Discussion: Is the hybrid printing method the first choice for enterprise transformation?

At present, printing companies are seeking digital transformation, but the vast majority of printing companies are still mainly based on traditional printing. In view of the actual situation in China, the hybrid printing method that allows traditional printing and digital printing to "harmoniously coexist" is a printing company The first choice on the road to digitization. Such judgments are not based on assumptions. InfoTrends predicted in 2007 that in the next five years, the hybrid workflow will achieve a compound annual growth rate of nearly 58%, reaching US $ 46 million in print output.

What's wrong with mixed flowers?

With hybrid printing, traditional printing companies can integrate digital printing into traditional production on the basis of maintaining existing traditional printing methods, so that they can flexibly allocate and produce jobs when they receive printing tasks. On the basis of realizing rapid and efficient production, cost saving and profit improvement, obtain higher customer satisfaction.

Specifically, the mixed workflow can help traditional printing companies to use a powerful printing control process to split a printing task into several printing methods (mainly traditional offset printing and digital printing) to complete, such as printing book blocks with offset printing equipment Use digital printing equipment to print the cover; use offset printing equipment to print fixed graphics and text, and digital printing equipment to print variable graphics. In this way, the workload can be efficiently and quickly distributed to various production equipment. At the same time, operators can prepare printed documents on any equipment in the workshop, and only need to prepare once to complete all equipment and production management related to printing tasks. These equipment will share many document preparation steps. We use a flowchart to illustrate.

Does hybrid printing avoid the "bold" transformation of its operating model?

The so-called "bashful" transformation here means that since digital is a megatrend, it is a new field of investing in digital with "one brain". Although successful cases are vivid and vivid, it is better to grasp their own actual situation.

First of all, there are more than one hundred thousand large and small printing companies in China. The main revenue point is traditional printing. There are very few companies that really rely on digital printing for profit, and many years of operating experience have allowed enterprises to The model is clear to the heart, and entering a new field at once is not very realistic. Operators can first use one or two digital printing machines as a supplement to their business. Regardless of whether the business volume is saturated, it is also a breakthrough to be able to clarify and smooth all parts of the process.

Secondly, most traditional printing companies have a considerable amount of fixed assets. If they embark on the road of digital printing, they must change their inherent thinking mode. Often, thinking has a certain conversion cycle, and it is not easy to become a change. Sun Wukong. Drawing on those successful experiences that are comparable to the scale of the enterprise itself and have transformed from traditional printing to digital, digital printing will gradually cooperate with traditional printing to achieve the best production results.

Digital and traditional duo technology collide with sparks of wisdom

Value-added

Because hybrid printing incorporates the advantages of digital printing and traditional printing at the same time, on the basis of exquisite printing effects, it adds personalized ingredients and increases the value of printed matter. For example, in a small batch of books or magazines, adding customer-specific content will produce a sense of intimacy.

Integration

By effectively integrating traditional printing workflows with digital printing workflows, a powerful hybrid workflow can more effectively achieve integration with MIS within the enterprise for comprehensive evaluation, billing, inventory, statistics, etc .; Through the connection with network printing components, etc., it can more smoothly complete the printing tasks submitted by external customers through various channels, and can achieve flexible exchange between printing tasks. For example, the tasks originally undertaken by digital printing can be transferred to traditional offset production. Finally, the confluence is in the post-press stage to achieve optimal matching and integration of printing.

Taking Heidelberg Prinect workflow components as an example, in a beautiful golf book set, the seemingly the same book, after opening, the content of each page is changed according to the characteristics of customers, and the printing quality and cutting effect Quite perfect.

Golf Book Set-Mixed Printing

Golf Book Set-Mixed Printing

List of different printing methods on the inside pages of books and periodicals

Workflow overview Robust link between traditional and digital devices

(1) Heidelberg Prinect

Heidelberg joined the market competition of digital workflow very early. The previously launched PrinectPrintready2.0 workflow is a universal prepress workflow that supports both traditional offset printing equipment and digital printers such as Digimaster and NexPress. Among them, Heidelberg's PrinectDigitalPrintManager can directly submit digital printing jobs from the Prinect workflow to digital printers such as Xerox, HP, Kodak and Canon. The main work it does in the mixed workflow is to integrate 12 different MIS systems (including Prinect from Heidelberg), and it contributes a lot to the development and application of JDF technology.

(2) Kodak Prinergy

Kodak Prinergy, because of its earlier bold adoption of JDF matching projects, made its workflows have the characteristics of enabling traditional printing workflows and digital printing workflows to be realized in the same production environment. And Prinergy's digital printing integration function can define and send digital printing parameters, and can send jobs through JDF for digital printing, thus becoming a truly mixed workflow, which allows users to benefit from integrated workflow management. The latest version of Prinergy also has Digital Print Automation (Digital Print Automation) function, supports variable printing data files, and can automatically send it to Kodak NexPress color digital printing press. The system can automatically read the job requirements, select the production plan, and guide the job to the corresponding printing machine.

(2) Screen Trueflow

In 2006, Screen and HP signed a cooperation agreement to jointly develop and realize the compatibility of Screen's Trueflow workflow with HP digital presses. In this way, through Trueflow, short-run printing jobs can be easily and completely transferred to various digital printing machines of HP, to realize the integration and management of digital printing and traditional printing, and provide users with a perfect solution for the easy transition to the field of digital printing. With the help of this solution, the user can meet the customer's quality and cycle requirements regardless of the final output method. At the 2006 China International All-India Exhibition, Screen and HP have jointly exhibited the basic connection module of the screen Trueflow and HPIndigo5000 digital printing press, which can send jobs containing Asian characters such as Chinese with extremely high data integrity. The industry is widely concerned.

In addition, some tools around the hybrid workflow are also attracting attention because of their ability to improve the process. For example, Fujifilm ’s JDFJobBag can automatically integrate intelligent workflow, image modification and JDF database into a hybrid workflow. ; Such as EFI's server, which can be integrated into the user's mixed workflow and third-party graphic arts workflow (including CTP environment); another example is Agfa specially designed for HPIndigo digital printing press: ApogeeX integrated package, can be A printing task is divided into several parts, which are handed over to each printing method (traditional offset printing and digital printing), and each part of the workflow can be defined, including how many page samples are produced, how many pages of products are automatically sent to the calibration program, etc. , This is already a hybrid workflow to some extent.

It can be seen from the above that digital printing has the possibility to join in traditional printing enterprises. Under the leadership of digital workflows, especially the trend of mixed workflows, I believe that digital printing and traditional offset printing will find a more harmonious coexistence space, thus Get more long-term and stable development. Mixed workflow is undoubtedly the best choice for many traditional printing companies that introduce digital printing equipment, and this will also be the general trend.