Fixing art for the web so that it can be used for print

One of challenges that face printers is dealing with substandard – for print application – art supplied by their customers. Sometimes, art that has been prepared for the web ends up in layouts intended for the press. Often, the graphics contain defects like jpeg compression artifacts or pixel noise in flat color areas. On the left is a supplied graphic at 100% and to it's right a small area enlarged to show the problem artifacts more clearly.
[Click on the image to open a larger version in a new window]The tool to get rid of the image artifacts while preserving the graphic detail is the "Smart Blur" filter in Adobe Photoshop. Below is its dialog box. You will need to experiment with the settings according to the specific image that you are working with. In general the "Radius" setting will be lower than the "Threshold" setting. The preview window shows the effect of changes you make to those settings. Sometimes, if the adjustments result in degrading the image, it's better to leave some artifacts and remove them afterwords using the clone or other tools. Always use the "High Quality" setting with "Mode: Normal."The final result – the artifacts in the graphic are cleared away while the detail of the text and art is preserved.
[Click on the image to open a larger version in a new window]

Removing watercolor paper texture in flatbed scans

One of difficulties that flatbed scanners have compared to drum scanners is the way the original art is illuminated. If the surface texture is rough, as in the case of watercolor paper, the scanner will usually capture the texture as an unwanted pattern. On the left is a scan at 100% and to it's right a small area enlarged to show the watercolor paper texture problem more clearly.The tool to get rid of the paper texture while preserving the image detail is the "Smart Blur" filter in Adobe Photoshop. Below is its dialog box. You will need to experiment with the settings according to the specific image that you are working with. In general the "Radius" setting will be lower than the "Threshold" setting. The preview window shows the effect of changes you make to those settings. Sometimes, if the adjustments result in degrading the image, it's better to leave a bit of texture and remove it afterwords using the clone or eraser tool. Always use the "High Quality" setting with "Mode: Normal."The final result – the watercolor paper texture is eliminated while the detail of the painting is preserved.Watercolor study of a strawberry courtesy of Susan Pritchard. To visit her blog, please click HERE

Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Liszt, Mozart, RGB

We often hear creatives asking the printer to give their color more "pop" - or make it "sing."
Well, now there may be a way to do just that. RGB MusicLab is a free application for the MAC OS that converts the RGB pixel values of an image to Chromatic scale music (MIDI or AIFF file) by reading a score directly from the image data.
And if the music the image creates is not very melodic...well, you can honestly blame the original supplied art for that.
You can download the application by clicking HERE

Buying print – it's scary!

Unfortunately printers seldom buy print themselves, because if they did, they’d have a better understanding of the customer’s perspective – and it’s that perspective that helps determine who gets the print order and who gets the “thanks for your interest” email.
Buying print is scary.
An idea in the creative’s mind. Weeks, maybe months of creative concepts and compromises. Juggling the conflicts of design, text, photography, and illustrations. Their customer approval, finally, based on a concept expressed in awkward inkjet printouts and presentations to the stakeholders. An RFQ based on print specs that may not make any real production sense. Then comes the quotes from maybe three, four, or more printers. If the quotes are within 5% or 10% of each other – how do they choose? If one or more quotes is wildly out, did the printer misunderstand the project? Or are they the only one that really understood the specs? Maybe they're buying the job just to keep the presses running? Are they cutting corners somewhere? One printer changed the specs because they said quality would suffer if it was printed as specified!
How to choose a printer? It’s scary.

Printer’s Profit

Unless there are chargeable customer alterations, the maximum profit the printer will ever see on a specific job will be when their customer awards the project to them based on the quote. As soon as the printer begins the manufacturing process they also begin to erode that profit with inefficient workflows, duplication of effort, technical mistakes, errors in communication, etc.
Bottom line – profits are not what the printer is able to make, they are what the printer manages not to lose.

Printing at DMaxx - maximizing the CMYK gamut

The published standard solid ink density (SID) targets and their associated CIEL*a*b* values are designed to be be achievable by the majority of printshops with equipment in reasonable working order. They are great for standardizing presswork across the industry. However, they do not represent the best that can be achieved on press nor do they allow for competitive differentiation. Printing to "DMaxx" - the maximum, stable, SIDs the press is capable of while using standard process inks - provides a quick and relatively easy way to add visual impact to presswork, as well as a competitive edge, when appropriate, for specific print projects.
This process is best suited to sheetfed printers with an inline coater as this helps prevent setoff caused by the heavy ink densities. To prevent sheet distortion, use coated sheets in heavy text or cover basis weights. CMYK separations done with UCR rather than GCR work best with this process.

The basic recipe for DMaxx printing:

1) Benchmark your presswork.

You'll need about 2,000 sheets of paper and two hours press time. Create a target strip consisting of 12 tone patch steps – 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 75, 90, 95, 98, 99, and 100%, for each process color. Include four gray balance patches – typically, highlight (10C/7M/7Y), quarter-tone (25C/16M/16Y), mid-tone (50C/39M/39Y), and three-quarter-tone (75C/63M/63Y). These tone patches should be located near their nearest black tone equivalents (10K, 25K, 50K, 75K) to allow for visual comparison.
Include a standard CMYK image for visual evaluation.
Arrange the targets "in-line" on your press sheet and run to your standard house SIDs.
Mark the paper delivery stack "house standard" at the point the press is up to color and pull a few sheets for reference. Then gradually increase the ink densities. Try and go in 10 point steps. It is not unusual to be able to increase SIDs by 15-25 points and still maintain press stability. Don't worry about how the images and tone targets look at this point - just maintain gray balance.
Maximum SIDs are arbitrarily reached at the point where the press is still stable, ink/water balance is stable, dots are still sharp (no slinging or tailing), and set-off is not a threat. Mark the paper delivery at that point as "Max Ink" and pull several sheets for reference.

2) Chart a dot gain curve

Measure the target tone areas of your house standard sheet and plot them on a graph comparing requested tones vs actual press sheet values. Draw a "best fit" curve through the data points. This charts the dot gain characteristic curve of your press work at normal SIDs.
Now measure the tone values of the Max Ink sheet and plot them on a similar graph. Draw the best fit curve. This charts the dot gain characteristic curve of your press work at maximum SIDs.
This information will be used to create a dot gain compensation curve that will be applied to plate output to compensate for the increased dot gain caused by the boosted ink density.

3) Create the dot gain compensation curves

A dot gain compensation curve is derived from a plot of requested tone values against the resulting tone values. For example, if the house standard 50% requested tone resulted in a dot area of 67%, but The Max Ink measured 67% tone value corresponded to a 35% requested tone – then one of the points on your compensation curve would be: 50% = 35%. Put another way, we build a transfer curve that maps a requested tone of 50% to 35% because we know that 35% produces a 67% dot area at maximum ink density (which is what we are trying to achieve). This process would be applied to all the specified data points in order to align the tones of the High Ink presswork to the house standard.

4) Update your proofer

If you have a digital proofer you may want to build a profile of your DMaxx press work in order to properly set customer expectations in your proofs for this process. Alternatively you might stay with your current proofing and just tell customers that color will be boosted on press. This gives your press operators more leeway in how high they will run their SIDs.

Outfacing and infacing investments

It's a principle that may seem obvious, but it is one that's often forgotten when a printshop is investigating a new investment opportunity.
There are two key issues that every printshop must resolve in their day-to-day activities in order to maximize their potential for success. First is that they must meet customer expectations, because if they fail to do that, customers will go elsewhere for their work. Second is that they must meet production requirements for a cost efficient, effective, print manufacturing process otherwise they will lose profitability and very quickly be out of business. Therefore, any prospective investment in technology, business systems, or production methods should be evaluated in the light of the outfacing, or positive customer impact, as well as the infacing, or positive internal production impact. A single investment that positively impact either area is good. However, single investments that positively impact both areas are best.

The Rule of 10x

It costs $10 to fix color on the creative’s desktop – and it's their cost.
It costs $100 to fix color in prepress...the charge could go either way – back to creative or stay in prepress.
It costs $1000 to fix color on press – but now it’s the printer’s cost.