Decoding the core technology of digital proofing

Digital Printing
The core of digital proofing technology is the application of color management technology. Some manufacturers claim that the printers they manufacture have a wider range of color gamut than printers. In fact, almost all ink-jet printers have a color gamut larger than the print color gamut. The key to digital proofing is color management rather than the print gamut that the printer can reproduce. Because only the use of an appropriate color management system can uniformly print the color reproduction characteristics of displays, proofers, printers, and various devices throughout the entire process, ensuring uniform color throughout the printing process.

At this stage, there are many factors in China's printing industry that are not conducive to the development of digital proofing. First of all, the incompatibility of printability brings a lot of inconvenience to digital proofing, and there is a lack of uniform standards for digital proofing equipment; the color between various printing equipments is unstable and true color management cannot be achieved. Secondly, the international digital proofing color matching is based on European standards and is not suitable for the standards of existing printing factories in China. Again, there is a mismatch between the management software for digital proofing and printers, imagesetters and other devices. These factors constitute the "bottleneck" of digital proofing promotion in China.

Based on this status quo, China Hewlett-Packard Co., Ltd. and Beijing Rainbow Digital Technology Co., Ltd. jointly launched a new "Hypertech Digital Proofing System." The system is based on the HP large-format printer, combined with the color management data block developed by Rainbow Dijet and suitable for China's national conditions, designed specifically for the Chinese printing and publishing industry, and has received approval from a number of experts from the Beijing Printing Association, with strong promotion. The potential can be described as a digital proofing system that suits China's actual conditions.

The hardware of the HP Dijet Digital Proofing System is the output terminal of Hewlett-Packard's “photorealistic hand” A3+ format hp designjet 10ps/20ps series digital design proofing machine and Hewlett-Packard’s “speed-quality” all-around hp designjet 5000 large-format printer. , Together with the Rainbow Color Management System CMS developed by Rainbow. This new digital process proofing combination improves the deficiencies of traditional digital proofing products, making the entire workflow easier and time-saving.

The Rainbow Color Management System CMS uses the ICC standard to manage the gamut space of different devices in the workflow. It consists of three parts: one is the device-independent CIE reference color space; the second is the device's ICC profile; the third is the color Management module CMM. Among them, the color management module CMM is the core, it is the use of professional digital proofing software combined with other color management software, fine-grained data integration of color space conversion. The data is a collection of commonly used printed materials and processes in the country, and a large number of in-depth color space model experiments under different production conditions to simulate the printing and proofing results and measured, the data is accurate and comprehensive.

When rainbow color management system manages the color of proofing, it usually goes through the following three basic steps:

1. Generate an ICC profile that reflects the proofing or printing characteristics. For traditional proofing or printing standard ISO IT 8.7/3 color block diagram, rainbow ink control data management standard, software PrintOpen (or ProfileMaker, ColorFlow), and spectrophotometer X-rite DTP-41 (or GretagMacbeth SpetroScan), Generate ICC profiles that reflect printability.

2. Generate an ICC profile that reflects the characteristics of the color printer and the printer paper used. For color printers that print ISO IT 8.7/3 color block diagrams without color management, the same software and the same spectrophotometer are used to generate the printer's ICC Profile.

3. Color gamut conversion. The ICC Profile of printability and the ICC Profile of the printer are used in the digital proofing software, and the data conversion of the color space is performed using the HP Dijon Color Management Module CMM, so that the image and the corresponding printability of the image printed by the HP printer are printed out. The standard proofs achieve the same color.

Hewlett-Packard has rich experience and strong technical force in the printing industry. In addition to providing comprehensive and systematic pre-sales training and after-sales services, it has strong and difficult-to-compare advantages in terms of hardware facilities, software cooperation development, and technical support. These are also one of the important reasons why people choose HP.

Digital proofing, with its many advantages, is making its way into the last barrier in the field of printing—traditional proofing. With the continuous development and perfection of corresponding product technologies and the continuation of marketing, digital proofing will replace traditional ones with its strong vitality. Simulation proofing. Digital proofing is a set of emerging technologies. It is a technology that is continuously improving and is not just a simple combination of RIP software and printers. Its core technology is the color management technology, must choose the appropriate color management software according to the actual production conditions and the printing adaptability of various materials to choose the appropriate digital proofing system.