«Predictable Print Result» is a book about making color in printing controllable rather than accidental. It is deliberately written in plain language, without academic weight, so that it makes sense to the people in the trenches: technologists, prepress specialists, designers — anyone who wants to understand why the file, the display, the proof and the press run do (or do not) speak the same language.
The book is in progress and is being written in Russian; draft chapters are available as a PDF. Latvian and English translations are planned.
What the book is about
The main problem of this industry is not the presses, the inks, the paper or the budgets. It is that people do complicated things without understanding how those things actually work. Requirements get carried out as ritual: embed the profile, adjust the display, do not exceed total ink coverage. And when someone does not understand why, they stop doing it at the first opportunity.
The book builds a system of explanations — not a “click here” manual, but a chain of understanding: from the physiology of vision to control at make-ready, from the sensation of color to the numbers on an instrument. Every chapter answers three questions: why it works this way, what follows from that in practice, and how to verify it.
What the book promises is a predictable result. Not perfect, not “the same as on the display”, not “the same as the competition”. Predictable — one that can be worked out in advance, confirmed on a proof, and achieved at first make-ready. And when it does not match, one where you can tell exactly why.
Contents
1. What a predictable result is, and why it is missing
Why print does not match the display, how to compare a press sheet, a proof and a sample correctly, and who is responsible for predictability.
2. Color is a sensation. CMYK is not color
The standard observer, XYZ, Lab and LCH, gamut and dE. Why identical device values produce different colors on different processes.
3. The display — first link in the chain
Colorimetric adjusting and profile building as two separate operations. Room lighting, visual adaptation, and whether a display is fit for making decisions.
4. File preparation — from the author’s intent to the target process
Source profile, rendering intents, working color spaces, conversion to the target process, and PDF as a production container.
5. Trapping and overprint — insurance against misregistration
Where overprint helps and where it becomes a trap, how a trap is built, and when trapping is not needed at all.
6. The proof is not a “nice printout”
Control strip, tolerances and mandatory data. Viewing conditions. What a proof guarantees and what it does not.
7. The printing process — what a prepress specialist needs to know
Offset, flexo and digital printing from the standpoint of reproducibility. Why one file does not suit every process.
8. Halftone reproduction: the dot, halftoning, dot gain and TVI
Physical and optical dot gain, total dot perimeter, AM, FM and hybrid halftoning, gray balance.
9. ICC profiles — the link between machine and color
Profile types, the PCS, characterization data, building an output profile, and DeviceLink profiles. What a profile cannot do.
10. Control — making sure the result really is predictable
Densitometry and spectrophotometry, control parameters per ISO 12647-2, control at make-ready and during the run.
11. Typical mistakes
Mistakes of thinking, of file preparation, of process, of control and of communication. Mistakes of understanding are more dangerous than mistakes in a file.
Conclusion. Predictability as a professional norm
One good press run does not mean the process is under control. Predictability is not luck, it is the result of a properly built process.