JP2003260775A - Digital printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a digital printing system which enables easy execution of a composing processing in a machine plate mechanism by a digital data processing without using an original film, even when a plate making mechanism and the machine plate mechanism are independent of each other. <P>SOLUTION: In the plate making mechanism W2 of the digital printing system P, page imposition data in a digital form are produced by applying a page imposition processing to page description data in a page imposition processing part S3 and further halftone dot data in the digital form are produced by applying a RIP processing, including a halftone dot processing, to the page imposition data in a RIP processing part S4. In the machine plate mechanism W3, composing data in the digital form are produced by applying the composing processing or a machine plate imposition processing to the halftone dot data by the digital data processing in a composing processing part S5 and a machine plate is manufactured directly from the halftone dot data in a machine plate output part S6 without using the original film. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a digital plate making apparatus for producing a printing plate for printing based on digital image data or halftone dot data without passing through a film original plate, and the digital plate making apparatus. And a digital printing system using the.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in printing, a printing ink is supplied to a mold surface (printing image display surface) of a printing plate produced on the basis of a printing manuscript (printing plate), and the printing ink is supplied directly or to an intermediate medium. Through (in the case of offset printing) to a printing object (for example, paper, plastic sheet, etc.). Here, a printing plate is usually manufactured through a design mechanism (design process), a plate making mechanism (plate making process), and a plate making mechanism (plate making process). In other words, the design mechanism (design process) creates a manuscript or a print manuscript designed based on the original image.

In the plate making mechanism (plate making process), a film original plate with an image to be printed is produced based on a print original. In the case of producing a printed matter over a plurality of pages, for example, a book, usually, a page imposition process is applied to a print original for each page, and images for a plurality of pages are arranged in a predetermined arrangement form. The original film of the mold is produced. Further, in the plate making mechanism (plate making process), an analog plate making machine or the like is used to make plates by impressing images of a plurality of film original plates on a plate material in a predetermined arrangement (plate imposition). It For example, a printing plate is manufactured by a method in which a plurality of film original plates are attached to a plate material in a predetermined arrangement form, the plate materials are subjected to exposure processing, and the images of the respective film original plates are printed on the plate material.

As described above, in the conventional plate making method,
Transfer of image information (print contents) from the plate making mechanism to the plate making mechanism is usually performed through a film original plate. However, when the film original plate is used as described above, it takes time and effort to prepare the film original plate and consumes a large amount of the film material. Therefore, there is a problem that the production cost of the printing plate and the production cost of the printed matter increase.

Therefore, an image to be formed on the plate material (press image) is converted into digital image data by using a computer or the like, and the plate image is directly corresponded to the plate material based on the digital image data. CTP that forms the print image display surface
A plate method using a (Computer To Plate) device has been proposed. However, in reality, almost no CTP device or plate-making device for a printing plate mechanism that can freely perform desired plate-making process on digital image data has been put on the market. That is, the conventional CTP device or plate-making device for the plate mechanism has a problem that only a relatively simple plate-making process can be performed.

For this reason, in the printing industry, when a relatively complicated plate-making process is required, the page-making device is used by the plate making mechanism to convert the page-forming process software to a digital image. The data is subjected to a plate making process, and the digital image data subjected to the plate making process is sent to the plate making mechanism. After this, the CTP device of the printing plate mechanism produces a printing plate using the digital image data that has been subjected to the plate processing in this way.

[0007]

However, since the page imposition device of the plate making mechanism or the software thereof is not constructed assuming the plate making process in the plate making mechanism, the plate making function is insufficient. However, there is a problem in that it is not easy to use when performing the breeding process. That is, when performing the plate making process using such page imposition software, since the plate making process is performed before the RIP process, a part of the output halftone dot data (the whole plate) is processed. It is extremely difficult to fix. Therefore, when such a correction becomes necessary, it becomes necessary to perform the RIP processing again on the entire surface to form the halftone dots, and the processing efficiency becomes very poor.

[0008] Further, for example, the mask treatment can be easily performed in the analog plate using the film original plate,
It is not impossible to perform mask processing using the page imposition device of the plate making mechanism, but it requires extremely complicated arithmetic processing and is not practical. Incidentally, the masking means, in the analog stencil plate, a part of the film stencil when the film stencil is printed on the plate material (for example, an undesired register mark when a plurality of film stencil plates are transferred to the plate material). Is masked so that the portion is not displayed on the plate material.

Further, when the plate making mechanism uses the page imposition device to carry out the plate making process, when the plate making mechanism carries out the plate making process, it is necessary to specify the printing machine that actually prints. Therefore, in this case, it is essential that the plate making mechanism and the plate making mechanism (in some cases, the printing mechanism) can easily exchange various information with each other. However, in the printing industry, it is normal for the plate making mechanism and the plate making mechanism to be independent of each other, and in many cases they are completely separate companies. Therefore, as a practical matter, it is quite difficult to exchange information between the plate making mechanism and the plate making mechanism. Therefore, it cannot be said that the platemaking method in which the platemaking mechanism performs the platemaking process using the page imposition device is not practical.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems. Even when the plate making mechanism and the plate making mechanism are independent of each other, a costly image information medium such as a film original plate is provided. It is an object to be solved to provide a digital platemaking apparatus or a digital printing system capable of easily carrying out a desired platemaking process by digital data processing by a platemaking mechanism without using it.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the digital engraving apparatus according to the present invention has a page imposition of a manuscript (or an original image) of one page or two pages or more. Accepts one or more types of digital image data corresponding to page-imposed images, and performs a typesetting process (or plate imposition process) on the image data.
And a plate-making processing unit for generating digital plate-making data corresponding to the plate-formed image in which one or more kinds of page-imposed images are plate-imposed in a desired form. It is characterized by that.

In the digital plate making apparatus, the image data corresponds to a halftone-dotted (or halftone) page-imposed image obtained by page-imposing a document of one page or two pages or more. It is preferably digital halftone dot data. The image data or halftone dot data is transferred to the breeding plate processing unit via various digital information media such as a magnetic recording medium, an optical recording medium, and an online line.

In this digital plate-making apparatus, the plate-making processing section performs desired plate-making processing on the image data or the halftone dot data by digital data processing to obtain the plate-making data corresponding to the printing plate image, that is, Generates digital image data that has undergone the process of breeding. Specifically, the breeding plate processing section
For example, digital image data corresponding to a printing plate image in which a plurality of page-imposed images are arranged in a desired form on the printing plate is generated according to the size and type of the printing machine. Here, since the breeding plate processing unit is dedicated to the printing plate mechanism, it is possible to provide convenient software suitable for the breeding plate process or the plate imposition process in the printing plate mechanism.
Therefore, when the plate making mechanism and the plate making mechanism are independent of each other, for example, even when they are different companies, the plate making data generated by the plate making processing unit is CT-processed in the plate making mechanism.
By supplying it to the P apparatus or the like, a desired printing plate can be easily and quickly produced at low cost without using a film original plate or the like.

The digital version of the plate-making data generated by the plate-making processing section can be used not only by the plate-making mechanism provided with the plate-making processing section, but also by another plate-making mechanism or plate-making mechanism. Moreover, it can be widely used in other companies.

In the above digital engraving apparatus, the engraving process section can perform a page imposition process unique to the engraving process (that is, independent of the page imposition process in the plate making process) or a page replacement process. It is preferable that By doing so, even when a page imposition process or a page replacement process is required when performing the plate making process by the plate making mechanism, the plate making mechanism can be performed without returning the image data or the halftone dot data to the plate making mechanism. The page imposition processing or page replacement processing can be easily performed in the inside. That is, since the typesetting process is performed using the image data or the halftone dot data that has already been RIP processed, it is possible to make corrections in page units (page-independent imposition) in the printing plate mechanism.

In the above digital engraving apparatus, it is preferable that the engraving processing section is adapted to execute the engraving processing equivalent to (similar to) the analog engraving machine by digital calculation. Examples of the plate-making process equivalent to such an analog plate-making machine include a masking process, a joining process, a double baking process, and a registration process (fine adjustment of the plate-making position) in units of color plates.

Here, the mask processing means deleting a part of the image data or the halftone dot data (for example, an unnecessary register mark when performing the platemaking process using plural kinds of image data or halftone dot data). The processing is such that the portion is not displayed on the plate material. The matching process is a plate-making process in which plate imposition is performed using a plurality of types of image data or halftone dot data having different sizes (sizes of page-imposed images). The double-baking process is a process of doubly printing a part of the image in the plate data (printed matter) on the plate material. Such double baking processing is, for example, in the case where the printed matter is a print advertisement of a store having a plurality of stores, in which a print advertisement is created for each store while replacing various store names in the advertisement (store name (Replacement process) etc. The registration adjustment process is a process of correcting the positional deviation due to the expansion and contraction of the paper at the time of printing for each plate of each color. Note that such registration adjustment processing is difficult to realize with page imposition software.

The breeding plate processing unit can generate the breeding plate data by using, for example, the halftone dot data and the plate imprinting instruction data indicating the plate imprinting form of the page impositioned image. In this case, the breeding plate processing unit, a platemaking process equivalent to an analog platemaking machine, for example, an arbitrary one of a plurality of page imposition images, or by freely combining or arranging a part of the page imposition image, It is possible to quickly and easily carry out a fine deprinting process such as large-scale application on a plate material in a desired form by digital data processing. Therefore, a desired printing plate can be produced more easily and at low cost.

The digital printing system according to the present invention is
(A) Performs page imposition processing on digital page description data corresponding to each page of the original, and supports page imposition images in which one or more pages of originals are page-imposed RIP (Rast) that includes a page imposition processing unit that generates digital page imposition data
er Image Processing) to generate halftone dot data in a digital format corresponding to the halftone dot page-attached image, and a plate making mechanism including a RIP processing unit, and A printing plate mechanism including any one of them is provided.

In the plate making mechanism of this digital printing system, as in the case of the digital plate making apparatus according to the present invention, the plate making data generated by the plate making processing section in the plate making mechanism is supplied to the CTP device or the like. By doing so, a desired printing plate can be produced easily and quickly at low cost without using a film original plate or the like.

Further, in the plate making mechanism, the page imposition processing unit has a final printed product covering a plurality of pages,
For example, in the case of a book, when each printed matter is folded, the page images are arranged (aligned) in page order,
The page description data is subjected to page imposition processing by digital data processing to generate page imposition data. And
The RIP processing unit performs RIP processing including halftoning on the page imposition data by digital data processing,
Generate halftone dot data. Therefore, the halftone data (images with halftone dots) to be passed to the plate mechanism
It can be generated easily and quickly.

The printing plate mechanism preferably includes a printing plate output unit for forming a printing plate image on the printing plate using the printing plate data generated by the digital plate making apparatus. here,
As the printing plate output unit, for example, an ordinary CTP device can be used. Incidentally, the development processing for forming a plate image on the plate material using the breeding plate data is a well-known ordinary method,
For example, the method is performed by scanning a photosensitive plate material with a laser beam corresponding to the printing plate data to form a printing plate image on the plate material.

In the digital printing system, the page imposition data is, for example, page description data, page imposition instruction data indicating a page imposition form of a document in a page imposition image, and print information indicating print information. It is composed of data (for example, register mark, register mark, etc.) and the like. Further, the digital printing system is provided with a design mechanism including a DTP (Desk Top Publishing) processing unit that generates page description data from a document for each page and supplies the page description data to the page imposition processing unit of the plate making mechanism. Is preferred. By doing so, the page description data can be easily and quickly generated, and the original or original image can be easily designed.

[0024]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below. As shown in FIG. 1, a digital printing system P according to the present invention includes a design mechanism W1 (design process), a plate making mechanism W2 (plate making process), and a plate making mechanism W3.
(Press process). The digital printing system P is a printing system mainly for manufacturing printed matter (for example, a book) over a plurality of pages.

Here, the design mechanism W1 and the plate making mechanism W2
The plate making mechanism W3 may be independent (for example, another site in the same company or another company) or integrated (in the same site) in terms of organization or company form. It may be. This digital printing system P is
This is because the function or effect of each mechanism W1, W2, W3 can be achieved regardless of the presence or absence of independence or strength of each mechanism. That is, the digital printing system P is particularly useful in the actual printing industry where the mechanisms W1, W2, W3 are normally independent of each other, but the mechanisms W1, W2, W3 are integrated. The printed form does not impair its usefulness.

The design mechanism W1 is substantially composed of a design section S1 and a DTP processing section S2. In the design section S1, planning and drafting of what kind of print content or appearance the printed matter to be manufactured is made, and a manuscript or original drawing for each page (hereinafter referred to as “page manuscript”) is created. To be done. In the DTP processing unit S2, based on each page original created in the designing unit S1, digital page description data corresponding to (or representing) the page original is generated.

The plate making mechanism W2 is substantially composed of a page imposition processing section S3 and a RIP processing section S4. In the page imposition processing unit S3, page imposition processing is performed by digital data processing on the page description data for one page or two or more pages generated by the DIP processing unit S2. By this page imposition processing, 1 page or 2
Digital page imposition data corresponding to the page imposition image in which page originals of more than pages are arranged in a predetermined arrangement form is generated. It should be noted that the page imposition processing is performed in order to correctly arrange the page originals in the page order when each printed matter including a plurality of page originals is folded.

In the RIP processing unit S4, the page imposition data generated in the page imposition processing unit S3 is subjected to RIP processing including halftone dot processing by digital data processing, and halftoning (or Halftone dot data in a digital format corresponding to the page-shaded image that is half-tone dot meshed and half-tone dot mesh is generated. That is, the halftone dot data is digital data of the conventional halftone dot film original plate. Note that the halftoning is image processing in which continuous gradations of light and shade or light and dark are replaced with the size of halftone dots.

The printing plate mechanism W3 substantially includes the plate processing section S.
5 and a plate output section S6. In the breeding processing unit S5, digital data processing is performed on one type (one page imposition data) or two types (two page imposition data) of the halftone dot data generated by the RIP processing unit S4. The breeding process (plate imposition process) is performed by. By this plate making process, the plate making data in digital format corresponding to the plate making image in which one or more kinds of page imposition images are imprinted in the desired form is generated. Here, the plate-making process (large attachment) is a process of arranging a plurality of page-imposed images on the plate material so that a printing plate adapted to the size, type, etc. of the printing machine can be obtained.

The breeding plate processing section S5 can perform a page imposition process or a page replacement process unique to the breeding plate process. Furthermore, the breeding plate processing unit S5
Is a plate-making process equivalent to an analog plate-making machine, for example, masking, gluing, double-baking (eg store name replacement), registration adjustment (fine adjustment of plate-making position) in color plate units, etc. Is executed by digital calculation.

In the plate output unit S6, a mold surface (print image display surface) corresponding to the plate image is formed (developed) on the plate material based on the plate data generated by the plate processing unit S5. , A printing plate is produced. Specifically, a CTP device (not shown)
Is used to scan the plate material with a laser beam corresponding to the plate data, a mold surface corresponding to the plate image is formed on the plate material, and the plate material becomes a printing plate. The printing plate thus produced is mounted on a printing machine, and a printed matter is manufactured by the printing machine.

By the way, the page imposition processing section S3 for performing the page imposition processing in the plate making mechanism W2 is composed of a personal computer. The specific structure will be described below. As shown in FIG. 2, the personal computer C1 (imposition instruction unit) that constitutes the page imposition processing unit S3 includes an input selection unit 1, an imposition unit 2, a breeding unit 3, and a print information generation unit. 4, a layout information file 5, and a print information file 6 are provided.

Here, when reusing the various existing information data stored in the layout information file 5 and the print information file 6, the input selection section 1 uses the necessary information data from both files 5, 6, for example, The page imposition data, the layout information data, the printing information data, etc. are selected and taken out, and output to the imposition unit 2, the breeding unit 3, or the printing information generation unit 4. When a new printing plate is produced without reusing the existing information data, the input selection unit 1 does not function.

The imposition part 2 basically has a design mechanism W.
The page description data received from the first DTP processing unit S2 is subjected to page imposition processing to generate page imposition data. That is, the page description data is selected, and the page format data (page description data and layout) in digital format corresponding to the page layout image in which one page or two or more page originals are arranged in a predetermined layout form. (Including information data). When the information data to be reused is input from the input selection unit 1, the page layout data is also generated by adding these information data.

If necessary, the breeding section 3 carries out a large attaching process or a breeding process specific to the plate making process, for example, a process of arranging a large number of same page originals. Therefore,
The page imposition data may be generated by the imposition section 2 alone or may be generated by the imposition section 2 and the intaglio section 3. In addition, the print information generation unit 4 generates various print information data such as register marks (register marks).

In this way, the imposition section 2 or the breeding section 3
The page imposition data generated in
Is stored (stored) in. The print information data generated by the print information generation unit 4 is saved (stored) in the print information file 6. Since the information data stored in the layout information file 5 and the print information file 6 has a general-purpose data format, software for page imposition processing of another plate making mechanism (for example, page imposition processing of another company) It can also be used in clothing.

The data stored in the layout information file 5 and the print information file 6 are then subjected to RIP processing including halftone dot processing in the RIP processing section S4 to generate a halftone dot data file. . This halftone dot data file is recorded via a recording medium such as a magnetic disk or an optical recording medium.
Alternatively, directly through the online line, etc., the plate mechanism W3
It is delivered to the breeding plate processing section S5.

Further, the plate-making processing section S5 for carrying out the plate-making process in the printing plate mechanism W3 is also composed of a personal computer. The specific structure will be described below. As shown in FIG. 3, the personal computer C2 that constitutes the breeding processing unit S5 has an imposition instruction information input unit 7, a halftone dot file input unit 8, a breeding execution unit 9, and a breeding completed data file. And 10 are provided.

Here, the imposition instruction information input unit 7 determines to which plate material the plate imposition instruction information, for example, each halftone dot page imposition image should be arranged, or the page imposition in each plate material. Accepts data that tells you how to arrange the images. Further, the halftone dot file input unit 8 receives halftone dot data, that is, digital image data corresponding to a halftone dot-composed image from the plate making mechanism W2.

The breeding plate execution unit 9 executes the platemaking process based on the plate imposition instruction information output from the imposition instruction information input unit 7 and the halftone dot data output from the halftone dot file input unit 8. To do. That is, one or two or more types of page imposition images are imprinted on the plate in an optimal form according to the size, type, etc. of the printing press, and digital version plate data corresponding to the plate image is generated. It

The plate version data generated by the plate version executing unit 9 in this manner is stored (stored) in the plate version completed file 10. Then, the plate version data stored in the plate version completed file 10 is sent to the plate output unit S6. Then, in the plate output section S6, a mold surface corresponding to the plate image is formed on the plate material by using the plate data, and the plate is produced.

In the examples shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the personal computer C1 and the personal computer C2 are separate and independent because the plate making mechanism W2 and the plate making mechanism W3 are independent. That is, both personal computers C1 and C2 are associated with each other by an open interface via a magnetic recording medium, an optical recording medium, an online line, or the like. However, the plate making mechanism W
When 2 and the plate mechanism W3 are integrated, one personal computer may serve as both.
Even in this case, both softwares are independent of each other.

In the breeding plate processing section S5 or the personal computer C2 of the digital printing system P according to the present invention, the software for the plate breeding process or the plate imprinting process is dedicated to the plate printing mechanism W3. ,
It is possible to make it easy to use and suitable for stencil treatment or plate imposition treatment. Therefore, although the plate making mechanism W2 and the plate making mechanism W3 are independent of each other, a desired printing plate can be easily and quickly produced at low cost without using a film original plate or the like.

In short, in the digital printing system P according to the present invention, the same fine engraving process or plate imposition process as in the conventional printing system using the film original plate can be easily performed by digital data processing using a personal computer. In addition, it can be performed quickly, and the production cost of printed matter can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a digital printing system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a personal computer used in a page imposition processing unit of the digital printing system shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a personal computer used in the plate reproduction processing unit of the digital printing system shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

P ... Digital printing system, W1 ... Design mechanism, W2
… Plate making mechanism, W3… Plate making mechanism, S1… Design department, S2
... DTP processing section, S3 ... Page imposition processing section, SS4 ... R
IP processing unit, S5 ... Plate processing unit, S6 ... Printing plate output unit, C
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Personal computer, C2 ... Personal computer, 1 ... Input selection part, 2 ... Imposition part, 3 ... Plate part, 4
... print information generation unit, 5 ... layout information file, 6 ... print information file, 7 ... imposition instruction information input unit, 8 ... halftone dot file input unit, 9 ... breeding execution unit, 10 ... breeding completed file.

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A page imposition process is performed on page description data in digital format corresponding to a manuscript for each page,
The page imposition processing unit includes a page imposition processing unit that generates digital page imposition data corresponding to a page imposition image obtained by imposing one page or two or more pages of the original on the page imposition data. On the other hand, a RIP that performs RIP processing including halftone processing to generate halftone data in a digital format corresponding to the halftone-paged image.
One or two types of halftone dot data in digital format corresponding to a halftone dot page-imposed image obtained by imposing one or two or more page originals on the page. Accepted as described above, subjecting the halftone dot data to a stencil process, and slicing in a digital format corresponding to the stencil image in which one or more of the above-mentioned page-imposed images are imprinted in the desired form. A digital printing system, comprising: a printing plate mechanism having a plate processing unit for generating plate data. 2. The digital printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing plate mechanism includes a printing plate output unit that forms the printing plate image on a printing plate using the printing plate data. Printing system. 3. The page imposition data includes the page description data and page imposition instruction data indicating a page imposition mode of the document in the page imposition image. Item 3. The digital printing system according to Item 1 or 2. 4. The digital printing system according to claim 3, wherein the page imposition data includes print information data indicating print information. 5. A design mechanism having a DTP processing section for generating the page description data from a page-by-page document and supplying the page description data to the page imposition processing section of the plate making mechanism is provided. The digital printing system according to claim 1. 6. The plate-making process section is capable of performing a page imposition process that is independent of the page imposition process in the plate making process. The digital printing system according to one. 7. The breeding plate processing unit performs a breeding plate process including at least one of a masking process, a joining process, a double baking process, and a color plate-based register adjustment process by a digital operation. The digital printing system according to claim 6, wherein: 8. The breeding plate processing section, together with the halftone dot data,
The digital printing system according to claim 7, wherein the plate printing data is generated using printing plate imposition instruction data indicating a plate imposition form of the page imposition image.