Digital printing

Derek Fountain wrote:

I’ve prepared some artwork which I want a print run of. I’d assumed it would go to a CMYK printing system of some sort, so I used the CMYK colourspace and have made sure all my colours are inside the gamut.
Now I actually come to get it printed in a short run (50 to start) it seems the printers I’m contacting are saying it’ll be done a digital printing machine. I don’t much care what it’s done on really, but just when I thought I knew a bit about the principles of CMYK printing, the goalposts move. 🙂

So, when preparing artwork for a digital printing process, should I use the CMYK colourspace, and work on the same basis as if my document were going to a CMYK press? Does a digital printing system use the same basic ideas of separation as a CMYK machine? Or should I be looking for a colour profile for the digital machine and soft proofing with that? Or some other workflow?

Derek,

It is confusing. Confusing because there are several ways to have files printed and each method requires its own setup procedure. There are some "hybrid" digital presses that are expressly made for short runs, such as your project of just 50 prints. In this case, CMYK is the proper choice. By the way, if you are using PhotoShop, there is a way to "soft proof" how the artwork will look like in CMYK.

However, a more common printing method is photographic, that is the file is sent to a RIP (Raster Image Processor) that prepares the file to be printed on photographic paper, just like a photograph. In this case, I think, RGB is more appropriate since the RIP does any conversion needed. In the final analysis, you may need to ask the company doing the printing what kind of file is required.

David A.

It is confusing. Confusing because there are several ways to have files printed and each method requires its own setup procedure. There are some "hybrid" digital presses that are expressly made for short runs, such as your project of just 50 prints. In this case, CMYK is the proper choice. By the way, if you are using PhotoShop, there is a way to "soft proof" how the artwork will look like in CMYK.

However, a more common printing method is photographic, that is the file is sent to a RIP (Raster Image Processor) that prepares the file to be printed on photographic paper, just like a photograph. In this case, I think, RGB is more appropriate since the RIP does any conversion needed. In the final analysis, you may need to ask the company doing the printing what kind of file is required.

Thanks for the input. The printer uses an HP Indigo machine, the brochure for which
( http://h30267.www3.hp.com/Data/en/us/3050_BRO_Low.pdf?pagese q=322235) says it uses CMYK plus orange and violet, and therefore has a wider gamut than normal CMYK. So I guess I should try to find a profile for it and use that as my working colourspace?

—
Derek Fountain on the web at http://www.derekfountain.org/

On Sep 24, 4:44 am, Derek Fountain wrote:

It is confusing. Confusing because there are several ways to have files printed and each method requires its own setup procedure. There are some "hybrid"digitalpresses that are expressly made for short runs, such as your project of just 50 prints. In this case, CMYK is the proper choice. By the way, if you are using PhotoShop, there is a way to "soft proof" how the artwork will look like in CMYK.

However, a more commonprintingmethod is photographic, that is the file is sent to a RIP (Raster Image Processor) that prepares the file to be printed on photographic paper, just like a photograph. In this case, I think, RGB is more appropriate since the RIP does any conversion needed. In the final analysis, you may need to ask the company doing the printingwhat kind of file is required.

Thanks for the input. The printer uses an HP Indigo machine, the brochure for which
( http://h30267.www3.hp.com/Data/en/us/3050_BRO_Low.pdf?pagese q=322235) says it uses CMYK plus orange and violet, and therefore has a wider gamut than normal CMYK. So I guess I should try to find a profile for it and use that as my working colourspace?

—
Derek Fountain on the web athttp://www.derekfountain.org/

On Sep 24, 4:44 am, Derek Fountain wrote:

It is confusing. Confusing because there are several ways to have files printed and each method requires its own setup procedure. There are some "hybrid"digitalpresses that are expressly made for short runs, such as your project of just 50 prints. In this case, CMYK is the proper choice. By the way, if you are using PhotoShop, there is a way to "soft proof" how the artwork will look like in CMYK.

However, a more commonprintingmethod is photographic, that is the file is sent to a RIP (Raster Image Processor) that prepares the file to be printed on photographic paper, just like a photograph. In this case, I think, RGB is more appropriate since the RIP does any conversion needed. In the final analysis, you may need to ask the company doing the printingwhat kind of file is required.

Thanks for the input. The printer uses an HP Indigo machine, the brochure for which
( http://h30267.www3.hp.com/Data/en/us/3050_BRO_Low.pdf?pagese q=322235) says it uses CMYK plus orange and violet, and therefore has a wider gamut than normal CMYK. So I guess I should try to find a profile for it and use that as my working colourspace?

—
Derek Fountain on the web athttp://www.derekfountain.org/

I can see where the frustration comes from in regards to the files that you need to run both on offset and digital presses. At our shop we ran both offset and digital presses and it’s not infrequent that we get different results.
High quality digital printing involves utilizing a RIP to process the image before being printed. The ripping "accommodates" the file so that it can be processed and printed under certain requirements. Those certain requirements are expressed in different ways, but they all involve profiles. Profiles are sort of dictionaries that translate a file’s information into little dots of cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink. That profile determines how the translation goes. What this means is that different profiles could tell the printed to apply different amounts of ink, even though they take their primary information from the same file. This might seem confusing, and it is.

Now, with this understanding, the company processing your file with digital printers should be able to select a profile to process the file that will render results comparable to the output of an offset press.

If the company that’s producing your digital output does also run offset, they might have some understanding on how to achieve this goal.
We do, but we’ve seen so few companies and techs really understanding this concept.

CMYK is the proper mode. No doubt about that, but as I tried to point out, it’s not enough.

On our websites, http://www.colorcopiesusa.com and http://www.m5p.net you will find some more information that will help.