Print Quality Analysis

People tend to take strong positions on brand colors, how to match them and how closely to match them. Not all of those positions are based on facts, and even those who think they are relying on facts may be citing poorly constructed, or out of context research. If you want your color strategy based on facts watch this webinar.

The next installment in the components color management takes a look at drying and curing and their impact on print quality.

Mike Todryk speaks to those who say “We don’t need no stinkin’ color standards. We want wide open color!”

Should you consider priming and post-coating to enhance inkjet print? Here’s what you need to know.

Inkjet for commercial and industrial printing are mostly using aqueous or UV ink. They may be jetting on media surfaces from metals, synthetics, plastics, glass and of course paper based substrates.

Since inkjet printing uses arrays of nozzles to precisely jet ink, the effect of blocked or deviating nozzles is one of the biggest barriers to quality. Learn how different systems approach the problem.

Printing to standards doesn’t necessarily mean printing to ISO standards – but you do need standards to follow.

Simon Edwards of Global Inkjet Systems, talks about the Atlas Image Quality (IQ) tools for image optimization and system performance management.

This article focuses on a challenge unique to inkjet presses, the jet-out. However, while offset does not experience jet-outs, it does experience ink voids in the form of hickies and picking.

Remember our comparison environment from the previous post on graininess? This time we compare uniformity challenges for inkjet and offset.

The first in a series taking a measured approach to comparing offset and inkjet print quality.

Mary does a bake off with a 200 lpi sheet-fed offset press against a continuous aqueous pigment inkjet press. She measures when she bakes.

Real world look at the impact of paper color on inkjet-produced brand colors from IWCO Direct.

Our March Inkjet Explainer tackles that fundamental factor of inkjet life – media qualification. How do you get from a paper that is “approved” by your OEM to finding something right for jobs on your press?

As inkjet expands into more demanding markets it’s time to demand more from your color management tools.

Direct mailers are heavily invested in inkjet. In the US 42% of direct mail page volume runs on inkjet – that’s only 6% behind offset and growing. Now, commercial printers

Process control and color management are the one-two punch that knocks out digital printing inefficiencies.

Mike Todryk of IWCO Direct uses G7 color management across a range of production processes, including inkjet. In this post he lays to rest some misconceptions about G7 and its uses and shares insight on how the process can add value.

In the previous post How to Make an Inkjet Sandwich I talked about the potential different ways that ink can react to a substrate when used in combination with other fluids such as primers or post-coatings. Those interactions make it critical to optimize all the fluids for your entire process, prior to linearization and profiling, to avoid print defects such as color to color bleed and coalescence.

The METIS 3D Scanner creates opportunities for designers and printers think outside the box and expand creative applications for all print markets. Being able to reproduce 3D texture reproductions with existing UV printing equipment or providing scanning services for CGI/PBR (computer-generated imagery/physical based rendering) applications allows designers to not only visualize but customize and develop 3D patterns.