The Changing Face of Digital Print Hal Hinderliter Consulting Services

Transcription

1 The Changing Face of Digital Print Why Listen to Me? Printer since 1978 Author of five books, 110 magazine articles Workflow Editor for Graphic Arts Monthly Popular speaker on workflow topics Graph Expo, Graphics of the Americas, Macworld Consulting & custom training clients include Fortune 500 corporations, printers, publishers Former director of the Graphic Communication Institute at Cal Poly (GrCI) and GATF s Center for Imaging Excellence Unauthorized reproduction or reuse is strictly prohibited 3 Dominant Digital Print Technologies Electrophotography (EP) Toner printers (Canon, Kodak, Xerox) Liquid Electrophotography (HP Indigo) Continuous Flow inkjet (CIJ) Binary deflection (Scitex-Kodak) Multiple deflection (Videojet) Drop-On-Demand inkjet (DOD) Thermal Ink Jet (HP, Canon, Kodak) Piezoelectric (Epson) Inkjet Web Presses (CIJ & DOD) 1-to-1 Marketing, Personalization Labels Marking Lettershop Transpromo EP: Canon imagepress C7000 VP CIJ Multiple Deflection: Videojet 4 DOD Inkjet: Kirk-Rudy 5 Inkjet Web: Océ

2 Improving the Look of Toner Until recently, electrostatic printers from Xerox, Oce, Xeikon (and others) produced very similar results The flat glint of metallic toner was easy to spot, due to the high toner pile Today, these vendors are innovating ways to improve toner lay-down for better print quality Traditional Toner Production The form of toner used during the late 20th century was called pulverized toner The production process involved melting plastic resin with colorant and other materials, which were cooled then pulverized This process made it difficult to control the size and shape of the toner fragments 6 7 Source: Konica Minolta New Toner Innovations Canon describes the V Toner developed for their imagepress printer as exceptionally small particles (averaging 5.5 microns) containing micro-dispersed wax so the toner fixes evenly and lays flat imagepress C7000VP New Toner Innovations Konica s Simitri-HD polymerized toner uses a chemical reaction to combine minute resin particles & color pigments This polymerization method produces smaller, more uniformly shaped toner particles Simitri-HD toner contains particles that are soft on the inside (melt at a lower temp), and hard on the outside (prevents toners from adhering each other) 8 9 Source: Konica Minolta

3 New Toner Innovations Punch Graphix s new Form Adapted (FA) Toner is used with the Xeikon 6000 press FA Toner is described as potato shaped Offers increased gamut, and is compatible with the Xeikon s variable density engine FA Toner is also available as a clear varnish New Toner Innovations Xerox has also given up on pulverized toner in favor of a chemically grown product to complement the DocuColor 1632, DocuColor 2240 and Nuvera EA printers Their emulsion aggregation (EA) production method creates round or potato-shaped toner particles from 3-5 microns in diameter 10 Xeikon Nuvera EA Flash Fusing In addition to small particle size (and reduced energy consumption during manufacturing), these new toners allow for improved methods of fixing the image onto the substrate Xerox, FujiXerox and Nipson have all adopted flash fusing for some of their printers Instead of grinding the toner particles into the paper with heat and pressure, these devices use toner that will melt when flashed with specific wavelengths from a high-intensity Xenon light Flash Fusing Source: FujiXerox

4 Flash Fusing Early implementations of flash fusing have been in continuous form printers (toner-based web presses), including: Xerox 490/980 Color Continuous Feed printer Nipson 7000 and VaryPress 400 Indigo s Approach to Digital Printing For many years, most offset and flexo printers have felt that the Indigo digital press provides the best print quality ( near-litho ) HP s Indigo printer has a unique liquid toner system of imaging oils that produces near-litho output quality Xerox 490/ Nipson VaryPress HP s ElectroInk The Indigo uses 7 colors of ElectroInk CMYK plus orange and violet The 7th color can be specially mixed Highly transparent inks are cold fused, providing compatibility with a wide range of substrates Labels, plastics Job-Appropriate Color Océ N.V. is a digital press vendor from The Netherlands, whose main strength has been the A&E reprographics market In recent years, they ve pushed hard to get into the corporate data center world and even made in-roads with commercial printers They offer black + spot color configurations (including MICR), as well as CMYK printers that can run just the colors that are needed 16 17

5 Job-Appropriate Color Océ s ColorStream 9000 and devices are continuous-feed (web) presses that can be configured for 1, 2, 3 or 4 colors Continuous Inkjet: Videojet Drop On Demand Inkjet: Kirk-Rudy 18 Wide Format Inkjet: HP 19 Inkjet Web: Océ Continuous Inkjet vs Drop On Demand CIJ offers highest speed, and the throw distance (~.5") prints on uneven surfaces; inks can be water- or solvent-based, even UV The down side: low resolution (dot matrix style), slow-drying inks, nozzle purging required at shutdown, start-up or color change Drop-On-Demand allows high resolution for logos and barcodes, fast-dry inks work well on coated papers, easy color changeover The down side: slower print speed, must be in close proximity to product, prone to dust build-up 20 CIJ: Multiple Deflection One nozzle, multiple print positions (Videojet) Source: Hue P. Le, Progress and Trends in Ink-jet Printing Technology, published by The Society for Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T) 21

6 CIJ: Binary Deflection Many nozzles, one print position per nozzle (Scitex) Source: Hue P. Le, Progress and Trends in Ink-jet Printing Technology, published by The Society for Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T) 22 Videojet 23 Drop-On-Demand Printhead Vendors In today s high-quality printing arena, only a handful of vendors have the write stuff Epson Fujifilm Dimatix (Spectra) Hewlett-Packard Kodak Kyocera/Brother Panasonic Xaar 24 Scitex

7 Drop On Demand Technologies Thermal Bubble Jet: Canon TIJ: Hewlett-Packard Piezoelectric Squeeze: Siemens Bend: Tektronix, Sharp, Epson Push: Dataproducts, Epson Shear: Spectra, Xaar, Nu-Kote, Brother, Topaz DOD: Side-Shooter (Canon) Source: James C. Owen, A Tutorial On Printing, published by The Society for Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T) 26 Source: Hue P. Le, Progress and Trends in Ink-jet Printing Technology, published by The Society for Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T) 27 DOD: Roof-Shooter (HP) Source: Hue P. Le, Progress and Trends in Ink-jet Printing Technology, published by The Society for Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T) MCS with HP printheads

8 Wide-Format Inkjet Roll-fed plotters from HP, Epson and Encad created a revolution in digital color output While not exactly fast, these devices provided high quality color that quickly overtook the previous generation of technology These devices eclipsed dye sublimation, thermal ablation & laser dye sub and an entire industry of film-based proofing systems Larger Format Inkjet Flatbed-only models are preferred for printing foam core and other rigid materials ColorSpan s 9840 UV flatbed was introduced in 2006 for very large format projects This device competes with EFI Vutek s PressVu UV 200 flatbed, the Zund UVJet 215, the Inca Digital Spyder and the Océ LightJet UV is favored because of durability (outdoor), substrate compatibility Grand Format UV Best known for billboard-sized super-wide print engines, Scitex Vision also offers midsized devices (3.2 and 5 meter wide) The VEEjet from Scitex Vision was the first commercially available UV-curable inkjet based on Sias Digital s UV inkjet technology 32 33

9 Scitex Vision Printing onto corrugated cardboard is a specialized niche pioneered by the Scitex Vision CORjet Multiple 5.9" piezo Aprion inkjet head arrays printing at 600 dpi (18 picoliter drops) Sheetfed press with quick-drying pre-treatment Other flatbed inkjet vendors (such as NUR) are also active in corrugated print production NUR s UV & Solvent Inkjets Best known by screen printers and signage companies, NUR makes roll-fed & flatbed inkjet printers using solvent and UV inks The 8-color, 720 dpi NUR Expedio 5000 was the first roll-fed 16' wide UV inkjet Nur s flagship Fresco HiQ and Fresco II printers are popular for textiles, back-lit signage Expedio 5000 (8/C UV) Fresco II (8/C solvent) Digital Printing: The Past Until recently, long-run digital printing was divided into two main areas: High-speed, low-quality inkjet (lettershop CIJ) Low-speed, high-quality electrophotography (Xerox igen, Kodak Nexpress, HP Indigo, etc.) This limited digital printing to areas where no other method was practical Very short-run color Variable data Digital Printing: The Future Today s inkjet web presses are creating new opportunities for digital printing Higher speeds enable longer print runs In-line finishing reduces overall turnaround time On-press pre-treatment reduces the inventory burden of warehousing special inkjet stock Pigmented and UV inks are expanding the list of compatible substrates Coated stock is essential to hit the sweet spot 36 37

10 Inkjet Webs Continuous Inkjet: Kodak Versamark VX5000 and VT3000 Drop On Demand: Ricoh/IBM InfoPrint 5000 (aka Screen Truepress Jet520) Océ Jetstream 9000 Miyakoshi MJP20V UV inkjet printer Agfa :Dotrix Modular, Transcolor and DGNews Nilpeter/FFEI Caslon EFI Jetrion 4000 UV Olympus OP-1bd (mono) and OP-1cd (4/C) Impika Solutions ipress 600 Kodak Versamark VL2000 Kodak Stream Concept Press HP Inkjet Web Press 38 Digital Print for Packaging Commercial printers are enjoying the benefits of zero-makeready digital print engines Packaging printers are now finding the value of digital print for short-run applications Proofing & test market samples Personalized custom label products 39 Agfa s Inkjet Web for Packaging Agfa s :Dotrix inkjet web press is built on a flexo press frame from Edale Agfa acquired this press from BARCO in DPI output, uses :Agorix UV-curable inks Print speed of 78 fpm Print width of 24.8" on a 25.6 wide roll In-line coating (anilox) and diecutting 40 Agfa :Dotrix Modular

11 Inkjet Webs for Label Printing Short-run label printing is the goal for today s new wave of inkjet web presses Nilpeter/FFE s label press mixes UV-curable inks with flexo units & in-line rotary diecutting 360 DPI 82 fpm Up to 16.5" roll width Jetrion also uses Xaar s 1001 hybrid side shooter grayscale heads UV-curable inkjet in 4/C or six-color configurations 360 DPI output Print speed of 100 fpm Print width of 5.5" Roll width up to 6.5" Target market: labels 42 EFI Jetrion 4000 UV Inkjet System Shown at Total Printing Systems of Newton, IL, a short-run book printer Kodak Versamark VX5000 (CIJ) Kodak Versamark VX5000 (CIJ)

12 The Versamark VX5000 is a 300 dpi continuous inkjet (CIJ) printer Print speed of 500 fpm Web width 8 to 20.5" Options: roll unwind, sheeting, fixed or selective perforating, hole punching, fanfolding, sheet & stack, roll rewind, web cleaner Target market: transpromo, books The Versamark VT3000 is a 300 dpi CIJ printer Print speeds of 250, 350 or 500 fpm Print width of Roll width up to 20" Options: roll unwind, sheeting, perforating, hole punching, fanfolding, sheet & stack, roll rewind, web cleaner Target market: transpromo, documents Kodak Versamark VX5000 (CIJ) Kodak Versamark VT3000 (CIJ) Shown at VESA Direct of Madrid, Spain, a transactional & direct mail printshop Ricoh/IBM InfoPrint 5000 Ricoh/IBM InfoPrint 5000

13 A rebranded version of the Screen Truepress Jet520, this device uses Epson s DOD heads 720 DPI output Print speed of 210 fpm Print width of 5.9 to 20" Roll width of 6.4 to 20.4 Target market: transpromo Ricoh/IBM InfoPrint 5000 Ricoh/IBM InfoPrint 5000 Océ Jetstream 9000 Océ Jetstream 9000

14 The Océ Jetstream uses Brother/Kyocera KJ4 Series (Océ s DigiDot ) piezo DOD 4.25" heads 480 or 600 DPI output Print speeds of 328, 492 or 652 fpm, depending on the model Print width of 20.3" Roll width up to 20.5" Target market: transpromo, newspapers Océ Jetstream 9000 Océ Jetstream 9000 HP s new inkjet web uses Scalable Printing Technology ( EdgeLine ) thermal inkjet printheads Water-based pigment inks, in-line stock pretreatment 600 DPI output Print speed of 400 fpm Roll width of 36" shown at drupa, slated to be 30" when commercialized Target market: newspaper, books, direct mail, transpromo HP inkjet web press HP inkjet web press

15 Kodak Versamark VL2000 Kodak Versamark VL2000 (two engines shown) Kodak s new Versamark VL2000 also uses the twin-channel Panasonic DOD piezo printheads (two colors per head) Pigmented water-based ink 600 DPI output Print speed of 246 fpm (rumored to be capable of 492 fpm if channels fire the same color alternately) Print width of 18.67" Target market: direct mail, transpromo Kodak Versamark VL2000 Kodak Stream concept press

16 Kodak s Stream concept press is a hi-res, 500 fpm continuous inkjet (CIJ) Stream uses a new thermal pinch-off technique to control a continuous stream of inkjet fluid Thermal pulses convert the ink stream into droplets; cutting off the thermal pulses will stop the flow Timing changes can reduce the droplet size, producing a grayscale effect Kodak Stream concept press Kodak Stream concept press Kodak s Stream Inkjet Technology Stream printheads are manufactured using MEMS technology Micro Electro Mechanical Systems The nozzle area is silicon, with an orifice that is 8 microns in diameter Allows use of pigmented inks, reduces clogging problems 2,000 x magnification MEMS: The Next Big Thing? MEMS refers to the creation of 3-dimensional micrometer structures on silicon substrates Both electronic and mechanical structures can be manufactured using this technique Also known as Micro System Technology (MST) This manufacturing technology is having a huge impact on all areas of miniaturization Kodak and Fujifilm Dimatix both use MEMS technology for some of their printheads 64 65

17 Other Ideas Phase change printers melt colored wax into a liquid, then spray it out of an inkjet nozzle These devices are environmentally friendly, but image quality is less than perfect Océ CrystalPoint pearls are used in its wide-format plain paper plotters Xerox Tektronix Phaser desktop printers use solid ink sticks Will the Future Gel? Xerox announced in 2008 that they are working on a new generation of cured gel ink printers, featuring stainless steel printheads Said to print on any surface, even plastic or foil Goes from peanut-butter consistency to rock hard Will not bleed through paper Inkjet Sheetfed Presses at drupa 2008 Drop On Demand: Screen Truepress JetSX Fujifilm Jet Press 720 RISO HC Uses the same Epson DOD printheads as the Truepress Jet520 inkjet web press Water-based inks (both dye and pigmented) with an in-line IR dryer 720 x 1440 DPI output Print speed of 1,600 impressions per hour Maximum sheet size of 20.8 x 29.1" Target market: unclear Screen Truepress JetSX sheetfed inkjet press

18 Fujifilm Jet Press 720 sheetfed inkjet press Fujifilm Jet Press 720 sheetfed inkjet press Uses 2-bit grayscale MEMS heads made by Fujifilm Dimatix (FDMX) Water-based inks that claim to be compatible with coated paper 1200 DPI output Print speed of 180 pages per minute (A4) Maximum sheet size of 20 x 28" Target market: unclear Low-cost device uses the popular Toshiba Tec 3-bit grayscale printheads Water-based inks 300 x 600 DPI output Print speed of 105 pages per minute (A4 landscape) Maximum A3 sheet size Target market: office Fujifilm Jet Press 720 sheetfed inkjet press RISO HC5000 sheetfed inkjet press

19 RIPs and Controllers Generally, mail houses & transactional printers avoid complex graphics Text only, maybe a pie chart or graph Such projects only need a printer controller Sends data to the printhead (marking engine) using the vendor s Printer Control Language Complex graphics require a PostScript workflow and a Raster Image Processor (RIP) to drive your printer Books with illustrations, or 1-to-1 marketing VDP RIPs versus Controllers Generally speaking: Controllers drive text-oriented printers, such as continuous inkjets or AFP laser printers Limited graphics capabilities, limited selection of built-in fonts RIPs are used for PostScript output from hi-res DOD printheads or EP printers Superior graphics capabilities, can use any digital font (typeface) PostScript/PDF Output Today, almost every digital printer supports PostScript (PS) input, so most VDP software can output a stream of PostScript pages In recent years, Adobe s PDF (Portable Document Format) has also achieved wide acceptance as a VI output data format PDF files take up less disk space and often RIP faster than an identical PostScript file Many PS 3 RIPs accept PDF as direct input The Languages of Digital Print Popular printer control languages: HPPCL (Hewlett-Packard Printer Control Language) AFP (IBM s Advanced Function Presentation) IJPDS (Scitex Ink Jet Printer Data Stream) Metacode (Xerox language for data-processing printers) Variable data print languages: JLYT (Hewlett-Packard s J-Layout format) IPDS (IBM s Intelligent Printer Data Stream) VIPP (Xerox Variable-data Intelligent PostScript Printware) VPS (Scitex s Variable Printing Specifications) PPML (Personalized Print Markup Language) 76 77

20 AFP: What s the Big Deal? For mainframe and transactional printing, IBM s Advanced Function Presentation (AFP) print language absolutely rules While not as graphics-friendly as PostScript, AFP offers tracking for failure recovery AFP print streams are converted to devicespecific Intelligent Printer Data Stream (IPDS) commands for printing Let s Be Clear on One Thing There are no additional graphic capabilities offered by these proprietary print languages when compared to PostScript The only reasons to prefer a proprietary print language over PostScript are processing speed, failure recovery or compatibility with legacy systems Adobe Fights Back with PDF/VT Of course, you would expect Adobe to add failure recovery features to PDF, and work hard to improve its processing speed And that s just what they re doing, with the new Portable Document Format / Variable, Transactional PDF/VT will be ISO standard and include PDF 1.6 compatibility Layers, transparency, ICC-based color management and JDF job ticketing Your Printer s Market Approach You ve heard the buzzwords a million times, but it really is important to think about: does your print provider sell services that are horizontal or vertical? If their approach is horizontal, they spread out across multiple customers by offering a little something each of them might need If their approach is vertical, they specialize in targeted solutions for a handful of industries 80 81

21 Horizontal or Vertical? Horizontal Become known as a specialist in a particular product or service, then market to the same sort of person in every business I m a commercial printer; may I speak to your print buyer? Vertical Build up knowledge of a particular business, and deliver solutions to help them Our experience in creating programs for health insurance providers will allow us to customize an effective campaign to achieve your objectives. Horizontal or Vertical? Horizontal They compete on price and turnaround time against similar competitors My boss has authorized me to extend an aggressive discount on your print orders. Vertical They exploit their knowledge of your business to create exceptional value You have better things to do than bug your satellite offices about brochure re-orders. Our web-to-print technology can reduce your cost of procurement and improve your time-to-market Horizontal or Vertical? Commodity-oriented It s all about my offerings Simple sales cycle Competitive pressure Low margin, high volume Supplier Service-oriented It s all about your business Complex sales cycle Offers unique programs High margin, volume varies by campaign Partner Metzgers Printing+Mailing From Graphic Arts Monthly, May 2006: Tony Packo s Pickle and Peppers was already a print-buying client when Metzger suggested that they could also fulfill Packo s orders from their Toledo, OH warehouse. A good pickle packer can pack a lot of pickles, said Metzger, We re enjoying tremendous growth in this area

22 Multi-Channel Marketing Advertisers are finding that the combination of print, and website marketing is more effective than any of these alone VDP pieces can refer users to their own web pages, created on the fly with a custom link: PURL (personalized Uniform Resource Locator) Marketers love this, because it makes it easy to track the responses to the print campaign Response Tracking & Validation Don t OCR the addresses on business reply cards! More data can be represented with 2D barcodes, which are more accurate to scan: The Xerox Dataglyph is popular with transactional printers Datamatrix is a non-xerox alternative Today, response tracking is more often done with an 800 phone number or a website capture form Use a PURL, and you ll know their every click! Digital Print is a Means to an End Don t buy print Buy communications services from vendors that can help you with: Attractive and interesting marketing campaigns (direct mail flyers, customized catalogs, etc.) Easy ways to personalize existing collateral (business cards, stationery, sales brochures, etc.) Cost-effective kitting for complex document combinations (ID cards, financial statements, health care directories) Thanks for Listening! 88 Unauthorized reproduction or reuse is strictly prohibited