Digital Print Standards - Who has them?

[arossetti]

ISO 13660 doesn't address color printing, I have not heard of any updates from ISO 19751 and the GPO has yet to set specific standards for digital printing. So for the people who are using toner equipment how do you measure and quantify the quality of your work? What programs do you have in place, and are they effective?

Is there currently any universal standards that people are going by beyond checking color consistency through a ICC standard?

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Perhaps start here:

Process Standard Digital - www.fogra.org

PSD downloads - www.fogra.org


Stephen Marsh

 

[rich apollo]

If working with color you can use ISO 12647-2.

 

[Mark H]

Standards can be great for setting a minimum level of quality or expectation. However, I often find that my production team, my management, my customer, or even myself can (and do) set higher standards and expectations for the work we produce. In the end isn't that what matters - making sure your customer gets the best job you can produce given your machinery, resources, time frame, and budget?

Mark H

 

[Stephen Marsh]

As Mark notes above, there can be varied expectations.

Some print buyers are looking for a close match between digital and offset.

Some print buyers are looking to exceed what is possible with offset.

Whether it an industry or house standard, all are looking for consistency through the same run and between different runs.


Stephen Marsh

 

[rich apollo]

Standards can be great for setting a minimum level of quality or expectation. However, I often find that my production team, my management, my customer, or even myself can (and do) set higher standards and expectations for the work we produce. In the end isn't that what matters - making sure your customer gets the best job you can produce given your machinery, resources, time frame, and budget?

Mark H

Not necessarily. If the customer is looking for a match across different locales or vendors, then someone "exceeding" standards can be an unwelcome party crasher.

There really is no exceeding standards. You're either in compliance, or out of compliance.

 

[Fatboysmart]

As Mark notes above, there can be varied expectations.

Some print buyers are looking for a close match between digital and offset.

Some print buyers are looking to exceed what is possible with offset.

Stephen Marsh

And then there are clients who don't give a @#$ about quality as long as it's cheap, and ready yesterday...

 

[gordo]

Not necessarily. If the customer is looking for a match across different locales or vendors, then someone "exceeding" standards can be an unwelcome party crasher.

There really is no exceeding standards. You're either in compliance, or out of compliance.

There's nothing preventing a shop from implementing more than one presswork standard - an industry standard when that is appropriate, and a house standard when that is appropriate. Indeed, that is the flexibility that digital systems have enabled with the introduction of CtP.

Gordo

 

[PrintFX]

I'm currently looking into digital print standards across our 2 sites as we are trying to standardise everything.

My understanding is that the European industry standard of FOGRA39/39L, is basically the same as ISO Coated v2, which in turn is the same as ISO12647-2, this is what I intend to use to ensure our prints match the industry standard.

During my recent tests I've tried to match the top-ends of my CMYK to the densities of the ISO standard and have noticed that they are alot lower than what I would normally like to use (and have been using in the past).

The optimal density targets for ISO12647-2 that I've found in a document titled 'The point about 2013 ISO 12647-x standards' from color-source.net are;

C 1.30
M 1.38
Y 1.20
K 1.62

I've cross-referenced the densities with the below Lab values (taken directly from FOGRA39L characterisation data) to confirm that they are correct;

C (L 55.0 a -37.0 b -50.0)
M (L 48.0 a 74.0 b -3.0)
Y (L 89.0 a -5.0 b 93.0)
K (L 16.0 a 0.0 b 0.0)

I can match these values on our press to within the acceptable Delta-E tolerances, but am not happy with how 'weak' they are - the M & Y densities no longer allow me to hit the rich, deep reds that I'd like (redder than PMS 485C), and the single-black is more like PMS 440 C (but would I rely on the ICC to 'beef' up the black?).

For these reasons I have opted to also have a 'House' standard like Gordo suggested, which will have higher densities that allow me to hit the rich colours I need, whilst at the same time ensuring a consistent match across all of the machines at each site.

Work from a new customer would automatically use the ISO standard workflow, unless they provide hard-copies or request specific colours that are outside of the ISO12647-2 gamut, in which case I would switch to our 'House' standard.

 

[ajr]

The thing with the ISO standard is that its meant to be achievable across a broad range of presses not something that is hard to get to. There fore the colours will always be a bit on the bland side. I prefer customers standards like "nice" "punchy" "warm" "cold" and "sexy"!

AjR

 

[maas]

Standards can be great for setting a minimum level of quality or expectation. However, I often find that my production team, my management, my customer, or even myself can (and do) set higher standards and expectations for the work we produce. In the end isn't that what matters - making sure your customer gets the best job you can produce given your machinery, resources, time frame, and budget?

Mark H

What measurements do you have in place to quantify these higher expectations and how do you manage maintaining consistency?, do you have your own specific ink formulation, densities, ICC profiles etc.

 

[PrintFX]

My idea would be to choose densities that would be achievable on all of our machines, and then 'possibly' create custom ICC profiles for them to iron out any linearisation issues etc.