Media standard printing
The print media standard contains instructions on how data and proofs that are to be sent to a print shop must be designed. It is based on the offset printing process standard and thus on the ISO standards ISO 12647 and ISO 15930 . It is therefore the basis for smooth cooperation between the client, prepress service provider and print shop in media production: data formats, color formats, printing conditions, work processes, test equipment, standards, black structure, etc. v. a. m.
Only those from ISO 12647-2 to -6 are permitted as printing conditions. Only PDF files (preferably PDF / X-4 or PDF / X-1a) and TIFFs for the data exchange of individual images should be submitted as data formats. Avoid open files. ICC profiles for media-neutral data and the reference print condition must be embedded or made available to the recipient.
A proof according to the media standard print must contain: The FOGRA media wedge , measurement protocol, color profiles used , time and date of the proof. The pressure of the media wedge should be measured. The color measurement is carried out in accordance with ISO 13655: 2009 in measuring mode M1 on a white surface, the visual assessment of the proof including its comparison with printed copies is carried out under standard light in accordance with ISO 3664: 2009 (confirmed 2015) .
The printing media standard suggests three possible workflows: a "media-neutral", a "media-specific" and a "media-specific-classic" one. The media-neutral workflow (RGB colors, Lab colors, etc .; PDF / X-3) offers advantages if it is not yet clear which machine is to be used for printing; black structures can thus be flexibly adapted. The disadvantage of the “media-neutral” workflow is a certain uncertainty in the rendering, since the color space transformation is to be carried out with the non-standardized perceptual rendering intent , which has turned out to be hardly relevant in practice. The media-bound workflow (CMYK and special colors; PDF / X-1a) offers a certain level of security in production, especially against unexpected conversions (RGB black in vector elements to CMYK deep black). There is currently a controversy among experts as to which variant is currently preferred. With increasing experience, the majority of users will orientate themselves towards the media-neutral workflow, which is associated with considerably less effort in the design process; the question remains how quickly this change will take place.
Significant changes in the 2016 edition
The eighth edition, published in August 2016, replaces the 2010 edition and, among other things, accompanies the changeover to the standard printing conditions for offset printing that were newly defined in 2013, which for the first time take into account the effect of optical brighteners and thus raise production to a new level of quality. For this purpose, old or until further notice printing conditions are listed parallel to the new ones. Part 7 of the standard (test prints) of ISO 12647, for which the use of the color difference formula CIEDE2000 became mandatory in October 2016, is discussed in greater detail than before . With the change in the color distance formula, which is a better description of the visual equidistance of the color space , the usual numerical values of the nominal values and tolerances also change; however, the practical scope remains largely the same.
The description of the standard printing conditions for the various printing processes offset printing , gravure printing , flexographic printing , newspaper printing and screen printing has been extended to include five typical digital printing applications.
With the reference to ISO 15937 , the printing media standard refers for the first time to a standard that summarizes important parameters of paper-based printing materials. For many years the standardized listing and dissemination of paper parameters had been neglected. The standard adopted in 2014 should be more widespread or indispensable for professional communication in print product planning.
The appearance of the print media standard is also new. Taking into account the modern availability of mobile devices , the 78-page PDF document was created in landscape format, suitable for the screen, and internal jump addresses facilitate navigation in the document. For the first time, reference is made to the corresponding chapters in the offset printing process standard or its 2016 revision published in July 2016 for more in-depth information.
Current additions to the 2018 edition
The 2018 edition brings the 2016 edition up to date with the current standardization processes.
All new ICC profiles , namely the particularly large-format digital printing suitable working and exchanging color space "eciCMYK" (Fogra53), the heatset web offset printing profile "PSO SC-B paper v3" (Fogra54) and the new "Process Standard Rotogravure" -Set for illustration gravure printing , are for the first time consistently based on the M1 measurement mode , which takes into account the optical brighteners in the paper . With the 2017 revision of the ISO 13655 color measurement device standard, the information on the M0 and M1 measurement modes as well as for the white measurement base was specified.
In the area of communication and printing of spot colors , working with color space expansions (multicolor printing) and duplex applications (duotone) is now easier because rasterized spot color separations can be created on a standardized basis. The standards ISO 17972-4 ("CxF / X-4": generation and exchange of spectral and CIELAB color data) and ISO 20654 ("SCTV": determination of linear tone value curves from CxF / X-4 data) are always in use more color measurement devices implemented. Proof and print run can also be better controlled with the Fogra media wedge in four MultiColor versions.
In addition, the overview of typical digital printing applications has been expanded to include the “ PDF / X for variable content” scenario in accordance with ISO 16612-2 “ PDF / VT ” and ISO 16613-1 “ PDF / VCR -1”.