Save color with color management
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The financial tsunami triggered by the United States has spread to the global economy, and printing companies are facing an unprecedented severe situation and a heavy crisis. Open source practices such as transformational operations, innovative markets, and brand value-added are beyond the reach of the trend, and the use of close-knit throttling methods is more immediate. Because as the basis of business management and production, controlling costs has always been a concern of business managers.
By reducing consumables, increasing productivity, and optimizing quality, you can get immediate benefits quickly. If there is a way to improve printing performance, including increasing printing speed, reducing printing dusting, reducing total ink volume, reducing printing preparation time, reducing paper weight, speeding up ink drying, improving ink overprinting, improving dot enlargement, and easily controlling gray balance. And, in addition to improving environmental protection, it will definitely produce a comprehensive effect.
Lifeng Accor (Dongguan) Printing Co., Ltd. has achieved the color management of ink through the above-mentioned benefits of many printing companies. The cost of ink alone is one-fifth, and the monthly ink savings are more than 100,000 yuan.
How to achieve it? What method or principle is used in it? I believe that everyone is more concerned about the focus, in fact, this is achieved through the principle of UCR or GCR in CMS color management.
UCR is the abbreviation of Under Color Removal, Chinese translation is the background color removal. Refers to the method of removing the neutral gray part from the CMY three primary color version in the mixed color or dark adjustment area of the image and replacing it with the corresponding black version. The disadvantage is that it may cause gray balance in the neutral gray shadow, and sometimes it needs to be compensated by the UCA (Under Color Addition) background color gain method.
GCR is the abbreviation of Grey Component Replacement, that is, any non-color value which is superimposed or mixed with CMY three-color ink can be replaced by black ink which is equal to the weakest one of the three colors to obtain the same vision. effect.
The difference between the two is that the black version of the GCR color separation is more and the tone is longer; while the black version of the UCR color separation is relatively less hierarchical, but in the deepest part, the black value is Bigger.
This type of background color removal technology is no stranger to experts. As early as more than 30 years ago, photo-engraving has introduced UCR technology to adjust the background color removal. At that time, it was mainly controlled by manual experience, and the removal range was relatively narrow. In the era of electronic scanning platemaking, professional computing electric distance control was used, and multiple color removal methods were implemented. In English, it was called PCR, which is PolyChromatic Color Removal; and the complementary color reduction method, which is called CCR in English, is Complementary Color Reduction. In Japan, there are many scanners that use integrated color removal, namely ICR, Integrated Color Removal. Later, the removal range is gradually extended and extended to GCR. Any black version of the tone can be automatically generated.
But why is this type of technology not fully usable? The main reasons are:
1. Plate color separation depends on the operator's experience to adjust.
2. The general color separation pays more attention to the color version, but ignores the black version.
3. There are many types of customer originals, and it is difficult to separate the color separation plates.
4. The printing conditions are variable, which often requires adjustment when printing on the machine.
5. The traditional drafting is unstable, and it is difficult to make reference color samples for color separation processing.
6. The current PDF file makes it difficult to adjust the image color information in the file.
It is the new IT technology that makes the dark and the light. Nowadays, there are many mature IT softwares on the market. You don't need to pay attention to the truth. You only need to throw the PS, EPS, PDF and other file formats provided by customers into the "hot folder". In the process of RIP, the same network will be used. The CMY tri-colors with overlapping positions are replaced with black ones.
In fact, there are already many brands of automated color conversion workflows in operation. In addition to accurately calculating the amount of CMY tri-color ink used, it can also adjust the color balance of the image in addition to black. It does not affect the final print quality, and does not require much manual intervention. For example: GMG Ink Optimizer, OGS Ink Saver from CGS, Arkitex Opti Ink from Agfa, Ink Saver from AB Grpah, etc.
Last year, Li & Fung Accor tested GMG's Ink Optimizer, which calculates the amount of ink applied to the page by calculating the amount of color conversion from CMYK to CMYK, while also ensuring ink quality and improving printing conditions. Under the control of this system, the automatically reduced amount of color ink reduces the total Ink Limit of printing to more than 25%, while significantly reducing drying time and print job preparation time, thereby further speeding up the printing press. Improve productivity.
This year Lifeng Accor is testing another similar product, OGS Ink Saver of CGS. This is a color-managed UCR/GCR system that uses a unique algorithm to automatically reduce ink usage and apply it to linear and continuous-tuned image data. This software can vary depending on the amount of ink coverage on the original. The amount of ink is reduced by more than 20% while relatively reducing ink drying time, printing preparation time and reducing the requirement for paper weight.
The test results are as follows:
1. Increased the amount of black ink used, but the amount of CMY color ink can be reduced by 15%. Pay attention to the following characteristics:
a. The larger the image area coverage rate, the more saved;
b. The darker, grayer and more gradated image, but not conducive to bright colors;
c. The larger the printing quantity, the better, it is better than 10,000 printing; it is not conducive to short-run printing, commercial rotation is the most beneficial;
d. The black version will have different effects due to different color separation settings. When adjusting the software, using more than 50% of the GCR will save ink, but sacrifice some color saturation.
2. It is well known that dusting is an indispensable process for multi-color printing. Its main function is to speed up the drying of ink and prevent the paper stack from sticking together. The application of the Ink Saver system saves powder dusting, although it does not bring very intuitive economic benefits to the company, but the other aspects are remarkable. The reason is:
a. For stamps that need hot stamping, such as hot stamping, if the amount of powder is too large, it will be suspended between the ink layer and the hot stamping foil to form a barrier, which will easily lead to the lack of strokes in the hot stamping image, thus affecting the final hot stamping. The quality of the print.
b. The powder is finally fused in the ink. If it is too much, it will reduce the gloss of the print and affect the overall reproduction of the image color.
c. Too much dusting will also affect the quality of the film processing. Because the suspended particles of the dusting powder will reduce the adhesion between the film adhesive and the printed matter, resulting in a film that is not strong.
d. If the powder is used too much, it is easy to make the paper-receiving chain full of dust, which hinders the normal operation of the chain lubrication device, thereby increasing the maintenance cost of the printing machine. Although powder spraying is non-toxic, a large amount of dust accumulation will destroy the printing environment and greatly increase the chance of workers suffering from tracheal diseases.
3. Easy to control gray balance. During the ORIS Ink Saver experiment, at the normal density, our magenta version in the four-color ash was deepened by 0.1, and there was no obvious change in gray. It can be seen that the system can easily correct the neutral gray color cast. In addition, black can stabilize the color of the image, and its stable range depends on the length of the black tone, the longer the tone, the larger the stable color range. However, some blind spots need to be noticed, such as dark purple areas, dark green, dark brown, etc., the software will be mistakenly judged as dark gray, you need to turn down the black version.
4. Using ORIS Ink Saver and PIP print data of CIP3, the printing performance has been greatly improved. In addition to improving ink overprinting and dot gain, printing preparation time has also been reduced by a quarter, and because of the faster drying of inks, the speed of printing presses has increased by nearly 10%.
5. In terms of cost-effectiveness, five different types of books were tested and printed between 10,000 and 30,000. The average data obtained was about 14% of the total ink saved, a rough estimate, and monthly printing cost. Save more than 100,000 yuan and save more than 1 million yuan a year. Of course, the improvement in production and quality has not been counted. Take Dongguan Lifeng Accor as an example, all kinds of brands (C, M, Y) inks consume more than 200 tons per year, the average price is 40 yuan per kilogram; printing dust powder consumes 5 tons per year, 30 yuan per kilogram.
200,000×40=8,000,000×14%=1,120,000 yuan, 5,000 x 30=150,000 x 30%=30,000 yuan, saving a total of 1,150,000 yuan
Finally, the ability to print the same or even better colors, save ink, reduce expenses, and take into account the cost and environmental protection is the biggest gain of this test.
Printing presses, paper and ink are the three material foundations for creating print value. The three inks account for the least cost, but most directly affect the printing quality. Machine paper is more externally controlled, and ink performance can be managed internally. Therefore, printing companies must pay attention to color management, the core of this production management, better survive and develop in adversity.