Digital printing presses are being used in the printing industry since more than twenty years. However, digital printing presses have not gained popularity among offset printing companies. The minimum lot is critical to the initiation of the digital printing business. When introducing a digital printing press, a company compares the cost of use with that of using a conventional offset printing press. But sometimes decisions based on such a comparison may not necessarily seem valid. Furthermore, a digital printing press salesperson may not understand the fundamental components of the cost structure of offset printing. The first enthusiasm for the digital printing hits a wall and is depressed because of this miss judgment. As for a cost model, the cost structure of offset printing in printing companies is explained in this article. I would suggest that this model be used by vendors when proposing a digital printing press to printing companies. Therefore I wrote this article.

View full abstract

This article is written from the standpoint of a printing company involved in the POD business. The following are main issues presented in this article: the changes in and the business issues related to the Japanese POD market, evaluations of a few digital printing presses by clients in Japan, and issues related to the POD business in Japan. The author expects that this article will be useful for the development of the POD market.

View full abstract

Photo-related products are now the focus of public attention. The photobook market is among the leading rapid-growth markets. In starting a photobook business, a company will face the following issues: price, ultimate short run-length, variety of products, quality sensitivity, and seasonality. To cope with these issues, this document focuses on the automation of the production system and explains PHOTOPRESSO as a case study of the photobook production system. PHOTOPRESSO (hereinafter referred to as "the system") realizes digital printing process automation by using the Job Definition Format (JDF) (JDF is the most highly anticipated standard in the print communication industry) and by finishing job execution automation using barcode. Digital printing process automation by JDF: the system has the functionality for presetting parameters corresponding to the photobook order types and it submits jobs to devices by choosing one preset parameter without having to calculate job parameters every time. Finishing job execution automation by using barcode: the system prints a barcode that represents Job ID on the trimming area of printed papers. Operators read this barcode using a barcode reader. A finishing job corresponding to the barcode is executed automatically from the job list. With the introduction of two automated processes, the system realizes cost reduction by decreasing the time involved in manufacturing and the costs incurred because of human errors.

View full abstract

Nowadays, we are exposed to a many advertising messages. But most of these messages are of no interest to us. Companies have to consider targeting individual consumers so that a consumer's exposure to a company's products or services is maximized. There are two important points. One is "Cross Media Marketing" and the other is "Relevancy." Digital printing technology is required to produce personalize printed copies that can interest consumers with relevant information. Additionally, much better results can be achieved by using a combination of e-mail and the Web together to communicate with consumers. Success in the digital printing business space warrants that a company should think from the customer's viewpoint, and have a thorough understanding of their needs.

View full abstract

"Dream page" can produce an original book by registering a digital image of a photograph etc., on a special site, choosing a favorite layout, and editing images and sentences. The concepts "it can do" and "it is possible to make it for everyone easily" were realized by the software available only from our original "Web type application".The rich Internet application (RIA) technology with a friendly user interface has been selected in agreement with the theme. High levels of usability and high quality were achieved because of the adoption of RIA. Further evolution of the photo book service is expected. The method used by major SNSs such as "Facebook" and "mixi" will be expanded and optimized for various smart phone platforms that are expected to see major growth in the future.

View full abstract

In halftone printing, the halftone dot size must be precisely controlled to reproduce target colors. Therefore the relationship between dot area fractions and printed colors needs to be described qualitatively. We created a color prediction model in which the ink layer of a halftone dot is thinner in the peripheral region than in the central region; the peripheral region represents the effect of light scattering inside paper on the color reproduction of halftone prints. By using this model, the nonlinearity in the color reproduction of halftone prints could be approximated with a high accuracy. We also developed a method to apply the model to the prediction of a multi-color print and evaluated the method with 9 different print samples made using a combination of 3 types of paper and 3 types of dot shapes. As a result, the proposed method achieved almost the same prediction performance as theYule-Nielsen modified Neugebauer model and the spectral Neugebauer model. The proposed model is useful not only in the color prediction of halftone prints, but also in understanding their color reproduction characteristics. This is because it uses only physical parameters.

View full abstract

Security printing with conventional phase-modulation patterns shows only invisible images that require the use of a decoder lens to be seen. However, in security printing, it is desired to be able to print both images visible to the naked eye and invisible images. The National Printing Bureau has developed a method to print visible images in the area such that there is no effect on any invisible images in the phase-modulation patterns; thus, they successfully enabled security printing with both visible and invisible images.

View full abstract