SPEAKING OF PROOFING ...
Can the industry adopt a common language for the approval process?
by Terril McConnell, Prepress Editor
In his national best seller, "Cultural Literacy, What Every American Needs to Know," author J. D. Hirsch argues our society may be suffering from a serious "failure to communicate." Not that we lack the means. The problem, proposes Hirsch, is that we don't necessarily know what to say to one another when we do connect.
Hirsch explains public school systems have de-emphasized rote learning, the 3Rs, and literary classics in favor of more innovative and individualized studies on everything from basket weaving to brake shoes, graduating several generations of adults without a common vocabulary.
Today's young adults may lack the ability to understand and employ new ideas because they do not recognize the reference points used by authors, historians, technologists, and the media to explain those ideas.
I also wonder if our industry isn't suffering from the lack of a common vocabulary. I started researching this article by attempting to collate the biggest issues in approval proofing:
• What is the best proofing method for each printing application?
• Are halftone proofs the only acceptable "contract" proofs?
• Is "pleasing color" versus accurate color ever an acceptable goal?
• Should the proof ever be the press operator's target, or is the purpose of the proof simply to predict what can be achieved on press?
• Who should be liable when the prepress file doesn't match the proof?
• Who should be liable when the proof doesn't match the printed result?
These are the exact same issues we've been grappling with for a long time. With all the new software and hardware we have at our disposal, why haven't we collectively solved these problems? Surely, left unanswered, they're costing us money.
In the publishing world, where the liabilities for color matching are enormous, and the circle of finger-pointers is even larger than in packaging, the move towards a common language is really heating up. SWOP, Inc., the industry's most successful and prolific printing standards body, has introduced a certification procedure and accompanying Certification Mark for off-press proofing systems.
Proofing system manufacturers must submit application data and representative proofs to SWOP representatives, who verify the device conforms to the standard and determine the acceptance of each system's visual match to a SWOP Certified Press Proof. To date, the manufacturers of 14 color proofing systems have certified their systems with SWOP and publish their device specifications on the SWOP Web site (see sidebar, page 24).
Other organizations have developed standards to help us understand and communicate the concepts of printing technology, color management, and proofing. In other words, the dictionary has been written. We have to open the book and start speaking the language.
Get proofing literate: Evolving standards guide
SWOP, Inc.
SWOP advocates "Quality should be measurable and verifiable at each step in the reproduction process, which will allow everyone in the imaging chain to monitor and improve performance by statistical methods."
SWOP Certification for Off-Press Proofing Systems—These devices have been certified and have filed data sheets with manufacturer's recommendations:
•Imation™ Matchprint™ Professional Server Xerox® DocuColor 12® Color Printer
•Imation™ Matchprint™ SWOP Lo-Gain Negative Color Proofing System/Positive Color Proofing System
•Imation™ Matchprint™ Digital Halftone Proof Creo Trendsetter Spectrum™ or Proofsetter Spectrum™
•Kodak Approval Digital Color Proofing System
•IRIS Pro SWOP
•FUJI Color-Art® System CR-T4 SWOP
•Fuji PictroProof
•FUJI FinalProof
•AGFA Pressmatch® Dry Negative Proofing System/Aqueous Negative Proofing System
•DuPont Digital WaterProof®
•DuPont WaterProof®
•Polaroid PolaProof Digital Halftone Proofing System
SWOP Calibration Kits—in both film and digital format, include a CD-ROM of ISO 12640, Graphic technology-Prepress digital data exchange-CMYK standard color image data (CMYK/SCID) containing electronic files of the SCID images and test targets. These tools can help determine the closeness of a visual match between a SWOP Certified Press Proof and a proofing system.
SWOP, Inc.
(781) 639-7782
www.swop.org
Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF)
The GATF offers a wide range of services including applied testing, research, consulting, and devices for process standardization and quality control. Below is a sampling of products from the GATF Process Controls Catalog—available in print and in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.
Digital Sheetfed Color Control Bar Package—a series of five color control bars (two four-color bars, three six-color bars) supplied on floppy disk in Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) file format for either Macintosh or IBM operating systems; two of the bars are designed for use with scanning densitometers.
Digital Test Form—a five-page test form, available in EPS file format, that enables you to measure, control, and diagnose the output of imagesetters, direct-digital color proofing systems, and page-assembly equipment.
Plate Control Target—a new quality control device that gives complete control over platemaking and proofing.
High-Key, Low-Key, Portrait Color Photographs—designed to help eliminate moire, test gray component replacement and the color rendition of printing systems, and render highlight and shadow details.
Proof Comparator (digital and film)—designed to evaluate accuracy and consistency of off-press proofs.
Film-Based Color Bars—color control bars, in a range of screen rulings, that enable the press operator to monitor ink densities, dot gain, print contrast, ink trapping, slurring, and doubling during litho printing.
Sheetfed Color Printing Test Kits—designed to assist in diagnosing and calibrating color reproduction on presses with up to six printing units.
Graphic Arts Technical Foundation
(412) 741-6860 or 1-800-910-GATF
www.gain.net
Flexographic Technical Association (FTA)
The FTA is a proponent of maintaining and advancing quality standards specifically for the flexographic printing industry. The organization offers training programs, consulting services and a wide range of publications and printing tools, including FIRST, the only commercially available standards set for flexo printers.
Flexographic Image Reproduction Specifications and Tolerances (FIRST) Book, 2nd Edition—This resource guide comes complete with five examples of flexographic printing—a bag, an envelope, a label, a preprinted linerboard, and corrugated—using FIRST specifications as well as an example of offset printing for comparative purposes. The 2nd Edition of FIRST focuses on specifications for anilox rolls, substrates, bar codes, CIELab color management, digital photography, process/line-color inks, and mounting materials.
Flexographic Technical Association
(631) 737-6020
www.flexography.org
