Where Stands Standardization for Sheetfed?

A recent study of leading commercial sheetfed offset printers in the Western United States investigated to what degree standardization of printing variables currently exists, if any, in this industry segment, and the approaches used for standardization. Allied with the question of standardization is the question of communication between printer and color separator. The majority of the plants in the study have annual sales in the $5-10 million dollar range and have 20-50 employees. All have densitometers, many have sophisticated color viewing areas, but nearly 60 percent make film duplicates of their press color bars. Commercial sheetfed printers are aware of the lack of standard specifications and seem to be seeking guidelines. By a ratio of two to one, they favor a set of nationwide color printing standards for sheetfed. Lack of knowledge among customers and sales personnel is considered a major problem in color reproduction.