



This means that print buyers do not have to discuss colour quality with their service providers: conformance to ISO 12647-2 confirms it. Conformance demonstrates that a properly set up digital printing press can match offset output quality. In a highly competitive market it makes sense for digital printing companies to conform to ISO 12647-2. The adoption of ISO 12647-2 by digital printers may seem curious, but the standardisation of digital printing has so far proved elusive: the range of digital printing method and colorants is just too diverse. Of late it’s been embraced by digital printers as well. ISO 12647-2 was first published nearly twenty years ago, and over the years it’s become the universal quality reference for offset printing across the globe. This information is the characterisation data that describes a given printing process, so the stringent requirements of ISO 12647-2 summarise expectations for accurate, high quality colour production. Tone Value Increase (TVI otherwise known as dot gain).This international standard defines requirements for a general printing condition based on: When it comes to proving that digital printing system output is comparable to that of offset, savvy digital print companies have turned to ISO 12647-2 (Graphic technology - Process control for the production of half-tone colour separations, proof and production prints - Part 2: Offset lithographic processes). But markets are dynamic and clever, and they respond to opportunities. That’s not easy, especially in commercial markets where digital printing systems stand shoulder to shoulder with traditional offset litho. Print buyers who use multiple printers to produce the same job, or versions of it, need to be able to trust that all prints have a common colour appearance. It’s the only way printers can ensure that the work they produce looks identical across print methods and production sites. And for jobs produced using several different printing systems, process and colour data control are absolutely vital. ISO 12647-2 provides colour quality printers can trust inīut for long or short runs on conventional or digital presses, colour output quality must still be managed. Many of these, such as variable data printing, are only possible with direct digital output devices. Often working with print service providers, they have developed an amazing array of new applications. Brand owners and designers want more colour, more frequent updates to jobs and to produce them in shorter runs. Advances in imaging, print processes and colorants have made digital colour printing quality concerns a thing of the past.Ĭonsequently, the industry has embraced digital printing as part of its response to changing market requirements. Perhaps the biggest change over the last three decades is that today’s digital devices are more than able to match offset printing’s output quality. The digital printing industry has changed massively since 1993 when Xeikon and Indigo introduced the world’s first digital colour printing presses. ISO 12647-2 is a printing standard which print suppliers and customers can use to ensure that print processes comply with a set of parameters which guarantee quality and consistency.
