A graphic
designer asked how color differences between digital presses would impact the
quality of a book he was planning.
It's an interesting
question, but it's slightly skewed. As digital printing continues to move out
of the realm of exotic specialty and into the mainstream, we need to look at
the question much differently.
If you
have a conventional printing project, would your primary concern be the make or
model of the offset press to be used? Probably not.
You
should be far more interested in the printing company's reputation for quality,
its quality control systems and procedures, and in seeing samples of the
company's work.
The
physics of the lithographic process doesn't vary from one model or machine to
another.
But, all digital press manufacturers have
unique, patented processes.
The very
term "digital" is misleading, because it refers to many disparate processes.
Digital is commonly taken to mean toner/laser
technology, but in the printing world, it may just as readily mean inkjet.
Laser and inkjet are about as different as anything can be.
In the
digital process, a crucial consideration for color quality is gamut-the range
of color that a press can reproduce.
The wider the gamut,
the more colors. Ah, but gamuts of equal size are not equal.
One device may be weak in reds, another in blues. Same
size gamut, very different results.
Here's
some good news for Copresco customers. Our digital presses have a wider color
gamut than the offset process. The bad news for us is that very few people
realize this. Why? Because the offset gamut is still the standard in many
people's minds.
Unlike offset, each digital press model
has a difference color gamut. All are different from offset.
In fact, matching offset means dumbing down or shrinking
a digital printer's color gamut, as is the case when SWOP profiles are
used.
Are you
familiar with Pantone's Color Bridge, formerly the Solid to Process Guide?
Every Pantone color is displayed as spot (actual) color side by side with its
CMYK process twin.
Like human twins, some colors are dead
ringers; others display wide variance between spot and process.
Smart
creative and production professionals rely on the Pantone guide to determine
the feasibility of using process colors to simulate spot color. If the guide
shows a poor match, use of that color (or use of four-color printing) should be
avoided.
Good plan. Just remember, the guide is
offset-centric. The guidebook itself is printed litho to represent the offset
gamut, nothing more.
Colors
that show as poor matches may be easily achieved at Copresco due to our
extensive experience in digital color printing
technology.
When others struggle and fail to match these
colors, their clients may conclude that digital is inferior to offset.
Technically correct, but only for that one color on that one digital
press.
For a thousand other colors, and on other digital
presses, such as those used by Copresco, digital may very well surpass offset.
To take
full advantage of the emerging bold new world of digital printing, you need a
company that has far-reaching vision, extensive technical skills and decades of
experience.
You need Copresco.
Best
wishes to Copresco Production Manager Lynn Buck, who underwent hip-replacement
surgery June 7.
Our production staff is covering for her
until she returns in July.
This article was adapted
with changes from Johnson's World in American Printer:
http://americanprinter.com/johnsonsworld
Learn
more about color standards such as SWOP:
http://www.colourphil.co.uk/ISO_SWOP_GRACOL.html
Get
info about spot color & Pantone's recently updated Color Bridge guide
at:
http://tinyurl.com/2be9ljo
http://tinyurl.com/colorbridge
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