The Dish on Dots

ESKO-GRAPHICS: All of Esko’s screens are variations of AM, FM, and transitional options. Our latest screening technology, PerfectHighlights, helps to print, for example, corrugated boards, where soft polymer plates with high relief depths are used. In such cases, stray highlight dots are not sturdy enough to remain stable over a flexo press run. PerfectHighlights ensures that these dots remain printable and, thus, provides flexo trade shops and corrugated converters a visible way to differentiate their print quality from competitors.
Esko also differentiates itself with Screen Manager, a component of our Scope workflow suite. Laying down ink on different substrates, such as high-quality, high-gloss paper, corrugated, or a difficult flexible substrate produces different results. Screen Manager allows you to build your own screening with a mixture of screening technologies in any part of the tonal range. For example, you could decide to create a screen with stochastic technologies to 8 percent, 10 percent or 12 percent highlight tones, select a round or elliptical screen for the midtones, and our Groovy screens for the shadows. It’s personalized, job-specific screening.
FUJI/ENOVATION: Fuji’s screening technology was developed by scientists in Tokyo working with Enovation plates and engines. We all know the more “noise” that is removed from a screening algorithm, the more difficult it is to print. The human eye perceives or is more sensitive to certain things. Memory colors, such as green grass or blue sky, are weighted as more important in the “math” of the solution. Screening is no different. If we keep some of the noise but move it to areas that are less perceptible to the human eye, we maintain a higher degree of printability. Printability is key. Printers spend huge amounts of human and capital resources, trying to achieve it. We are very sensitive about providing them with products that improve their processes without narrowing their control window to a point where they produce fewer jobs per day. This is why our Co-Res (transitional screening) was developed and released before our Taffeta (FM screening) product.
HEIDELBERG: Heidelberg’s screening transition goes back to the invention of electronic screening by Dr. Hell and continues with the Heidelberg Prinect Screening Family. Prinect AM Screening is standard with Heidelberg RIPs and with our patented Irrational Screening. Prinect Hybrid Screening provides the user with higher line screens and detailed control of the end points, yielding high-quality, photorealistic output. Prinect Stochastic Screening is the newest generation of second order stochastic on the market.
KODAK: While Kodak Staccato, Kodak MaxTone, and Kodak Hyperflex are all award-winning technologies, it takes more than a specification to differentiate a product. With screening, that involves at least four elements, whether the screening is FM, AM, or transitional AM/XM/FM: the design of the screens (distribution, pattern, and shape of the dots); the quality of the plates or film/plate combinations; the plate exposing technology; and customer training and service support infrastructure.