Global Prepress Technology Status and Development Trends

The main format for prepress production is POSTscript, and the input part still relies on SCANNER. From the perspective of production, there is no way to meet its needs. Currently, in the Asia-Pacific region, it still depends on traditional proofing. The main reason is that the principle of traditional proofing is the same as that of printing. Therefore, customers always believe that the effects that traditional proofs can exhibit can show the same effect when they are actually printed.

There are many types of digital proofing, roughly divided into ink-jet type, toner type, and printed dot type. The ink-jet type is divided into black and white and color; while the toner type has a larger size limitation, the general maximum output size is A3; the cost of printing dot type proofing is higher, and A4 size one piece will cost 50 yuan.

In the pre-press job section, color management is very important. The principle of the color management system is very scientific to use, but the limitations of its use are rather large. It is not the use of difficulties, but how to ensure that the colors used for a long time are consistent, but there are some limitations in the application. The continuous development of CTP, the entire digital prepress process, color management system to better take care of every aspect, to do a comprehensive color control.

The change in the prepress industry is a revolution. After each change, the industry must improve equipment, train employees, and learn NEW technologies again. This year's DRUPA exhibited many digital prints and CTPs. In addition to the machine, the CTP is also very important, and the operating principles of the various media manufacturers are not the same. The entire CTP or prepress WORKFLOW has a different format for each vendor, but the PDF format is the same. There are many shortcomings in the current POSTscript workflow, such as: large files or other problems, but as the network becomes more and more popular, PDF will become more and more popular.

In addition to OFFSET printing, the print quality of electrostatic printing is also acceptable recently. In the conversion process, it did color management, size conversion into file size to spell version, you can do JUST IN TIME, one-time input, you can perform multiple output, of course, there must be a database to monitor afterwards The whole work is going on.

Proofing can support digital proofing through the Internet. The output must support CTP and CTF. There must be backup data. There are CDs and DVDs. Digital has a great influence on the prepress industry, and more and more colors require a huge number of figures to describe. In addition, the complexity of the content of files, the reduction of the time needed, the merger and competition of industries, and so on all require digital support.

The existence of the Internet has both advantages and disadvantages for the industry. The development of the Internet has led to the gradual integration of printing processes. In the past, the entire printing factory only used printing, and the plate-making factory only conducted plate-making. However, in recent years, printers must understand the prepress or prepress processing, and the plate-making company must also understand the completeness. Printing and postpress processes.

Of course, at the same time of fierce competition, investment should maintain the return of investment, such as CTP, the use rate of its equipment is high; many manufacturers and customers in Europe and the United States are now transmitting electronic files, but the country is not currently fully used, which is the need to promote .

Digital printing can be continuously improved. The degree of use of the size is still very limited. We hope that it can gradually mature in the future. The output now also depends on PRINT. In the future, there will be many digital proofing products that will use digital proofing. We hope that digital proofing will be better than the US proofing in the future.