The impact of digitalization and networking on the printing industry

With the continuous development of global digital technology, China has entered the era of digitalization. The extensive application of digital technology in various industries has enabled the continuous development and progress of high-tech science and technology. Digital technology has enabled China’s spacecraft “Shenzhou” to go to heaven and the return capsule has landed safely on the scheduled track; television information transmission, communications, and electrical product digitization; and the digitization of machine tools. In particular, the application of digital technology in the printing industry has led to the rapid development of digital processing and networked information transmission in the printing field. The digital workflow will replace the traditional analog image and page processing processes, and the printing system will provide high-precision, digital color images. The digitized information processing of acquisition, processing, graphic composition, proofing output and transmission will gradually replace the dominant position of the printing industry; the output of the page document has realized the multimedia and long-distance publishing network, and the printing has realized the figures without film direct plate making and without plate material. print. At the beginning of this century, digitization and networking will surely impact our country's printing industry.
However, as long as we can accurately grasp the development trend of foreign printing technology, objectively analyze the status quo of China's national conditions, and predict the basic development trend of China's printing technology in this century, so as to determine the goals of China's printing industry in the next few years. There is no doubt that in the future, digitalization, networking, and digital printing will be the inevitable trend and mainstream of the development of printing technology.
I. Digital and Networking Times Science and technology are the primary productive forces. It is particularly important today when humanity begins its march towards the era of knowledge economy. In this century, the application and continuous development of digital and networked technologies, and the resulting information highway construction, are all revolutionary social revolutions that will promote changes in people’s lives and work styles. The electronic publishing technology is moving in the direction of digitization, networking, and digital information. After the digitalization and networking in 2000, the impact on the printing industry must be prepared. To meet the challenges of digitalization and networking, accelerate the process of digitization and networking in the printing industry.
Digitization consists of image, text sampling, color separation, page processing and composition, proofing, and output to a variety of carriers (including film, media, paper, optical disks, or networks), all digitally processed and transmitted. Data can be modified and stored at any stage or process in the digital workflow. This all-digital workflow will gradually replace the traditional analog processing method of the prepress process, and at the same time create the conditions for a new production process without film or plate material. In particular, with the development of the fourth media, the Internet, the use of remote network publishing and online printing as a new means of information dissemination has accelerated another leap in the printing industry.
Digital, networked new technologies can be summarized as:
1. The Color DTP technology mainly uses color scanners to scan and input color images, then separates them into color, saves them into a computer, and edits images and text on a computer. Finally, the output is then output. The control system records full-page information on the film.
2. Digital proofing technology (Computer to Proof) refers to the use of computers to directly print out large-scale samples, which are used in conjunction with the direct platemaking technology.
3. Computer to Plete (Computer to Plete), mainly using computer technology to directly output graphic information to printing plates.
4. Computer to Plate on Press (CTP) is a technology that mainly uses a computer to output the information of printed graphic layout directly to the printing plate.
5. Digital printing technology (Computer to Print), mainly refers to the computer will be a good version of the file format digital image information input to the printing press, without the need for new technology.
6. Computer to CD (Computer to CD), mainly used computer technology to produce multimedia electronic publications such as optical discs.
7. Computer-to-Internet publishing technology (Computer to Internet) is a technology that uses network technology to publish electronic versions of newspapers, periodicals, books, materials, and other graphic and image information on the Internet.
Second, the future printing business comes from the network The future of printing, publishing and business communication is carried out through digital networking, customers, manufacturers and suppliers will be directly linked through the network. The network system will enable all parties to work together and share business, workflow and information throughout the printing and publishing cycle.
In relation to the printing business, due to the arrival of the era of knowledge economy with digitalization and networking as the main technical features, the printing industry will change the traditional way of approaching businesses, mainly as follows:
1. The Internet as the preferred contact method. E-mail through the Internet site of the electronic means that customers and the printing plant use the Internet to compress images and text information as a means of contact, communication, shortened the distance and increase production efficiency and timeliness.
2. Digital network connection with printing (machine) shop. Due to the development of digital networks, the direct consequence is that it almost breaks the constraints of time and space and the earth becomes a global village. Customers connect with the press shop through a technology network.
3. Magnetic media form. Customers mainly submit live jobs to printing companies through disk and tape media to avoid problems such as proofreading and format processing, shortening the printing cycle.
Third, “on-demand printing” is the mainstream on-demand printing in this century. According to the needs of users, the digital color printer directly accepts graphic and image information provided by the prepress system, as well as freely modified graphic and image digital information. The graphic and graphic images are printed in a personalized way. The printing method still uses offset printing.
The advantages of digital printing:
1. Digital printing eliminates the need for traditional printing plates, eliminates the need for film, simplifies the platemaking process, and eliminates a series of traditional printing processes such as plate orientation, ink balance, and so on.
2. The unit cost of digital print has nothing to do with the number of prints.
3. Digital products have fewer prints and shorter periods.
4. Digital printing is quick and free to change graphic and digital information, and the content of each printed product can be completed without duplication. It can be regarded as printing 1 sheet for 1 printing plate, and its quick and easy aptitude cannot be achieved by traditional printing.
5. Digital printing uses only one printing cylinder to complete the four-color printing job.
A digital color printer is characterized by the fact that only one printing cylinder and one image transfer cylinder complete the four-color printing job. Its workflow is:
1. Electrostatic latent image Before printing, the optical conductor plate is first fixed on the printing cylinder, and the printing cylinder is scanned by a computer-controlled laser to form an electrostatic latent image on the printing plate.
2. Electrostatic electronic ink The electronic ink of the corresponding color is then sprayed on the printing cylinder with respect to the electrostatic latent image portion of the light guide plate. At this time, the latent image portion absorbs ink, the non-graphic portion does not stick ink, and the printing roller rotates. The picture and text are transferred to the transfer roller, and then the above process is repeated for the other three color pictures to form a complete color picture on the transfer roller.
3. Printing At the same time, the four color images are simultaneously transferred from the transfer roller to the substrate at one time to complete the print production process.
The number of digital printers is 150 or 250 dpi, and the format is 308mm x 437mm. The use of special electrostatic ink, the printing monochrome is 8000 printing/hour, the printing color is 2000 printing/hour, and the printing number is about 300~ 500 prints are appropriate.
From the perspective of the structure of the printing industry in the last century, publishing, printing and office printing dominated. From a worldwide perspective, printing and office publications account for 75%, and non-print publications only account for 25% of the market. With the arrival of the social digital era in this century, due to the development of the Internet, the demand for information has increased dramatically. The market will greatly increase both printed and non-printed publications, and on-demand printing will continue to grow. At the beginning of this century, the market share of electronic publications and online publications will reach 52%, while printed publications will drop to 48%. However, with the economic development of the printing industry, people attach importance to the packaging of products, and the packaging product printing will slightly increase its market share. Therefore, the rise of on-demand printing will inevitably produce more digital printing products. However, the printing of paper products can exist at the same time, and the two printing methods have their own advantages and disadvantages.
In the middle of this century, with digital and networked applications and developments, digital printing is an important method of information replication and dissemination. Like other information transmission methods, digital printing must inevitably be comprehensively digitized and networked.
4. The printing industry has become a processing plant for electronic media. We have entered the 21st century. A knowledge-based economy with digital and networked main technical characteristics. Printing as an industry for the processing of information media is an important way for information reproduction and dissemination. Management and technology must be at the forefront of the age of digitalization and networking.
In the future, the composition of publishing and printing fields will have a multi-faceted, diversified printing and publishing process. The printing competition has also intensified, and the market share has continued to shrink.
Therefore, with the development and application of new technologies in the printing industry, we need to change the simple printing and only accept the analog printing of traditional manuscripts. To develop in the direction of electronic publishing (media processing), the company will have the competitive power of “you don't have me, you are weak and strong”. Accelerate technological transformation and promote cooperation, merger or reorganization of electronic, publishing, film and television, broadcasting, and communications industries with printing, form new media groups, complement each other, and share resources, enabling the printing industry to accept a variety of electronic documents. Electronic media processing plants that use digital information or digital information become factories that produce prints, optical discs, web pages, and online publications. Some foreign companies have implemented strong cooperation by implementing strategic cooperation and strengthening the promotion and development of digital publication. For example, Hewlett-Packard is optimistic about color digital printing in cooperation with Indigo, which manufactures digital presses; Xerox, which produces office equipment, is interested in buying Israel's Sailing Angels, which produces digital presses. To prepare for the printing industry's multimedia processing factory, the traditional printing-media-oriented publishing industry will develop towards multimedia processing. Conversely, in this century, the printing industry that cannot accept digital accommodation will likely be phased out or reduced production. Business source.
In terms of multimedia processing, it mainly relies on the electronic document PDF as the media. At home and abroad, the current PDF file format is the link between print publishing, office publishing, and electronic publishing. With the further development and application of printing and publishing, office publishing and electronic publishing, in the future, the electronic document format PDF that will be uniformly used at home and abroad is a new data format and electronic digital language, and is also a standard electronic information widely used in printing. format. The application of PDF documents can not only transmit and print electronic documents at home and abroad, but also can be remotely transmitted and printed via E-mail or the Internet (more commonly used abroad). In addition, it can also be displayed or printed out on the computer display through the relevant reader.
The application of PDF documents is increasing in the printing sector in the United States and other developed countries. In Japan, Yomiuri Shimbun cooperated with Da Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. to send online news magazines through PDF documents. Not only are there many publications, such as manuals, which are printed by computerization, and the phenomenon of passing PDF files in CD-ROM to various users is gradually increasing. The adoption of PDF documents is a good opportunity for digitalization and multimedia development in the international printing industry. With the use of PDF documents, the cost of small-volume printing will decrease, and the printing business market will expand. If the adoption of new technologies is overlooked, it will also become a crisis.
Hartmet Meidong, former president of Heidelberg Printing Company, points out that printing begins in people's minds and ends in the mind. People's minds generate ideas and ideas, form information and data, and process, process and disseminate information. Others receive new ideas and ideas. Printing is a process in which information is transmitted and received. This is a high-level summary of the digitization and networking of this century. This is also the trend of the printing industry. The development of the society is an eternal theme. Due to the powerful driving force of high technology, the printing industry is hindered by national or regional boundaries. As the time for the evolution of science and technology is shortened, it will continue to be shortened. Therefore, digital and networked printing Technology will gradually replace traditional