A while ago, we talked about a new ceramic plate technology. The company involved (Lithoplate SA, in Spain) is now rumoured to have been bought by Ipagsa – their neighbour in Barcelona.
Rumour has it that Ipagsa will be launching an improved version of ceramic plates at DRUPA this year.
Looks like being another exciting show that’s worth the four years’ wait.
The only continuous tone screening technology I’m aware of is, or was, Collotype. The printing plate was made using a gelatin coating usually on glass. A process of heat and mild acid etch produced a grain so fine that the printed result showed no half-tone dot. See a collotype print here, dating from around 1900.
Since then we have all been printing with Half-Tone dots. To produce these, a screening technology is required and the two main ones in use are AM and FM or conventional and Stochastic.
The majority of Litho printers use conventional screening at about 175 – 200lpi. The results look great – certainly commercially acceptable for promotional colour work.
Stochastic screening produces finer results especially if the subject matter is of a detailed nature but the drawback is the degree of difficulty in setting up for FM work.
Because the dot gain is far great in certain tonal areas than with conventional dots, the TRCs or plate curves are particularly difficult to get right. Then there is the prospect of visible “noise” in flat tint areas and the also the need to have optimum printing conditions on a well maintained press.
Production will usually take precedence over ultimate print quality so the uptake of Stochastic has been limited. Attempts have been made to combine the relative ease of production of AM with higher print quality of FM with e.g. Hybrid and Concentric Circle Screening technologies with some success but still with issues.
The latest Screening Technology to hit the market is termed DM or Digitally Modulated Screening and branded as Auraia 11.
Has the Holy Grail been found?
The computing power available today has made it possible to “digitally modulate” each and every pixel produced by Auraia 11 Screening. This allows for a very high level of precise control of the dots in each separation and between separations. The resultant dots maximize the volume of ink on paper and minimizes ink on ink thereby expanding the colour gamut whilst reducing ink volume.
The other benefits include:
I’ve seen printed samples and must admit that they are very impressive. Watch out for the official launch at DRUPA in May.
Pressroom:
I can’t match this proof!
You’ve made a duff proof!
You’ve made duff plates!
Make me a new Magenta plate with less in the mid-tones.
Do it now. The press is standing idle.
The customer is here on a press pass.
I hate you!! Help!!
PrePress
Look at the label on the proof, which clearly states ISO12647 – 7 compliance.
Your press is crap – your operators are morons – and you don’t know what you are talking about.
I hate you too!! Sod off!!
Where can you hang your hat and be sure of your ground? What is the easiest piece of the jigsaw to get right?
The proof?
Is the proofing engine linearized and Calibrated? Are the inks certified by the engine manufacturer? Is the RIP capable of achieving ISO 12647-7? Is the substrate used certified by the RIP vendor?
A Contract Proof comprises of;
Miss any one of these items and you DON’T have a Contract Proof.
If you don’t have an accurate Certified Contract Proof, you are lost.
The CTP System?
Overlook any of these and the potential for error on press is HUGELY magnified.
The Press?
Jeezey Weezey – consider the process for a moment:
Now, it needs to be printed. The number of things that can go wrong on a printing press is staggering:
If the plates have been imaged at the correct laser intensity, processed through the correct strength chemistry at the right temperature with the optimum Tone Reproduction Curve for the Screening Technology, then that’s a good start.
When the plates are mounted on their respective cylinders and the ink and fount solution applied, the real fun starts.
OK. Fit is good. CIP3 makes for fast, accurate colour matching, press is up to speed, so what could possibly go wrong?
Lots!
As the press runs and running speed alters, the temperature varies. This in turn affects the viscosity of the ink and adjustments to ink/water balance may be necessary.
At this point, most of us opt for a lie down in a nice quiet darkened room, before realising that there’s no alternative other than to sit the pressroom and pre-press managers down and try to work out this mess before that deadline hits.
Good luck!
Here’s the launch information about PantoneLive:
Effectively, PantoneLive is trying to be a colour matching system which also allows and compensates for different inks on different substrates with different printing processes. How successful that’ll be remains to be seen – I’ve got the vague feeling that we’ve been here before!
Here’s the formal launch in London, just last month:
You may have heard about “printing to grey balance”, but why is this so important?
If you’re printing to grey balance, everything is reproduced in the correct colour. If you’re not in grey balance, then you have a colour cast. This means that the printing has a magenta, yellow or cyan cast or any combination of these colours either across the whole tonal range or in the highlights, mid-tones or shadows.
So what does this mean in practical terms?
It means that the press operator will need to adjust his ink density to compensate for the cast. Why ink density? Well, that’s about the only adjustment the press operator can make – more ink, less ink. That’s it! The press operator is stuck with the size of the dots on the plate so the only way he can change dot gain is by ink density adjustment.
But as soon as he does that, the press is printing at a density which is higher or lower than the correct solid ink density. The correct SID would have been established at a Press Fingerprinting and Tone Reproduction Curve generation session. This would have established optimum ink density settings for correct colour reproduction on press.
What are the effects of using incorrect densities?
The ink density is linked to the volume of damping. This is generally called ink / water balance. If this balance is incorrect, the potential problems range from ink emulsification to bulls eyes, hickies, picking, lack of print contrast, reduced running speed, increased spoilage, and other undesirable issues.
Why does the printed sheet have a colour cast in the first place?
If the original file and subsequent contract proof are correct then usually the blame can be laid at the inaccuracy of the Tone Reproduction Curve or Plate Curve. If the size of the dots on the plate is wrong, it’s impossible for the press operator to match the proof for colour without adjusting the ink densities and inviting the range of problems listed above.
Is there an easy fix?
Absolutely. There are solutions on the market which generate dot gain compensation curves. Some of these are very sophisticated having been created with mathematical algorithms which produce smooth, accurate curves. Others are often the cause of the issues rather than the solution.
What is CIP3 and why is it important?
CI is from International Cooperation, P3 is Prepress, Press and Post Press. CIP3 files generated from the data that made the plates in Prepress is used to preset the ink keys on Presses and guillotine and folder settings in Post Press.
Traditionally, the press operator would adjust the ink key settings on the press control console until such time as the press sheet colour-matched the contract proof.
This method relies entirely on the Mark 1 Eyeball and the experience on skill of the operator. In an era where we’re trying to cut costs by de-skilling jobs, this is clearly a cause for concern. Similarly, today’s quality demands mean that this is no longer an acceptable method. So the drawback is the time taken and the material wasted during make-ready when said eyeball and basic skill is less than excellent.
If it’s a web press then the wastage of material can be somewhere between prodigious and of biblical proportions. Sheetfed waste is of lesser volumes but still significant. Time is usually a more important factor here.
So how does CIP3 help?
With CIP3, the data used to preset the ink keys is the same data which made the plate. Therefore very accurate ink coverage data for each of the four process plates is fed to the keys. This happens almost instantly meaning that the keys on the press can be in exactly the right position even before the first sheet is printed.
Where make-ready waste varies from 100 to 500 sheets on a typical B1 4 colour sheetfed press without CIP3, this can be reduced to double-digit wastage with a good presetting solution.
Web press make-ready impressions vary wildly from 1,000 to 5,000 and more without CIP3, but typically to around 800 with the right system.
Can we do even better?
Importantly, some of the third-party solutions on the market are better than the press manufactures own efforts! These may have a “learning” function built in which monitors and compensates for fluctuations in the performance of individual printing units.
Not only is there a benefit in waste reduction and faster make-ready but also the quality achieved is usually superior to the best human effort.
After many years of research, development and numerous beta tests, Spain’s Lithoplate S.A. have achieved the final tuning of the thermal CTP plates with ceramic substrate, and is now starting its manufacture and sale to industrial scale.
As many offset printers have already confirmed, the patented ceramic plates provide the highest printing quality and numerous practical advantages::
The brochure for these ceramic plates is available here.
Lithoprint.info can source sample plates for your in-house tests of these impressive claims – so far they’ve stood the test of You will not waste your time and be pleasantly surprised by the progress they represent for offset printing. Just use the site’s contact form, or pick up the phone to talk this through!
Why is it that a UV Plate Setter is so damned expensive?
UV Plate Setters basically have an array of the same lasers that are used in the BluRay player you have at home. These are made by the million, and cost buttons to produce.
The control circuitry and mechanics that write the plate image is the same as in a thermal plate setter – which uses a high power infra-red laser. So how come a Conventional UV Plate Setter is still the same price as a Thermal Plate Setter?
Answers on a post-card to the usual address please!
I came across this recently. We’ve all been using grained aluminium plates for their hydrophilic properties for years. That translates to a low, flat water / alcohol profile, and and a better retention of ink on the printed substrate.
Ceramic plates have a layer of ceramic microspheres on top of the aluminium plate, which further improves the hydrophilic properties. This yields a better ink density on the print substrate. Better yet, the hard ceramic coating is more robust, meaning you can have much longer runs without having to worry about plate changes.
Finally, there’s no risk of plate oxidation, so they can be stored without having to gum them, and they can be used many times over.
Easy - just click here:
