New Trends and New Opportunities in the Development of Printing Technology

In the past 20th century, the world's printing technology has achieved rapid development and leap forward. The laser photocopying and offset printing technology has made printing an ancient technology that originated in China and made the Chinese people proud. Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, the world's printing industry was held in China. The world's major printing companies were well-prepared and full of hope. While fully understanding the world's most advanced printing technologies, we should also have a clear understanding and insight into the development trends and opportunities of printing technology. I. Digital Workflow will dominate all areas of printing technology 1 Digital processing and networked information transfer will be rapidly developed (1) All-digital process flow will replace analog image and page processing systems, enabling high-precision, digital color Image acquisition, processing, graphic composition, proofing, output transmission, and even non-film direct plate making are dominant. Gradually realize the multimedia output of the page file. The system equipment supported by the prepress process is developing toward integration, specialization, and diversification, and the supporting application software is being developed towards openness, cross-platformization, intelligence, and file format standardization; (2) On the other hand, the application of new technologies The original division of labor was blurred, and mergers and reorganizations led to a more concentrated prepress business. At the same time, the personalization of printing needs and the requirements for design innovation are even higher. There is a clear trend of division of labor in the design, production, printing, and printing of the printing industry. In other words, the printing industry in the future will surely have an obvious polarization: one side is a small group of large enterprises, the other side is a large number of small enterprises, and medium-sized enterprises are minimal; (3) The implementation of digital process flow is the development of the printing industry. The inevitable trend. With the development of perfect technology such as dot-copy scanning technology, digital proofing, computer-to-platemaking and digital process flow, the factors that hinder the promotion of digital technology have gradually disappeared. Advanced output technology and intelligent workflow management make digital printing more efficient. 2) Problems that need to be solved in the overall popularization of digital workflow: (1) High-precision, high-performance digital cameras, color scanners, and intelligent color calibration software must be universally applied; (2) Popularization and application of direct plate machines, digital proofing Technology; (3) Strengthen the application software, especially the promotion and application of intelligent software that can increase the degree of automation and production efficiency; (4) High compression rate data transmission, multi-media recording output, and all international new file formats and standardization Data processing and transmission technologies can be rapidly applied; (5) For Chinese processing systems, they are also concerned about new changes, new trends and new opportunities in today's printing technology, researching the development direction of the printing industry and adapting to the development and progress of digital technology. The development and unification of the Chinese character database must be strengthened. 2. Prepress technology—especially the direct plate making technology is the main force and focus of the development of printing technology in the next decade. 1 The latest development trend of the prepress industry (1) The prepress industry in the 21st century will not dominate According to the traditional plate-making process of the photo-strip-PS version, the current plate-making technology has already begun a large-scale popularization phase from a small number of printing plants. The sales of computer-to-plate machines and related products, such as COPYDOT film scanners, have continued to increase substantially. (2) As the direct plate making technology improves the plate making efficiency, the entire production cycle of the printed matter is shortened and the printing quality is improved. The focus of the entire world on prepress and even the printing industry is concentrated here. According to the rankings of the United States Printing Technology Foundation (GATF), computer-to-plate technology has been ranked first in the printing high-tech industry for four consecutive years since 1997. The famous foreign prepress equipment and media manufacturing companies have all introduced their own direct plate machines. Such companies as Baoluodefu, AGFA, Screen, Sai Angel, Heidelberg, Kodak, Fujitsu, ECRM, etc. all have their own direct plate-making products. According to the statistics at the end of 1999, there are 50 manufacturers around the world that produce as many as 80 kinds of direct plate making equipment. In 1999, 90% of the top 100 large-scale printing companies in the United States used direct plate-making technology. By the year 2000, at least 6,000 sets of direct plate-making systems have been sold worldwide; (3) The widespread application of direct plate-making technologies has caused the market for traditional plate-making equipment and materials to shrink continuously, such as phototypesetting machines, punching machines, and printing plates. The production of machines, PS plates, and other equipment has been greatly reduced, and it is in a semi-discontinued state. According to experts' predictions, by the year 2005, the laser image-setter will be gradually discontinued. In 2010, the film production process will cease to exist. (4) In May 2000, Drupa 2000 World Printing Conference was held in Dusseldorf, Germany. More than 90 products have been exhibited by more than 90 manufacturers of plate-making systems and materials from around the world. Manufacturers exhibited many new direct plate-making equipment. Many significant changes have also taken place in direct plate-making technology. Production technology has become increasingly sophisticated, making direct plate-making technology and the world prepress industry a big step forward, and it has also initially formed the world. The basic pattern of direct platemaking technology; (5) From the perspective of the development of the printing industry, each revolutionary development of prepress technology has greatly promoted the progress of the printing industry, and at the same time, every progress of the printing industry is also inseparable. Prepress technology development. It can be said with certainty that the development of the printing industry in the next ten years will largely depend on the progress of the prepress industry. The focus of the development of the world prepress technology will be the continuous development and popularization of direct plate making technology; (6) Direct plate making Digital printing has become the mainstream of development. The printing industry will further realize a fully digital workflow and improve efficiency. (7) Digital technology has basically replaced traditional technology in the prepress area. Prepress design and image transmission are mainly through the Internet or Electronic media. Cross-regional, multinational, and transcontinental cooperation in the prepress industry can become a common phenomenon, and prices can be negotiated, provided by businesses, exchanged information, remote proofing, and production tracking. Products can be designed and manufactured somewhere in the world, and then can be easily to any other place for plate making and printing; (8) look at technological progress and competition, companies have higher requirements for prepress automation, and CTP - direct Platemaking technology is an important part of promoting the complete automation of printing production. In this point of view, CTP technology can be observed in its true meaning. 2. Obstacles to the popularization of direct platemaking technology and opportunities for technological development While recognizing the continuous in-depth development of direct plate-making technology, we should also see some difficulties and problems in the application and popularization of direct plate-making technology, such as computer-to-computer plate-making technology. Related supporting technologies, operating habits of printing companies, quality of industry personnel, daily use of consumables and other issues. From the current point of view, the most important bottleneck restricting the popularization of direct plate-making technology is the issue of plate materials and potions. At present, the cost of plates and potions used in direct plate-making machines is nearly double that of the conventional plate materials currently used. Many newspaper companies or printing companies have expressed concerns about the use of direct platesetters and are not active in view of long-term investment and costs. One view is that the final result and purpose of the development of printing and prepress technology is to eventually cancel the prepress concept and achieve direct printing directly from the computer to the printing press. Perhaps 10 or 20 years later, we will see this trend.