New Trends and New Opportunities in the Development of Printing Technology

In the past 20th century, the world's printing technology has achieved rapid development and leap forward. The laser photocopying and offset printing technology has made printing an ancient technology that originated in China and made the Chinese people proud. Today, at the beginning of the century, the grand event of the world printing industry was held in China, and all major printing companies in the world were well-prepared. While fully understanding the world's most advanced printing technologies, we should also have a clear understanding and insight into the development trends and opportunities of printing technology.
1. The digital workflow will dominate all areas of printing technology. Digital processing and networked information transfer will be rapidly developed. (1) All-digital process flow will replace analog image and page processing systems, enabling high-precision, digital color image acquisition, processing, graphic composition, proofing, and output Transmission, and even non-film direct plate making, are dominant. Gradually realize the multimedia output of the page file. The system equipments for pre-press processing are developed toward integration, specialization, and diversification, and the supporting application software is being developed to open, cross-platform, intelligent, and file formats.
(2) On the other hand, the application of new technologies blurs the boundaries of the original division of labor, while mergers and reorganizations make the prepress business more concentrated. At the same time, the personalization of printing needs and the requirements for design innovation are even higher. There is a clear trend of division of labor in the design, production, printing, and printing of the printing industry. In other words, the printing industry in the future will surely have an obvious polarization: one side is a small group of large companies, the other side is a large number of small businesses, and medium-sized companies are minimal;
(3) The implementation of digital process flow is an inevitable trend in the development of the printing industry. With the development of perfect technology such as dot-copy scanning technology, digital proofing, computer-to-platemaking and digital process flow, the factors that hinder the promotion of digital technology have gradually disappeared. Advanced output technology and intelligent workflow management make digital printing more efficient.
2. The problems that need to be solved in the overall popularization of digital workflow:
(1) High-precision, high-performance digital cameras and color scanners, intelligent color calibration software must be universally applied;
(2) Promote the use of direct platesetters and digital proofing technologies;
(3) Strengthen application software, especially the promotion and application of intelligent software that can increase the degree of automation and production efficiency;
(4) High compression rate data transmission, multi-media recording output, and all international new file formats and standardized data processing and transmission technologies can be rapidly popularized and applied;
(5) For Chinese processing systems, the development and unification of Chinese character fonts must also be strengthened.
Second, prepress technology - especially direct plate making technology is the main force and focus of the development of printing technology in the next decade. The latest development trend of the prepress industry (1) The prepress industry in the 21st century will not be dominated by the traditional platemaking process of the phototype-film-PS version. Currently, the direct platemaking technology has started from a small number of printing factories and has started large-scale production. During the period of popularity, sales of computer-to-plate platesetters and related products, such as COPYDOT film scanners, have continued to increase substantially;
(2) As the direct platemaking technology improves the platemaking efficiency, the entire production cycle of the printed matter is shortened and the printing quality is improved. The world’s pre-press and even the printing industry’s pro-points are all concentrated here. According to the rankings of the United States Printing Technology Foundation (GATF), computer-to-plate technology has been ranked first in the printing high-tech industry for four consecutive years since 1997. The famous foreign prepress equipment and media manufacturing companies have all introduced their own direct plate machines. Such companies as Baoluodefu, AGFA, Screen, Sai Angel, Heidelberg, Kodak, Fujitsu, ECRM, etc. all have their own direct plate-making products. According to the statistics at the end of 1999, there are 50 manufacturers around the world that produce as many as 80 kinds of direct plate making equipment. In 1999, 90% of the top 100 large-scale printing companies in the United States used direct plate-making technology. By the year 2000, at least 6,000 direct plate-making systems have been sold worldwide;
(3) The widespread application of direct plate making technology has caused the market of traditional plate making equipment and materials to shrink continuously. The production volume of equipment such as phototypesetting machine, punching machine, printing plate machine, and PS plate processing machine has dropped drastically and is already in half. Discontinued state. According to experts' estimation, by the year 2005, the laser image-setter will be gradually discontinued; in 2010, the film production process will cease to exist;
(4) In May 2000, Drupa 2000 World Printing Conference was held in Düsseldorf, Germany. More than 90 products have been exhibited by more than 90 manufacturers of plate-making systems and materials from around the world. Manufacturers exhibited many new direct plate-making equipment. Many significant changes have also taken place in direct plate-making technology. Production technology has become increasingly sophisticated, making direct plate-making technology and the world prepress industry a big step forward, and it has also initially formed the world. The basic pattern of direct platemaking technology;
(5) From the perspective of the development history of the printing industry, each revolutionary development of prepress technology has greatly promoted the progress of the printing industry. At the same time, each advancement of the printing industry cannot be separated from the development of prepress technology. It can be said with certainty that the development of the printing industry in the next ten years will largely depend on the progress of the prepress industry. The focus of the development of the world prepress technology will be the continuous development and popularization of direct plate making technology.
(6) Direct plate-making and digital printing have become the mainstream of development, and the printing industry will further realize a fully digital workflow and improve efficiency;
(7) Digital technology has basically replaced traditional techniques in the prepress area. Prepress design and pictures are transmitted through the Internet or electronic media. Cross-regional, multinational, and transcontinental cooperation in the prepress industry can become a common phenomenon, and prices can be negotiated, provided by businesses, exchanged information, remote proofing, and production tracking. Products can be designed and manufactured somewhere in the world, and then can be easily plated and printed anywhere else;
(8) Looking at technological progress and competition, companies have higher requirements for prepress automation, and CTP, the direct plate making technology, is an important part of the full automation of printing production. In this point of view, CTP technology can be observed in its true meaning.
2. Obstacles to the popularization of direct platemaking technology and opportunities for technological development While recognizing the continuous in-depth development of direct plate-making technology, we should also see some difficulties and problems in the application and popularization of direct plate-making technology, such as computer-to-computer plate-making technology. Related supporting technologies, operating habits of printing companies, quality of industry personnel, daily use of consumables and other issues. From the current point of view, the most important bottleneck restricting the popularization of direct plate-making technology is the issue of plate materials and potions. At present, the cost of plates and potions used in direct plate-making machines is nearly double that of the conventional plate materials currently used. Many newspaper companies or printing companies have expressed concerns about the use of direct platesetters and are not active in view of long-term investment and costs.
One view is that the final result and purpose of the development of printing and prepress technology is to eventually cancel the prepress concept and achieve direct printing directly from the computer to the printing press. Perhaps 10 or 20 years later, we will see this trend.