How to interlink pre-press- press effectively

[ashwini singh]

Hi All,
we have recently bought a ctp and an epson proofer with EFI. We are planning to calibrate the proofer (as assured by Heidelberg and our EFI dealer) that they will calibrate the two output systems to quite an extent. Our proofs and Machine prints will be very close and at-least in the same family rather than what we have been using blindly till now i.e. nothing.
I had a few questions in this regard :
1) Though we are purchasing an Advanced Spectro Drive and have a pre-press interface on our press, we are not going with a spectro photometer and an advanced calibrated monitor for the time being. Do you think we can still achieve a great deal of consistency in color and come close to showing really close colors in proofing(EPSON prints) ?
2) Can i calibrate my mac screen to come somewhat close to the plots and prints?
3) We will be doing a fingerpritning on the machines to set the parameters and have been told that we can go for an Iso profile or our own profile frankly i have no idea but could you suggest some possibilities i could explore while setting it up. We are commercial printers and usually print brochures magazines etc on COated Paper.

 

[gordo]

1) Though we are purchasing an Advanced Spectro Drive and have a pre-press interface on our press, we are not going with a spectro photometer and an advanced calibrated monitor for the time being. Do you think we can still achieve a great deal of consistency in color and come close to showing really close colors in proofing(EPSON prints) ?
2) Can i calibrate my mac screen to come somewhat close to the plots and prints?
3) We will be doing a fingerpritning on the machines to set the parameters and have been told that we can go for an Iso profile or our own profile frankly i have no idea but could you suggest some possibilities i could explore while setting it up. We are commercial printers and usually print brochures magazines etc on COated Paper.

In reverse order:

#3 Given the type of work you do I'd suggest you start by targeting an industry defined specification - the press color aligns to the proof color and the proof color aligns to ISO. More information on how to make this business decision is here: Quality In Print: Press and proof alignment strategies

#2 More than likely yes, and especially so if you are not super critical of color, what is sometimes called "pleasing color."

#1 Yes.

best, gordon p