Hi all,
Maybe not the best place to post this question, but I am looking into the possibility of having a book published from a specific photo series of mine.
Now I already contacted an offset printer who has quite extensive experience printing for other photographers and artists here in the Netherlands, but this also made me interested in reading up a bit on "offset" printing in general via the internet, which was quite interesting actually and raised a couple of questions that I hope some of you can comment on too:
- The printer I contacted, does standard CMYK color separation printing. Now I have been reading about Pantones Hexachrome printing process, employing an additional Orange and Green color separation (CMYKOG) for a considerably enlarged printing gamut.
This raised two questions:
* I am not to worried about the standard CMYK color separation process of the printer I contacted, as the images involved are based on scans of traditional sepia toned analog fibre prints, with a relative small gamut already, so I don't expect any benefits of a CMYKOG process. Am I right a hexachrome process will only benefit images with very saturated colors, or might there still be benefits for images like mine?
* It raised another question as well: why don't inkjet printers use a CMYKOG process as well for enlarged gamut, instead of the more usual CcMmYKkk?
- I have recently been reading an interesting article about the different "screen types" offered in offset printing: traditional AM, stochastic FM and Hybrid or Transitional screening.
Now - if I remember it well - I read that traditional AM has a tendency to loose fine detail in highlights, but has relatively good shadow separation. FM was supposed to have better fine details (especially in highlights if I remember), but a tendency to "block up" very dark colors. Hybrid or transitional screening (a combination of the other two) was supposed to be the "latest" option, and more or less combining the strengths of both.
Now looking at whole series of books and magazines with a strong loupe 10x, I could only find one magazine employing an FM raster, all others were traditional AM. It seems FM or Hybrids is hardly adopted at all :confused:
Anyone who can give some comments about the options, benefits or cons and why most printers still use AM despite wide adoption of CTP (computer to plate) or digital offset allowing quite a bit of flexibility?
- I also wondered about the "perceptual" versus "relative colorimetric" options for matching color gamuts and the relation of that with offset printing. Anyone of you experience with printing very dark moody pictures in offset and having either perceptual or relative colorimetric rendering intent being used by the offset printer? What would be recommendable?
Marco
Maybe not the best place to post this question, but I am looking into the possibility of having a book published from a specific photo series of mine.
Now I already contacted an offset printer who has quite extensive experience printing for other photographers and artists here in the Netherlands, but this also made me interested in reading up a bit on "offset" printing in general via the internet, which was quite interesting actually and raised a couple of questions that I hope some of you can comment on too:
- The printer I contacted, does standard CMYK color separation printing. Now I have been reading about Pantones Hexachrome printing process, employing an additional Orange and Green color separation (CMYKOG) for a considerably enlarged printing gamut.
This raised two questions:
* I am not to worried about the standard CMYK color separation process of the printer I contacted, as the images involved are based on scans of traditional sepia toned analog fibre prints, with a relative small gamut already, so I don't expect any benefits of a CMYKOG process. Am I right a hexachrome process will only benefit images with very saturated colors, or might there still be benefits for images like mine?
* It raised another question as well: why don't inkjet printers use a CMYKOG process as well for enlarged gamut, instead of the more usual CcMmYKkk?
- I have recently been reading an interesting article about the different "screen types" offered in offset printing: traditional AM, stochastic FM and Hybrid or Transitional screening.
Now - if I remember it well - I read that traditional AM has a tendency to loose fine detail in highlights, but has relatively good shadow separation. FM was supposed to have better fine details (especially in highlights if I remember), but a tendency to "block up" very dark colors. Hybrid or transitional screening (a combination of the other two) was supposed to be the "latest" option, and more or less combining the strengths of both.
Now looking at whole series of books and magazines with a strong loupe 10x, I could only find one magazine employing an FM raster, all others were traditional AM. It seems FM or Hybrids is hardly adopted at all :confused:
Anyone who can give some comments about the options, benefits or cons and why most printers still use AM despite wide adoption of CTP (computer to plate) or digital offset allowing quite a bit of flexibility?
- I also wondered about the "perceptual" versus "relative colorimetric" options for matching color gamuts and the relation of that with offset printing. Anyone of you experience with printing very dark moody pictures in offset and having either perceptual or relative colorimetric rendering intent being used by the offset printer? What would be recommendable?
Marco
