Some of the most popular technological development

Some technical development trends that drive the prepress revolution of packaging Bruno pierrer, manager of Barco image company, Jean packaging is an important part of the printing and publishing industry. Packaging products account for 20% of all printed matter, with an annual growth rate of 5% worldwide

it is worth noting that in Asia, the proportion of packaging products is 29%, with a growth rate of 7%, twice the world average growth rate

as long as we look around us, we can see the packaging and printing methods from different forms of substrate. Regardless, we will see various types of substrate materials: from paper and paperboard to various plastics, metals and glass. At the same time, products with different shapes need to be printed in packaging and printing, so various die cutting and post-processing technologies are used in the final molding of labels, boxes and paper bags

we call the stage between the market driven creative design process and the benefit driven production process as the prepress process. The pre press process of packaging has two important functions:

first, it strives to transform creative design into matching tools for mass production in the shortest time, such as printing plates and die cutting plates. It is very important that all quality, brands and requirements meet the satisfaction of end users or customers

second, it must take into account the different characteristics and complexities in the production process, so as to ensure the results obtained in the repeated and remote production process every time

it is very clear that a wide range of materials are used for packaging and printing. We therefore hope that other production steps will also play a corresponding role in prepress production

there are several major trends in the packaging market that are causing changes in prepress processes

competition in the consumer market is becoming increasingly fierce: rapidly changing consumer goods are constantly competing for their own development space. Therefore, manufacturers change packaging design more frequently in order to take the initiative in the market. The design cycle, so that the vehicle can achieve lighter weight and cost performance under the condition of meeting a certain strength and serviceability, has been shortened to a few days, while the design cycle in the first few weeks of fourorfive years is very normal. The production cycle of packaging products is becoming shorter and shorter

with the continuous innovation of material science, printing technology and production technology, it also brings the progress and development of production tools and processes

therefore, the demand for strengthening collaboration throughout the supply chain is growing, not only to make profits, but also to meet the needs of global production

in fact, all packaging designs used desktop software, such as Adobe Illustrator. But these software lack effective functions to complete the design task efficiently

with the development of desktop system software technology, designers and customers believe that PDF will be the perfect data conversion format. However, some important packaging design elements will be lost in PDF, so it is not suitable for complex packaging design

from the above aspects, it is concluded that the market strongly needs technological upgrading to eliminate these disadvantages

the software specially developed for packaging prepress provides functions for packaging process. One of the most well-known is the trap function. Equally important is the ability to process spot colors and custom inks, including the calculation of ink consumption and printing data. At present, adding anti-counterfeiting elements to packaging design to prevent imitation and replication is becoming a new hot spot in the market

there are very few software on the market that can meet these needs

but we should not only focus on image processing. In reality, there are parallel technological processes between the final customer and the manufacturer, such as packaging box structure design, die cutting, waste removal and other subsequent processes. Even fewer companies can coordinate these two processes

packaging designers hope to work in such an integrated environment. The system can realize the perfect combination of box design and image, carry out 3D preview, and even preview the actual placement of box on the shelf

the demand for this structure - Graphic integrated workflow is shown in several aspects of production. For example, it is now possible to realize direct color inkjet proofing of cartons and cartons in the box prototype. Through the combination of CAD and image design, and with color proofing, the same products as the actual production can be produced on a box prototype

packaging printers not only consider individual labels and packaging, but also consider the group edition of the same or different designs

generally, these individual labels and packages are made up with traditional copying machines. And they must be placed in the same position as the die cutting position of the die cutting plate used after printing

there are some other cases, because of the emergence of large format laser Imagesetter, the digital plate assembly process can be completed directly in the prepress part, and then use the film output by the large format laser Imagesetter to print on the plate

nowadays, with the emergence of direct plate making equipment in the market, we no longer need film as an intermediate medium. Direct plate making equipment has the following advantages in packaging production:

first, the design center can transmit data to different printing ends in any data format

second: film is omitted, which reduces the time of plate making and greatly shortens the printing cycle

third: without film, we can make full use of the printing plate and avoid possible errors in printing.

while the direct plate making equipment replaces the joint drying equipment, we must also solve the problem of color proofing. Now, with the support of appropriate color management software, high-quality inkjet printers have been able to simulate the final printing product effect

finally, we may make a serious mistake, that is, to move the packaging software products and process flow designed for professional imaging personnel to the output center. We determine that we need specific products to serve the current production mode and work

for packaging and printing enterprises, the ideal front end of direct plate making equipment, on the one hand, can accept one or more image designs in different industrial standard formats, on the other hand, it can also accept group printing sheets from CAD systems

generally, the design that the customer has signed or the group printing sheet that is consistent with the die-cutting version cannot be changed. However, there are some special cases, such as adjusting the printing image to different printing plates, adding printing control strips and post-processing marks, and adding production control and tracking information as a whole

a direct plate making process needs a matching prepress system control, which can combine different image designs with corresponding knife lines. This kind of flexible process to neutral media process

in our view, the key cognition that printers need to make is: the key to success in this kind of environment is how to manage digitized data. Our industry is now a sub industry of the larger computing and information management industry. Images, like other information... Are bits in files, computers, and networks. This means that you are in the frozen knowledge industry, and you need someone with information management expertise. This is how you must highlight yourself

today, when documents, packages, labels or newspapers are conceived, prepress work has begun. If you want to improve the production capacity of your factory, you must affect this process at this time. In some cases, such as packaging and printing, you can even be a partner in marketing or brand development. You really need to stand in the position of cooperating with customers. This refers to the effective management of data between application systems, computers and networks. This is what early adopters saw, and why the subject of information technology emerged in our survey. If you want to be seen as more than just a printing company, ” "The current popular color trend is black white high gloss surface. You need to have a group of experts who know the precautions for the use of projectors. They know database management, and there will be a cliff like decline in packaging orders in the industries of interconnected ceramics, sanitary ware, building materials, gold, home appliances, furniture, lighting, etc. technology and asset management. You may no longer communicate only with print buyers, but with the marketing department or the IT department.

our analysis is that even in Today, the most important red question for hair printing companies is not e [J]. The printing press is a very reliable and high-yield device, and you are the expert who operates it. So the problem is that at every step of printing, there is contact between your customers, your knowledge assets and your plant. In the end, you may only win through two ways: cost and service. Service is knowledge management at the process and product level