Total ink density

J

jay12345

Active member
Hello All,

Im looking for a way to cut the ink from a pdf file. Is there a solution out there for someone like me who doesn't know a whole lot about color management. I rip through rampage v11.3 and send files to an HP Indigo 5500 and Violet CTP for a Shinohara 52 5c coater. I was looking into Rampages InkDrop. I know this will get the job done as well as being in-rip, but it is pretty costly so I was wondering if there was an easier/less expensive way to achieve this. Any feedback on this would be awesome and i am aware this is a NOOB question and i should have searched the forums first because this has been discussed thousands of millions of times and yadda yadda. I have searched and i have read a lot of threads but it all seems very technical so i was wondering if any of you would be willing to break it down for me.

Thanks in advance, Jayson
 
You could purchase a device link ink saving profile from a consultant, rather than purchasing expensive dvl creation software that you have no ongoing need for.

If your RIP or Workflow can use a device link profile to re-seperate, then you are all good to go. Otherwise you can use a third party plug in Acrobat Pro to convert the PDF using this device link profile:

http://www.callassoftware.com/callas/doku.php/en:products:pdftoolbox:dladdon

http://www.planetpdf.com/article.as...s_pdfToolbox_3_and_DeviceLink-Add-on&gid=7652

EDIT: Is it just lower total ink that you are after, or are you also after "ink saving" - very high/max. GCR? They are different things...


Stephen Marsh
 
Last edited:
Thanks Stephen

I am not as concerned about the ink savings as I am about cutting the amount of ink down on the printed sheet. I get pdf files in all day every day with 350% to 400% areas to be printed on 130# uncoated cover.

I cant really go to my clients with this issue as they will tell me " My other printers dont have this issue".

Im not really sure who to buy the device link from or what a device link is at that matter.

I appreciate your help.

Jayson
 
You could create a profile in Photoshop
and in Acrobat you can convert to profile in the convert colors menu
Acrobat will see the saved profile
 
Tracy said:
You could create a profile in Photoshop
and in Acrobat you can convert to profile in the convert colors menu
Acrobat will see the saved profile
Click to expand...

You have to be very careful doing this. If it's just a single image on a page, it's probably not a problem, but converting to profile uses traditional ICC color management. You risk generating 4-color black or contaminating certain colors. You could also run into color variation problems if some text is raster (e.g. from transparency flattening) and other text is live if the profile is not uniformly applied (this is where Device-Link profiles can be very handy).

You may want to look at FixMyPrintFile. It has a ink coverage reduction feature.

Greg
 
There are many consultants or companies that can sell you as a service a DeviceLink Profile to save on total ink coverage, including my company. This is not "cheap" however it is much less expensive than buying software if you only have a one off need and you then own the solution outright. You really have to make sure that you can use the DVL in your RIP or upstream in your workflow, otherwise you would be purchasing something that is useless.

What is the CMYK output profile that you separate to when producing work for your 130# weight stock? Is this a standard profile for an industry condition such as Fogra or SWOP? Or is it a custom house profile? Do the incoming files with too much ink have an embedded ICC profile, or do they contain no colour profile?


Regards,

Stephen Marsh
 
Lukas, I really like the ISO Coated GCR profiles from that website! They only offer 330 and 300 total ink versions, which may not be low enough for some end users (yes I know that it could be argued that it one wishes lower total ink then F39 should not be the used anyway)…

VIGC offer a suite of v2 and v4 ISO profiles that range from 320 to 220 total ink. I am not sure what is going on with these profiles, they are approx. 9mb per profile, so if you convert to this profile and wish to embed the profile, it would be best to assign a regular ISO profile first so that the file is not bloated by 8mb of extra data.

Download VIGC Max TAC ICC-profiles


Stephen Marsh
 
Greg, if you are in the US I can help point you in the right direction. I do have a product that I sell but I can also describe others to you. It, a device link profile with GCR, can be a relatively inexpensive drop in solution depending on how your workflow flows.
 
jay12345 said:
Hello All,

Im looking for a way to cut the ink from a pdf file. Is there a solution out there for someone like me who doesn't know a whole lot about color management. I rip through rampage v11.3 and send files to an HP Indigo 5500 and Violet CTP for a Shinohara 52 5c coater. I was looking into Rampages InkDrop. I know this will get the job done as well as being in-rip, but it is pretty costly so I was wondering if there was an easier/less expensive way to achieve this. Any feedback on this would be awesome and i am aware this is a NOOB question and i should have searched the forums first because this has been discussed thousands of millions of times and yadda yadda. I have searched and i have read a lot of threads but it all seems very technical so i was wondering if any of you would be willing to break it down for me.

Thanks in advance, Jayson
Click to expand...

In Rampage you can choose to use a color policy in your RIP profile. This allows you to select different actions, source profiles, rendering intents, and output intents. Just need to make sure that the total ink weight or TAC of your destination profile is what you require. I use this for a couple customers who send us pdf's that have a TAC of 360% and my destination profile uses heavy GCR and has a TAC of 280%. Works great, no need for special software, different workflow, or DLP's. Make sure you choose to preserve black objects so any type doesn't convert to 4/C rich black.
Regards,
Todd
 
tmiller_iluvprinting said:
In Rampage you can choose to use a color policy in your RIP profile. This allows you to select different actions, source profiles, rendering intents, and output intents. Just need to make sure that the total ink weight or TAC of your destination profile is what you require. I use this for a couple customers who send us pdf's that have a TAC of 360% and my destination profile uses heavy GCR and has a TAC of 280%. Works great, no need for special software, different workflow, or DLP's. Make sure you choose to preserve black objects so any type doesn't convert to 4/C rich black.
Regards,
Todd
Click to expand...

Hi Todd,
Is this available in version 11.3? if so would you mind walking me through it?
Thanks, Jayson
 
jay12345 said:
Hi Todd,
Is this available in version 11.3? if so would you mind walking me through it?
Thanks, Jayson
Click to expand...

I have attached a screen shot that walks you through the RIP prescan setup. If you have further questions I would suggest that you read the operators manual, or contact Rampage, their support team is second to none. We are on v12 and I just started using this a few months ago, but I would think it was available in v11? Hope this helps.
Regards,
Todd
 

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Jay, send me a PM with your contact info and I'll describe some of the options. A phone call might be easier than an email.
 
Jayson,

We use the PDF ICC Profile conversion in Rampage 12 as well. Works like a dream, use a standard ICC color profile for coated and uncoated sheets. Takes the TAC down to below 300 and 260 respectively. Super easy to set up, even easier to use (select the correct page processing profile). Version 12 upgrade with a new threaded rip is going to cost you about $15,000 - $17,500. I know, scary right. But Key Finance will lease that to you for three years at about $500-$600 month. Thats about 30-40 man hours per month. I can't express the massive improvements in version 12 enough. Not only this PDF profile conversion, but JDF hot folders.....awesome! Dual rip/monitor proof....awesome! Automatic color mapping......awesome! And the whole system is just kick A@!#.

Tell the boss if you can't have it you will just die. :)
 
Thanks for the heads up. I know i want to upgrade to 12 pretty bad and im glad to hear it will solve this tac issue for me as well.
 
For under 2k you could use a device link anywhere in your workflow that supports DLP's. No need to lease it or break the bank.
 
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