Learning about colour management and how it can help prepare images for large-format printing processes is the only way to avoid these pitfalls.
As I write, I am spending a few hours in an airport, an appropriate place to evaluate the state of today’s signage, with its combination of backlit, vinyl, and paper-based displays. Most of the images are printed very well, but a few have problems with contrast, poor colour reproduction and image resolution.
The biggest surprise is a large backlit ad for a German automotive company, presenting their flagship car. The chassis of the vehicle is a rich black, but the gravel road, normally grey, has taken on a strong green shade.
Grey is one of the strongest ”memory colours” (colours with a preconceived context) for viewers, and must remain neutral. It has very little latitude to be presented in the wrong fashion, compared to other “memory colours”, such as “fire truck” red or “sky” blue. For most people, seeing the car driving along a green gravel road will take away from the intended emotional response: a desire to own and drive the car.
The large-format print must depict what the client wants. Therefore, signmakers must be able to trust what they see on their computer screen to be accurately reproduced when printed, or they run the risk of wasting time, material and ink and losing customers.
The way to achieve this holy grail of print production is the proper calibration and profiling of your monitor, which means setting it to specific industry standards for brightness, contrast, gamma and colour. Accepted values for printing and sign making are: .4 for black, 95 for the brightness of white, a 2.2 gamma and 6500K for the colour temperature of white. Re-calibrating is simply resetting the device to these established values every 30 days or so.
Profiling your monitor measures how your particular monitor interprets colour. Every monitor is different, and applications like Photoshop need a description of how a monitor sees colour so it can transparently compensate for your monitor’s limitations.
Today’s monitor calibration packages, costing from $250-$500, are much more user-friendly than previous editions, and work with all platforms and monitors.
With Photoshop’s soft-proofing feature, the on-screen appearance of an image is adjusted to match how it will look when printed, without changing the pixel values within the image.
Frequently an image is viewed on a calibrated and profiled monitor that provides more contrast and a wider colour gamut than the corresponding print media can reproduce. Soft-proofing capabilities allow the image to be ‘dumbed-down’ on-screen to match the narrower gamut of the output device.
Another feature called “paper white” allows the user to match the media’s white point. The ‘catch’ with this option is the need for an accurate International Color Consortium (ICC) profile describing the device to be targeted (see Figures 1 and 2).
There are numerous options available for adding contrast to an image, with the most obvious being the brightness and contrast controls. However, the danger of this feature is it discards highlight and shadow detail. A better option is to use the levels or curves option, which allows images’ tonal range to be maximized without losing any important detail.
This process can be carried out by opening levels and looking at the image’s histogram. If the image is lacking in contrast, the histogram will resemble the image in Figure 3, with gaps at one or both ends of the histogram.
Moving the triangular icons in to meet the black edges will reset the white and black points. If the image’s black point is at 85 per cent, for instance, the image will look flat. Instead, the blackest point in the image should be 100 per cent black.
It is important not to go past the edge of the histogram. Doing so will only darken areas of the image where important detail can be lost.
An alternative method to add contrast involves the “unsharp mask”(USM) filter. Using this with the values shown in Figure 4 will add an additional level of contrast to an image. Increasing the values amplifies the effect, but it is important not to overdo it, to avoid ‘halos’ around images.
Traditional image sharpening with the USM tool is still required and should be performed as a final step. Traditional values for the USM filter are:
Amount: 75 to 150
Radius: 0.7 to 1.5
Threshold: 0 to 5, for a 300 pixel-per-inch (ppi) image
Viewing distance plays a major role in determining the required resolution. An alternate method to determine the best image resolution is to first determine how far away the average viewer will be viewing your print. You can reduce the resolution by a third for every 6 feet we move away from a print.
One method to determine the optimal image or base resolution required for an image file in large-format printing is to divide the output resolution by three. For example, if an output device can print at 360 dots per inch (dpi), 120 dpi is the required image or base resolution for your file printing on a device that prints at 360 dpi.
For example, starting with 360 dpi as maximum resolution, an image to be viewed from 1.8 m (6 ft) away could be printed at 240 dpi. If the viewing distance were 3.6 m (12 ft), however, the image’s resolution could be lowered to 120 dpi, because the human eye cannot see 360 ppi of detail from 3.6 m (12 ft) away.
1. Convert all fonts to curves. Include the fonts with the file, in case a small edit is required later.
2. Using Photoshop’s convert to profile feature, convert bitmapped images (photos) to the U.S. Sheetfed Coated V2.icc profile. Embed the profile when saving.
3. Use the Tag Image File Format (TIFF) with bitmapped images whenever possible.
4. All images must be in the cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK) colour mode. Lamda and LightJet devices are exceptions that require a red, green and blue (RGB) colour space.
5. Use vector files whenever possible.
6. Always supply a hard-copy colour proof.
7. All paths should be drawn by hand. Automated path creation options are overly complex and will often cause errors in processing.
8. Specify all solid colours using the Pantone Coated ‘C’ library.
9. Avoid using transparency in Adobe Illustrator.
“We haven’t had a dot based proof for many years, now,” says Tom Gural, vice-president of Cober Printing in Kitchener, Ont. Instead, this quality printer uses a continuous-tone Veris proofer from Creo (now part of Kodak). “With some customers, we just send them a PDF and they let us worry about the colour,” Gural adds.
Gural’s not alone: since the graphic arts industry began adopting digital technology to produce images and pages, the nature of the proof has been changing, too. In an all-digital workflow, what does a hard-copy colour “proof” really mean? Is there a place anymore for the traditional proof? And if not, what’s replaced it—will the industry accept the fully digital, monitor-based, “soft” proof?
“Certainly, the definition of a contract proof has varied over the years,” says Robert Ens, product manager for proofing systems at Fuji Graphic Systems Canada. At one time, a “contract proof” was meant to resemble as closely as possible the image that the offset press would produce, down to the screens and dot structure. Proofs like 3M’s ColorKey or Agfa’s Pressmatch were made from the same film that was used to make the printing plate, and thus had the same dot structure. Theoretically at least, these proofs would show any moiré or other color problems. Of course, whether they predicted colour that well depended on a number of other factors, such as the substrate or medium that they used and process control. Halftone, “copy-dot” proofs are also quite expensive.
Film proofs lost their niche in the printing ecology when the industry shifted to computer-to-plate processes. In the filmless printing process, proofs have to made from the same digital files as the plate. Today, most customers accept continuous-tone prints as contract proofs; some are starting to accept “soft,” monitor-based proofing systems.
“You can lose a lot of time in the approval process, but the final deadline for printing never seems to change,” says Mike McDonald, President of Ampersand Printing of Guelph, Ont. The company has both offset presses and an HP Indigo digital press. The Indigo can produce its own “proofs” before the final press run, and for offset printed jobs, Ampersand uses a Creo Integris inkjet printer. They also occasionally use colour-calibrated monitor proofs, but “we’ve had a hard time getting people to accept the ‘soft proof’ as a contract proof.” It’s easier to send electronic proofs, but for final approval, especially regarding colour, customers still want to see a hard-copy proof.
The question is: can you make a digital proofing system a reliable predictor of the colour that will result from offset printing?
In a film-based workflow, predicting the product of a printing press can be fairly straightforward, at least in theory. Using the same halftone film to make both the plate and the proof reduces the number of differences between the two imaging processes. Using the same pigments and substrates adds more controls, as well.
Even so, the proofing system still uses a different technology to produce the image than the press does. Only a proofing press can completely replicate offset printing characteristics—and even then, only with careful control.
One common problem is that many customers prefer the look of the proof to the final printed piece. Every printer has had to deal with inexperienced print buyers who want to get the rich colour and high gloss of the Cromalin proof from the offset press.
A digital workflow compounds this problem. There is no film to make the plate, so that one important aspect of controlling the fidelity of the proof is gone. Making sure that the proof is an accurate predictor of the final colour image from the offset press becomes a matter of careful set-up, characterization of every device and process in the workflow, working out translations between the different technologies and constant calibration and checking to ensure that all these devices remain within their specified profile range.
In one sense, it can be argued that if you can calibrate a continuous-tone printer to provide a reliable, realistic proof of offset printed colour, you could do the same with colour on a monitor. There are several vendors who do just that. Still, this route adds another challenge, that of somehow getting a monitor, which displays RGB colour, to emulate printing’s CMYK. And as in hard-copy proofing, to be really reliable, the monitor has to be viewed in the right lighting conditions. The standard for SWOP proofing is 5000 degrees Kelvin.
The digital workflow necessitates a digital proofing system, one that produces pages, printer’s spreads or signatures directly from the same digital files that will produce plates. Solutions fall into four categories: wide-format inkjet printers for producing signatures, used for verifying pagination and position, but not necessarily colour accuracy; high-quality, continuous-tone inkjet printers for emulating press colour; and monitor-based, “soft” proofing technologies that may or may not be linked to a paper proofing system.
“Printers today will employ a number of different colour proofing technologies at different points in the production process,” says Brad Palmer, General Manager, Proofing and Colour with Kodak Graphic Communications. A high-resolution, continuous-tone proofer may be used as a “final” proof to approve colour, but before that, printers may have customers sign off on the layout using lower-quality, and cheaper, single-page printers; at another stage, they’ll use wide-format printers to check imposition and registration, and to ensure that all the graphic elements are in the final file.
Wide-format inkjet printers have become the norm for producing signature proofs to check imposition. Hewlett-Packard, Epson, Xerox, Encad, MacDermid-Colorspan, Agfa, Canon, Durst Phototechnik, Gerber Scientific Products, Kodak, Mimaki, Mutoh, Nur and more make wide-format colour printers with varying degrees of colour accuracy and control.
Agfa’s Sherpa-m series of wide-format printers combine signature-size format with high-quality colour controls. The Grand Sherpamatic prints both sides of up to 50 inches for a full printer’s flat, with very high precision.
Fast, convenient and relatively inexpensive, continuous tone (contone) inkjet printers can be configured to produce an accurate contract colour proof. However, it won’t match the colours from an offset press unless they’re carefully set up to do so.
That requires several steps: developing an accurate profile, or description of the offset press that the ultimate destination of the print job, as well as profiles of the proofing device and all the colour devices involved in producing the job. Next, you have to match these profiles, in effect, restricting the range of colours, or gamut, that the proofing system produces so that it’s the same as that of the offset press. Then you have to continually measure and calibrate all these devices to ensure their colour output remains within the parameters you need.
Fortunately, there are several standards that simplify this process: International Color Consortium (ICC) profiles that describe colour characteristics of devices in a consistent way from any manufacturer; SWOP (Specification for Web Offset Publications) standards for describing colour output and inks; and Apple’s ColorSync technology for translating colours between different technologies. When shopping for a colour proofing system, make sure it meets at least those three standards.
There’s a wide variety of continuous tone inkjet printers available today, including the MatchPrint Inkjet from Kodak, the PictroProof from Fuji, DuPont’s CromaProXP and the 10000 series from Epson. Xerox’s Phaser printers use solid inks.
In addition to the Veris line of 2-page contone printers, Kodak continues to support the Iris printers it inherited when it acquired Creo, which inherited them from Scitex.
For some printers—and for some printing customers—the only acceptable prepress proof remains one that has a halftone dot pattern. For these exacting clients, there are some digital proofing systems that emulate the plate dot for dot. But there’s a high price to be paid for this level of precision, and still, all the devices have to be regularly calibrated for the system to be at all reliable. In addition to the commercial printing market, Kodak’s Digital Approval Halftone color proofing system is also finding success in the packaging world. “It’s seeing a lot of growth in the packaging market,” says Brad Palmer, general manager of proofing and color with Kodak, based in Vancouver.
The Prediction series from Latran is another proofing system that generates halftone images from digital files. It also has found greater acceptance in the packaging industry, with its longer runs and high demands for exacting colour. Fujifilm’s FinalProof system uses its patented thin-layer thermal transfer technology to place true halftone dots onto the receiver sheet for a true, dot-to-dot prediction of an offset press. Aimed at the high-end commercial printer, it has also found a “new life” in the packaging world.
“Soft” proofing, or using a computer monitor, has been around for a long time. Printers and clients are used to viewing images, pages and spreads on a monitor to check layout, ensure that all the pictures and text boxes are in place and the type is correct. However, we’ve all learned to be wary of trusting the colour from a monitor: it’s a completely different method of producing colour. After all, monitors produce colour in the RGB “colour space”—that is, using red, green and blue as the primary colours, while the press uses yellow, cyan, magenta and black primary colours. There are some colours that the press can produce that the monitor cannot, and a much wider range of colours that the monitor can display that are far outside the press’s gamut.
Still, since the advent of filmless prepress, a number of vendors have brought out technologies that attempt to mimic the press on a computer monitor.
“Contract proofs are many things to many different people,” agrees Brad Palmer of Kodak Graphic Communications. “Continuous-tone prints, even images on a computer monitor can be proofs; each has a different level of risk for the printer. With better profiling and colour management, it’s possible to use monitor-based proofing as contract proofs.”
Kodak’s MatchPrint Virtual “hasn’t had a huge market penetration, yet, but it’s definitely a technology that’s here to stay,” says Palmer. It’s typically used in conjunction with hard copy-based proofs. Its main advantages are speed and convenience—the printer can send the proof to the customer through the Internet, instead of a courier. Delivering proofs across the country is as easy as sending them across town. As a result, virtual proofing is popular with publications.
Other “soft proofing” systems can be found from Agfa, ICS’ Remote Director, Dalim and Helios. Look for ICC-integrated software.
Colour management is the term for keeping all the colour devices working within specified ranges and translating colour data between them so the results look the same.
One vendor that provides a comprehensive solution to accomplish all this is QuickCut Ltd. of Australia. Their latest product, QuickCut ICC 2.0, integrates the Adobe Color Engine to manage the transition between RGB and CMYK colour spaces. In addition to allowing printers to use a monitor to provide an accurate colour proof, it manages colour through the whole prepress process. It captures ICC colour profiles from presses, monitors, scanners and printers and aligns them. It even alerts the printer if the ink weight required in an image exceeds the designated press’s limits.
A number of large advertising agencies use QuickCut ICC to prepare colour ad files before sending them to large publication printers, including some in Canada. “The agencies use our product to set their clients’ expectations realistically,” says Dean Benjamin of QuickCut’s North American office. “ICC sets the expectation of what the file will look like as it comes off the press. Most importantly to the printer or publisher, the proof coming from the agency or advertiser takes into account the real press conditions.”
Not only can QuickCut calibrate a continuous-tone print, it can also ensure the monitor displays press-accurate colours — as long as the viewing conditions are right. This means it can be used reliably for long-distance proofing, as a national publisher would need.
GMG’s ColorProof performs similar functions. Other vendors of colour management systems include EFI, Agfa, Fuji, and Dalim with its Dialogue software.
Plainly, it is possible to make a monitor-based proofing system that is as accurate a predictor of an offset press as a continuous-tone printer. It requires careful characterization of the press, the monitor and all the other colour devices in between, including the RIP. You need the right lighting around the monitor, too—just like with a hard copy proof. It also requires that you constantly verify that everything is performing within specifications, again, like a hard copy proof.
Soft proofing is catching on more and more in the publication market, where the deadlines weigh more heavily than quality compared to commercial printing. And they’re much cheaper, per proof. “Cost is always an issue to customers,” says Cober Printing’s Tom Gural.
The theme this year at the Graphics Canada show was “The Power of Print”, and one thing that both impressed and amazed me was the omnipresence of wide format printers. Apparently, traditional offset printers are finally starting to wake up to the enormous potential of the wide-format printing industry. One need only look around, both indoors & outdoors, to see that wide format printing is everywhere. There are huge opportunities to create additional revenue for anyone with a wide format printer, so this month we’ve decided to investigate this burgeoning technology.
The worldwide signage industry earns many billions in business each year – and revenues continue to grow. Given the many different types of signs & banners a large format printer can produce, print providers can seize a sizeable chunk of this business. The large format digital printing market is a fast dark horse, growing at double the pace of the overall print industry.
Whether you have an aqueous, solvent or UV curable printer, these printers are capable of producing:
Let’s check out the different types of printers and the possible revenue streams they may produce:
Large format aqueous inkjet printers are the most common printers available on the market today. Their name reflects the fact that water is the primary “carrier” component of the ink used in these printers. All available reports indicate that the worldwide market for large format aqueous inkjet will continue to grow, driven by trends in the technical document and digital graphics printing markets.
Wide format aqueous inkjet systems provide the fastest output with typically the highest resolution, versus the lowest capital investment. Aqueous inkjet printers can print on both indoor and outdoor materials, and with lamination, the outdoor longevity can be substantially increased. They rule the market in photographic and fine art printing, as well as trade show printing, graphic design and prepress proofing.
The advantage of these aqueous based printers is their ease of use and I particularly like Canon’s new W6400 (24”) and W8400 (44”) pigment ink printers. These will appeal to commercial printers, designers, advertising agencies, poster printers, as well as architects, engineers, including prepress/proofing departments, photo labs, professional photographers and internal marketing departments. Both of the Canon printers come with a suite of software programs, making them valuable tools in a wide variety of applications such as Ripping and poster printing templates, and allowing you to get into the wide format printing game from about $5,300 Cdn. Other printers you may wish to consider are made by roland, Epson, Colorspan and HP.
Ideal for the outdoor graphics production house is the solvent inkjet printer. Versatile, long-life solvent inks offer durability with a hitch: they’re classified as “hazardous” due to the noxious fumes from the inks, and require special venting to be installed. If that’s a concern in your plant, eco or mild-solvent based inks are available, but there is a tradeoff in durability for the added safety factor. Because of the fume hazard, these printers are suited to plant installation, not office use.
One advantage of solvent-based inks is that they are less expensive than aqueous inkjet inks. You can use less expensive media when printing with solvent-based inks, and therefore the signage industry has really taken to them.
There are many suppliers of wide format solvent-based inkjet printers, including Mimaki, Mutoh, Océ, Roland, Vutek and Seiko, which are all continuously improving their solvent-based inkjet printers. The value proposition of wide format solvent-based inkjet printers is the ability to produce durable outdoor graphics at a reduced cost per square foot. The Mutoh Falcon Outdoor Jr. is one of the least expensive entry level Eco-Solvent printers, at $15,422 Cdn.
The other emerging category in wide format inkjet technology is the UV-curable flatbed inkjet printer, where the drying mechanism for the ink is completely different then that used in solvent inkjet printing. When ultra-violet light hits curable liquid ink, it transforms it from a liquid to a solid on the chosen substrate. These new UV printers can range in price from about $75,000 to $500,000 and more. UV-curable printers offer many of the same features as solvent inkjet printers offer with less expensive inks than aqueous inkjet inks and outdoor image durability without lamination. Since many are configured as flatbed systems, users can print directly on materials such as wood, metal, ceramic, and glass, opening a host of new possibilities in terms of applications and revenue streams. UV-curable has to improve its reliability and performance with flexible substrates if it’s going to overtake solvent printing in the roll-to-roll application.
Many commercial operations printing long runs may wonder if they can make money on short runs of wide format printing. The answer is: absolutely! The margins are much better, despite the short run, and a one-stop-shop business model may reap benefits in more ways than one. With ever increasing competition, you want to reduce your customer’s need to look to your competitors for capabilities that you don’t offer.
The vast majority of this wide format print volume is or has been produced using other methods, either offset or screen printed, cut vinyl or hand painted. Investing in these technologies is thus an investment in the future of your company, since inkjet is cutting into many areas which would normally use the older formats.
The retail value of wide format digital printing is more than $29 billion worldwide, and growing more than ten percent annually. As the various wide format digital printing systems improve and users gain experience with them, wide format digital printing will continue to provide profit and new revenue streams for those that adopt the capability. While there are no doubt challenges, wide format digital represents an expanding and profitable market.
There’s no denying it; change is all around us, and now it’s a simple matter of survival. Most of us were brought up to plan: “where do you want to be 5 years from now”, and “what are your financial goals”. For most of us, sheer momentum and unexpected opportunities led us somewhere else, via the path of least resistance. For a number of years those have been the major forces driving this business, but did you notice that things have started to slow down? There aren’t enough business closures, retirements, or client vacations to account for it any more.
Unfortunately our industry has become complacent, with more reliance on order-taking than order-making. It’s easier to wait for that phone call to come in, than to go out and knock on doors. There’s expanding reliance on “networking”, but it’s not very reliable without follow-up and continuity. Customers aren’t known for leaping out of the woodwork, so while handing someone your card at a luncheon might get your name into his pocket, it won’t go much further. When I gave out over 50 business cards to companies at the Toronto Graphics show recently, I only received 4 follow-ups.
There is no question that marketing is a science and with today’s technology there are a plethora of tools you can use. You have your choices of email, telemarketing, direct mail, radio, promotional products, magazine advertising, the list is long. Your goal is to use those tools to promote the fact that your company’s unique skill set can absolutely be relied upon to meet the unique needs of your customers, hence the emergence of Customer Relationship Management/Marketing (C.R.M.) and Employee Relationship Management (E.R.M.).
Firstly, all your employees - not just your sales staff - are your front line when dealing with customers and building your reputation. From the receptionist (or voice mail), to the shippers and receivers on your dock, contact with the customer shapes his experience, so it’s important to keep your staff onside.
Providing employees with company logo wear, like shirts and caps, is a good idea. Most employees like to proclaim the team name, and it presents a team image to the customer, boosting confidence in the company.
One company I worked with had a problem keeping their operators alert on the phones in the early morning. They didn’t allow coffee at work stations for fear of it spilling on the orders. But once I provided them with spill-proof drink ware for their coffee, the number of unanswered calls, as well as response time, was happily reduced by more than 60%. It’s simple: give your workers a boost, and they’ll pass it on.
The premise of CRM is give the customer what he wants, when he wants it, the way he wants it, in order to garner his business, and keep it. You might have customers ordering letterhead, envelopes, even brochures, but the big question is, what percentage of their print budget are you getting? Could you be getting more?
Do they know everything you can do for them, and do they have a sample kit or current brochure of your full service range? How do you keep your name in front of them? There are over 1 million promotional items available to keep your name in front of customers every day. Choose something appropos, and make something with your name on it an important part of their day. Pens, calendars, writing pads, any practical item, will remind them that you are there to make their life easier. Make your promotional gift appropos to the client’s stature: you don’t want to give a $.99 plastic pen to a customer that spends tens of thousands of dollars with you, but a guy buying a few business cards might appreciate it.
Marketing is an art, a science, and a great tool. You need sales people to sell, but you also need a plan. Remember - if you don’t know where you are going - how will you know when you get there?
A lot of things happened when computers arrived on First Nations Reserves across Canada, not the least of which was the birth of a new medium for the expression of culture. Literature, music, art and handiwork were suddenly shared by aboriginal peoples from the east coast to the west. Soon there was a plethora of programs available for aboriginal art students, bringing many young people from the reserves into larger cities to access CAD courses.
Carrying their hopes in their portfolios, they left one sort of world, and entered upon another. Even native songstress Buffy Ste. Marie took up computer-aided painting, as young people from isolated communities with few amenities left home for the big bad world and a chance at a change in life.
One such brave youth was Lance Sero Court, son of a Mohawk elder, who spent his early childhood at Tyendinaga, near Belleville, Ontario. His direct ancestors include Joseph Brant, founding chief of the Six Nations Reserve at Brantford, a revered Canadian hero. Lance came to the big city with high hopes, a love of his people’s traditions, and a huge artistic talent. Fortunately for him, his dedication to his craft paid off, such that he was Canada’s representative in the World Craft Festival, part of the World’s Fair in New Orleans in 2000, and became another sort of national hero, like his ancestor.
Sero Court has been involved with programming for aboriginal art students for many years, as student, teacher, and programmer; his is a unique perspective, spanning the entire process from hoping, to learning, to striving for success in the real world. He’s done pretty well for himself, if a lot of page references on Google is any indication. But notwithstanding his own not-insignificant success, Lance has great concern for the future of aboriginal artists, as the white world continues to treat them as a niche market resource.
“There was a time a few years back when every school was after what they called ‘Indian Bucks’, grant funding from Ottawa. But nobody bothered to provide avenues of employment. Students got a free education, but for what?” says Sero Court. “A diploma is no guarantee of realistic employment. And unfortunately, there is an expectation of aboriginal artists to create in a native style. Natives are not hired to do general design.”
Sero Court also notes that many of the students took the opportunity to learn new media more because they wanted a skill to make money with and were “interested”, not because they were especially gifted. “After all, coming from the reserve, who’s going to say no to free school and a few hundred bucks a month,” he muses.
Typical of many government programs, those sponsored by Ottawa for indigenous people are often a bone thrown to a loudly barking dog, enough to shut the beast up, but not enough to fill its belly. Sero Court says that the “creative native” is not so much of a political football nowadays, and in response, aboriginal arts groups are uniting to support, fund, and further the careers of art students and graduates.
“Native student unions are forming in schools like York, Ryerson and OCAD,” he notes, “ and they are beginning to influence things positively. There are native organizations which help, like NAAF, the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, ANDPVA (Association for Native Development in Performing and Visual Arts), and others. But the policies for handling these organizations and the board models need to be changed, or we risk being stuck to policies not conducive to today’s culture, or to the promotion of aboriginals as skilled and talented artists who can compete in the world at large, meeting and surpassing the demands of new media.”
To that end, Lance Sero Court has become a member of the Board of Directors for CARFAC (Canadian Artists Representation / Font Des Artistes), where he currently serves as Chair of the Communications Committee. He welcomes your comments and questions at plumesociety@hotmail.com.
Is it cheaper to have printing jobs printed overseas? Graphic Arts finds out.
Welcome to a new regular department of Graphic Arts magazine. We’re investigating a myth of the Canadian printing industry: are offshore printers all that much more competitive than Canadians? And we’re doing this the only way that makes sense: we’re asking the offshore printers. Consider it a benchmark to compare where your business might be facing some stiff competition from across the ocean.
Every issue, we’ll ask for quotes for printing different types of printing jobs. For this inaugural edition, we’ve asked four Asian printers to quote on printing a large job: 30,000 copies of a glossy, 48-page, self-cover brochure in four colours.
We asked all printers to base their quote on receiving PDF files on CD from us, without need for changes (other than preflighting, naturally), including delivery to Toronto and all shipping and customs charges.
Specifications:
Size: 8.5 x 11 inches
Extent: 48 pp including cover
Stock: all 116 gsm no. 2 coated white
Color: 4/c 2 sides, process
Delivery: Toronto, Canada.
International Print-o-Pac
New Delhi, India
$17,000 US
Equipment:
Sheetfed offset:
6/c MAN Roland 706LV with coater
8/c MAN Roland 708—28” x 40”
5/c MAN Roland 705—28” x 40”
6/c MAN Roland—18.9”x26”
5/c MAN Roland—18.9”x26”
4/c MAN Roland—18.9”x26”
2/c MAN Roland perfector—28” x 40”
2/c Adast Dominant perfector—19”x 26”
1/c Adast Dominant—19”x 26”
2/c Planeta perfector—28” x 40”
Heat-set Web:
SOLNA C96 heat-set web press with double parallel and 8-page folder
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Regal Printing, Ltd.
Hong Kong, China
$14,100 US
Equipment:
Sheetfed offset presses
3 8/c Heidelberg Speedmaster 102ZPs with CP2000
2 5/c Komori Lithrone 40s
3 4/c Komori Lithrone 40/S40s
2 2/c Heidelberg Speedmaster 102p perfectors
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Artful Dragon Press (brokers)
Locations across Asia
$22,578 US
If you want to get the best performance and longest life from your press, regular maintenance is key. Let’s start with the ink roller train. Clean and treat your rollers from surface to end with a proper roller wash. Condition your rollers daily to prevent contaminants from getting into the ink rollers, which will cause premature breakdown or shrinking of the rubber. Make sure your ink rollers are adjusted to manufacturer’s specs to ensure proper transfer of ink and prevent uneven wear. Bearings should be greased with a high-temperature grease for bearings—this will prevent unnecessary wear of the ink roller hangers.
Dampening system: clean and treat your roller from surface to end with a proper roller wash and condition your rollers daily to prevent contamination of the dampening rubber rollers with calcium, for instance. Grease bearings with a high-temperature grease; this will prevent unnecessary wear of the dampening bearings. Clean your dampening seals daily by removing them from your press before cleaning to prevent unnecessary friction between seal and roller from causing the seal to break down too soon.
Plate cylinders: the surface of the plate cylinder, including the bearers should be cleaned daily to ensure proper printing pressure between plate cylinder to blanket cylinder. Bump marks on print could be a cause of this lack of maintenance. Oil plate clamps according to manufacturer’s spec to maximize plate adjustment flexibilities.
Blankets: to ensure proper printing length and quality of dot reproduction, make sure the blanket is packed to manufacturer’s specs. If the blanket is not torqued to a proper setting, registration could be affected—for example, PU2 could move in register from PU1. If the blanket is over-packed, “picture framing” on the back steel will occur. Cleaning the blanket wash-up system weekly ensures proper quality of wash and durability of the blanket, which will make a more reliable system.
Back steel: make sure the back steel is cleaned daily by hand to remove contaminants such as ink calcium or lime (both from the fountain solution), paper debris such as carbon from NCR paper, glue from adhesive backing, or even lint or clay from bond or coated stock. Lubricate your cylinder according to the manufacturer’s specs to ensure proper gripper-opening timing. which will prevent dropped sheets or creasing.
Feeder: change the feeder suckers regularly, every million impressions, to maximize productivity, ease operation and reduce down time due to knock-offs, sheet-to-sheet misregistration or creasing.
Delivery: most importantly, simply keep it clean. Clean and lubricate your delivery chains to ensure longevity of the chain. You may notice sheets marking at the lead edge due to the stretching of the chains. If your machine shuts off for no seen reason, you probably have a stretched delivery chain, which causes the sheet to hit sensors at higher speeds.
gear lubrication: hand-grease or centrally lubricate gears to eliminate friction and wear of gears, which may cause registration issues, toning , reduced productivity and a large service bill at the end of the month
Powder spray system: are you seeing set-off, even though your spray is at full? Make sure you stir the spray powder daily to loosen particles that may have clumped due to moisture. Also blow out spray line to clear passage of obstruction.
Following these tips regularly will keep downtime to a minimum, extend the life of your equipment and keep it operating at maximum productivity.
A. No. I’ve seen this error a number of times on Macs. The problem is connected to Spotlight, a new technology Apple added to enhance the item search function. Spotlight creates an index of all of the files on your computer and allows you to search by file type.
The problem occurs when you have a crash or force your Mac to reboot. The files that Spotlight uses get damaged and the Finder can’t load when you restart. All you get is the Spotlight icon (magnifying glass) in the upper right corner of the screen.
To fix the problem, simply restart your Mac in safe mode by holding down the “Shift” key during startup. (This is a common troubleshooting technique when your Mac can’t start up properly. Holding the Shift key stops the system Extensions from loading.) When the Mac gets to the Finder, it repairs the corrupt Spotlight file. Then you can restart the Mac normally and the Finder should start up correctly.
If you can’t get past the problem you can delete the Spotlight and Finder preference files manually. (“~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.spotlight.plist” and “com.apple.finder.plist”). Contact me if you need help on this one.
A. The Safari browser does tend to get stuck when it should be updating the content. Images and Flash content on web sites are normally stored in the browser’s cache to speed up the images that are on the site. If you frequently visit a site your browser may call on a cached image on a repeat visit. Most browsers have a preference which can control or prevent the cache from updating.
Safari doesn’t have a setting to control the cache. If you want to stop Safari from caching web content, you can quit the browser then remove the cache folder from the “Library” directory in your home folder. Look for “Safari” in the “Caches” folder
(~/Library/Caches/Safari). Move this folder to the Trash. Next create a file called “Safari”. The next time you launch Safari it will run without caching the content. (You can also try this trick with Firefox). To restore normal caching, trash the file you made and Safari will recreate the cache folder.
The second answer is to update Safari to the latest version, which seems to have better control of caching. (For Panther, it’s Safari v 1.3.1.)
A. Here’s a little known secret: both Windows and Mac OS X operating systems come with FTP installed already. Many users decide to use software with a GUI (graphic user interface) because it seems easier to use. FTP or “file transfer protocol” is one of the oldest methods for moving files between computers.
You can send files from the command line using FTP. On Windows open the Command Prompt application; on Mac OS X open the Terminal application. Navigate to the folder where your file is located and then enter “ftp” at the command prompt followed by the ftp server’s address. You will be asked to enter a username followed by a password. To send a file type “put” followed by the filename. To get a file from the server type “get” followed by the filename. To find other commands, you can type “?” and the program will list them. When you’re finished type “bye” to disconnect.
On Mac OS I recommend “Interarchy” or “Fetch”; on the PC I’ve used “CuteFTP” and “ws-ftp”, but in a pinch you can always use the built in FTP software. Most of these applications have a more user-friendly way of showing the files on your own machine and the remote server. You connect with a server address, user name and password, then simply drag the files across. Remember, you should always send your files in a “zip” archive because this format will protect the file while it uploads.
Ontario has enacted legislation eliminating compulsory retirement at 65. This legislation will come into effect in the fall of 2006.
We recommend that employers review their policies and practices to determine what impact this change in legislation will have on company operations. It is important to do this sooner rather than later.
When reviewing such policies it would be advantageous to conduct an audit of the Human Resource function.
The initial reaction of many employers, particularly smaller ones, will be to discard such an idea as being costly both in time and talent, feasible for a large organization loaded with HR personnel, but not for them.
Still, there are a number of reasons why conducting such an audit makes good sense for all organizations.
In many organizations, personnel represent the greatest variable cost after raw materials. Frequently these costs are incurred year after year without a detailed review.
If there aren’t a lot of complaints, benefit programs are renewed without looking at the cost of premiums or design of the programs. As a result, benefits often are being provided that employees don’t value, or which are not responsive to their needs.
For example, employees value having an income replacement program, but many organizations do not review what such a program is costing, or even study the workings of the program, until a few employees take advantage of the benefit. At that time it is often determined that there is no clear corporate policy on the matter.
Some organizations give increases to individuals year after year without looking at the salary level the employee has reached. This usually occurs in those situations where the worker has long service and has done the same job for many years. Each job provides only so much value, and if a program of annual increases is in effect, it is quite possible that the pay level for some jobs gets far higher than what they are valued in the market place.
At the start of the article we mentioned the enactment of the Ending Mandatory Retirement Statute Law Amendment Act, 2005. In addition, legislation governing time off for various family reasons is now in effect, and will have greater impact in the workplace as the workforce ages. Safety and health laws continue to evolve. Employers must ensure that they access, learn, and comply with the provisions of such legislation.
The various branches of government have determined that employers must comply with legislation affecting the workplace. The penalties for failing to comply are becoming more punitive, both in terms of financial cost as well as possible incarceration. Discrimination and harassment charges have become onerous, particularly in cases where employers have failed to institute strict policies, or have explicitly violated provisions of legislation. The number of civil suits for wrongful dismissal continues to rise. Organizations that do not have well-developed policies in this area are vulnerable to very expensive litigation.
Recently we completed a Human Resource audit for a relatively small employer with no human resource department.
Part of the audit included holding meetings with the employees. On the whole we found that they liked working for the company. However, there were a few policies that were ill-conceived, and troubling to those we surveyed.
We reported our findings to the organization’s executives, and they quickly corrected most of the issues. The result? A satisfied employee group with much-improved employee morale. The cost of the changes to the company was minimal, but they represented a major accomplishment to the employees, and a significant boost in their productivity.
Start the year with a new business plan to achieve greater growth and profitability, and make part of that plan a review of your Human Resources policies and practices. You’ll save your company money that needn’t be spent, and ensure your staff are well-covered.