ABOUT OUR LAST MEETING

Stories from the bleeding edge of technology

True tales of those who have pushed the edge of the technology envelope were told at the February APALA meeting. Eva Quan introduced bleeding-edge survivors Tony Washington (Olson/Kotowski) , Tracy Dragoo (Typecraft Wood & Jones), Michael Legg and Bob Guidry (Anderson Lithograph), and Steve Baumann (Grafico).

Adventures in inkjet proofing were related by Washington and Dragoo. As a production manager, Washington was challenged to produce collateral for client Epson using Epson inkjet proofing technology. How could he make sure output from his $5000 Epson inkjet printer would match litho ink on paper? Enter Dragoo and Typecraft, beta-site for Epson’s color management system.
Dragoo explained the color profiling system that was used to ensure a match between the inkjet proofs and the press sheets. Washington reported that his client was delighted with the color, not to mention the time and cost savings.

Staccato printing is another new technology being used successfully at Typecraft. It’s the second order of stochastic screening. Like all stochastic screening, it eliminates moirés, rosette patterns and stepping to print smoother halftones. But compared to older stochastic technology, Staccato has less plugging and pilling, thus less paper waste.

Michael Legg’s challenge is to keep Anderson Litho’s web presses printing accurate, predictable color throughout the run. Anderson’s closed loop color system allows their pressmen to evaluate color every 30 seconds on a touch- screen. Data is collected through a video camera with a strobe that is mounted on the press. The camera captures readings from the printed color bars as the press is running, feeds the readings into a computer for analysis, and outputs the color information to the pressman’s touch-screen. Color evaluation that used to take the pressman 30 minutes with a sheet and densitometer now can be done in 30 seconds. Legg and Guidry report that they get consistent color with shorter make-readys. That must be good for their clients and their bottom line.

“The greatest pleasure in life is doing what others say you cannot,” quoted Steve Baumann of Grafico. He must have been delighted when Diana Char of RPA presented him with an Acura book. Car books always have challenges. The printed vehicle colors must be perfectly matched to the paint chips. This one had a neutral quad-tone crossover. And the quad-tone included metallic ink. And, just to raise the difficulty bar, they put the crossover on two different paper stocks, one silk and the other matte. Plus, RPA’s art director had made it very clear that he would not accept any rosette patterning on his Acuras!

Grafico pulled all their tricks out of the bag for the Acura book. Of course they used touch plates to match the vehicle colors. They ran press proofs to show the metallic inks. But here’s the bleeding edge part: They used both traditional AM screening and stochastic screening on the same plates to give RPA the best of both technologies, with no rosettes. The finished piece won awards and was one of the three finalists in the PIA’s highly regarded “They Said It Couldn’t Be Done” competition.

Thanks to all of the February panelists for sharing their stories from the leading edge of printing technology. Perhaps Steve Baumann best summarized their experiences: “Ink on paper is still an art. Science and technology just make it easier!”