Digitization and Its Impact on Printing Production Methods
Pu Jialing is selected from: Journal of Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication
Printing was one of the four great inventions in ancient China and played an active role in the development of human civilization. At the same time, it is also constantly innovating and growing in social progress and technological development. With the popularization of computer technology and network technology, printing production is facing an unprecedented technological revolution and is shifting from traditional analog production to modern all-digital production.
1 The Evolution of Printing and Copying Workflows
In a narrow sense, the printing and copying workflow refers to the production process from the original to the printed matter. It can usually be divided into prepress, press and postpress. At different stages of technological development, these three sub-processes have different contents and forms. In general, the evolution of the printing and copying workflow can be simply divided into three development periods: (1) simulation mode, (2) simulation + digital mode (3) digital mode, etc.
The process of photocopying and photocopying based on photocopying is a typical analog production method. The digital copying process based on global networked digital on-demand printing/publishing is a typical digital production method. The analog + digital production method (see Figure 1).
　　 1.1 Workflow based on "Photo Separation + Text Photographing"
Photolithography is an out-of-the-box simulation production process in which images and word processing are completely separated. The image processing mainly uses the techniques based on the plate making camera and the silver salt photographic film; the word processing mainly adopts the technical means based on the manual photosetting machine and the silver salt sensitive photo paper/film. The resulting image duplication uses screen dot dichroic films (images made up of tiny dots) and text copying to photograph photos, and they are completely assembled by hand into the entire page layout. Then, the printed matter is produced through operations such as copying, printing, and printing (see "Photography Making" in FIG. 1). Since this production process mainly relies on the photographic technology based on silver salt photosensitive materials, it has historically been referred to as a photolithography process and is no longer used.
1.2 Workflow based on "Electronic Separator + Laser Imager"
Since the 1970s, there have been electronic color separation machines. The color separation, screening, and corresponding color and tone corrections in the image processing process began using computers and gradually processed digitally. The text phototypes are also gradually using computer aids, and a fourth-generation laser phototypesetting system emerged. This indicates that image processing and word processing have begun to enter the era of computer-based digitalization. However, image and word processing at that time needed to be completed in different systems. Then, the meshes (images) and photos (texts) generated are combined into a full-page layout, followed by subsequent processing such as copying, printing, and printing. This production process is a hybrid production method where digital processing and simulation processing coexist. The computers used at the time were dedicated systems, and the software was developed by all manufacturers. Because the adopted technology and data format are not the same, data between different manufacturers' systems cannot be shared, and they are in a mutually incompatible closed state. At the same time, various manufacturers have adopted stringent security measures in order to maintain market share and competitiveness. This state continued until the mid-1980s. Since then, people have begun to pay attention to a desktop publishing system based on an open architecture using general-purpose computer platforms such as Macs, PCs, and workstations.
1.3 Workflow based on "Image and Image Processing + Image Imagesetter"
The separate development of the color separation machine and the image-setter system lasted for nearly 20 years. By the end of the 1980s, the computer graphics and text-integrated processing technology tended to be perfected and began to enter practical stage. This aspect should be attributed to the rapid increase in computing speed and storage capacity of general-purpose computers, which makes real-time image information processing possible. At the same time, it should also be attributed to the continuous development and improvement of graphic and text processing software. In this way, not only processing of images and texts can be completed within the same computer system, but also the processed images and texts can be stitched on a computer screen to complete a complex imposition work that is difficult to realize by the traditional manual. The digital page formed in this way has reached a professional level in quality and can fully meet the requirements of direct scan output. In the 90's, the image and text output device, the imagesetter, has matured in terms of technology and quality, creating the conditions for the full-page output of illustrated digital pages. Prepress processing began to enter the era of computer-graphics and full-page film output. The digital chain extends from the original to the full sheet of film.
1.4 Work flow based on the "text and image processing + plate imagesetter"
As people worry about the digital quality of the graphic and text disappears, it should be said that the digital page is output directly to the printing plate, and the technology that does not need to rely on intermediate products such as color separation films or photolithography has matured. In other words, the technology for making plates directly has matured. In the 1990s, the platesetter/platerecorder, the key output equipment and materials for direct plate making, and plates suitable for direct laser scanning (also called CTP plates) were put on the market one after another. The direct production of printing plate technology abolished all the intermediate links and products of the previous prepress processing, thus ending the history of long-term reliance on silver salt photographic film for printing and copying, and achieving silver-free printing and copying process (without using silver salt photographic film), It will become the main method of plate making in the next century, resulting in tremendous economic and social benefits. From the perspective of information processing and processing, direct platemaking technology has achieved full digitalization of the printing and copying process. The original processing and processing can be summarized in a digital processing system that combines graphic and text, simplifies and shortens the process of printing and copying as much as possible, and completely eliminates the situation that the traditional printing and copying process relies on the transformation of physical carriers.
1.5 Workflow Based on "Image and Text Processing + Digital Printing Machine"
Much like direct platemaking, the continuous improvement of graphic and text processing technology has made it possible to directly output images on substrates. This is a direct printing technology (also called digital printing technology) that converts digital pages into prints. After entering the 1990s, the key to this technology lies in the ability to convert color digital pages into high-speed, high-quality color hard-copy output devices, namely digital presses. Digital printing technology is a process from the computer directly to paper or print (computet-to-papet/print), and the digital link will extend from the original to the print, through the entire process of printing and copying. In principle, this type of printing no longer uses printing plates, at least traditional fixed-size printing plates, and belongs to plateless printing. Due to the absence of printing, this printing process enables so-called variable information printing. This is completely impossible to achieve with traditional printing plates.
If such a digital printer is connected to a global digital communication network, it will constitute a so-called on-demand printing/publishing system (also called online printing/publishing), on-demand printing/publishing (web printing/publishing). This printing/publishing method is very different from the traditional one. It is an all-digital production method based on digital information processing, high-density storage, and network transmission. It can completely overcome the time and geographical barriers that are difficult to overcome in the traditional printing/publishing process based on the transformation of physical carriers, storage, and transportation. , providing personalized on-demand services.
1.6 Direct Digital Color Proofing Technology
From the above development, we can see that with the continuous extension of the digital chain, the long and tedious process of traditional print copying does not shrink, but becomes a digital “black boxâ€. The intermediates necessary for traditional processes, such as color separation films, photolithography films and even printing plates, are gradually disappearing. This digital black box contains all the functions and operations of the printing and copying processing and incorporates expert intelligent management systems. All stages of the product are digitally stored and transmitted. In this case, how to quickly and easily provide color proofs to predict the printing effect or for customers to sign and approve it becomes a part of the digitization of the printing and copying process. This is particularly acute and eager for the direct plate making process, because traditional machine proofing or simple photochemical proofing is no longer suitable for demand.
Direct digital color proofing technology (DDCP) is precisely to meet this demand. It can convert digital color pages directly into color proofs, a computer-to-proof all-digital process. The key to this technology is also color output devices and materials, which can simply be called digital color proofers. There are currently two basic modes: hard proofing with color hard copy as the final result and soft proofing with color video display as the final result. Despite saying "what you see is what you get", it is still a problem that has not been completely overcome (especially colored soft proofing). With the continuous improvement and development of graphic and text processing and color printing technology, proofs obtained through direct digital color proofing machines (especially hard proofs) have been very close to formal prints in quality and effect, reaching customers. Approved level of contract proof. The direct digital color proofing machine can be placed on the producer's side, providing customers with proof services in a customary manner for confirmation, and can also be placed on the customer side to provide so-called remote proofing services, thereby greatly shortening proofing. The time when the customer signed the approval.
2 Integration of Printing and Copying Workflows
As mentioned above, the result of digitization is that the digital chain is continuously expanding, and the entire printing and copying process is condensed into a black box (see Figure 2). This black box is a highly intelligent digital processing system that incorporates all the functions and operations of the print reproduction process. All intermediate products are digitally stored and circulated. As long as the appropriate digital information source (also called the “original†in the broad sense) is connected to this black box, the corresponding information can be converted into the required visual products such as color prints, color proofs, and color video display. Similarly, if an appropriate output device is connected to this black box, different forms of information reproduction items can be obtained, such as full-page film, plates, proofs, prints, and the like.
It is not difficult to see that information sources are no longer limited to the traditional “original†category, but include images, text, and other forms of information from different sources, and are gradually becoming a huge, continuously multiplying networked information database. From the point of view of information, information sources can still be divided into analog and digital categories. At present, digital information comes mainly from the following aspects: (1) documents processed by word processors (or personal computers); (2) network documents; (3) digital cameras; (4) PhotoCD; (5) advertising/creative Design the system's digital manuscripts; (6) telemetry remote sensing images; (7) other digital or digitizable color images that have been stored on disk, magneto-optical disks, optical disks (including CD-ROMs, and re-writable optical disks).
Similarly, copying information no longer has a single form and can have many different options. In fact, as long as the digital prepress processing system - the digital black box equipped with appropriate output devices, you can get the desired form of the product, such as the configuration of the image imagesetter, you can get the whole page of film in accordance with the printing requirements; configuration Platesetters can get printing plates that meet the printing requirements; digital proofing machines can produce sample proofs that have the same effect as printed matter; digital printing machines can be directly used to obtain prints; and can be connected to the Internet.
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