High fidelity color printing notes

Agfa, DuPont, Fuji, and TransCal are the main proofing systems that support the Hexachrome system. Hexachrome output can be simulated with digital proofing. The color gamut of some digital color output devices exceeds 50% of the traditional color operating gamut. For example, the color gamut of the proofing system of Scitex lris contains almost all of Hexachrome's color gamuts, and it can be used to obtain satisfactory digital proofs with high fidelity. Epson Stylus5000 can also be used for Hexachrome proofing. These printers allow designers to get the effect they want to see.

The HexWrench tuner is a stand-alone application that generates ICC profile files for printing. The generation of the profile is critical for generating good Hexachrome separations. The target device profile is required to use HexWrench for color separation. This is the only way to compensate for dot gains. When using the ColorTron or the Spectronllne colorimeter to measure color patches, the profile file is generated and combined with the SAME data in the pro-file. When QuarkXPress and other Hexachrome-compatible software are separating colors, Profiles requires that color management be directly added to the application.

Printing considerations
When it comes to high-fidelity color, the first thing that comes to mind is the six-color color printing random screen technology. With the formation of random technology, many printers think it is the technology of choice for high-fidelity printing, but this is not the case.
Hexachrome has repeatedly stressed that in the traditional screen mountain, orange and green versions can use the same mesh angle, and green and magenta use the same mesh angle, so that moire can be avoided.

Another concern is how to implement the overall ink limit. Printing an ink film with a total ink amount of 600% may cause failures in many aspects such as peeling, drying, and the like. This is the weak aspect of Hexachrome. The black revision in the HexWrench plug-in is the only place where you can control the total amount of ink. One advantage of Hexachrome is that the colors in the printing are easily corrected. For example, a print operator can increase the green content by increasing the amount of green ink when replicating a lush forest. This is much easier than adding green and yellow. Just change a color, you do not have to worry about the change of image gray balance.

Standard color inks in traditional color printing cannot be used in Hexachrome. Pantone has developed a special set of inks specifically designed for the Hexachrome system so that a wide color gamut can be fully achieved. Pantone research and development experts found high purity inks through experiments. Through testing, combining fluorescent and traditional pigments, we found a suitable formula. For example, Hexachrome Yellow is composed of traditional diaryl yellow pigments plus fluorescent pigments. This yellow ink is more than twice as light resistant as the corresponding conventional ink. Hexachrome Magenta is based on ruby ​​pigments and is also a fluorescent pigment. Blue does not add fluorescent pigments, but improves its purity by reprocessing, which increases its purity by as much as 20%. There are no fluorescent pigments added to green and black. The fluorescent pigmented ink is much brighter than the normal primary ink.

Regardless of the relative ease of use of this system for desktop publishing systems, Hexachrome may be more representative of improvements in ink improvement. The important innovations in inks allow printers to increase the color gamut by simply improving the CMYK ink. Six-color printing, recommended color room is black, blue, green, magenta, yellow, orange.

Regarding high-fidelity disputes in industrial production, some people think that Hexachrome and other high-fidelity color systems are not commercially viable. A more general view is that modern printing can already print very good color images with some efficient solutions. The use of six-color printing means changing the workflow, and the increase in the number of printing colors will increase the printing time. The use of current technologies, such as random dots and waterless offset, can already satisfy today's printing. A magazine, if you choose high-fidelity color printing, will increase the cost of an additional 20%.

Others in the printing industry believe that the market has been demanding high-quality prints from now until now. For example, publishers in the education sector have begun to use textbook covers printed with high-fidelity technology. The distinctive pattern on the cover attracts children and young people. Some printing customers use high-fidelity printing to reduce costs. For example, customers who want to print with many spot colors can use high-fidelity color to save costs. According to Pantone, the other economic advantage of high-fidelity color printing is that when paper is purchased, high-fidelity and colorful colors can still be used to print high-quality paper on low-price, low-grade paper. Prints.