Details:
Summary:
Extended black printer concepts and benefits are well known. A new and practical method for achieving these benefits is presented. Spectronics has designed a black printer test target and a computer program for black printer calculations. Actual press data and the computer program are used to calculate optimum separation requirements for quality and economy. Spectronics has designed a black printer test target and a computer program for black printer calculations. Actual press data and the computer program are used to calculate optimum separation requirements for quality and economy. The test target data is analyzed to provide: maximum print quality, minimum 3-color ink usage, and correct tone reproduction for the entire tonal range of cyan, magenta, yellow AND key. The optimization is based on the user's choice of objectives: specified total film build-up, specified maximum print density, or specified cyan film shadow value. The computer not only performs these calculations, it also validates that the user-specified objective is achievable. This paper reviews tone compression, conventional calculation of separation film requirements, and the impact of the black printer on film requirements. Then the new black printer test target and related calculations are presented.