Again on the issue of printing on demand

In "Printing Technology", Issue 10, 2000, "Several Questions on Printing on Demand," we defined the number, scope, and meaning of print on demand (abbreviated POD). Defining on-demand as "customer requirements for product quantity and production cycle" is based on market needs. The equipment and process for satisfying on-demand printing can take a variety of forms. In the past, it was mainly done using traditional printing methods and was called "short-run printing." Now mainly with digital printing equipment to complete, so it was also known as "digital printing", "personalized printing" and so on. The selection of equipment and processes that meet the requirements of on-demand printing is a matter of concern to everyone and is also a major issue discussed in this article. Because China's on-demand printing market is very large, with multiple levels and different needs, the choice of on-demand printing equipment and its processes is also extremely complex. However, there are some principles that should be taken into consideration when selecting equipment. These principles are: (1) market positioning of products; (2) economic benefits generated; (3) economic affordability. Let me talk about these three issues. I. Product Market Positioning In the United States, the digital color print-on-demand activity has reached 54% of all color activity in 2000. For the first time in the mainstream market of short-run color live, it has threatened traditional offset printing machines. The popularity and development of digital color printing should be attributed to the continuous maturation of digital printing technology. The demand for consumables is getting lower and the cost is greatly reduced. For example, in 1994, the A3 size of A3 format was 0.55 cents, and by 2000, it was reduced to 0.1 cents. This is the main reason why digital printing coloring can capture mainstream printing jobs. In China, according to the majority of color printing plants, more and more color jobs with a total number of 3,000 or less are being printed. Some people took Beijing as an example. In 2000, there were more than 500,000 trading companies and companies in Beijing, and more than half needed to print colored product brochures and related promotional materials. On an average basis, each house is calculated in 50 copies of 10 pages each, with a total output of 1,250 million copies and an output value of several hundred million yuan. The demand for printing on demand spreads across major shopping malls, restaurants, and restaurants. For example, the introduction of performance characteristics of various commodities, recipes for restaurants, restaurants, recipes, invitations, and so on. Some people calculated the individualized invitation cards for the newly married couple in Beijing each year. Taking 84,000 new couples in 1998 as an example, each pair is calculated on 50 invitations, if there is one third of the people Print personalized invitations, the total output of 1.4 million, each 6 yuan, the output value of 8.4 million yuan, 4 yuan per gross profit, profit 5.6 million yuan. In the future, the on-demand printing market can be summarized in three main areas: (1) E-commerce markets, such as various brochures and commercial advertising conference materials; (2) Product personalization services, such as providing personalized promotions for certain products. Manuals and product descriptions provide customers with one-on-one services; (3) Services for trading companies, such as providing different advertising, packaging, and promotional materials for different customers. The above three major areas have a huge market in China. Second, equipment matching On-demand color printing According to market demand, can be roughly divided into two types: one is the color of the following 3000 copies, the contents of these prints the same, the printing time is calculated in days; another kind of print volume Small, personalized, printing time is calculated in hours. In the two situations mentioned above, the following printing methods are recommended. The first way: using DTP system color separation laser phototypesetter output film, and then proofing, printing. This method is the shortest printing method with the lowest cost in China. The second method: scanning, color separation, editing, typesetting using a DTP system, and outputting on any one of a zinc oxide plate, a water-based plate, sulfate paper, or a special film base coated with a hydrophilic layer using a 1200 dpi laser printer Printing plate, the printing plate is directly hung on the small offset printing machine to print the text or image. The advantage is that there is no need for film and less investment. The disadvantage is that the image quality is not high, color images need to be overprinted, and the overprinting of the monochrome offset printer without side and front gauges is not allowed. The third way is: using a digital printer. This method still requires a scanner or a digital camera to capture the image, and then sends the captured image to a computer for color separation using image processing software (such as Photoshop) and graphic imposition and page design software (such as PageMaker). Editing, retouching, page designing, etc., and then transfer the graphic information to the digital printing press to output the color print. Here are several high-speed, high-quality, high-efficiency digital presses. (1) The E-Print1000+ series electronic ink digital printing machine exhibited by Indigo at the 2000 Drupa Printing Exhibition can print up to 272 pages per minute and can print 16,000 pages per hour (single-sided), which has reached the traditional four-color The maximum speed of the offset press. The aircraft is priced at more than 2 million yuan. At present, the printing cost of A3 format (single-side printing) of a company in Beijing is 6 yuan for each, the cost is 2 yuan, and one is for printing, and the printing fee is 120 yuan. (2) Xeikon's CSP320D sheet-fed color toner digital printer exhibited at the Drupa Printing Show in 2000. The A4 double-sided four-color printing speed is 960 sheets/hour, which is equivalent to the normal speed of a four-color printing press. Price over a million yuan. (3) The Docucolor 2060 color toner digital printer exhibited by Xerox at the 2000 Drupa Printing Show produced 60 sheets per minute and 3,600 sheets per hour, which is lower than the normal speed of a four-color printing press. Can be printed on any paper used by offset presses. Including RIP, the aircraft sells for about 120,000 to 150,000 US dollars. (4) Agfa's Chromapress color toner digital printing machine, due to Agfa's rich prepress system development experience and strong development strength, its software design is very thorough. Agfa's digital printing press has the following features: It can handle multiple page layouts, personalized layouts, instant proofing functions, and color management functions. According to reports, Agfa's Chromapress digital press replaced assets with Xeikon in 2000. In the future, Xeikon will take full responsibility for Chromapress's production of equipment and consumables, and continue to provide services to users. The fourth way: Use a color laser printer with a price of around 50,000 yuan. It is basically the same as the principle of the structure of the color laser printer, but the printing speed and quality are slightly different, so the color laser printer can be used as office and printing industry. This printing method is suitable for color products with low investment and fast effect. For products with small print and strong individuality, such as color business cards, wedding invitations, color manuals, and product descriptions, etc., they have good economic benefits and can be recovered in a very short time. There are many color laser printers. Here are the highlights. 1HP8550 color laser printer HP laser printer is known for its stable and reliable performance. Its print speed is 6 pages per minute on the A4 single side, 3600 pages per hour. The main advantage is that it has a wide range of adaptability to printing paper, and any offset printing paper can be used. The cost of printing an A4-format color print is about 2 yuan. HP has a comprehensive pre-sales and after-sales service system throughout the country. Each is priced at about 50,000 yuan, with a maximum output width of A3. 2EPSON8200 color laser printer The maximum print format A3, the printing speed color 4 pages per minute, unlimited printing paper, where offset printing paper can be applied. With four kinds of toners: cyan, magenta, yellow and black, the cost per page of A4 color printing products is about 2 yuan and the selling price is about 5 million yuan. 3MINOLTA company QMS6100 color laser printer The machine prints the largest format A3, color printing 6 to 12 pages per minute. Can print 60 ~ 163g/m2 of various types of paper, can double-sided printing at the same time, support Colorsync and WindowsICM and other color management technology. Each priced at 5 million. 4Xeikon CSP320D color laser printer The printer's maximum print format is 320mm x 470mm, the printing paper thickness range is 80 ~ 300g/m2, printing speed is 1024 sheets per hour on one side of four colors, and 960 sheets per hour on both sides. With network printing function, allows users to print graphic information in any place through any computer on the network. The price is more than 100,000 yuan. Third, some suggestions for purchasing equipment Based on the past experience and lessons learned from a number of users purchasing equipment, the following points are proposed for reference. 1. Experience (1) Accurately position according to market demand; (2) Determine grade and scale according to economic benefits; (3) Pursue equipment according to their economic affordability and adopt collaborative supporting methods. 2. The lessons on-demand printing system generally consists of three parts, namely input devices, image processing devices and related software, and output devices. Input devices include scanners, digital cameras, and so on. There are a wide variety of types, including home type, office type, and professional type. Prices range from a few hundred to several hundred thousand dollars. Output devices mainly refer to digital printers (printers), which have high productivity, good quality, digital printing machines with prices of several million yuan, and low-productivity, general-quality color digital laser printers that cost several tens of thousands of yuan. The image processing device is mainly a computer and related software. The factors that determine the speed at which the computer processes the image are related to the memory capacity, in addition to the frequency of the CPU. The selection of the above three parts is good, will bring high-quality products, high production efficiency, high economic returns to the printing companies, but many companies because of inaccurate positioning, equipment is not matched and reluctant to spend money for intellectual investment It caused great losses. The following is a personal discussion on the two issues discussed for readers to choose equipment reference. (1) Inaccurate positioning, unsupported equipment In the era of camera color separation and electronic color separation machines, the equipment used does not need to be equipped with a user. Simply press the operation manual to operate. In the era of DTP, input devices, output devices, and computers can be freely selected, and software can be freely selected. For example, there are many kinds of scanners in the input device, such as home type, office type, and professional type, and the price ranges from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. Another example is that the recording size and recording resolution of the image recorder in the output device are different, and the prices are much different. Many companies have little knowledge of equipment performance parameters due to lack of consultation, and they have been overpowering when purchasing equipment because of inaccurate positioning. There is also a case of using small items and using a knife to kill cattle. For example, some companies scan mostly natural color positives, with density values ​​mostly in the range of 3.0 to 3.5, and scanners purchased are CCD flatbed scanners with a maximum density of 2.40 or less, which inevitably results in dark tone levels and information loss. . Another example is that for some companies, 95% of scanned objects are color photographs. You can use a CCD flatbed scanner with a density value below 2.40, but you can purchase a few hundred thousand dollars in a roller scanner (photomultiplier tube). Now. There are so many examples. The result is economic losses and quality problems. In addition, the equipment is not matched. Different products require different precision devices. Input devices, output devices, computers, and printing machines all have different accuracy, speed, and size. If the matching is not coordinated, it will result in waste and loss. (2) There are many contents that are willing to spend huge sums of money to buy equipment and are unwilling to invest in intellectual investment in intellectual investment. This mainly refers to the training of operators and the improvement of skills. Many of the factory's printing and platemaking equipment are first class, but the quality of products is not first-rate. There are many reasons, among which the quality and level of operators are decisive factors. For example, some computer-controlled platemaking and printing equipment operators are employed without training, coupled with poor artistic foundation, poor foreign language foundation, poor computer software and hardware infrastructure, and poor basic knowledge and operation skills of platemaking and printing processes. In other words, the overall quality is poor, that is, the use of first-class equipment, it is impossible to make a first-class product, the result must be poor quality, waste goods, low efficiency, high cost, can not keep customers. Several issues about on-demand printing (abbreviated) First, the meaning of on-demand printing and its current status of on-demand printing (POD) means the need for the customer's product quantity and production cycle requirements. The on-demand printing business is mainly accomplished with digital printers. With the continuous development of digital technology, in China, the color printing capacity of the medium-to-long-term version is also decreasing, while the short-run on-demand business under the 1,000-print is increasing. Second, on-demand printing of major equipment on-demand printing is the main equipment is a digital printing press, now the main digital printing press has the following: Kodak 8670PS, Xeikon DCP/50D