The current situation and Prospect of the digitali

The status quo and Prospect Forecast of the digitalization process of China's printing industry

the status quo of the digitalization process of China's printing industry

p technology

both international and domestic market developments have proved that CTP has gone through the most difficult period of its popularization. Previously, many people have believed that the key to the CTP issue is not whether or not, but when, and now the time is coming

Fuji Xingguang has successfully designed and developed China's first large-scale continuous production line of CTP plates in Yanjiao Economic Development Zone, Beijing, with the support of two major investors - China Institute of Printing Science and technology and Japan Fujifilm company, which have subverted the traditional large-scale manufacturing mode. Thanks to the joint efforts of Chinese and Japanese technologies and the increasingly common use of 3D printing in all walks of life, The products have been tested abroad and reached the international first-class level. This will completely change the passive situation that China's CTP plates are all dependent on imports, and is of great significance to promote the development of China's printing technology to digitalization. It is reported that Kodak poly light has started to produce cutting CTP plates at its PS plate production base in Tianjin. Agfa's plate factory in Wuxi will produce PS plates in 2003 and start the CTP plate project in 2004. Coupled with the CTP plate projects of erjiao and Zhongke silver, the localization of CTP plate will be solved soon. After the biggest bottleneck hindering the popularization of CTP is broken, the huge growth potential will be transformed into real purchasing power when the time is ripe. Therefore, in the next twoorthree years, CTP will usher in a peak period of popularization in China

2. At present, there is no authoritative and complete latest statistics on the installed capacity of digital printing equipment at home and abroad. However, it can be seen from some scattered statistics and forecast data that the development potential of the digital printing market is huge

the difference between digital printing and CTP is that CTP is only the whole printing and the displacement control accuracy is about 0.1mm, so the equipment accuracy is not enough to brush an intermediate equipment in the production process. Its function is to create conditions for the production of the next link. On the contrary, the main function of digital printing equipment as a terminal equipment is to produce for profit after eliminating many pre press links of traditional printing. Therefore, the popularization of digital printing will inevitably encounter more problems than CTP, such as market positioning

from the actual application of the current market, after a long period of exploration, digital printing has finally made a clear market positioning in the specialized fields of on-demand printing, personalized packaging, insurance bills, financial securities, advertising, building books, telecom bills, personalized postal products, etc

it is worth noting that most of the non-traditional printing enterprises have achieved success in the above fields. This is mainly because there are certain differences between digital printing and traditional printing in business mode, and it is easier for enterprises without traditional printing background to adapt. In fact, there are many successful cases of digital printing in traditional printing enterprises. The introduction of Heidelberg digital printing equipment by Beijing Hualian printing factory can provide a complete printing solution

on the whole, digital printing has not attracted the attention of traditional printing enterprises, which is an abnormal phenomenon

although the development of digital printing in China is relatively slow, we cannot turn a blind eye to this general trend, otherwise, there will be not a few traditional printing enterprises eliminated in the market structure adjustment brought about by technological innovation. For traditional printing enterprises, there are two important points to make a difference in the overall digitalization of printing technology: one is to change their ideas, and the other is to explore boldly

3. Digital proofing

compared with CTP and digital printing, digital proofing has broken through the limitations of concept and began to be popularized. As a necessary supporting equipment for CTP, the number of digital proofing systems installed has far exceeded that of CTP

the popularity of digital proofing technology largely benefits from the application of high-resolution inkjet and laser printer technology in the proofing field, but it is inkjet and laser printing technology that makes many people hesitate to accept digital proofing. Compared with high-end digital proofing systems, inkjet and laser digital proofing systems are welcomed by most small and medium-sized printing enterprises because they greatly reduce equipment investment and production costs. At present, most of the digital proofing systems installed in China are the combination of inkjet or laser printer and color management software. Internationally, inkjet and laser printers have also contributed to the popularization of digital proofing technology

as the output of inkjet and laser printing system is frequency modulation, which is quite different from the am used by people in the industry, many people have doubts about accepting inkjet and laser printing digital proofing system, but with the change of people's ideas, this situation is changing

the application of digital proofing and CTP technology is complementary. On the one hand, the application of CTP technology inevitably requires a matching digital proofing system; On the other hand, the maturity of digital proofing technology will pave the way for the popularization of CTP. With the increasing number of CTPs in our country, the popularization of digital proofing is bound to proceed synchronously, even more rapidly

4. The application of digital technologies such as digital workflow and digital asset management

ctp, digital printing and digital proofing will inevitably put forward requirements for the digitization of the whole printing process

the greatest significance of the digital workflow lies in the establishment of a smooth data channel between the three links of prepress, printing and post printing, which helps level the way for the use of various digital equipment. It is worth noting that the production of domestic printing enterprises has been based on empirical operation technology for a long time, so there is a lack of standardization, which forms an obstacle for the application of digital workflow

digital asset management (dam), a concept closely related to digital workflow, has just been recognized by domestic printing enterprises in recent years. If we say that the role of digital workflow is to transfer digital originals in the printing process and finally generate printed matter, the role of dam is to classify, store, deeply develop and reuse various digital documents

dam's core is a large database for storing digital data. In fact, dam mainly involves the storage, development and utilization of content. However, in domestic printing enterprises, they generally only play the role of processors, and the development and utilization rights of content are in the hands of customers. Therefore, enterprises lack the motivation to adopt dam

however, it must be noted that after the concept of dam is recognized by publishing units, advertising companies and other customers, printing enterprises must make corresponding preparations, establish an effective connection between the customer's dam system and the enterprise's digital workflow, and provide necessary digital asset custody services for customers when they need it

at present, the well-known collaborators in the publishing and printing industry, such as apple, founder of Peking University, Beijing Asiatic Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., have done a lot of work in the development of digital asset management system. Its products have strong data processing, storage and input/output capabilities, and can carry out the digitization, classification, indexing, retrieval and storage of various types of assets (including text, image and audio information)

due to the large number of customers, the digital asset management of the printing industry is much more complex than that of ordinary publishing units or advertising companies, which is specifically reflected in the following aspects:

1 The format of media assets in the printing industry is more complex, including not only images and text when abnormal phenomena occur, but also graphics and typesetting files, such as PageMaker, InDesign, QuarkXPress, PDF, etc

2. The application of media asset management system in printing industry must be closely integrated with relevant typesetting and image processing software. In addition, apple computer is more used in the printing and advertising industries. Therefore, the media asset management system must have a good application of apple computer client

3. The workflow of the media asset management system in the printing industry is quite special. The production process, personnel division and authority control of each enterprise must be customized. Moreover, the media asset management system should be combined with enterprise finance, order tracking, customer relationship management, etc

all these should be paid attention to by printing enterprises when introducing dam system

prospect forecast of the digitalization process of the printing industry

the technologies introduced above have basically attracted the attention of the industry on drupa 95, and have become a hot technology in the world on drupa 2000. Drupa 2004 will be held again. We must be concerned about the new technologies that will affect the development of the industry at this exhibition

1. With the rapid development of IT technology, the requirements of printing customers have changed greatly in the global deflation economic environment. The printing products have multiple varieties, small batch quantification, short cycle, low price and high quality. In addition, the requirements of environmental protection, safety and health, information security and traceability of workflow have been continuously strengthened. On the other hand, the linkage between print media, electronic media and the web can no longer be ignored. Customers' requirements for data sharing are becoming more and more demanding. The voice of "one-time production with multiple functions" has been heard all the time

to this end, foreign printing enterprises are stepping up the establishment of efficient and standardized production process flow and color management system, introducing digital resource management and customer relationship management system, actively promoting high-end processing processes such as high-speed digital fine printing and UV glazing, constantly exploring variable data printing process flow, striving to enter the field of high value-added data reuse, maximizing the response speed of enterprises and seeking to reduce costs, Excavate the power to make profits for enterprises

on IPEX 2000 and iGAS 2003, the foreign parties' predictions on the future development of printing technology can be summarized into the following eight aspects:

(1) the development of digital process flow corresponding to pdf1.4 and cip4/jdf

(2) as an important part of digital process flow, MIS (business management information system) is popularized and applied in the printing industry

(3) CTP system: the practicality of grid light valve imaging mode (GLV), the high-speed of heat sensitive type, the popularity of violet laser type, and the attention of UV type and inkjet type again

(4) development of inkjet DDCP corresponding to CMS

(5) digital printing: especially the development of inkjet and laser digital printing that can correspond to variable data printing

(6) popularization of dam

(7) the development of multi-color, double-sided printing and digital networking control of sheet fed offset press

(8) research and development of electronic paper and ink

2. Prediction of drupa 2004

drupa 2004 will be held soon. What new technologies will affect the development of the industry in this exhibition? According to the current technological development, it is almost impossible for drupa 2004 to have revolutionary new equipment and technologies such as CTP and digital printing, but various technologies mainly characterized by digitalization will still develop to varying degrees

(1) CTP technology will have a rapid development. It is expected that there will be a great development of thermal non flushing and non preheating systems. A large number of practical violet laser systems will be introduced, and the price of CTP system will be significantly reduced

(2) more digital printing systems will appear on the stage, and