Printing Labels across the Pond

This week I've been in our UK office. I've learning about the iSys Apex 1290 digital label printer. A machine designed to print photo quality images along with variable data on a variety of media products, which include tag stock up to 12 point in thickness, adhesive label stock and various synthetic medias.

The Apex 1290 digital label printer is driven by Express Label Print, a nifty software solution from Compose. Express Label Print or ELP, can handle a multitude of different stocks and optimizes label layouts to reduce media waste. You can print on pre cut media or also import your CF2 die cut files for the best possible layout.
You can add variable data to your print jobs on the Apex 1290 digital label printer with Compose Variprint.

Below is a video of the Apex 1290 digital label printer in action:

On this trip I've also visited customers to talk about press calibration and the advantage of having presses and proofers matching common specifications and standards. I've also taken the opportunity to learn from my European colleagues about their experience with ISO 12647-2.



Simon, Tom and me at BHF in Dartford responding to our customer's questions.

Tonight I'll have pint thinking not thinking about the flight back to California.

Contact me if you have any questions about the Apex 1290 or anything else that catches your eye on this blog.

Doutone proofing on an EPSON using Star Proof

By Michael Jahn

Recently, someone asked me about proofing Doutones made of two colors, in this case, two spot colors.

The first issue they faced was "how to I actually create a Doutone using two spot colors" - they thought this was the biggest challenge, but a quick screen recording movie while creating one in Photoshop showed how simple that was - you can see this here;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCtAUXAxugM&hd=1

The second issue - proofing this - seemed to be a breeze - they were confident that their proofing system was able to simulate the two spot colors very acutely, which was true, but what they didn't consider was the halftone screen angles - better said, they had no way to simulate the halftone screen angles, so the problem never reveal itself until they were on press, where problem revealed itself - disaster ! This is what the press sheet looked like;

Most people use spot colors as solids, and since they rarely screen them, they never noticed that the default is to always plot all spot colors at the same screen angle ! So, we get dots landing on dots (see figure below)

Without a way to proof with halftone dots and screen angles, you could not see things like this on your proof;

So - what to do !?

Well, first, we helped them navigate to where they would go to set the screen angles in their RIP;

Then they went back to the owners to discuss with the team why halftone dot proof simulation would have avoided downtime on press.

This is a photo of the actual duotone proof.

One more happy Star Proof customer - might you be next ?

With Star Proof 6 spot color matching is a breeze

By Michael Jahn



Capable of simulating line screens up to 220 lpi, Star Proof is well known for reproducing the sharpest dots possible on an Epson proofer. Star Proof will show the same dot produced by your RIP on your proofer, in just the way they will show once printed on your press. But, did you know that Star Proof can reproduce spot colors with a high degree of accuracy?

The new EPSON Sylus Pro 7900/9900 and WT7900 offer an incredibly larger color gamut than previous plotters. This is due to the additional inks these plotters utilize. Orange and green on the Stylus Pro 7900 and 9900. And white ink on the WT7900. Star Proof 6 takes advantage of this larger color space to accurately reproduce spot colors. Calibrating Star Proof to do this, it's very easy with its optional Packaging Option. Here's how:

With the aid of X-Rite's color port, we create a target made up of all the spot colors that we wish to calibrate. Then we print it and read it using your favorite spectro device - in our case, we used the i1 iSis reader, also from X-Rite.




Then we iterate this process. As we go along, we watch the dE between the actual values and the expected values get smaller and smaller



... and at the end of the process, we have over 1100 spot color definitions with 96% of them under 5 dE. Simple!



Another very cool feature of the Star Proof Packaging option is the ability to add spot colors by using an spot spectrophotometer, like X-Rite's i1. Read it, add it to the spot color list and you are ready to use it.

Think accurate duotones
Have you ever tried to proof a duotone? Star Proof can generate color precise duotones. With Star Proof your press operator can see a proof and know what inks make up a color. Try that with your average proof from a plotter.

Star Proof also enables you to assign the appropriate opacity to each spot color providing ultimate press simulation.

You may be thinking, why a dot proof?

Printing processes that use coarse screening or different screen ruling in the same job will have a major influence on its visual appreance and color gamut.
Actual dot per dot - right down to rosettes, fine line art, text at just 1pt, and even defects such as moire patterns.

Here's how a typical Star Proof workflow looks like:

Click on the image to see a larger view