Digital Color Printing and Direct Imaging Benchmarking Study (Gatf Research & Technology Reports)

Digital color printing technology has advanced over the past five years in ways that have had a positive impact on quality and productivity. This research study, performed for the 2003 TechAlert Conference, seeks to show the extent to which these technologies have progressed. Looking at current applications and target markets for digital color printing, and reviewing the print technologies used in the research (two direct-imaging presses and seven digital color presses) the Digital Color Printing and Direct Imaging Benchmarking Study offers a good sampling of digital color printing options. For the testing portion of the study, participants were provided an EPS file to print on 1000 sheets of three substrates, also provided by GATF. Data was collected from the participants in areas such as waste, run time on each substrate, and RIP time. After the printed samples were returned to GATF for analysis, twenty sheets were randomly chosen to measure Status T density, density range, density standard deviation, tone value, and more. Further testing included abrasion resistance, fade testing, folding, and comparison to offset color standards. The discussion of results in the areas of tone reproduction on appearance in terms of contrast and color balance and run consistency over the 1000-sheet runs on three different paper surfaces work together to provide a portrait of the current feasibility of short-run color.