so what will be the next new thing in the printing industry?

[RafalWM]

just relaxing after another crazy day and I thought I'd ask around to see what the new trends will be in late 2010/early 2011. Any new units that will change production in some way? I need something interesting to read about

 

[oxburger]

James Cameron and 3-D printing........

 

[Magpie]

James Cameron and 3-D printing........

The guy is called Gábor Dénes (Dennis Gabor in the UK), the methodology is called holography and it works since the '60s.

 

[gordo]

 

[mustafade]

Next big thing ....

Next big thing ....

Next big thing will be ink jet technology. It will completely take over printing industry. The current printing presses will be ink jet presses. Can you imagine everyone will be able run them.

 

[gordo]

The next thing will be the broad adoption of reseparating incoming files to reduce ink usage and optimize images for the press.

best, gordon p

 

[dj]

The next best thing will be whatever a company not called Epson or HP will make after all their stupid patents on inkjet technology expire.

Prepress Pilgrim – Cheap Printer Ink

 

[maas]

I hope the next big thing is a "I am ignorent of Offset" and also a "make it print as displayed on my screen"menu setting in Adobe that will (by osmosis no doubt) automatically sync colour management, embed fonts etc and have suffiecient artificial intelegence to fill the void embodied by current twenty something art directors.


regards
Maas

 

[GazKL440]

Alcohol/Drugs/Cigarettes.

They are the next big thing in printing.

Start up a shop sellin whiskey, valium, and smokes near a big printer... and you will win big.

Hope this helps

 

[amazing1589]

James Cameron and 3-D printing........

Interesting thought there. But I really wouldn't want to bank on it.

do you need new technologies to print in 3d?

 

[walterz]

The next thing will be the broad adoption of reseparating incoming files to reduce ink usage and optimize images for the press.

best, gordon p

Gordo
Is "ink optimization" actually new or is it just GCR with a new marketing slogan?

 

[gordo]

Gordo
Is "ink optimization" actually new or is it just GCR with a new marketing slogan?

The notion of applying GCR is not new. But the idea of reseparating incoming image files to optimize them for the target print process is new. And that is what is done with the various ink optimization solutions.

best, gordon p

 

[walterz]

Gordo: The fact that some printers are now entertaining the idea of altering supplied files, I agree is new. This may not be the same in all sectors of the industry but in general I would believe that the separated files supplied to the printer are deemed to be the final file that will not be altered. So what are the benefits of reseparting the files that warrant the paradigm shift?

Ink savings is of course the primary sales pitch. But the benefits are relative to the file content and how they have been separated in the first place. If the files were initially separated to GRACoL and will be printed at a GRACoL shop, then there would be no savings.

If the printer wants to run with a higher GCR level than defined in the GRACoL profile, then there would be some savings. But how much more GCR can one run before reducing the quality of the image?

Would consistency be another benefit of reseparting files? Reseparating all files would guarantee that all files for all jobs would be in the same print space. This should theoretically result in less press changes between jobs. But is that an actual or merely theoretic benefit?

I can envision that a greater benefit than inter-job consistency would be the inter-image consistency within the same job. Unless the files have undergone late stage separation, extensive colour correcting may cause “separation imbalance” in the images.

Walter

 

[gordo]

[SNIP]
If the printer wants to run with a higher GCR level than defined in the GRACoL profile, then there would be some savings. But how much more GCR can one run before reducing the quality of the image?

Would consistency be another benefit of reseparting files? Reseparating all files would guarantee that all files for all jobs would be in the same print space. This should theoretically result in less press changes between jobs. But is that an actual or merely theoretic benefit?

I can envision that a greater benefit than inter-job consistency would be the inter-image consistency within the same job. Unless the files have undergone late stage separation, extensive colour correcting may cause “separation imbalance” in the images.

Walter

In terms of ink savings, studies have shown that you can increase GCR significantly without reducing the appearance of the image and reduce ink usage by about 15%.

Bringing all images on the press form does help with the printability of the job. But what might be more significant is that the images are separated for the actual print condition. This is a big problem with newspaper work since the majority of separations for newspaper printing are done to SWOP - not SNAP.

The reseparation of images does not typically involve any color correcting. It is to preserve the visual appearance of the original image while only changing the separation parameters.

Garbage in would still be garbage out.

best, gordon p

 

[walterz]

Gordo
"increase GCR significantly", "reduce ink usage by about 15%" - are your comments relative to GRACoL separated files? I have run tests with a few of the solutions you allude to, set to maximum ink savings and can achieve a mere 3 or 4% reduction.

Would you agree that the greatest ink savings would be found in the newspaper or printing on uncoated stocks? Would you expect to see a 15% ink savings for GRACoL separated files for a print run on a #1 coated sheet?

As for my comment that mentioned "colour correcting" - I was not insinuating that reseparation techniques should be employed in order to correct colour. It was mentioned as a potential explanation of what might cause separated files to become, what I called "unbalanced". We had one job in which the artist had done significant colour correcting (Photoshop/Curves) after the initial separation to the point where the blackest areas of different images had distinctly different breakdowns. The customer came for a press check and got the press to push their inks. As they went past the norm, some blacks turned warm and other turned green. We convinced the customer to reseparate all the images for the subsequent reprint which proved to work significantly better.

Walter

 

[gordo]

"increase GCR significantly", "reduce ink usage by about 15%" - are your comments relative to GRACoL separated files? I have run tests with a few of the solutions you allude to, set to maximum ink savings and can achieve a mere 3 or 4% reduction.[/quote}

Yes. In fact in the test results conducted in the IPA Roundup: Ink Optimization RoundUP - 2010 Results Report | PrintTools the ink savings actually ranged between a low of 17% to a high of 30% while maintaining the visual appearance of the non optimized image.

Would you agree that the greatest ink savings would be found in the newspaper or printing on uncoated stocks?

Possibly because images received by newspapers are typically separated to GRACoL not SNAP.

Would you expect to see a 15% ink savings for GRACoL separated files for a print run on a #1 coated sheet?

Yes, see the IPA test results.


best, Gordon p

 

[OutSourceD]

The next BIG THING in the print industry. Feh. This thread is a joke. Print is dead, dead, DEAD.

 

[dabob]

GazKL440 did you used to work for the Detroit News . . . a while back, right next to the back door to the press room was a local bar . . . you could walk in anytime the presses were running and find half the crew there . . . the other half was covering for them in the press room . . .no lie

 

[CD102]

Bars and pressrooms

Bars and pressrooms

GazKL440 did you used to work for the Detroit News . . . a while back, right next to the back door to the press room was a local bar . . . you could walk in anytime the presses were running and find half the crew there . . . the other half was covering for them in the press room . . .no lie

Well, we didn't have any fellows go missing as we worked two man crews, but there was a bar next door to a print shop in La Crosse.

 

[VDP Codger]

The next big thing will be to see print as but one of many production / delivery options and to find ways to benefit from them all.