Chapter 4 ― Process Automation and CTP

Prior to CTP, customers created digital files and printers or prepress services output digital files to film. Digital information about the content that may have been captured or inherent to the digital creation and output process were lost in the film making process. With CTP production, the process is an all-digital process and there are opportunities to capitalize on job data that is originally created or captured in the creative and early prepress process. 

CIP3/CIP4. The International Cooperation for Integration of Prepress, Press and Post-press (CIP3), which has recently been renamed CIP4, is a consortium of manufacturers who are developing ways to retain and use information capture or created early in the print production life cycle. There are over 30 companies involved with CIP3. (See http://www.cip3.org for more information on CIP3.) The focus of CIP3 is the Print Production Format (PPF) which provides an information link between prepress, press, and post-press. Most data is generated in prepress functions such as imposition and RIP’ing and the pressroom can use this data for registration control, ink settings, and color control. The bindery can also use data, perhaps originating in job planning as well as prepress, for coordinating binding, cutting, folding, and so forth. Some of the benefits include:

·        Only one acquisition of the same data

·        Shorter production cycles

·        Better quality control

·        Streamlined production

·        Improvement of the productivity and reduction of costs

For instance, imposition information comes from customer service, not prepress, and it already is being re-keyed in current workflows. Press manufacturers such as Heidelberg and MAN Roland already have CIP3 front-end systems. CIP3’s PPF was original written in Postscript, and later in PDF, and now is being moved to the Job Definition Format (JDF.) JDF, an XML implementation, combines CIP3’s PPF data model with data model behind Adobe’s Portable Job Ticket Format. JDF’s primary advantage is that it is Internet ready, is supported by a wide variety of XML and data processing tools, and is better suited for data interchange applications. (See www.job-definition-format.org to download a copy of the JDF specification.)

CIP3 & Automated Ink Key Presets.  Amtec, a small systems development company working with Gerber and Creo, developed front-end systems that could talk to press consoles. The Amtec Adelphi server takes the CIP3 data from any source and can format it to meet the requirements of the older presses that may not have a CIP3 compatible console. Use of the PPF allows printers to gather better data on ink use, plate use, paper waste, and make ready waste/time usage. Programs using CIP3 will move the ink keys up or down accordingly. Information on coverage (density and ink) can be extracted from prepress files as well as the print type (e.g., SWOP, GRACoL, etc.).

To date, these systems only offer ink key pre-settings, but there is work in progress to tie the system into in-line densitometers. System that set ink keys based upon plate scanner input have typically produced 75%-80% accuracy on key setting, while the CIP3 systems are more than 90% accurate. The older plate scanners systems can’t determine density, whereas CIP3-based programs include density. Some of the data types that CIP3 carry, which can be used by printers in their quality control systems, include:

·        Ink pre-settings

·        Densitometer data

·        Notes and comment boxes

·        Color OK settings