Print Media Center’s 2017 Print Buyer Survey cites QUALITY as the #1 reason print-buyers work with a printer–poor quality is the top reason jobs are rejected.
The majority of the first 100 survey responders measured quality by FINISHING in some form, i.e., with regard to whether they received an acceptable product, and not solely on color alone. Also, 67% of survey responders reported they source printing globally.
Things like scratched covers, uneven crossovers and bad trimming are glaring issues for rejection, in most cases, compared to whether or not the blue is the exact blue specified.
This is very interesting and probably quite true. It explains for me why there has been so little interest in the fundamental issues related to colour control. Lots of talk about colour control but not really a burning interest in getting the problem understood and fixed.
On and off for the past thirty years or so, I have been interested in the science and practical technical approaches to obtain predictable and consistent colour control in offset presses. This has been mainly for the manufacturing need to lower waste, increase capacity etc. I suspected but now am starting to accept that the industry really does not care about colour that much. That is too bad but that seems to be the way it is. The survey seems to confirm it.
So in rethinking how my efforts fit this new view, what am I left with based on the knowledge base I have developed over those years? Well, in a way it turns out that my work on this topic is still quite valid and needed, even though many will not think so.
If colour is not the big issue, at least the manufacturing issues are. Lower waste, shorter make readies, higher capacity, etc. still are very important in a competitive market. It turns out that my view of how the process should be managed and controlled at the press is superior to the existing approach of using closed loop control of conventional press designs. Even the positive ink feed systems used today are not as capable as how I would transform the process.
So this news was a shock to me for about 5 minutes, until I could see what it really meant with respect to the knowledge I have developed. Closed loop colour control systems and the positive ink feed systems of Goss and Quadtech can not perform better, with respect to the manufacturing goals of very short make readies with low waste and consistent and predictable colour, than how my concepts can. Not such bad news for me after all.
