISO 12647-2*
Secondary Colors: ISO 12647-2*
Solid ink densities: Not specified
Halftone screen: 175 lpi AM round dot
Dot gain/TVI: Not specified - replaced by Neutral Print Density Curve values: @ 25% Grey: CMY .25/K .22, @ 50% Grey CMY .54/K .50, @ 75% Grey: CMY .90/K .90
Grey Balance (required): 50%-40%-40%
Neutral definition: a* 0 b* -2
ICC profile: GRACoL2006_Coated1v2.icc
Characterization data: GRACoL2006_Coated1

Some peculiarities of ISO 12647-2 and GRACoL 7

Where GRACol 7 differs from ISO 12647-2 (as per the implementation guidelines of PSO (Print Standard Offset-print)) is the method used for adjusting the mid-tones. The PSO advises adjusting the inking until the TVIs of CMY come close to their aims, while GRACol 7 would have the neutral densities of the CMY and the K grey patches brought close to the prescribed aim values regardless of the individual TVIs that result. In practice this means that each color will have a different TVI curve to achieve the neutral grey. GRACol 7 allows for deviation of primaries in order to obtain grey balance.

ISO 12647-2 includes the following chart of dot gain/TVI curves:There are a few peculiarities with this chart. First is that there is no definition in ISO 12647 of what printing condition the letters "A" through "H" represent.** ISO 12647 does not clearly state whether these dot gain curves are intended to be tone reproduction targets or aim points or simply what you get when you use linear film to make printing plates. It appears that, because the specifications state that "direct analogies to film production systems are maintained" the intent is to use these curves as the reproduction targets. To, me, the idea of having different tone reproduction curve targets for presswork for different processes or different halftone line screens is counterproductive to standardization.

Resources:

Data set/s for profiling, separation, and proofing
ECI www.eci.org Profiles based on FOGRA data sets
FOGRA www.fogra.org Data sets that closely comply with ISO 12647
GRACoL http://www.idealliance.org
IFRA www.wan-ifra.org Profiles based on ISO 12647-3 (Newsprint)
SNAP www.naa.org SNAP profile
SWOP http://www.idealliance.org

Part 1 on this topic can be viewed by clicking HERE

*Standards documents include two broad classes of information: "normative" and "informative"
Normative elements are defined as "elements that describe the scope of the document, and which set out provisions". Provisions include requirements that convey criteria to be fulfilled if compliance with the document is to be claimed and from which no deviation is permitted.

Informative elements include supplemental information such as additional guidance, supplemental recommendations, tutorials, commentary as well as background, history, development, and relationship with other elements. Informative data is not a requirement for compliance with the standard.

**As near as I can guess (so I may be wrong), here are the printing conditions represented by the letters "A" through "H" in the ISO dot gain chart. The curves are organized from the bottom up. They sometimes do double duty.

So:

A is the curve for CMY for Coated positive plate (ISO Coated v2 and FOGRA 27, FOGRA 39 etc)
B is the curve for K for same above condition

B is also curve for CMY for Web (paper type 3)
C is the curve for K for uncoated

C is also the curve for CMY for paper type 4/5 (uncoated and uncoated yellowish)
D is curve for K for same above condition

F is the CMYK curve for 20 micron non-periodic/FM screening

E, G and H are unknown (by me anyway). I believe that "H" has been dropped from the latest ISO 12647 document so these may no longer be in force.

Steve Jobs has died

2011-10-05T17:24:00.000-07:00

To paraphrase a line from one of my favorite movies: "The light that shines twice as bright burns half as long and he has shone so very brightly."

He spoke about death in his inspirational talk during his Stanford University commencement speech in 2005 which can be seen by clicking HERE.
A link to my 25th anniversary with the MAC can be found HERE

Re:Print – Press Trouble Shooting

2011-10-05T17:22:00.000-07:00

RE:Print is the first and only cartoon strip devoted to the printing industry. From time to time I post the strip on this blog. However, it is also published weekly on WhatTheyThink's PrintPlanet forum. You can access all the already published cartoons by clicking HERE

Standardize your print process

2011-09-29T17:20:00.000-07:00

A standardized print manufacturing process is critical for achieving effective press to proof color alignment, short press makereadies, and minimal wastage of time and materials.

 The five basic steps are:

1. Choose the appropriate standard and/or specification target for the presswork.
Management's responsibility (with input from prepress, press room, and sales) is to establish what the targets and tolerances (dot gains, standards, specifications etc.) are for the presswork - because those are marketing/business decisions. Then management must provide the tools to allow prepress and pressroom to achieve those targets. That target then drives the complete print production process and determines the selection of all of the components (proofs, press calibration, inks, paper, etc.) needed to hit the target. Worldwide the most adopted standard for printing is ISO 12647-x. The various ISO 12647 standards provide specifications for data, proofs, inks, paper and press calibration. In North America GRACoL and SWOP specifications are largely based on ISO 12647-2 and ISO 12647-3 respectively. 

2. Clearly communicate with print customers about requirements for data/file submission.
This includes items such as whether files should adhere to industry specifications such as SNAP or face rejection. It may include items such as whether native application files are acceptable or only PDFs, what resolution and color mode that images need to be, what minimum text size is acceptable, etc., etc.

3. Implementation of standardized proofing.
In-house proofing must be set up to the same standard and/or specification target for the presswork (i.e. ISO 12647-x, SWOP, etc.). If print customers will be providing proofs for the pressroom then the printer has to communicate that customer-submitted proofs must adhere to the appropriate standard. All proofs must include a color control strip so that they can be verified for conformance to the target standard/specification. There should be virtually no difference in appearance between a customer-supplied proof and one done by the printer in-house. It should also be made clear that the printer's in-house proof is the final proof.

4. Optimize prepress.
The responsibility of prepress is to align proofing to the target established by management as well as to maintain proofing within the tolerances established by management. Prepress must also output plates that enable the press operators to align their presswork to the proofs with the press performing in a repeatable, stable condition. Prepress should have well defined procedures for ensuring that platemaking and the resulting plates are consistent and within tolerance.

5. Optimize press performance.
The responsibility of the press operator(s) is to manage the press in such a way that the the films of the appropriate inks (as defined by the chosen specifications) are laid down in a manner that meets the targets and tolerances (hue, trapping, etc.) established by management and that the halftone dots on the plate are reproduced with fidelity on the various substrates (slur, doubling, etc.). Also, the press operator needs to make sure that all press-related consumables (fountain solution, inks, etc.) are within the tolerances needed to achieve the management defined targets for pressroom output.

Things that make me go Grrrrrrrrrrr...

2011-09-27T17:18:00.000-07:00

Not what I was hoping to post today...but...holy smokes, the Conrad Murray trial on the death of Michael Jackson has just begun and the high-priced lawyers for the man charged with the manslaughter death of Michael Jackson actually misspelled the King of Pop’s first name in a chart by Ed Chernoff, attorney for Conrad Murray. It was shown today to jurors during the defense’s opening statement in a Los Angeles courtroom. What has happened to basic proof reading?
Then L.A. prosecutors also ran into spelling problems during their opening statement. On one of the slides shown to jurors, the word “pronounced” was missing the second “n.”Jeepers, when a comma can mean the difference between "Let's eat, Grandpa." and "Let's eat Grandpa." shouldn't lawyers be more astute?

Things that make me go Grrrrrrrrrrr...

2011-09-22T17:16:00.000-07:00

Campbell's hearty noodle soup...yum, yum.But it's been in the cupboard for awhile. I wonder what the expiry date is?
Nothing printed on the bottom or sides...but I think I see a smudge of black on the bottom left side of the cup's top cover.
Luckily I have my loupe for a close up view.Hmmm, even viewed under loupe it's still unclear. But with a bit of image manipulation in PhotoShop the expiry date is finally legible.Surely the design folks at Campbell's or their packaging supplier, Interpress Technologies, can come up with a way to print a legible expiry date on their containers.

Analog FM screening

2011-09-17T17:14:00.000-07:00

I've been using FM screening in presswork since 1970 (kindergartens were very sophisticated back then :-)). This was way before PhotoShop, personal computers, and digital workflows. The method I used was fairly simple, but difficult to perfect.

I would take a conventional low contrast 35mm black and white (or color slide) positive image.

I would then place the piece of film in my enlarger in the darkroom.

Then I would project the image through a piece of frosted glass that had the frosted side in contact with a piece of lithographic film.Lithographic film does not record grey levels - just black and white. It is the same film that printers use to expose their printing plates.
The rough surface of the frosted side of the glass acted like a digital threshold array and broke the image into a random halftone pattern where the frequency of the dots (and to a lesser extent their size) represented the different grey levels of the original image.The coarseness of the frosted side of the glass determined how coarse the resulting "FM" screen was.

The final result was a piece of negative film that my printer would strip into the the job and use to burn the printing plate.

9/11 Remembered…

2011-09-11T17:11:00.000-07:00

PRINT '01, with about twice the exhibit space of the largest Graph Expo and Converting Expo events, was scheduled to take place September 6-13 2001 at the McCormick Place Complex in Chicago. I was one of the CreoScitex team attending the show to display our wares and introduce, under my Value In Print initiative, its new consulting services.

I was staying at the W Hotel in downtown Chicago and, as was the policy of CreoScitex, I was sharing the room with a coworker. Because I had a presentation to do at the show early on the morning of September 11 I awoke about 6 am and decided not to turn on the television so as not to disturb my room mate. I took a taxi to McCormick Place and was quite surprised at how untalkative the driver was. But, after all I thought, it was very early in the morning.

Arriving at McCormick Place I quickly headed through the empty building to the CreoScitex "sales bunker" - the virtual office for sales people to use at the show. Scattered throughout McCormick Place are television monitors that are tuned to the news channel, with the audio off, when the show is not actually open.The scene that I saw on the screen just looked like a pair of giant smokestacks spewing plumes of black soot so I assumed they were doing a story on industrial pollution.So I continued on my way into the sales bunker.

In the sales bunker I tried, but couldn't get on the Internet to check my email. Then I tried to check my voicemail with my cell phone but couldn't get a signal. Frustrated, I proceeded to the CreoScitex booth. Walking through the exhibition halls I noted that many of the exhibitor's equipment was covered with American flags. So typical of the U.S.A. I thought to myself.

I arrived at the booth and started to organize myself for the presentation that I was scheduled to do later that day. A co-worker at the booth came over to me and asked: "Have you heard the news?"

It took a while to sink in. No presentation today. This would be the last day of Print '01.

I decided to walk back to the hotel - all the time trying to get a signal for my cell phone so I could call and let my wife know that I was OK and not to worry. It was two hours before my phone was able to get a signal and I could make the call.

As news reports started coming in there was talk of a jet en route to Chicago and that the Sears Tower might also be hit. As a result, most stores and restaurants were closed. Once back at the hotel, like many of my co-workers, I just wanted to get back home. The news was that all flights were cancelled for at least the next few days which meant that my return flight ticket for September 14 was no good. A call in to the CreoScitex travel agents revealed that we were on our own to figure out how to get back to Vancouver. Fortunately I linked up with a small group in the lobby of the hotel and managed to rent a passenger van - at a highly inflated day rate.

It took us just 24 hours to travel the 2,200 miles back home.

Like fine dust thrown against the wind, evil falls back upon that fool who offends the inoffensive, pure and guiltless.
- The Dhammapada

A Printer's Lullaby

2011-08-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

Dwane Hollands, owner of Hollands Print Solutions (http://www.hollands.com.au/) is a sometimes music composer.So, I challenged him with the idea of creating a piece of music using the sound of a printing press to create the underlying musical theme. He chose the rhythm of a Heidelberg press (hear that sound by clicking HERE).

Dwane names his composition "Printer's Lullaby" (although I think it's more of a lament). He describes it in these words: "After a hard days work, those machines need to have a good rest at night. Excited from the day and all the adventures they've been through, they take a while to settle in. After they've drunk their warm milk and cookies and brushed their teeth, it's time for the Printer's Lullaby to get them snuggly off to sleep. Night, Night..."
Click on play arrow to view Dwane's 2 minute composition that I've enhanced with some of my photos taken at a few of the printshops that I've visited over the years.
You can listen to more of Dwane's compositions by clicking HERE

Misregistration on press

2011-08-16T16:02:00.000-07:00

You may have the most accurate CtP, the best and newest offset press, however, you are still covering absorbent paper with ink and water and squeezing under pressure in the press. The result is that there will always be a chance of misregistration in the presswork.

Here are a few of the most commonly encountered types of misregistration:

Back sheet flare (a.k.a. flare-out or coning)
Back sheet flare usually happens when a lightweight paper is printed with heavy ink coverage. As the sheet is pulled through the press the tail corners of the sheet fan out slightly causing misregister in the corners.
Back stretch
Back stretch can occur if blanket and packing on one or more units may have been compressed during the pressrun, causing change in the print length.
Waggle
Waggle can occur if there's a problem with the on press register system and/or side guides.
Web growth
One type of web growth occurs on web press as the paper streams from ink unit to ink unit. The paper edge gives up moisture at a different rate than the middle of the web. This changes the size of the paper and hence causes misregistration.
Fit
Misregistration occurs when one or more colors do not fit with the others in a set. It is typically caused by the film, or plate in a CtP device, changing size due to environmental temperature changes. As the temperature increases the film/plates expand so the image on plates imaged at different times may be different.
Despite the fact that some degree of misregistration is normal in the printing process, and that it impacts the integrity of the final presswork - as far as I can determine - it's surprising there are no official specifications for what is an acceptable tolerance for misregistration.

In multicolor printing, when all the layers of inks are in perfect register, one is not aware of the individual ink layers, only the image created by their combination.

However, if one or more of the individual ink layers begins to move out of register, the image begins to appear softer, with lower detail definition. Color and tone may subtly shift. And if the ink layers continue to move further out of register, color fringes begin to appear at the edges of detail, and finally the color image breaks up.

There is no absolute point at which the loss of register between the ink layers causes the color or image integrity to become unacceptable. And while misregistration can be expressed in thousandths of an inch or millimeters or in angular degrees, its effect on color register will change depending on several factors. For example, misregistration is most visible in reverse type within a four-color process area. The sharp edges of the type and the high color contrast between the inks and the bare paper exaggerate the visibility of any color fringing caused by misregistration. But color images with little sharp detail or where a black border hides the edges can tolerate a greater degree of misregistration before the reproduction is seen as unacceptable.

Experienced press operators have an intuitive understanding of these factors which has led - in the absence of industry specifications - to a pragmatic approach to the problem of misregistration. The historic, trade practice has been that misregistration is deemed acceptable up to 1/2 row of dots. That is enough to shift a rosette from clear-centered to dot-centered. So, for example, at 133-150 lpi that's about 0.0033ths of an inch (0.0083 cm at 60L/cm).

In register - clear-centered rosettes with a uniform edge.
Out of register by a distance of one half a row of dots - clear-centered become dot-centered rosettes with, in this case, one color layer hanging outside the other three creating a color fringe.
How the press operator measures misregister
Of course, press operators cannot directly measure the amount of misregistration. Instead, when they look closely at the press work through a loupe they employ a simple visual trick:The press operator visualizes the width of a row of halftone dots divided into quarter distances. The solid black lines show the width of one row of halftone dots. The long-dashed black line goes through the center of the dots. The short-dashed lines divide the width of the dot row into quarters. For a 150 lpi halftone, the spacing between adjacent dotted lines is 0.0017" (0.04 mm).
Although trade practice has been to hold misregistration to within one half row of dots - which seems to be a very tight tolerance - there is still a negative impact on the integrity of the press work.

As the dot structure goes from clear-centered to dot-centered as it drifts out of register, the rosette becomes twice as visible effectively halving the screen ruling. So, a dot-centered 150 lpi rosette structure is as visible as a coarse 75 lpi screen. This is often seen like a rash on important skin colors where small amounts of misregistration make the rosette appear then disappear. And as the rosette drifts from clear centered to dot centered it’s like intermittently turning a light on and off and back again - so the color goes intermittently darker and lighter through the run.

Lastly, misregistration changes the overprint ratios of wet and dry trap - causing a color shift. So while the image is going darker and lighter it is also shifting color from bluish to redish and back again. For example, this can be particularly troublesome in, for example, car brochures where there are large expansive areas of neutral grey made up of 4/c process.

A guide to print misregistration - symptoms and causes.

Symptom
If, in a pull of inspection sheets, only one sheet is misregistered out of tolerance.
Cause
Likely no action is needed as the misregister may be just a chance occurrence.

Symptom
If, in a pull of several consecutive inspection sheets, one or more sheets is misregistered out of tolerance.
Cause
Check the press register system and check the paper for wavy edges.

Symptom
Registration is good on several pulls of inspection sheets, but shows a drift toward the limits for misregistration in one or more colors.
Cause
Check the press gripper edge and side-guide register settings.

Symptom
While the gripper edge registration is good, there is a consistent sidewise misregister along trailing edge. The paper may occasionally show wrinkles.
Cause
Check for excessive impression/blanket squeeze which may be stretching the paper. Also check the paper for wavy edges.

Symptom
Misregistration varies from sheet-to-sheet, mostly in the around the press cylinder direction and is worse along the trailing edge of the sheet.
Cause
This usually happens due to mechanical stretch in lightweight papers. It can also happen with loose blankets or it the ink tack is too high.

Symptom
Misregistration appears to be random and occurs in different areas on different sheets within the run.
Cause
This sometimes occurs when printing heavily embossed papers. The impression pressure may need to be reduced.

Symptom
Specific colors are consistently longer or shorter from gripper to trailing edge.
Cause
The blanket and packing on those units may have compressed during the pressrun causing change in print length.

Symptom
Consistent misregistration at the gripper edge or side-guide edge.
Cause
Check the press register system.

Symptom
Random misregister at the gripper edge or side-guide edge.
Cause
Check the paper edge as the trim may be bowed convex or concave or the paper may have wavy edges.
Alternatively the press speed may be too fast for register system to function properly.

Symptom
Misregistration occurs lengthwise along the gripper edge.
Cause
The paper may be grain-short, its moisture content too low, or the pressroom humidity is too high.
Check the side-guide and sheet-forwarding mechanisms.
The plates may have been imaged in different temperature conditions and may need to be reimaged.

Symptom
Registration is good except for a consistent misregister in one area of sheet.
Cause
If the area of misregistration is on off-guide side trailing edge, check paper for wavy edges.
Check the plates as they may have a built-in misfit caused during imaging in which case new plates will need to be made. There may be a large solid on an earlier-down color near the area that's misregistered, causing paper stretch in that area.

The Wayback View - Print Ephemera - Printer's Invoices

2011-08-07T16:01:00.000-07:00

Old printer's invoices, if you can find them, can provide a fascinating glimpse into how business was conducted "back in the day."

Click on the images to enlarge

Printers often diversify their operations to attract new business. However this 1924 invoice from Buxton and Skinner shows a diversification that is a bit extreme. I wonder what "radiation," "meter rental," and "condensation" actually refer to?
In 1916 you could get 1,000 envelopes for $2.50 (and apparently pay no tax).
This Amsterdam New York invoice from 1944 includes an interesting note to the effect that income tax was withheld on wages. I wonder why they noted this on the invoice?
Perhaps this invoice from 1897 inspired a famous Vulcan with it's motto: "Print and Prosper."
A 1944 job estimate from G. Claridge & Co. of Bombay (Mumbai) appears to be a form letter with the text in red being preprinted while the text in black being customized for each project.
The total of this 1918 invoice for presswork came to $18.25. Translated into 2011 dollars that $18.25 is equivalent to $291.97.
Advertising rates in The Journal published by John W Eedy in 1897 were very reasonable and its presswork "Neatly executed. [with] Prices Moderate."
Selma Printers in 1870 also prided themselves on "Printing Neatly Executed."
M.J. Sullivan differentiated himself from his competition by being a "Practical Printer" (I assume that he considered other printers as impractical). However, it appears that the order for 100 name cards placed August 24, 1922, was a bit slow in being fulfilled since the invoice shows a billing date of December 1, 1923 - over one year later.
Companies are always trying to reduce their printing spend. Here, Rand McNally has saved a bit of money by using an invoice from 1890 and with a simple crossing out of the "8" and adding a "0" has transformed it into a 1900 invoice. Another interesting thing about this invoice is the purchaser's title: a certain George M. Beadle, Mining Expert, "etc." I suppose that Mr. Beadle had other expertise that the accountant at Rand McNally just couldn't remember.

What the press operator is scrutinizing

2011-07-30T16:00:00.000-07:00

It's the stereotypical image of a press operator - bent over the presswork and examining it under a loupe. People attending a press approval often wonder what the press operator is examining so closely. In fact there's a great deal of information that the press operator can determine from a close up view of the press work.

The first thing that's checked is registration.On the left, dot centered rosettes indicate that the presswork is out of register by one half row of dots. On the right, clear centered rosettes shows the presswork is in register.
Misregistration can also be determined by examining the edge of images to see if one of the process colors is extending beyond the image edge. Click on the above image to enlarge.
Next is halftone dot formation.Halftone dots can reveal issues such as dot doubling that may be the result of loose or incorrect blanket packing.
Here speckles of ink indicate there may be a problem with the plate processor. Also, in this case, the black printer is, because of the elongation of the dots, showing a problem with slurring.
The amount and type of halftone dot distortion can reveal problems with ink water balance as well as the condition of the fountain solution.
When halftone dots are the same size and should be the same approximate density as in the case of Cyan and Magenta - but aren't - this can signal a problem with the solid ink density or an ink/water imbalance.
Pinholes forming inside halftone dots can signal a calcium carbonate issue.

Things that make me go Grrrrrrrrrrr...

2011-07-26T15:58:00.000-07:00

Pretzel hotdog buns, yum yum.
The package label says it contains 6 buns. I wonder what the ingredients are for just one bun?
Doh! Ingredients are listed by serving weight.
But what's a serving? Do I have to weigh the package to find out what makes up 50 g?

Why couldn't they have listed it as: "Per serving (one bun: 50 g)"?

Technical tips for creating brand colors

2011-07-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

Color is one of the most critical components in creating brand identity and while there is a fair amount of information on the psychological and cultural aspects of color - there's very little information on the technical issues that need to be considered when developing a custom or brand color.

Brand colors are custom (a.k.a. line, spot) colors that are any single color (typically other than cyan, magenta, yellow, or black) that are usually printed as a solid area of ink on a dedicated press unit.

There are two types of custom colors -
1 Proprietary
2 Referenced.

Proprietary custom colors are colors that are created by the brand owner or their creatives. Coca-Cola red and Kodak yellow are examples of proprietary brand colors.
Referenced custom colors are usually published in color palettes that are to be used by creatives to specify spot colors.

The main brands of referenced custom color palettes are:

Pantone, the dominant spot color printing system in the United States and Europe.
Toyo, a custom spot color system that is popular in Japan.DIC, Dainippon Ink & Chemicals, Inc., another popular Japanese custom color system.
ANPA a palette of 300 colors specified by the American Newspaper Publishers Association for spot color usage in newspapers.
HKS Hostmann-Steinberg Druckfarben, Kast + Ehinger Druckfarben und H. Schmincke & Co. a custom color system containing 120 spot colors and 3250 tones for coated and uncoated paper.
The main benefit of creating a proprietary brand color is that it is unique to the brand thereby enhancing the brand's unique identity. The downside is that the creatives/brand owner are required to create their own system of specifying, communicating, and manufacturing the color.

The main benefit of using colors from a reference custom color palette is that the system of specifying, communicating, and manufacturing the color has already been built. The downside is that the color is not unique to the brand and can be used by others, potentially creating confusion in the marketplace.

When creating a new proprietary custom colors to be used for brand identity keep these technical tips in mind:

1- Humans have very good color discrimination for greens and much less for blues, reds, yellows, and purples.This means that they can more easily distinguish between subtle differences in two similar greens than they can two similar reds. It also means that there are more green custom color options than there are red.

2- In offset lithography, the range of possible greens is larger than that of reds, blues, and oranges

3- Humans have poor color discrimination when hues are very saturated - I.e. saturated colors will tolerate greater variation in reproduction before a color shift is noticed.

4- RGB, CMYK, and Hexadecimal values do not actually define colors because those values are device dependent. I.e. it does not, for example, tell us the specific hue of the Cyan ink being used - a factor that will change depending on the ink manufacturer.A demonstration by Flint ink of the influence on ink color resulting from differences in the substrate upon which the ink is printed.
So, a color defined using CMYK values will also look like a different color when printed on newsprint, in a magazine, or in a brochure due to the differences in the specific CMYK inks used and the substrates they are printed on.
Instead, define the color using CIEL*a*b* reference values since these are device independent. If RGB and/or CMYK values must be provided then make sure that the version or source is included (e.g. sRGB, Adobe 1998 RGB, CMYK/SWOP, CMYK GRACoL 7, etc.) to help minimize variation.

5- Confirm that the proposed custom color is within the color gamut of the expected most used reproduction process.An application like Chromix ColorThink enables the CIEL*a*b* values of the custom color to be compared with the color gamut of the system that will be used to print it and determine if it is reproducible or not - i.e. in, or out of, gamut.
If the custom color is within gamut, it means that it can be simulated by mixing screen tint percentages of the primary inks of the print process.

6- Make sure, by testing, that the ink pigments used in the custom color will not shift hue because of heat e.g. during lamination or react with other inks or to oxygen e.g. Reflex Blue.

7- Avoid using fluorescing agents in the ink.

8- Use certified sample color swatches and CIE L*a*b* values to communicate color globally.Ideally the sample swatches should be as large as possible since the perception of color changes with coverage area. Also include a "Hi-Lo" reference which shows how much darker or lighter the color can be and still be in specification. If possible, include a CIEL*a*b* Delta E value for how far the hue of the color can deviate while still being within specification. Include the information about how the Delta E value is to be calculated (e.g. Delta E 98, Delta E 76, Delta E CMC, etc.)

9- Prevent brand bloat by consolidating/rationalizing custom color libraries. Retire old colors and consolidate colors that are very similar.

Addendum
A number of readers questioned my statement that humans have very good color discrimination for greens and less so for other colors. In the below video Eric Fossum, image sensor engineer and primary inventor of the CMOS sensor used in digital cameras, mentions the color sensitivity of the human eye during a recent talk at Yale University.

I see halftones everywhere!

2011-07-03T15:54:00.000-07:00

Technically speaking, halftone screens are "tessallations" - patterns that cover a surface by the repeated use of a single shape, without gaps or overlapping. And since tessallations are popular decorative items - I end up seeing halftone screens everywhere. Here are a few from a recent trip to Seattle.

A classic Diamond halftone dot

An example of a high lpi traditional Square dot halftone

In contrast to a very low lpi Square dot

Waiting to cross the street I spot a mix of two halftone patterns
At first it appears to be a classic Round dot mixed with a more subtle Square dot halftone
But on closer examination it seems to be an exotic version of Esko's Concentric screening. Interestingly the pixels that make up this sidewalk halftone are round instead of the traditional square shape.

Walking past this building reveals a fine example of
Second order FM/stochastic screening.
Sometimes the final halftone screen is not visible, but instead, you can see the foundation for the halftone. Halftone screen dots are formed by a "threshold" array - basically a pattern made up of 256 shades of gray which determines which pixels are turned on to form the actual dot.
The tones of the granite pillar on this building

Make a great threshold array to create a
Mezzotint halftone (the right half of the photo below - click to enlarge)

The Flipback - challenger to the traditional eBook

2011-06-26T15:52:00.000-07:00

The advance of technology is relentless. With the introduction of "Flipback" technology it may soon begin to erode the domain of traditional eBooks.

The Flipback format is a sideways-bound book with lie-flat binding and is sized to fit in a shirt pocket and optimized for easy one-handed reading.
Flipbacks are comprised of pages rather than bytes and pixels. Their compact size is made possible by the printing of words on wafer-thin onion paper, the same type of paper traditionally used for the printing of Bibles. Like the eBooks it may eventually replace, the Flipback is easily portable but, unlike eBooks, it needs no external power (except for physically turning the pages).

Could this invention kill the entrenched traditional readers like Kindle, Kobo, Nooks, etc?" Only time will tell if consumers are willing to adopt this innovation in reading technology.

Paper size and weight conversions

2011-06-21T15:51:00.000-07:00

In North America, the default paper size is "Letter" size while outside North America, the default paper size is A4.

ISO 216 - Standard Metric Paper Sizes
Standard North American Sizes
Paper weights

There are two terms commonly used to describe paper weight:
• Basis Weight  The basis weight of a paper is based on the weight of 500 sheets,  measured in pounds, in that paper's basic sheet size. Note that the "basic sheet size" is not the same  for all types of paper which makes comparisons of weight between different papers difficult.
• Caliper  Caliper refers to the thickness of a sheet of paper measured with a micrometer and expressed  in thousandth of an inch. Paper caliper should not vary more than +/- 5% to 7%  within a sheet. Generally, there is a relation between caliper and basis weight in that  the greater the caliper (the thicker the paper), the greater the paper weight. But not always.

Darker colored boxes represent the most common paper weights for that category.This Table was compiled by Micro Format, Inc., Wheeing IL. Used with permission.

The Wayback View - German printshop advertising - circa 1926

2011-06-16T15:49:00.000-07:00

German culture is noted (outside of Germany) for its engineering excellence and its lack of humor. These examples of printshop advertising posters fall into another category - graphic design excellence.

(My very rough translations)

Good print advertising and offset book printing.

Rough poster prints
The offset printing chosen by professionals. Offset papers and cartons.
Imitated but not equalled.

If your advertising needs are putting on the squeeze - we can help.

The paper problem - no specifications

2011-06-06T15:47:00.000-07:00

Typically paper - the most used printing substrate - accounts for some 30-50 percent of the overall print project cost. And despite the fact that it is also often the most expensive component of the final presswork it's surprising that there are no published standards, specifications or trade customs in the paper industry.

The assignment of a particular grade to a quality category and the establishment of sales policies are made by each paper mill based on its own internal evaluation of its products relative to those of its competitors.   That makes direct, objective, competitive comparisons between different papers virtually impossible.  

The color of paper is identified using adjectives like "cream","natural", "white", etc. rather than objective definitions such as the CIEL*a*b* coordinates that printers use. Again, there are no specifications or tolerances provided by mills as to the consistency of a specific paper color either through the stack, roll, or when the same brand is supplied by mills located in different regions.

The brightness of the sheet is one common measure of distinction. It is measured by comparing the amount of light reflected by the paper surface to the amount of the same light reflected by the surface of magnesium oxide established as the standard of 100%. A common term used in quoting the measure is “G.E. brightness,” although G.E. no longer manufactures the measuring instrument. "Brightness" is also not a measurement that printers or buyers can measure themselves. Even though variation is part of every manufacturing process, there are no defined tolerances for paper brightness.

There are no specifications or tolerances or even notification of optical brightener agent content. This has become a major issue as the mills have mostly switched from clay fillers to calcium carbonate. This problem has resulted in the fact that papers today, for the most part, no longer meet the ISO 12647 specification. Papers with optical brighteners are impossible to visually match between printing technologies which can cause severe disconnects between proof and presswork as well as greater color shifting as presswork and proof are viewed under different lighting conditions.

"Caliper" defines the thickness of paper, measured in thousandths of an inch, which can also be expressed as a point size - e.g. If the caliper of a paper measures .009 inches it is a "9 point" stock. As paper caliper varies, presswork color may also vary. But again there are no defined tolerances for paper caliper either through the stack, roll, or across the width or length of the sheet.
If the sheet metal used in car manufacturing was specified and toleranced with the same technical rigor as a sheet of paper is for print manufacturing - the cars would likely be undrivable.

Aurasma - Augmented reality that might replace QR codes?

2011-05-26T15:46:00.000-07:00

After becoming very popular in Asia and Europe, QR codes are just beginning to gain popularity in North America (for more on QR codes click HERE). However a new technology that recognizes images captured by a smart phone or tablet device can do many of the things QR codes can do - without the QR code itself. In this report by the BBC note how the Aurasma technology brings printed materials to life.

A report from the BBC on the Aurasma technology, a 15 second ad precedes the 2 minute video.

A demonstration of Blippar augmented reality which also uses image recognition to bring interactivity to print.
Of course walking around holding out your smart phone as demonstrated in the video may not be a smart idea in some cities.

Things that make me go Grrrrrrrrrrr...

2011-05-17T15:44:00.000-07:00

I don't know if this is a design issue, a labeling issue, a legal issue, or?
Here's an example of a label that makes me go Grrrrrrrrrrr:

A can of Campbell's soup (yum, yum):

Ah, it contains 540mL of soup:

Grrrrrrrrrrr! The ingredients are listed based on 250mL:

Why aren't the ingredients listed based on 540mL (the can contents) or even 270mL (half a can)?
For some reason most soups, not just Campell's, suffer the same ingredient measurement mismatch.

Grrrrrrrrrrr!

At least the label is printed using FM screening. :-)

The Wayback View – When I grow up I want to be a printer

2011-05-08T15:43:00.000-07:00

I wonder how many of today's print shop owners began their careers as the result of presents discovered under the Christmas Tree or given as a reward for achieving yet another birthday.

Yes it's true...Popeye was not just a sailor but a printer as well!
Each kit came with rubber stamps and an ink pad.
The rubber stamps could be used to print in the appropriate cartoon image in the Popeye strip.

Even Pinocchio got into the printer's game.
A Colorforms toy from 1962.

If you were a very lucky boy - the ghost of Benjamin Franklin would be there in spirit as you printed out scores of cards and tickets.
Ben Franklin printer no. 24x, manufactured by Fulton Specialty Co., Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA.
As a printer you could expect the loving gaze of scores of womenfolk admiring your prowess on the press.

But as a printer
Even though you had all the pieces
Every job was a challenge of filling out the blanks.

Ahhh...the promise of fortunes made in printing:

U.S. Postal Service uses wrong art - printer gets the blame

2011-04-29T15:41:00.000-07:00

Why is it that the printer is always blamed when there's an artwork mistake?

Recently the U.S. Postal Service released this new 44 cent stamp:
honoring Liberty Enlightening the World, better known as the Statue of Liberty. The U.S. Postal Service issued a press release about the new stamp stating: "The statue, located on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, was designed by French sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi."

Unfortunately, that is not the statue featured on the stamp. Instead it is a half size replica located in front of he New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas Nevada.
Liberty lighting the way in Las Vegas.
The original on the left and the replica 2,600 miles away in Las Vegas.
The original press release (now updated) makes no mention of the statue shown on the stamp being the Las Vegas replica rather than the New York original.

Unfortunately Time magazine referred to the Post Office error in these words: "Even the Post Office didn't pick up on the printing error" and "perhaps the original message of the stamp has been lost in the misprint" (Click HERE for the full Time magazine story).

It seems that the printer always gets the blame when things go wrong.

Errol H. R. Etienne - April 28, 1941 - April 22, 2011

2011-04-23T15:40:00.000-07:00

I first met Errol Etienne when he had a graphic design studio in Montréal, Québec. My wife was his "mechanical man" and prepared all his camera-ready artwork. He was a profound influence in my attitude towards the graphic arts as he epitomized the complete commercial artist excelling at design, illustration, photography, and typography.
A few pages from "Brown Things" a self promotion book written and illustrated by Errol and screen printed on handmade Japanese paper.
Étienne was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1941, but spent most of his childhood in Québec, Canada. At the age of 27, in 1968, he graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, California.
The "Incredible Fuzzy Wonder Book" a small promotional book featuring various moustachioed celebrities including Errol and partner Jim Carpenter produced during his brief Toronto stay.
In the mid-seventies he moved to Vancouver, Canada, where he did business under the name of the "Frog and Bison" "Frog" being a reference to his years in Montréal, Quebec, and "Bison" for a former associate in Montana. At that time Errol also operated a studio/gallery, the "Frog and Swan" with artist/calligrapher Robin Arkell. Errol embodied no-compromise professionalism: "I don't let people make changes in my work because it's so personal. I know production and what the job needs, and the only thing that's important is the end product. How you get to that is the problem because the only standard is that it must be excellent. There is really is no excuse for a mediocre final product."

Errol's career veered off track in the early 1980s due to illness and it wasn’t until after a liver transplant in 1994 that he could return to his craft, but found the need to work differently in a different market. “When I came out there were computers and everything had changed for graphic designers.” So Errol gave up graphic design work and with his wife Jan became a vagabond and worked in a “mobile studio,” a GMC motorhome that took them across the country, painting, meeting with collectors and selling his work at private shows and small town markets.
"The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long - and you have burned so very, very brightly."

The Wayback View - Printshop business cards

2011-04-05T15:38:00.000-07:00

A few interesting business cards used by printers back in the day.

Today, "Steam Power" is sometimes used to signify an old-fashioned analog workflow. The slogan: "Prices to Suit the Times" perhaps indicates that the pricing goes up and down with the stock market.
Thompson had another steam powered printshop. No need to mention the city where it was located though.

A not very novel way to promote a novelty printer.
At the turn of the 19th Century towns were small enough that there was no need to give the actual address on the business card. Everyone knew where you did business.
If you need packaging for fruit, vegetables, and tigers then this is the printer for you.

Competition - A lesson from the 2002 Olympics

2011-03-14T22:53:00.000-07:00

Competition is at the core of most business ventures - including printing. Sometimes a lesson for success can be learned from other competitive endevors as in this one provided by Steven Bradbury at the 2002 Olympics.

Steven Bradbury (the tall guy) competing at the 2002 Olympics. Click the "Play" arrow to watch this short video.
Proof that it pays to never give up, regardless of how you may be viewing the competition from your current vantage point.

Ghosting

2011-02-18T22:48:00.000-08:00

A printing "ghost" is an unwanted image resulting from the printing system itself. There are basically two kinds: mechanical and chemical.

Mechanical ghosts are usually visible as soon as the press sheet lands in the delivery section of the press. There are three types of mechanical ghosts: starvation, blanket, and plate.

Starvation ghosts

A "light print ghost" appears in large solid or dark halftones either as a light or dark image of another part of the press form. It is caused by the layout of the press sheet elements combined with the limitations of the press inking system.Light print starvation ghost.
This can happen when graphic elements contact the form rollers on the press just ahead of large areas of heavy solid ink coverage. The graphic elements remove more ink from the form roller than the press can make up before these rollers come in contact with the solid. As a result the solid receives less ink in those areas and the graphic elements appear as a light image in the solid.

Strategies to avoid this problem include: rotating or "cocking" the press form relative to the press sheet so that the graphic elements are no longer in the same inking zones, changing the imposition or design to eliminate the problem, running the job on a larger press with greater inking capacity, making sure that water levels are run at a minimum, running on a larger press sheet and adding "take-off" bars - graphic elements - in the non-live image area of the sheet to even out ink usage.

A "dark print ghost" occurs when knocked out graphic elements immediately precede an area of heavy ink coverage.Dark print starvation ghost.
This is the opposite of a light print ghost. Here, the knock out can cause excess ink to remain on rollers in the reverses causing a dark image of the graphic to appear in the large solid.

The same strategies used to avoid a light print ghost are also used to avoid a dark print ghost.

A "plate ghost" or a "blanket ghost" appears when graphic elements intrude into the printing as latent images.Plate/blanket ghost.
This problem usually occurs on multicolor presses where the press form on one of the color units sensitizes the plate of the following color unit. Proper desensitizing of the affected plate and ink adjustments should correct the problem, however, sometimes the plate and/or blanket may need to be replaced.

Comment below submitted by "Otherthoughts"

For what it's worth? The how, why and when that I've used ink take-off bars in the past.

Solid ink Borders were the most prone to a starvation type of mechanical (ghosting?) in my experience, especially PMS spot color borders.

In my sheetfed experience, often there was a bit of space available for ink take-off bars, our standard sheet size was 19" x 25". Despite there being some space available, ink take-off bars were never used to make a job easier running and nicer looking as a matter of course by anyone other than myself. I employed them as a stripper because I knew that the pressman would appreciate the help (being a former pressman myself), and because I knew it would produce a better printed result.

The type of job that really needs them, doesn't come along all that often, here's an example.

Lets say the form below shows a reflex blue to be run as a fifth color. And lets say that the reflex blue borders will trim out to be 1/2" wide on all four edges.Without ink take-off bars, ink usage ranges from 17.125" to 2.125", a ratio of 8 to 1
With ink take-off bars, ink usage ranges from 17.125" to 3.562", a ratio of 4.8 to 1

Layout Details
Limited the bleed at both the gripper and tail to 1/16" each. Butted the pages together at the circumferential center line mark and finally shrunk the Color-bar down to 1/8". This leaves 1 7/16" to implement the take-off bars on a 19" x 25" sheet.

Gripper margin = 00.312
8.5 x 11 x 2 = 17.000
Bleeds x 2 = 00.125
Color bar = 00.125
Total = 17.562

Notes As you well know, ink take-off bars are useful with low total ink coverage scenarios as well, but such scenarios have nothing to do with ghosting/starvation. Regardless, prepress failed to employ ink take-off bars in this scenario just as well. If there was no room for ink take-off bars on a job, we did without them, which was essentially "No Change" from what we did in all cases. :)

Gordo's response

The iconic National Geographic magazine cover border is a great example of this problem - but uses a different solution. They don't have enough space on the press form to add ink take-off bars, so instead, in anticipation of the increase in darkness at the top and bottom of the picture window, they use a screen tint of the solid spot color in those sections of the border.Left: as the cover would print with a solid spot yellow border. Right: as the cover prints with the top and bottom sections of the spot yellow halftone screened.
The screened part of the spot yellow bar gets darker on press due to the mechanical ghosting effect and ends up the same color as the solid yellow on either side.

Chemical ghosts are related to the chemical activity of inks as they go through their normal drying process. Their appearance is usually unpredictable and, unfortunately, become evident only after the job has been printed and in the press delivery pile for a period of time.

Chemical ghosts may appear as reproductions of one side, or part of a press form, in the solid area of another part. Their appearance can be erratic - showing up in one area of the printed sheet but not in a similar or duplicate part. They usually appear as a dull ghost on a glossy background or as a glossy ghost on a duller background.

What makes an ink glossy or dull.

When an ink appears glossy, it is the result of enough ink vehicle forming a film on the surface of the paper to provide a smooth covering layer for the pigment particles in the ink.Graphic representation of the edge of a sheet of paper showing ink pigment particles suspended in the ink vehicle.
When an ink appears dull, it is the result of the ink vehicle draining from the surface into the paper so that the irregularities of the individual pigment particles and paper surface are not covered with a thick enough film of ink vehicle to create a gloss appearance.

How inks dry

When ink is printed on a press it goes through two distinct phases:

1 - Setting - the drainage and leveling of the ink vehicle into the paper coating or fibers. This causes the ink to "gel" and become immobilized.

2 - Oxidation - the polymerization of the ink vehicle into a solid mass creating a hard film.

As the film of ink oxidizes it releases gaseous by-products. As a result, the ink printed on the second side of the press sheet can be exposed to the gaseous by-products from the oxidation of the first side if it is printed at a critical point in the first side's ink drying cycle. Those gasses affect the drying rate of the second side ink selectively as the sheets are stacked in the press's delivery. This results in an ink film that has been immobilized at two very different rates, and therefore has areas of high or low gloss which reflect the image on the other side.Graphic representation of sheets of paper in the delivery of the press showing gaseous by-products released as the ink dries.

The Wayback View – 1984, Newsweek - Apple's Advertising Coup

2011-02-08T22:46:00.000-08:00

Recently the US celebrated two major events - the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan and the 45th Superbowl football game.

While many people are aware of Apple's historic "1984" Superbowl commercial (spoofed by Motorola's Xoom introduction ad in this year's Superbowl) that introduced the Macintosh computer, few are aware that Apple achieved another advertising coup that same year. In the fall of 1984, Apple purchased all of the advertising space in Newsweek magazine's special edition commemorating Ronald Reagan's landslide win of a second term as President. This was the first, and possibly only time that an advertiser has purchased all the advertising space in a magazine.

Below, for the record, are all the ads from that historic Newsweek issue.

Click on images to enlarge

RE:Print – Dealing with the CSR

2011-02-08T22:45:00.000-08:00

The graphic arts vendor tour

2011-02-01T22:43:00.000-08:00

Usually we try to find a graphic arts vendor at a certain location - but sometimes the vendor is the location. So pack your luggage, make sure your camera is loaded with pixels and take a trip to these vendor brand tourist traps.

Dip your toes in pristine placid Agfa Lake located in the State of New York. It's a popular weekend destination since Agfa Lake is a just a short three hour drive from Kodak's headquarters in Rochester NY. Although Agfa Lake bears a similarity to one of the Great Lakes it is not quite on the same scale.
Adobe Arizona is sometimes confused with the much smaller rival town of Double Adobe which is also in Arizona. Adobe has a certain sameness to it that is shared by many Arizona towns. Interestingly there are no working bridges in Adobe.
Canon is a city in Franklin County, Georgia, United States. For some reason there's a great deal of statistical information on the internet about Canon (the city). Population is about 755, and there are 315 households, 221 families, and 361 housing units. The racial makeup of the city was 94.97% White, 2.52% African American, 0.13% Native American, 0.26% Asian, 0.66% from other races, and 1.46% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.19% of the population. And on and on and on.
Although it's a small city, it hosts a lot of newspapers including the American Union, The Free Press and the Universalist Herald, the Franklin County Register, and the Canon Echo. So, despite there being a great deal of Canon printing the name may not always be top of mind when one thinks of print.

Esko is an unincorporated community in Carlton County, Minnesota, United States. Most of the residents are descendants of Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish immigrants who settled the area during the early 20th Century.
In the year 2000, the population of Esko was approximately 4100. For some undocumented reason the population has been steadily increasing over the last several years. Although once Esko gets incorporated that growth may not continue.
Fuji is located on the banks of the Fuji River and enjoys a warm maritime climate with hot, humid summers and mild, cool winters. The city has been home to numerous paper factories including Nippon Paper Industries (former Daishowa Paper Industries) and Oji Paper Company since the Meiji period. It is also known for producing a few well known soccer players.
Heidelberg probably has the largest geographical tourism footprint of all considering there's a Heidelberg Germany:
A Heidelberg, Mississippi:
A Heidelberg, Pennsylvania:
And even a Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia.You might say that if Heidelberg is on your itinerary, you've got a complete tourist experience with one destination.

Kodak is actually a very tiny community in Tennessee. There's a street intersection where two different roads cross each other:And a "Trade Center"And that's about all that's left.

Screen, in Ireland, is popular with tourists, but it often appears on maps under a different name - which can make travel a bit confusing. Some maps don't list it at all and even satellite images of Screen try to blur the location.
Xerox is a community in Florida that can be a bit hard to find since most communities in Florida are just duplicates of each other while internet travel sites try to point searches to Xerox offices instead.

Rich black - the problem of black in presswork

2011-01-26T16:46:00.000-08:00

Like all process color inks, the black ink that is used in 4/C printing is transparent. As such it cannot cover ink, or black out the paper, as thoroughly as one might hope. Instead, black ink by itself actually appears to the eye as ranging from an apparent black when it's used to cover very small areas to just a dark grey when it covers large areas.Even though it appears greyer, the box on the right is the same printed 100% black as the text on the right.
The solution to the problem of grey blacks is to boost blackness by printing other inks under the black ink. This effectively darkens the brightness of the paper over which the black ink will be applied thus making the black "blacker."

Blacker black strategies

There are several ways to making a black blacker:

1) Apply a screen tint of a process color - magenta or cyan down before the black.

2) Apply a mix of process colors - cyan, magenta, and yellow down before the black.

3) Apply two hits of black ink.

The first option is sometimes called a "rich" black, while the second is called a "super" black, and the third a "double black."

With a Rich black the other process ink is usually a 60% tone of cyan. This causes the black to appear “blacker” because the second ink color increases its density. It also makes the black "bluer" which adds to the darker appearance. A 60% magenta could be used instead of cyan to impart a warmer appearing black.Left: 100K/60M. Center: 100K. Right: 100K/60C.
Rich blacks are typically used whenever the image is larger than 1 square inch and smaller than about 9 square inches in area.

A Super black, where 3 process colors underlie the black, is typically used when the black area is larger than about 9 square inches in area. The typical screen percentages are: 50% cyan, 40% magenta, 40% yellow, and 100% black.Left: 100K. Right: 100K/50C/40M/40Y.
In contrast to using a single process color, this screen tint combination preserves the neutral appearance of the black. This screen ink combination also means that the maximum amount of ink in the black amounts to just 230% coverage which should not cause any on-press issues like excessive drying times.

Unfortunately a Super black can be problematic on press because it is used for large black areas while at the same time using the same inks that are used for the color-critical image areas. That can cause a conflict on press if ink densities need to be adjusted to align the image colors with the proof while keeping the Super black neutral and at the correct density. To solve that problem, printers may opt to use two hits of black ink. The first black ink is tied to the CMY of the images, while the second black is independent of the image. That allows the press operator to adjust the CMYK inks as necessary to get good color on the images with the second black ink only being applied where a large area of black is needed. The downside to this strategy is that it turns a 4/C job into a 5/C job (CMYKK) which may increase production costs.

The black booby trap

On a computer monitor, there is only one way to represent black - the screen is black when there is no light coming from the display. So a 100% black, a Rich black, a Super black, and two hits of black will all appear the same on screen.A 100% black bar, a Rich black bar, a Super black or, two hits of black ink all appear the same on screen.
100% black bar as it appears in print if it is set to "knock out" of the background image.
100% black bar as it appears in print if it is set to overprint the background image.
A Rich black bar - 100%K/60C as it appears in print. The 60% C not only serves to darken the black but it also knocks out the background image which eliminates any "ghost" images caused when black simply overprints a background image.
Because the on-screen appearance of the black may appear the same despite being made up of different screen tint combinations it is critical that the Rich, or Super black be clearly identified as such in the custom color menus of page layout and illustration applications. Create the color and name it according to its function and make up. E.g. Black for standard process black, "RichBlack 100K60C" and "SuperBlack 100K50C40M40Y"

From pressed steel toys to presswork

2011-01-22T16:44:00.000-08:00

Recently I purchased a 1940s toy dump truck at auction.

Doing a little research on the background of the toy I discovered that "Lincoln Specialties", or as it was more commonly known, "Lincoln Toys" has an interesting connection with printing. The company that made it - "Kay Manufacturing" - was founded by father and son team, Haven and Fredrick Kimmerly in Windsor Ontario. With the Second World War raging in Europe, business was good and they received government contracts to build ammunition boxes and truck fenders for the Canadian Army. Their products also included bicycle carriers and kickstands as well as automobile visors and the ultra-collectible steel "Coca-Cola" licensed coolers.

But as the wartime economy slowed down new products were needed to replace the loss of government contracts. They decided to focus the company's efforts on the burgeoning post-war baby-boom toy market. So, the Kimmerlys set up "Lincoln Specialties" in 1946 in order to market their new "Windsor Steel"-made products and by 1953 the toy selection had grown to over 24 different styles of trucks in three different sizes and two different cab designs.

Unfortunately, despite their succeses, increased foreign competition and unsuccessful bids to win back automotive contracts that were abandoned during the toy boom forced Lincoln Specialties out of business in 1959.

Fredrick Kimmerly (1920 - 1985), who was always artistically inclined, had admired how printers had lithographed the decals on his trucks and the products they carried.So, in 1968 he launched Standard Printing as a family owned business specializing in thermography, and embossing. The business continues to this day under the stewardship of Fredrick's eldest son Paul, his wife Lori and their two children.Sadly, Paul does not own a Lincoln toy himself - but he does own the original English pressed steel toy that served as the prototype for the now, highly, collectible Lincoln toy trucks.

Speckles in presswork - secret of the yellow dots

2011-01-18T16:43:00.000-08:00

Most manufacturers of laser toner printers have embedded within them a technology that leaves microscopic yellow dots on each printed page. The dots are intended to identify the date and time of the printed sheet (if known by the printer itself) as well as the printer's serial number in order to identify the owner and location of the printer.
On the left, a close up of the "secret" yellow laser dots. On the right the same dots viewed under a blue light to enhance contrast and visibility.
The dots, which are normally invisible to the naked eye, form a code which is used by authorities such as the U.S. Secret Service to investigate the printing of counterfeit money made with laser printers.
The secret yellow dots are typically too small to be seen at normal viewing distances.
The yellow dots are a bit larger than the halftone dots used to create the actual image.
Unfortunately, if the laser printer is not calibrated properly, or depending on the design of the graphic being printed, the yellow dots may be dark enough to be visible. Also, the dots may affect the reporting integrity of color measurement instruments – e.g. a cyan patch intended to be 100% cyan only may contain yellow security dots and cause a slight green shift.

A Manifesto for Manufacturers

2011-01-13T17:57:00.000-08:00

The Unwritten Laws of Engineering by California engineer W. Julian King was first published in 1944 as three articles in Mechanical Engineering magazine. It has been in print as a book ever since. Recent editions, including a trade version, The Unwritten Laws of Business, have revisions and additions by James G. Skakoon. The Unwritten Laws are not about engineering, but about behavior and contain sound advice for any business and its employees.

A Manifesto for Manufacturers

HOWEVER MENIAL and trivial your early assignments may appear, give them your best efforts.

DEMONSTRATE the ability to get things done.

DEVELOP a “Let’s go see!” attitude.

DON’T be timid – speak up – express yourself and promote your ideas

STRIVE for conciseness and clarity in oral or written reports; be extremely careful of the accuracy of your statements.

ONE of the first things you owe your supervisor is to keep them informed of all significant developments.

DO NOT overlook the steadfast truth that your direct supervisor is your “boss”.

BE as particular as you can in the selection of your supervisor.

WHENEVER you are asked by your manager to do something, you are expected to do exactly that.

CULTIVATE the habit of seeking other peoples’ opinions and recommendations.

PROMISES, schedules, and estimates are necessary and important instruments in a well-ordered business.

IN DEALING with customers and outsiders, remember that you represent the company, ostensibly with full responsibility and authority.

DO NOT try to do it all yourself.

EVERY manager must know what goes on in their domain.

CULTIVATE the habit of “boiling matters down” to their simplest terms.

CULTIVATE the habit of making brisk, clean-cut decisions.

LEARN PROJECT MANAGEMENT skills and techniques, then apply them to the activities that you manage.

MAKE SURE that everyone – managers and subordinates – has been assigned definite positions and responsibilities within the organisation.

MAKE SURE that all activities and all individuals are supervised by someone competent in the subject matter involved.

NEVER MISREPRESENT a subordinate’s performance during performance appraisals.

MAKE it unquestionably clear what is expected of employees.

YOU OWE it to your subordinates to keep them properly informed.

NEVER MISS a chance to commend or reward subordinates for a job well done.

ALWAYS ACCEPT full responsibility for your group and the individuals in it.

ONE OF the most valuable personal traits is the ability to get along with all kinds of people.

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE the extent of your professional responsibility and personal liability.

LET ETHICAL BEHAVIOR govern your actions and those of your company.

BE AWARE of the effect that your personal appearance and behavior have on others and, in turn, on you.

BEWARE of what you commit to writing and of who will read it.

ANALYSE yourself and your subordinates.

MAINTAIN your employability as well as that of your subordinates.

Thanks to blog reader "Alois Senefelder" who suggested this Manifesto be posted in Quality in Print.

Specks in presswork - ink in the non-image area

2011-01-11T16:41:00.000-08:00

Press operators are often seen bent over a press sheet examining it under a loupe. One of the things they should be looking for, but often miss, are specks of ink appearing in the non-image area of the presswork.A 20x enlargement of solid ink patches showing small speckles in what should be unprinted paper. The pale thin lines are paper fibers.
(Click on image to enlarge)
A 200x enlargement of the above image showing the small speckles of ink more clearly. The pale thin lines are paper fibers.
(Click on image to enlarge)
There are several possible causes of this problem.

Tinting (also called toning). This is caused by contamination of the fountain solution by either ink, or some coloring matter from the ink. Since fountain solution is all over the non image area, any coloration will be likewise. It is usually caused by the fountain solution breaking down the ink but it can also be caused by the plate. Usually though, tinting will appear more like a very pale wash of color over the non-image area rather than discrete specks of ink on an otherwise clear background.

Redeposit. This occurs when specks of developed/removed coating are re-deposited onto the plates later in the processing cycle. It's typically due to dirty rollers or contaminated rinse water, but can be exacerbated by hard water in the rinse or improper exit roller pressures (allowing more developer to carry-over into the rinse). These specks of coating adhere to the plate and accept ink and print on press.

Incomplete processing Problems with the mechanics of the plate processor like bad brushes and/or pressure may not scrub the plate well enough to remove the particles of coating from the unexposed areas of the plate. Typically though, there would be a more general toning in those cases (but not always).

In general, if the specks appear only in one color then that press unit is more likely the cause of the specks and it's also more likely that the problem is tinting/toning. However, if the specks appear in all four colors then it is more likely that the plates are the cause of the problem and it's important that the press operator inform prepress about the issue.

From the print buyer's point of view, there will likely always a few specks appearing in the non-image areas of presswork. If this is a critical concern, as in security printing, then it is best to discuss the issue with the print supplier and perhaps agree to what would be an acceptable number of specks per square inch/centimeter.

Predictions for 2011 - well, specifically about the print industry

2010-12-31T16:38:00.000-08:00

Interestingly there don't seem to be many pundits going out on a limb and making predictions for what will be the big issues in print in 2011. So I've gathered what little I could find (even if they're a bit weird), edited them for brevity, and added a few of my own.

Gartner: Predictions for 2011 an [sic] Beyond

Each year Gartner puts the focus on the decline in pages and stagnation of printer shipments, but yet they state “the value of print continues to increase. When done well, print is a key revenue-generating component of multimedia communications.”

Key Predictions:

• Cloud Printing Services (CPS) "anywhere, anytime access" will drive rapid acceptance by global 1,000 companies.
• More and more, the growth of electronic communications, especially voice and video, will also cut directly into the print market, reducing its revenue by 10% by the end of 2014. By 2014, 90% of global 1,000 companies will implement CPS for mobile personnel.
• In the office environment, managed print services (MPS), which reduce costs and improve workflows, is accelerating growth to the point that more than 50% of large organizations worldwide will employ MPS by 2015 to purchase and manage their print assets.
• Combined with other practices such as "pull printing," CPS can simplify IT support requirements and drive cost savings as well as user acceptance by effectively separating a computer's or mobile device's operating system from the print function. By 2015, 50% of office printing will entirely or partially circumvent the queuing and routing in Windows or another OS.
• By 2014, screen and application sharing and increased voice and video content will decrease printed page volumes by 10%.

2012 Doomsday Predictions: 2009-2012 Development Trend of Global Printing Industry

• By 2011, North America and Europe print market share will drop to 28% and 31%. Asia and other parts of the market share will increase to 30% and 11%, while the total value will exceed 720 billion U.S. dollars.
• In 2010, digital printing's share of the total increased to 14%. By 2020, about half of the world’s printed materials will go to digital presses for production. Variable data printing will be the main driving force for the industry.

Print Asia - Speculative predictions for the next decade

• The industry continues to be fragmented and without coherent leadership. By 2014 the industry will actually put forward a new generation of real print industry leaders that can think about the industry from beyond their own individualistic point of view.

Kendall Press Blog - 2011 Predictions for Marketing, Printing and Business Communications

1. People wanting to talk to people.
Out- impersonal phone trees and online form fill ins
In - tools - old and new that let individuals connect quickly and directly.

2. Customers Rule
Out - marketers pushing product, cookie cutter approaches, preaching
In - listening, helping, providing content of value to the consumer, preferably free but always fast ("in real time") and accurate

itdonutblog.co.uk/ - predictions for 2011 (desktop printers)

• The future is in the cloud. You won’t just be able to create and edit documents stored in the cloud, but you’ll also be able to send them to any printer you have permission to print on, from wherever you are located.
• There are additional features planned for printers such as newspaper feeds, where you can subscribe to your desired newspaper and have it printed at home ready for your morning cup of tea.
• Some new printers now have a high definition a digital camera built in. These can scan pages in less than a second, so look out for them in the next year.
• Expect the next year to be focused on smartphone and tablet connectivity.

My own predictions for 2011

I'm not sure if these are predictions or wishes for the new year or just rants.

• Desktop inkjet printer sales will go down as consumers do not replace the ones they have bought but don't use because of the ridiculous price of ink. I recycled my Epson printer in 2010 and do not intend to replace it since I can't afford the ink it takes to unclog the thing.
• Truth in advertising will continue to fail the consumer when it comes to marketing desktop printers.
• Government labeling regulations will continue to fail the consumer when it comes to desktop printer ink cartridge contents.
• Government anti-monopoly regulations will continue to fail the consumer when it comes to having a choice in ink suppliers.
• By 2012 the peak in large digital press sales will have occurred. Printers that were in the market to buy one have already done so. Vendors, banking on the sale of those large presses, will not be happy.
• The vendor and industry pundit mantra that the only future for print shops is in becoming a "full marketing services supplier" will be recognized to be the marketing hype that it is.
• Industry professional organizations will continue to fumble about and make member golf outings their priority.
• What few graphic arts schools will continue to graduate students prepared for jobs that vanished the day they first enrolled.
• By 2015 there will no longer be any print trade shows in North America.
• Graphic equipment vendors will hit the technical wall - it's not going to get any better because it's good enough as it is, and it's fast enough already, and even if it was cheaper no one can afford it anyway.
• QR codes will finally take root in North America (and won't need an explanation when they're printed).
• More people will quit Facebook than sign up.
• The "cloud" will arrive, settle, put everyone in a fog and when it dissipates it won't be mist.
• Most print shops will quietly go on with business as usual.

Calcium carbonate - the problem with better quality paper

2010-12-19T16:36:00.000-08:00

Calcium carbonate is used as a filler in the basesheet and in the paper coating as a pigment. It provides brightness and a more blue-white shade than clay does. Calcium carbonate is used in neutral or alkaline paper making, which results in a more permanent sheet than acid paper making by reducing the yellowing and brittleness of paper as it ages.Trace amounts of calcium carbonate can even be found in some ink formulations where it is used as an extender. Higher levels are typically present in magenta ink. Calcium carbonate buidup on the blanket often shows up as a hole in the center of halftone dots - especially in smaller, or highlight, dots as in the example above.
The upside in the move from acid (clay filler) to alkaline (calcium carbonate filler)
Unsurprisingly, the benefits of calcium carbonate has resulted in a move, that began in Europe, from acid paper toward alkaline paper.

Alkaline paper provide several advantages over acid paper:

• It's less polluting to the environment
• Has better permanence
• Provides improved sheet strength
• Uses fewer trees per ton of paper produced
• Has increased opacity and brightness
• Faster ink set for quicker turn around
• A more cost-effective paper manufacturing process

Today, almost all of the North American uncoated wood-free sheet capacity uses an alkaline or neutral papermaking process with calcium carbonate as a filler and pigment.

The downside
However, alkaline papers can create a whole set of printing issues for printers. Calcium compounds can leach out of the paper during the printing process. This leaching out can be exacerbated by highly acidic or overly aggressive fountain solutions especially on uncoated papers. When this happens, the calcium carbonate pigments migrate to the upper form roller. Once there, they are milled into the ink and dispersed throughout the dampening system build up and may overwhelm the printing system.

The impact of calcium carbonate leaching can include:

• Tinting on the printed sheets
• Toning on the plate
• Blanket piling and picture framing effect
• Build-up on non-image area of the plate weakening receptivity of water (scumming)
• Roller glazing
• Contamination of fountain solution and increase pH and conductivity
• On negative plates, the calcium carbonate crystals from the paper (two to three microns in diameter) may accumulate on small dots and cause blinding.

Calcium carbonate issues are most often experienced in high volume web printing with uncoated paper where calcium carbonate is used as a relatively unsealed basestock filler.

Symptoms of calcium carbonate contamination may include:

• Progressively poor ink transfer usually seen as dot sharpening
• Ink roller stripping
• Fountain solution progressively becoming more alkaline (if it's not buffered for alkalinity).
• High conductivity gain of fountain solution
• Excessive foaming of fountain solution.
• Build-up of calcium on the ink rollers. This typically appears as a white haze which is not easily removed with conventional roller wash.
• Calcium deposition on the blanket surface (a white haze which cannot easily be removed by plain water) which interferes with the ability of the blanket to transfer ink properly and print a sharp dot with clean background.
• Build-up or piling in the non-image area of the blanket.
• Progressive toning or scumming as a result of increased alkalinity, poor water receptivity, poor ink transfer, and accelerated plate wear.
• The sizing particles attached to the calcium carbonate pigments may activate the ink driers prematurely, resulting in either plate scumming or plate blinding with blanket and roller glaze impeding the transfer of ink which in turn necessitate frequent, but ineffective, wash-ups.
• Problems specifically with magenta or red pigmented inks.

TRONitized - the influence of TRON on graphic art (well mine anyway)

2010-12-13T16:34:00.000-08:00

In 1982 Disney released the seminal movie TRON, a film which wasn't a large commercial success but did become a cult favorite.It was a very different world back then. Mobile phones were the size of briefcases and very few people had access to a "real" computer but settled instead for machines like the Commodore VIC-20 and the Atari 400/800. If you didn't know what a spreadsheet or word processor was, then at least you play video games on the device.

TRON was the first film to really expose people to the potential of computer graphics and at the time had a big impact on my graphic design and illustration work.State of the art computer graphics when TRON was released.
What impressed most people about TRON were the glow effects. That is what they thought were the computer effects. But in reality the glow effects were done with old-fashioned non-digital methods which I was able to recreate in my basement photo studio.Recreating the TRON glow: from left bottom layer to right top layer: lith film negative, 1/4" thick frosted glass, colored acetate gel, lith film positive.
Photographing all the layers in register from directly overhead using an old vegetable crate turned into a lightbox created the glow "computer graphic" effect.
If needed, a second exposure (with a lith film mask) using a special lens filter (sometimes homemade using nylon stockings) would add a little sparkle.
It was a vary tedious process as I first had to plan then create the artwork. I used 2 1/4" x 2 3/4" film in a special holder on my 4"x5" view camera. Each image required several exposures depending on the complexity of the final effect. There was no way to preview how the final image would look, so the exposed film would be taken for processing late at night so that it would be ready for viewing the next morning. If anything was wrong, any small error in registration, or exposure, or a spec of dust in the image meant that it would have to be reshot.

Despite the complexity of the process, my illustration style based on this technique:
Was used for corporate brochures:
As well as the early promotions for Vancouver's 1986 World's Fair:
And product brochures:
Magazine covers:
And various editorial illustration applications:
Universally, art directors thought that I was a real wizard of computer graphics and was able to give them the high-tech look they were after - even though, secretly, all I used was hand drawn art mixed in with some old-school photographic film trickery.

TRON: Legacy will be released to theaters December 17, 2010.

A billion dollar printing fiasco - U.S. $100 bills made worthless by a "printing" error.

2010-12-09T16:33:00.000-08:00

Was it a failure of basic print quality control?

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Engraving and Printing has identified a problem in the new security enhanced $100 note. Apparently the notes have blank patches caused by "sporadic creasing of the paper" which were discovered only after the printing was completed.The Bureau's current visual print quality control system may be inadequate for the demands of this new level of security printing.
1.1 billion of the new bills have been printed but officials don’t know exactly how many of those bills are flawed. There is, however, speculation that as many as 30% of the bills are affected. It's estimated by officials that sorting the bills by hand could take 20-30 years. While sorting using a mechanized system may cut the time down to just one year.

Fed officials are working with staff from Crane and Co, suppliers to the US government of currency paper since 1879, to solve the problem. Crane and Co. have denied that the paper they supplied is the cause of the Fed's troubles.

Although the Bureau is now looking into automated inspection to find the defective bills, it does seem strange that, apparently, they don't already use an automated inline full press sheet inspection system.

Printing, inspecting, and packaging of defective $100 bills at the U.S. Federal Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
This problem means that the Federal Reserve will not have sufficient inventories to begin distributing the new $100 notes as planned and will instead be printing more of the old style bills in order to meet demand. One only hopes that the Fed will implement more stringent quality controls when reprinting the old style notes.The old style bills will be pressed back into service until the defective new bills are found and destroyed.
"I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong."
Benjamin Franklin - whose portrait graces the $100 bill was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and a noted author, inventor, and most importantly a printer.

Printing plates

2010-12-01T16:31:00.000-08:00

Inspired by the previous post I've continued on the automotive theme and discovered personalized car license plates - a.k.a. "vanity" plates. They are a great way to publicize your deep involvement in the graphics communications industry. Here are a few examples to inspire:
Here are a few more sent to me from Dan Pierce. Thank you!
And courtesy of Kevin P. Keane at IAPHC, The Graphic Professionals Resource Network:

If car manufacturing was toleranced the same way as printing color.

2010-11-18T16:29:00.000-08:00

No manufacturing process can be absolutely 100% perfect - so every manufacturing process allows for some degree of variation from specifications. For practical and economic reasons, they all have a certain "tolerance for variation."

So, what if car manufacturing was toleranced the same way as printing color?

Car salesman to purchaser: "You've made a great choice of car model!

Now, this model does come in a choice of parts manufacturing tolerance. First off we offer "pleasing parts fit." It's our best price/value option - after all who cares about real precision except those calculator obsessed engineers anyway? Forget Delta E - we're talking Delta Wheee! with this baby.

The next level up in fit quality is our popular "memory parts fit" model. This puppy is based on our assembler's memory of how the parts should fit. You can be confident about our memory parts fit option because all of our parts assemblers are memory-tested by the factory certified psychiatrist and must have memorized their multiplication tables up to at least 5 times 5. They also need to repeat from memory, with no outside help or notes, at least one of two telephone numbers.

And finally, we offer our very best parts fit option, the "critical fit." This is for the truly discerning buyer. Perhaps someone like you? For critical fit we use the best instruments available to assure a parts fit that meets, and even exceeds industry standards and specifications. Of course, purchasing this option is a bit more complex than our other parts fit, because we will need to work together to determine whether you would like the instruments to use the 1975, 1998, 2001, Six Degrees of Observer, perceptually measured or absolutely measured parts fit method. But, just between you and me, I have to disclose that our parts assemblers do sometimes ignore any standard reference you might embed in the purchase order. However, I'm sure that, in the unlikely case that you are not satisfied with the fit of all the parts in your car, a small discount in price will be sure to remedy your concerns and gain acceptance of final delivery!

We can assure you that with any option you choose we offer a World Class product that has been extensively tested, accredited and delivered around the globe. If the label on the box has our name, you are guaranteed the same high performance every time. Our competition cannot match us! They have no idea how we do it. And because you are such a nice person, we're going to throw in, absolutely free* an over all gloss finish** that'll really make it shine!***. So let's sit down and figure out just what it's going to take to put you in the presswork driver's seat."

E Ink Color Display - handicapped because of a fundamental color mistake?

2010-11-14T16:27:00.000-08:00

E Ink Inc. whose Pearl greyscale displays are used in all the major e-reader devices have introduced a color e-paper display. If successful it may also compete against the new class of tablet computers such as Apple's iPad.

But is the color display handicapped because its engineers made a fundamental mistake in color technology?

E Ink's new Triton display will come in 5-, 7-, and 10-inch varieties, and E Ink seems to think that it will be instrumental in establishing digital newspapers and periodicals.It is claimed to be able to display “thousands of colors,” specifically 4096. However the color is extremely desaturated even in their carefully presented marketing materials. The display's lack of color saturation may actually reveal the cause of the problem.

How the display works

E Ink is short for “electrophoretic ink”. Technically speaking, charged pigments suspended in a clear liquid micro-capsule respond to a voltage that moves black or white pigments to the screen’s foreground.The technology differs from traditional displays because electrophoretic displays reflect light, rather than emitting it. Whereas computer displays and mobile phone screens rely on a backlight to illuminate pixels of different colors, E Ink technology leverages ambient light just like ink on paper.

With the E Ink Triton color configuration, a thin transparent colored filter array (CFA) is added in front of the black and white display. Now the display can also reflect color.The CFA consists four sub-pixels – red, green, blue, and
white – that are combined to create a full-color pixel. The result? A low-power, direct-sunlight, readable color ePaper display.

So what's the problem?

Emissive color displays like those used in LCD computer displays and televisions are based on the additive color model and use red, green, and blue light to produce the other colors. Combining one of these additive primary colors with another in equal amounts produces the additive secondary colors cyan, magenta, and yellow. Combining all three primary lights (colors) in equal intensities produces white. Varying the luminosity of each light (color) eventually reveals the full gamut of those three lights (colors).The additive color model used by emissive color displays uses combinations of red, green, and blue primaries.
On the other hand, reflective color displays like newspapers and magazines use the subtractive color model which starts with light, presumably white light. Colored inks, or filters, between the viewer and the reflective surface subtract wavelengths from the light, giving it color. In most color printing, the primary ink colors used are cyan, magenta, and yellow.The subtractive color model used by reflective color displays uses combinations of cyan, magenta, and yellow primaries.
E Ink's Triton color display, although a reflective device, uses the primary colors of emissive devices - red, green, and blue rather than cyan, magenta, and yellow. The result is very poor color saturation and very much reduced color gamut.Triton color display screen captures - note the absence of Yellow - a color that cannot be achieved with combinations of red, green, and blue filters in a reflective, subtractive color-based display system.

An E Ink video explaining the RGB(!) display technology.
Did the engineers made a fundamental mistake in their choice of color technology?

Odd spot - The graphic arts reflected in crate labels

2010-11-10T16:26:00.000-08:00

I was rummaging through images of vintage vegetable and fruit crate labels when I suddenly realized that a number of them reflected topics related to the graphic arts topics. Weird or what?

RE:Print – What is Print?

2010-11-07T16:24:00.000-08:00

Click image to embiggen.

The Wayback View - Continuous tone lithography - the Collotype process

2010-11-04T16:22:00.000-07:00

Look at any modern presswork under a loupe and you'll see those ubiquitous halftone dots. Even inkjet presses use dots to create the final image.

However, there is a printing process that eliminates halftone screening completely and renders true continuous tone lithography.On the left is a full image of a 12" x 18" reproduction of a Mondrian painting. On the right is a close-up of just the center of the image. No halftone dots!
Collotype (a.k.a. photo-gelatin, heliotype, albertype, litchdruck, phototypie process)

Collotype is a photographic method of producing a lithographic printing surface in gelatin in which tones can be reproduced without the use of any halftone screen. This reproduction method was devised about 1860 by a Mr. Poitevin and introduced commercially in 1867 under the name "phototypie" by du Motay and Maréchal.

Although it initially became a widely used process, it was very difficult to control and not suited for long press runs. As a result, it was replaced by conventional offset lithography (with its halftone screening) and became a specialized process that was mostly used for fine art reproductions. Today, there are only a very few printers using this process (e.g. Black Box Collotype Ltd in the U.S. and Benrido in Japan).

Collotype printing

The collotype plate is made by coating a plate of glass, or sometimes metal, with a substrate composed of gelatin or other colloid and hardening it. Then it is coated with a thick coat of bichromated gelatin and dried carefully at a controlled temperature (a little over 50° C waters) so it 'reticulates' or breaks up into a finely grained pattern when washed later in approximately 16° C water. The plate is then exposed in contact with the negative using an ultraviolet (UV) light source which changes the ability of the exposed gelatine to later absorb water. The plate is developed by carefully washing out the bichromate salt and dried without heat. The plate is left in a cool dry place to cure for 24 hours before using it to print.Exposing the film negative This view is of the back of the camera which is set at a right angle to the original art.

An artist/retoucher works on the film negative to make adjustments to the tones of the negative so that they will create a plate that accurately reproduces the original art. With a full color reproduction, all four, or more, negatives will have to be corrected.

The glass plate being exposed.

A photo-electric cell is used to test the tone and color density.
To produce prints, the plate is dampened with a glycerine/water mixture which is slightly acidic , then blotted before inking with Collotype ink using a leather or velvet roller. A hard finished paper such as Bristol, is then put on top of the plate and covered with a tympan before being printed typically using a manual proof press.
Two views of a Collotype press.
The result is a reproduction that is indistinguishable from a photographic print.Full image and magnified to show the detail.
Collotype printing at Benrido, Japan:
Steps demonstrated include; exposing the art to film, processing and inspecting the film negative, retouching the negative, coating, drying and then exposing the plate to the negative, washing the plate to remove excess bichromate, wetting the plate and making the image level prior to inking, and finally printing the job.
The closest modern equivalent to producing continuous tone lithographic printing is 10 micron FM screening which, even under 10x magnification, appears to not have been halftone screened as in the example below:Canadian postage stamps are an excellent example of 10 micron FM screening that results in presswork with a similar image fidelity to Collotype printing.

How AM and FM screening equivalencies are measured

2010-10-28T12:25:00.000-07:00

I'm often asked about what AM/XM halftone screens are equivalent to a certain FM screen - i.e. "What AM/XM screen is equivalent to a 20 micron FM screen?"

There are two ways that this halftone screening equivalency is usually measured.

One is equivalency of detail rendering - the ability of the screening to render image detail. The other is lithographic equivalency - how they perform on press lithographically. Note that in both cases, because the respective screening technology is so different, equivalency can only be an approximation.

Equivalency of detail rendering
Since halftone dots form the printed image - more dots per linear inch translates into more detail that can be rendered.

With an AM screen the detail rendering ability is specified in lpi (or lpc) - i.e. halftone dots per inch (e.g. 175 lpi or 60 lpc).

Since an FM screen has no "lines per inch" determining the equivalent detail rendering equivalency is usually done by drawing a line through the FM screen and counting how many dots are intersected (crossed) in a distance of one inch.Measuring the relative lpi of an FM screen.
The above example shows an FM screen enlarged. The distance measured is 1/16th of an inch. In that 1/16th of an inch approximately 36 dots are intersected. So, in one inch about 576 dots would be intersected (16 x 36). Put another way, there are 576 dots per linear inch - 576 lpi - to render detail, i.e. this FM screen is equivalent to a 576 lpi AM/XM screen.

Lithographic equivalency
Lithographic equivalency is a bit more complicated to figure out. It is usually measured by counting the number of edges (transitions) in a square inch.Measuring the number of edges of an AM/XM screen.
Measuring the number of edges of an FM screen.
Halftone screens with a similar number of edge transitions will have similar lithographic properties.

AM/XM equivalents of some popular FM screens.
Keep in mind, these are approximations only, however they do give a good indication as to screening performance.

The Job Interview

2010-10-23T12:24:00.000-07:00

One of the most challenging aspects of working at a hi-tech company is actually getting the job in the first place. When I was hired by the graphic arts company Creo, in 1997, I not only faced the usual human resources questions, but also a slew of engineer-developed questions intended to reveal the job applicant's thinking process and how they went about solving problems.

Here are a few of the questions that prospective Creo employees had to negotiate back in '97. Unfortunately, except for the one about drawing a bicycle, I haven't a clue what the answers to the other questions are. I wouldn't be surprised if the engineers asking the questions didn't have a clue either!

• What color is crab's (or shrimp's) blood and why?
• Please draw a bicycle in as much detail as you can.Job applicants draw a bicycle - luckily they don't have to ride it.
• How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator? Now, how do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?
• There is a square room. In each corner is a bug. Each has a mission: to walk directly towards the bug on its right. They walk at the same speed and begin at the same time.  a) Do they ever meet? If yes, where?  b) What is the length of the path they travel if they do meet?
• What is the sum of all numbers between 1 and 100?
• A company grows trees. Each year the tree grows, it can be cut down and sold for $1 times the square of its age in years. At that point, the money can be put into the bank and will receive 10% interest per year. To maximize profit, should the company ever cut down and sell a tree? If so, at what age?

OK, if you’ve read this far you may be scratching your head and wondering if you should have applied somewhere else. Well, let’s look closer at one of the questions – the one about putting a giraffe in a refrigerator – to see how the engineer’s subtle mind works during the interview process.The correct answer is pretty straightforward: open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe, and close the door. Any other solution would suggest that you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way. Now, how do you put an elephant into a refrigerator? If you said: open the refrigerator, put in the elephant, and close the door – well that would be wrong. The right answer is: open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door. This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your previous actions.

If the engineers were particularly rascally during the interview, they might follow up with another question like the one about the Lion King hosting an animal conference. Apparently all the animals attend the conference except one. So, which animal was that? Well obviously, at least for an Einstein anyway, the correct answer is the elephant since you just put him in the refrigerator!

As far as the answers to the other questions are concerned…well, if you haven’t figured them out on your own, and since this was in 1997, you'll have to wait a year for Google to be created.

The Wayback View – 1964, The Internet imagined

2010-10-16T12:22:00.000-07:00

1964 was the year that the Beatles first invaded America. China tested its first atomic bomb and, finally, the US Surgeon General warned against cigarette smoking.

In 1964, there were around 1.5 million people, in the US, using this mobile phone which ran on AT&T's network and was called their “Improved Mobile Telephone Service.”
IBM introduced the System/360 computer that was available with up to a whopping 8 MB of internal main memory.
And the Internet of the future was imagined:

Goodbye JPEG - hello WEBP?

2010-10-12T12:20:00.000-07:00

Google is introducing a new open-source image format: "WebP" (pronounced ‘weppy’).

Google claims that images in the WebP image format will be close to 40 percent smaller than JPEG files while providing for images that are of higher quality by virtually eliminating the image artifacts associated with JPEG compression. At the present moment, WebP is still in a very early stage of development and hence, unlike the JPEG file format, WebP is not yet built into cameras, web browsers, image-editing programs, etc.

JPEG vs WebP compression at 100%From left to right: Original image, JPEG compressed, WebP compressed.JPEG vs WebP compression enlargedFrom left to right: Original image, JPEG compressed, WebP compressed.
WebP uses the Y'UV color model that is used in the NTSC, PAL, and SECAM composite color video standards. It is a bit like the LAB mode color model that is used in PhotoShop, and other imaging applications, in that the Y component, like the "L" channel, determines the lightness of the color (referred to as luminance or luma), while the U and V components, like the "a" and "b" channels, determine the color itself (the chroma).The Y'UV color model - From left to right: Original composite image, "Y" component, "U" component, "V" component.
For image compression, WebP uses the VP8 video codec - the same methodology that is used to compress keyframes in videos. This codec uses predictive coding to encode an image by using the values in neighboring blocks of pixels to predict the values in a block, and then encodes only the difference (residual) between the actual values and the prediction. The residuals typically contain many zero values, which can be compressed much more effectively.

So far, while it is still a "lossy" compression technology, WebP compressed images certainly appear to deliver a higher level of compression (and thus smaller file size), and much higher image quality than the current standard JPEG image compression method. This is a good thing, not only for images for web application, but possibly for print application as well.

Google Chrome will likely be the first consumer application to support "weppy" compression in order to provide a faster user experience on web sites while reducing bandwidth and hosting costs.

On the other hand

Since the Y'UV color model is similar in principal to the Lab color model...why not apply the same compression methodology to an image that's in Lab mode? I've done some testing with high JPEG compression of the "a" and "b" channels of a Lab image and easily achieve file sizes that are only 20% of the original file size with no apparent image degradation. In fact they look very similar to the results obtained with the WebP image format.
Left image WebP - right image Lab compressed using very high JPEG compression for the "a" and "b" channels of an Lab image.
Left image WebP - right image Lab compressed using very high JPEG compression for the "a" and "b" channels of an Lab image.
If the Y'UV compression method could be applied to Lab images then the graphic arts industry could continue to use a color model that is well understood and in use today rather than import a new color model from another industry.

CtF - Computer to Foam - Printing the cloud

2010-10-08T12:18:00.000-07:00

"FLOGOS" - flying logos - is a biodegradable foam-helium mixture. Templates form the foam into the desired shape creating small bubble clouds which then float through the air. Output rate is approximately 100-250 FLOGOS per hour, per generator. Yes, it's printing to the cloud.