The hottest Kodak outlines a beautiful blueprint f

Kodak: outline a beautiful blueprint for digital printing

some people say that digital printing is the future of the printing industry, which carries the dreams and hopes of countless printers; Some people also say that digital printing is a moon in the water and a flower in the mirror, which looks beautiful but flashy. In order to uncover the mystery of digital printing and restore a real digital printing world for the majority of readers, Bisheng specially visited Mr. Dong GUI, a technical support expert in the Digital Printing Department of Kodak graphics and imaging group, in this late spring, and listened to him spend three hours sketching out a beautiful blueprint for digital printing for us

digital printing market pattern

according to Dong Gong, the development of digital printing is not accidental, but determined by the demand of the print market. With the intensification of competition, customers' demand for print orders continues to decline, and the demand for personalized and variable data products continues to increase. This market reform has become a fertile land for the development of digital printing. Understanding the application and operation mode of digital printing is the core element of successfully entering the field of digital printing, and it is also the charm of digital printing. Dong Gong lovingly gave us an episode between him and his son. When his son graduated from primary school, he used digital printing technology to print a personal album for his son and gave it to his classmates and teachers as a gift. It is such a small idea, which is not only popular with classmates, teachers and parents, but also fully shows the expression of his father's deep love for his son. On this occasion, digital printing is no longer a simple stereotyped print, but an emotion conveyed. With the rapid development of economy and the improvement of people's living standards, this kind of personalized products provide a very broad development space for digital printing

looking at the current enterprises active in the digital printing market, there are mainly two types: one is traditional printing enterprises, and the other is express printing shops. The former needs digital printing to capture business opportunities, while the latter is born for digital printing. Relatively speaking, the process and technical foundation of the Express Printing shop is relatively weak, but it has a broad customer base. With the indomitable entrepreneurial spirit, some express printing shops have been doing small-scale chain operations since childhood. They can also draw data curves and print out data and reports by themselves. They have a deeper understanding of digital printing. While traditional printing enterprises are taking the development road of large investment and large orders. When the relative error of digital printing experimental force indication value: 1% of the indication value is brushed into their sight, they have an uncontrollable frustration because they cannot understand the essence of digital printing and market application. Finally, they regard digital printing as a supplement to the mainstream business, However, the digital express shop, which has never been in their eyes, has been able to comply with the market trend and is at the forefront of digital printing. In the face of digital printing, traditional printing enterprises can only defeat. In the first round of battle, there is no doubt that Digital Express Printing stores have taken the lead

overview of digital printing technology

today's digital printing is mainly carried out through computers and closed-loop control systems. There are two mainstream technologies: laser and ink-jet. If from the perspective of printing quality and printing speed, at present, laser technology is superior to ink-jet technology. The more famous equipment manufacturers include Kodak, Xerox, canon, etc., all of which are based on laser technology

Kodak nExpress series color digital printing machine is the leader of laser digital printing machine, which fully reflects Kodak's foresight and foresight in the research and development of technology. Dong Gong said that at the beginning of nExpress, the designer set aside a fifth unit for no reason. At that time, everyone couldn't understand why we should occupy such a large space to set aside this unit, The open Kodak company actually allows this unit to exist there all the time. It was not until 2009 that this unit shone brightly, proving the value of the original design. In today's fierce competition for digital printing equipment, this fifth unit has undoubtedly become the biggest selling point of nExpress. It is believed that friends who participated in chinaprint2009 held in Beijing last year will still remember the attractive orange postcard with convex and concave feel. During the interview, Dong Gong also showed us new three-dimensional printing products, including a dream of Red Mansions scene and bamboo fish and insect ink paintings, which vividly showed us works full of national cultural characteristics

this unit can not only make the specified text and image bulge and present 3D effects, but also provide spot color, white ink printing, anti-counterfeiting watermark, UV printing, glazing and finishing, and micr security printing. Make boring printing full of vitality and movement

nexpress is the world's first truly productive digital printing machine. Since its launch, it has been favored by many printers with its unique functions, and has great advantages in a highly competitive market

although laser technology is still the mainstream in the current digital printing market, inkjet technology represents the future of digital printing. The official appearance of Kodak prosper printing platform (Kodak prosper5000xl and prosper1000) based on Kodak stream inkjet technology marks that Kodak is once again at the forefront of digital printing technology

it is understood that prosper series production printing system can partially replace traditional commercial printing. It adopts continuous inkjet method, which is often suitable for mass production. Before the launch of this series of equipment, inkjet technology has been facing several major development bottlenecks, such as its high requirements for paper suitability, high production costs, low quality and slow speed. It has been regarded as a low-end printing product and cannot be listed in the hall of elegance, let alone comparable with traditional offset printing. The appearance of prosper series printing press broke this law with facts. According to the test results of Kodak, although prosper digital printing machine still has certain requirements for printing materials, it is not much different from traditional offset printing in terms of cost, productivity and printing quality. It moves the balance point between traditional offset printing and digital printing upward again, which can bring greater flexibility to users. Once it is listed on a large scale, it will bring a revolution in the printing industry

production and non production digital printing machines

when it comes to Kodak's nExpress and prosper series color digital printing machines, people will say that it is a production digital printing equipment. What kind of equipment is a production digital printing machine? The so-called production type digital printing machine refers to the industrial batch production capacity and high printing speed, and is suitable for long-term continuous load operation. Theoretically, the non production digital printing machine mainly refers to the model whose performance and quality can also meet the basic requirements of the printing industry, but the price is relatively cheap and the printing speed is slightly lower. In actual production, we can judge according to several standards given by Dong Gong

the first thing to consider is the capacity of the equipment. Although the maximum speed of some production and non production equipment is the same, the production capacity is very different. The former can print 2million A4 pages per month, while the latter may print less than 200000 A4 pages. In addition, the average life of commonly used materials (imaging drum, toner, etc.), paper feeding method, printing process and post press processing options can become the standard for people to distinguish between production and non production digital printing machines

the future of digital printing is web printing

as we all know, digital printing has many advantages, such as fast version transfer speed, flexible production, energy saving, environmental protection and low carbon, but why is it always at a disadvantage in the competition with traditional offset printing machines? The main reason is that printing enterprises do not know how to make money by using digital printing machines. Today's printing enterprises are not lack of investment awareness, nor are they shy in their pockets; Instead, there is no suitable digital printing market

in view of this, Dong Gong also gave some suggestions of his own. Dong Gong believes that the future development direction of digital printing is web printing, in which personalized printing accounts for a large proportion. Dong Gong introduced several typical successful cases to us, such as China Post and Zhengzhou post, which successfully printed a large number of personalized stamps and postcards by using their respective network systems and Kodak's various digital printing equipment, and achieved great success

what is particularly interesting is the personalized Postcard customization system of Kodak and Shanghai WorldExpo. By combining Kodak's Darwin software, INSITE variable data desktop software, storefront web to printing system and production-oriented color digital printing equipment, users can choose their favorite style from a series of designed Postcard templates and upload their photos to the web database, so as to get exquisite printing A personalized postcard with its own meaning. It is understood that Shanghai will set up about 50 such points during the Expo, including 6 in the Expo Park alone. If this application can be successful, it will undoubtedly push digital printing to a new peak. At the same time, it will also enable tourists from all over the world to better understand Shanghai and deeply experience the local conditions and customs of China

bright future, tortuous process

if we want to summarize the development of digital printing in China in one sentence, the revolution has not been successful, and comrades still need to work hard, I'm afraid it's most appropriate. The industry concentration is constantly improving; The enterprises with strong R & D strength and high technical level have expanded rapidly. The comrades mentioned here include not only equipment manufacturers committed to technological innovation and promotion of digital printing such as Kodak, but also printing enterprises, publishing institutions, industry media and every ordinary people. Our life is inseparable from printing, and as a new printing method, it is normal for digital printing to encounter some difficulties in the promotion process. As long as we believe in its value and prospects, we will be able to turn today's beautiful vision into tomorrow's happy reality