Feast for the Eye
Digital proofers can produce packaging's custom colors in minutes, but can converters afford the technology they need?
By Susan Friedman
Digital proofing's transformation of proof production cycle time is bound to help package printers over any separation anxiety for film.
To hear Neil Potter, business manager for the packaging market at Imation tell it, digital proofing's productivity benefits can't get much clearer. Printers can trade analog proofing's half-day to two-day cycle times, or on-press proofing's two-day to one-week cycle times, in favor of a digital proof produced in minutes, he says.
Presstek Product Manager Sandy Fuhs adds that digital proofing can remove the majority of irksome variables that alter color and quality. Presstek's new PEARLhdp digital halftone proofer, which uses Imation's Matchprint Laser Proof media, eliminates traditional proof process fluctuations in imagesetter linearization, film processing and proof processing, as well as equipment and material inconsistencies in film batches, vacuum frame and light source, and proof material batches, she says.
Converters may experience a pang of longing for film when they consider that digital proofs will not reveal previously unseen image details. "I wouldn't expect to see a significant improvement in image quality simply by investing in digital, except in the case of digital plate imaging devices," comments Ken Lowden, marketing and industry relations manager, DuPont Color Proofing.
Continuous tone digital proofs may provide enough detail and resolution for image data, but not for fine text and illustration graphics when compared to an analog proof. "In many cases, digital proofs do not show the final dot shape and screen angle that is still a necessary requirement for a certain portion of packaging customers," explains Don Rogers, product manager, Heidelberg USA.
"Few digital proofers show actual halftone dots," agrees Pierre Ferland, international project manager, Alan Graphic Systems. "Those that do can have a cost prohibitive to most potential buyers."
In short, converters can count on all digital proofers for speedier processing and enhanced color consistency, but will have to weigh the imaging technology options. "Goals for digital proofing should be automating workflow, controlling color throughout the process, and integration into both conventional and digital workflows," sums up Lowden.
Satisfying packaging's "universe"
Wick McCaleb, product manager at Kodak Polychrome Graphics, likens package printing to "not a category, but a universe"—making the ideal digital proofer for one printer a mismatch for another.
Continuous tone proofers encompass dye sublimation and inkjet technologies, and can be acquired for less than $20,000. Halftone proofers show actual dot shapes and screen angles and can run more than $100,000. Contone systems typically control color with color management profiles, McCaleb notes, while halftone systems are programmed with fixed colors that are adjusted via dot gain or density.
It's tough to keep these categories neat. Claiming a middle territory between inkjet and high-end halftone is Alan Graphic Systems' PanDot, which proofs EPS files from off-the-shelf DTP software on in expensive inkjet plotters and printers, showing traps, overprints, knockouts, CMYK rosettes and solid halftone dots at actual line screen angles.
"Critical color requirements inherent in achieving package looks and brand identities, as well as pressures to trim cycle times, are driving digital proofing forward for packaging applications," says Potter. Imation's Rainbow 2730, a dye sublimation proofer, offers white, gold and silver ribbons to provide "good representation for packaging."
Continuing the custom color crusade, Polaroid recently added Pantone colors to its digital halftone PolaProof. Next on the list is an expansion into metallics and hexachrome colors—CMYKOG six-color processing that, according to Business Line Manager Ed Riggs, creates a "more manageable manufacturing process" than four-color process with two spot colors. Polaroid expects to offer hexachrome on the PolaProof by the end of first quarter 1999.
Lowden estimates 60 percent to 70 percent of package printing mandates custom colors. In response, DuPont's continuous flow inkjet Digital WaterProof features WaterProof Color Versatility, which uses a Pantone color matching book and mixes colors by ink weight.
Back on the hardware side of packaging needs, Kodak Polychrome Graphics has just begun shipping a large format model of its digital halftone Approval, which outputs one 20.9˝ x 26.6˝ four-page proof in under 15 minutes. The company also expects to solidify an interface with BARCO's front-end prepress system by January '99.
Large format flexibility can also be found in Heidelberg/Creo's Trendsetter Spectrum, a thermal plate, film and halftone proof imaging device, and Creo's standalone Proofsetter Spectrum. Both offer one-minute interchangeability between two large format proof sizes, 22˝ x 30˝ and 30˝ x 40˝.
"There is a tremendous desire to make the switch to digital proofing in the packaging industry, but nothing has met all the demands yet," says Polaroid Business Line Manager Richard Drew. To compensate, some customers make a dual investment. An ink jet proofer such as Polaroid's large format, DryJet II 2820 might fit the bill for imposition-only proofs, while contract proofs might be directed to a digital halftone technology such as the PolaProof.
If the level of investment needed is a major digital barrier, it may be beneficial to look at the digital proofer as an extension of existing computer-to-plate equipment. "With Heidelberg/Creo's Trendsetter, Spectrum capability can be added inexpensively, thus providing a halftone proofer while utilizing excess CTP capacity," says Prescesky.
Great strides in color matching ability have bolstered market receptivity to digital proofing. "Most analog proofs assimilate Pantone and spot colors into CMYK equivalents, which are only approximations," explains Rogers. "Color management tools used on most digital proofers use lab values to end this approximation." Instead of matching the press to the proof, the press can be left in a standard mode, he explains. Expensive and time-consuming adjustments on press to match the proof are eliminated.
Delta/Iris software has locked in color matching capability for Heidelberg/Iris ink jet proofers. "Since newly released mainstream applications such as Quark and Photoshop now readily incorporate color management, the challenges are now limited to workflow," Rogers emphasizes. "Only hiccups in certain RIP, step and repeat and trapping scenarios need to be checked for color management to effectively integrate with highly productive workflows."
But the kaleidoscope of color matching approaches could turn its victory chant into a battle cry. "There are two schools of thought," states Lowden. "Match everything to the printing press' and 'match everything to a color standard."' DuPont's Digital WaterProof can be calibrated to a press or a group of presses with its CromaNet™ Ultra Proof Server, a CIELAB-based color profiling and print prediction technology.
Kodak Polychrome Graphics' halftone Approval uses SWOP standards to create colors, along with CMYK software McCaleb calls "a recipe color program that is user selectable, so that no physical adjustments are needed to produce even spot colors."
Acknowledging color matching confusion, McCaleb affirms "the more color management tools you provide to give customers consistency, the more inconsistency you get. There may be consistency in one shop, but there is not consistency in the universe. We need a benchmark."
That benchmark might be rooted in Color Matching Modules (CMMs), which Ferland calls digital proofing's "most significant advancement in recent years." These color recipes give a CMYK printer the correct mix of cyan, magenta, yellow and black to match the output of other devices, he explains. PanDot uses its own CMMs, but in an open system that allows for user definable adjustments, the use of ICC profiles or other color lookup tables.
