How to better dial in CIP3 data for KBA 106

[Magnus59]

I respectfully disagree. Prepress is just as responsible for accurate CIP3 data as they are for accurate proofs and plates.
The data being generated can (and) should be adjusted by prepress as all the CIP3 drivers I know of allow adjustments on the front end.

We have no adjustments available at the front end in Prinergy - see screenshot
Press characteristic curves are applied at the press side, in our case using Heidelberg Prepress Interface
It is possible to set ink zone number and size prepress side, but PPI also sets that at the press size.
That's not to say that Prepress doesn't have some input into the setup of PPI, but ultimately it is press side, not prepress side.

 

[MacTwidget]

We have no adjustments available at the front end in Prinergy - see screenshot
Press characteristic curves are applied at the press side, in our case using Heidelberg Prepress Interface
It is possible to set ink zone number and size prepress side, but PPI also sets that at the press size.
That's not to say that Prepress doesn't have some input into the setup of PPI, but ultimately it is press side, not prepress side.
View attachment 292611

Well, that isn't good. I think Heidelberg may have discontinued the standalone PrePress Interface as they have their own workflow that they are trying to sell. There are other 3rd party solutions available. I believe PressProfiler is one.

 

[Magnus59]

Well, that isn't good. I think Heidelberg may have discontinued the standalone PrePress Interface as they have their own workflow that they are trying to sell. There are other 3rd party solutions available. I believe PressProfiler is one.

Heidelberg will sell the Prinect Production Manager as a separate module to replace Prepress Interface, we did get a quote from them when the hardware (Win XP with parallel port dongle) eventually failed. The price was prohibitive, so I have moved our Prepress interface onto a Win XP VM with a tweak to the software to bypass the dongle. It still requires the Press ID to run, so I'm not sure what benefit the dongle provided.

 

[SheetSqueezer]

The data being generated can (and) should be adjusted by prepress as all the CIP3 drivers I know of allow adjustments on the front end.

Most modern presses and probably all newer presses have the ability to convert and update raw CIP data to correct numbers for the ink keys at press, for any specific substrate. On any press equipped with this technology, it’s simply a question of whether or not the operator has the wherewithal to use it. Pre-conversion of CIP files at PrePress (even with a closed loop system) can never be more accurate than that.