Choose a digital proofer

The proofer can be arranged from a $20,000 semi-continuous transfer point to $10,000 or less. Digital proofers are gradually becoming an integral part of digital printing lines. With the slow and steady development of the printing industry towards elimination of the overall film, printers and printers that do not use digital proofing machines will eventually face the choice of when to purchase what kind of digital contrast proofing equipment. The outlook is worrying. Not because the technology is not yet mature, it is already mature, but because the digital proofing machine has not yet penetrated into the foreseeable market that has already formed. Although you don't expect to see a high-end, semi-continuous contrast-contrast proofing system in a quick-print shop, you will sometimes see it as you would see a desktop inkjet proofer at a high-end publishing house. And in the middle market, the choice is almost a matter of luck. What motivates a company to choose a $20,000 continuous inkjet proofer and another will accept a semi-continuous dot proofer that costs more than $20,000? Or why does a CTP printing technician use the desktop inkjet only for rough proofs, while the other one is used for the final approval. The specialization and complexity of these products involve a wide range of aspects, but the company's purchase choices are very subjective. They are connected with the customer's preference, their professional knowledge, and the sensitivity to price, and sometimes even just because of a momentary interest. This is where the reason lies. Digital proofing technology is mainly divided into four categories, namely, digital semi-continuous dot dot technology, continuous tone ink jet technology, dye-sublimation technology, and dro-on-demand (DOD) inkjet technology. Other technologies exist but are not widely used. For example, variable dot laser technology, wax thermal technology, and the like. Digital Semi-Continuous Tuning Equipment The digital semi-continuous tuning prototype is imaged by thermal laser in an analogy-like process, where each donor sheet is individually imaged and then superimposed into substrate. These proofers simulate dot gain failures, screen angles, and other printing characteristics, while providing ink for SWOP colors (sometimes GRACol and Eurocolor) by using special sub-sheets. Two-color, four-color or even eight-color overprinting equipment can be seen in Kadark Polychrome, Polaroid, Creo and Imation. By using laser imaging digital semi-continuous dot proofers, not only can they compete with analog proofs in quality, and even surpass it. Comparison of 25% to 30% midtone dot gain failures and 12% to 15% chances in dot-base device proofs that occur in Matchprint or Cromalin proofing, and dot site equipment in the CTP pipeline More adaptable than traditional plate equipment. But its price must be more than 20,000 dollars. Because the color on the sub-sheet (sometimes including hue, saturation and optical density) is fixed. Semi-continuous proofing equipment is difficult to transmit spot colors. Manufacturers are striving to develop sub-laminate production lines for common mercury colors, but the choice is limited. Kodak Polychrome is moving in the other direction, using the company's Approval to create recipe colors, and Approval uses CMYK screen colors to make color dots be copied out. Sublimation Dyeing (Dye-sub) and Inkjet Printing In the digital proofing market, mid-range and continuous printing and dyeing sublimation equipment are also used for contrast proofing and content proofing. The main difference between these devices is the front end, especially the choice of color arrangement software and RIP. Continuous ink jet printing equipment produces images by delivering a continuous stream of ink to a print head, which is diverted to a substrate that requires pigment. Since the ink can be synthesized in various colors, the inkjet proofer is more flexible in creating color dots than the digital semi-continuous dial prototype. DuPont Digital Waterproof and Iris products account for about 98% of the market, the price of 30,000 to 90,000 US dollars. The sublimation dyeing proofer transfers the pigments from the ribbons (?) to the substrate by means of thermocompression bonding and produces images through a series of processes. As far as the size of the web is concerned, a good dye-sublimation proofer and inkjet proofer have almost the same speed, but the price is much lower, about 20,000 US dollars. However, these devices require special substrates, which increases the price of a single page, and cannot be used for rough proofing on general paper. The lower-end of the market for revamped technology is the DOD inkjet system that has moved from office printing to proofing. It has many different models, such as thermal, piezo, and bubble jet, but they all share the same ink "on-demand" path rather than the continuous ink line. Some devices have the drawback of being fickle, unable to branch, and slow. However, the price tag of 10,000 dollars is enough to make up for these restrictions. The remarkable progress that DOD inkjet technology is taking place has changed the name of “cheap goods”. Improvements in color processing and color rendering and sometimes using Hexachrome to better simulate printed colors (eg Roland's HI-FI Jet). Epson's 1440 dpi Stylus Pro5000 device uses DuPont proofing media and color profiles to mimic Waterproof. More and more devices, including the new B2 Drylet II from Epson and Polaroid, use proofing materials to mimic the printing environment. Similar to Helios' Print Preview uses film to improve the accuracy of the device's proofing. Print Preview improves final product inspection on multiple proofing devices by selecting the best possible simulation using ColorSync ICC color processing and PDF description. It can be seen that the network digital contraction proofing system, from the desktop DOD system to the digital semi-continuous dot network, uses a variety of methods to make the proofing machine manufacturers feel very depressed, and they hope the market is not creative. But sometimes just one device is also of interest. For example, Chicago's high-end prepress CAPPS Digital Studio uses Kodak Approval to meet customers' proofing needs, including General Motors, Oldsmobile, Nintendo, Minute Maid and Walt Disney. "If you use dot printing, why not consider dot proofing?" said Kevin Wedel, deputy manager and image designer at CAPPS. "With continuous adjustment equipment there are invisible ripples and problems with different screen technologies. Use Scitex and Harlequin." The same dots and densities are available on the screen, but the colors are quite different. This is one of the reasons why CAPPS chose Harlequin RIP's Approval equipment. "85% of our company's CTP customers use Creo production line, and the production line of 90 % Uses the Harlequin front end. "Weel said. Motheral uses Polaproof in part for other dot systems because it uses ink pigments rather than dyes. Similar to Dirk