Process standard offset
The ProzessStandard Offsetdruck (PSO) is the guideline for professional print production and describes the industrial and standardized production of printed matter, especially in offset printing . The PSO is intended to ensure the quality of offset printing production from data generation to the printing result. Since 2004, the ISO standard ISO 12647-2 has been anchored in the process standard for offset printing. The currently valid edition of the manual was published in 2013 and supplemented by a 56-page revision in 2016 on the changed standard printing conditions and technical framework.
For example, they were standardized
- Color of cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK) on certain papers under certain lighting
- Color of the paper with a certain lighting
- Requirements for templates (test prints, proofs) that must contain a media wedge in addition to the image
- Dot gain
- maximum total tonal value
In order to produce in a standardized way, conversion methods are offered ( ICC profiles ). To measure compliance with the standard, there are test equipment (such as the media wedge ) and measurement technology (spectral and densitometric). Furthermore, the PSO defines the measurement procedure, i.e. how samples are taken and measured. It is up to the user to agree on tolerances, because not every template can be reproduced equally well.
origin
The Process Standard Offset Printing was first published as a manual under this name in October 2001 by the Federal Association of Printing and Media (bvdm) . An expanded, completely revised edition was published in October 2012. These publications were preceded by various editions of manuals on the “standardization of the offset printing process” since 1981. Results and methods for process control of offset printing from these publications have been incorporated into the ISO standardization. The ISO 12647-2 standard appeared for the first time in 1996 . The second edition took place in 2004, an amendment to it in 2007. A third, updated edition of the ISO 12647-2 standard followed at the end of 2013. In addition to the ISO 12647-2 standard for process control in offset printing, there are other ISO standards such as ISO 2846-1 (offset printing inks ) or ISO 12647-7 (digital proof print) important for the standardization of the entire production process. These standards and their application are documented in detail in the Process Standard Offset Printing manual. The process standard offset printing (PSO) is backed by the associations of the printing and media industry in Germany ( bvdm ), Switzerland and Austria together with the research institutes Fogra and Ugra .
aims
In the printing industry, the division of labor has increased enormously. Digital print data is mostly not created where it is printed. Customers place orders with various printing and media companies. In this decentralized manufacturing process, a homogeneous approach to quality assurance is required at every processing point.
For example, the tone value increase has to be included in the color separation, i.e. before the screening. This requires knowledge of how colors as a substance influence each other when one color has already been printed and another is printed over it while it is still wet. So one tries to make the production processes repeatable by means of standardization (classification) of the material properties. The aim is to make the production process in offset printing based on the division of labor as efficient as possible and at the same time to ensure that intermediate and final results are given a predictable color scheme.