Digital proofing, looking forward to a bright tomorrow

Compared with direct plate-making and digital printing technologies, which have become increasingly popular in recent years, digital proofing seems to be less attractive. However, like direct plate-making and digital printing, as a new technology in growth, digital proofing is receiving more and more attention from people in the industry. In the wave of digital printing technology, many people have placed digital proofing on the market. Great expectations. One of the authoritative magazines in the field of graphic design and prepress, “Desktop Publishing and Design”, was a successful attempt at the beginning of the century. The first issue of the 2001 issue of the magazine used digital proofing, which ignited the hope of digital proofing in the industry. fire.

Advantages: speed, stability Although there is no public declaration, it goes without saying that, for a long time, the digital proofing technology that comes later will be replaced by traditional proofing. Thus, digital proofing and traditional proofing are excellent. The comparison of disadvantages has become an indispensable topic in the industry when talking about digital proofing technology.

Similar to direct digital printing and digital printing in the same digital technology, the digitization of the entire proofing process has reduced the human factor to the greatest extent. Fast and stable have become two popular digital proofing advantages. At the same time, based on their different standpoints, the parties gave different understandings of the advantages of digital proofing.

When talking about this issue, Li Jiaxiang, a senior engineer at the China Institute of Printing Science and Technology, said that the main advantages of digital proofing are fast speed, good repeatability, and saving raw materials. At the same time, because there is no need for films and other things with certain pollution, digital proofing caters to the development trend of green printing and is conducive to environmental protection.

The opinion of Yin Yufang, a prepress expert, is basically the same as that of Li Jiaxiang. He believes that color stability and speed are the two major advantages of digital proofing. Compared with the traditional proofing, digital proofing realizes the digitization of the whole process, thus avoiding the artificial factors in the traditional proofing, such as the effect of the manual ink refilling on the quality of the proofing, and making it easier to achieve the stability of the proof color. The omission of the traditional proofing process in the printing version, the film and other links, to the greatest degree to ensure the digital proofing speed.

Wang Huaming, head of the production and production department of Yachang Printing Management Group Beijing Yachang Color Printing Co., Ltd., believes that digital proofing has four major advantages: First, it is good in restitution; Second, it is fast and saves time; Third, there are few intermediate links and many problems are avoided. Easy to achieve the unity between printing and proofing; four is convenient and easy to use.

According to Gu Peng, who is responsible for the sales of digital proofing systems, the advantage of digital proofing is that the cost of equipment investment is low; the second is the low requirement for personnel; and the third is fast, suitable for short-run printing.

Yang Jing, editor-in-chief of Desktop Publishing and Design, confirmed the speed advantage of digital proofing from a practical perspective. She said that this time we mainly wanted to do an experiment. The results prove that the speed advantage of digital proofing is very obvious. After the electronic document gets the output center, it can get proofs in half a day. The original proofing is used at least. Two or three days.

Disadvantages: Unlike the position of the traditional proofing competitor, digital proofing is showing its advantages and its disadvantages are also exposed. However, compared with everyone's comprehension of the advantages of digital proofing, the opinions of industry insiders on the disadvantages of digital proofing can be described as different opinions.

Jia Jiyao, a prepress technology expert, believes that compared with traditional proofing, the disadvantages of digital proofing are mainly in three aspects: First, some digital proofing uses FM network outlets, which is difficult for the printers who are accustomed to the AM outlets to adapt and is not easily accepted; The second is that the digital proofing process is not mature. There is a lack of uniform standards for various digital proofing equipment and people are at a loss. Third, digital proofing aids such as colorimeters, scanners, imagesetters and color management applications have been invested. Big, raising the investment cost of digital proofing.

According to Wang Xiang, manager of Jianian Zhengcao Company, at present, digital proofing mainly has the following defects: First, the problem of film inspection. Traditional proofing is the first proofing after the film is out. You can find out the problems during the filming process through the proofs. In the digital proofing, proofing and filming are performed at the same time or prior to the filming. Therefore, the errors that may appear in the filming cannot be corrected. Second, digital proofing cannot meet certain special requirements, such as printing spot colors, bronzing, and hot silver. And so on, these traditional proofings can be easily solved; Third, paper problems. Digital proofing generally requires the use of special papers, which increases the cost of digital proofing and, on the other hand, affects the credibility of the proofs.

Agfa’s Gu Peng’s views are based on aspects of Jia Jiyao’s and Wang Xiang’s views. He believes that the lack of digital proofing is mainly reflected in the fact that FM outlets or no outlets make it difficult for traditional printers to accept; they cannot meet certain special industries. The demand for spot colors; the matching of color proofing software for digital proofing with printers and imagesetters is still unsatisfactory.

Progress: Misalignment Although at first glance, the disadvantages and advantages of digital proofing are just as obvious, in general, most people still believe that the advantages of digital proofing outweigh the disadvantages and represent the future development trend. However, looking at the promotion process of domestic digital proofing in recent years, the results are not satisfactory. On the whole, digital proofing is slow, and it shows an imbalance between industries and regions. According to Yin Youfang, a prepress technical expert, digital proofing has been basically popularized in the gravure printing industry and is still in its infancy in the offset printing industry. The reason why this situation occurs is that gravure printing generally adopts the non-film electric engraving method and can not use traditional proofing. Digital proofing is the only choice; offset printing does not have this problem, and some years ago, some offset printing The traditional proofing equipment introduced by the company coincides with the “big year”, and it is indeed a pity to eliminate it.

Agfa’s Gu Peng expressed his opinions from the sales point of view. He said that Agfa has sold about 15 units of digital proofing equipment in China since 1998, and geographically Look, the relatively more developed areas of Guangzhou, such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen, are more concentrated. According to industry insiders, this situation is mainly due to the fact that the southern printing industry is relatively developed and its capital strength is relatively strong. Therefore, the desire for new technologies is higher than that of northern enterprises.

Obstacles: Concepts, Costs Despite the fact that industry insiders have pointed out that many problems still exist in digital proofing, they talked about why the development of digital proofing has always been overwhelming, and everyone’s views have reached an astonishing consensus, with “ideology” and “cost” being used by everyone. The two words with the highest rates.

As a member of digital printing technology, digital proofing, like direct plate making and digital printing, has encountered people's "ideal resistance" in the development process. Li Jiaxiang believes that there are still some problems that must be solved in the development of digital proofing. At present, it is mainly about concepts. Agfa’s Gu Peng has a more intimate feeling in the process of promoting the digital proofing system. He said that things are good things, but people do not believe what to do? The key is to change people's ideas and let people try. Jia Jiyao also believes that digital proofing should be popularized and that the concept problem must be solved first.

Although the concept of what the people in the industry have summed up is just two words, it at least reflects the proofing customers, the traditional proofing practitioners, the traditional printing companies, the digital proofing customers, the traditional proofing practitioners, and the traditional printing companies. The ambiguous attitude of three people to digital proofing. The slow development of digital proofing is ultimately a problem of market cultivation. However, the pioneers of digital proofing have encountered the same problem almost without exception in the process of popularizing digital proofing. Proofing customers have refused to accept digital proofing because they know little about digital proofing. More than a year ago, Jin Hao's relevant sources said that digital proofing customers also have, but most of them are particularly time-critical. If the cycle is not particularly tight, most people still choose traditional proofing. The inconsistency of traditional proofing practitioners in digital proofing is also the main reason why digital proofing is difficult to popularize. The traditional proofing practitioners who are accustomed to outlets and inks are still difficult to accept branchless digital proofing in a short time. The resistance of the third point of view comes from printing companies. At present, many printing companies believe that the color of digital proofing has a certain gap with the actual printed color, and they are reluctant to accept digital proofing. Wang Huaming holds this view, he said, now digital proofing. The color does not form a unified standard, and the combination with printing is not very close, and some proof printing plants can't catch up. Therefore, many companies have some concerns when picking up digital proofs.

The second major drag on the development of digital proofing comes from proofing costs. Li Jiaxiang said that the promotion of digital proofing is not just a matter of technology. The key is cost. Now make a proof sheet of the same size, the number proofing should be 20 yuan, and the traditional proofing is only 8 yuan. The relevant person of Jin Hao Company also said that the cost is too high is a major obstacle to digital proofing promotion. It is understood that the high cost of digital proofing is the key is too expensive supplies, such as an A3 format digital proofing special paper prices as high as 45 yuan, while the same format ordinary coated paper only a few cents. Wang Huaming said that the most important consideration for domestic printing companies in introducing new technology and new equipment is to be able to bear the cost of introduction, and at the same time see how much new technology can bring benefits to the company. If a technical cost is high and the benefit is not obvious, the company will not introduce it. At present, digital proofing is facing this problem. The cost is high and the benefit is difficult to guarantee. Therefore, the popularization of digital proofing will largely depend on manufacturers. Among the efforts, the most important one is to reduce costs. In addition, people in the industry propose that investment in equipment for digital proofing should be lower than traditional proofing. If comprehensively considered, the price difference between the two will not be so different. Wang Huaming also found his own opinions. He said that digital proofing is a new thing. In recent years, it has just begun to promote. Users have no reference to the reliability and service life of digital proofing equipment, and the overall cost is difficult to calculate.

Popularity: the trend of the moment At present, of course, no one has yet been able to say exactly when digital proofing will be fully rolled out in the printing industry. However, almost all interviewees have no exception that the popularization of digital proofing is a general trend. Pre-press technology expert Jia Jiyao believes that digital proofing represents a brand-new development trend. It has developed rapidly in foreign countries and has not yet been promoted in China. However, with the increasing popularity of direct-platemaking technology, the promotion of digital proofing will accelerate because Direct plate-making eliminates the need for a filming process and therefore cannot be used for traditional proofing. Only digital proofing can be selected. At the same time, the popularization of digital proofing will be faster and broader than that of direct plate making. This is mainly because digital proofing can not only be used with direct plate making equipment, but also can be applied in design offices, proofing centers and other places.

Yin Youfang believes that digital proofing is basically mature from a technical point of view and has been popularized in the field of gravure printing. From the field of offset printing, the overall promotion of digital proofing still requires a process, which may take two to three years, but its popularity is only a matter of time. Li Jiaxiang also believes that digital proofing is very promising.