Speckles in presswork - secret of the yellow dots

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

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

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

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

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)

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.

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

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: