Reveal the veil of remote proofing (on)

(Demystifying Remote Proofing) Remote Proofing has become a very hot topic. There are many key factors that lead this topic to the stage. Among these are: low-cost feasibility, high-quality proofing equipment, suitable available network bandwidth (whether on your own network or on the Internet), of course, more urgent deadlines, the need to shorten the production process time, traditional Repeated creative process. Many people are interested in remote proofing, but there are also many doubts about this process, including whether there is a need to do so and the efficiency of remote proofing. There are some misunderstandings. Some people think that remote proofing requires T-1 lines, expensive specialized hardware, and software, and may also require Kodak Approval. One of them may prevent their adoption. But don't forget that there are still some devices that people can use in remote proofing that are not very expensive. Here we will try to raise the basic questions and provide some difficult information that can be applied to high-end users and ordinary users. We will not spend a lot of time discussing ICC equipment description files and color management. Instead, we will focus on process flow issues and how to transfer files to different locations. (Assume that the reader has a good working knowledge of digital proofing and related issues.) Why do you want proofing remotely? In the field of printing technology, remote proofing is a typical topic of fierce debate among professional and technical personnel. Why is this? Maybe because everyone has their own definition of remote proofing. Here, we will not try to resolve these disputes, but we must point out some application systems that can increase the value of this technology. The first thing to understand is the need for remote proofing: Unless you have adopted digital proofing as the standard way of operating (either the service provider or the customer), you will never be able to implement a remote proofing process. Therefore, it may be obvious that digital proofing must be followed first, followed by remote proofing. Where are the advantages of remote proofing? Of course, in the creative process, such as between the advertising agency and their service provider, between the prepress department and the printing plant (perhaps a proof of the group version), between the printer and the catalog publisher, of course, Between the advertising agency and their cooperating customers, even in the factory's in-house creative department, in the process of packaging designer for the consumer product company. To be sure, we can consider more useful applications for this technology. The key is to enable the creative design aspects of the production department to benefit from this process. The process flow may be obvious. The equipment and technology implementation method you choose for remote proofing must match the existing and customer processes. For example, if you use Kodak Approval on your side, your customers use the Epson spray. Ink machine, you have to generate a file suitable for Epson, do not increase the processing process. To do a lot of suppliers can provide a large number of practical process and RIP, which must have one for you. Of course, it takes a lot of money. Some of what may be very useful is Sayren Brisque, a product from Shira and Rorke Data. We do not discuss these products in many details, nor do we need to invest large amounts of money in remote proofing techniques. However, even if you already have these devices and software, you may not understand it yet. To create a document sent to a remote proofer, if we add a lot of manual steps, our experience is that this remote proofing plan is to fail. We say "and/or" because if you can provide a communication line and a proofer, you have full control over the steps for making a proof. This makes it easier for you to use and control this process completely. If you provide equipment and connections, you can't let customers use your output device for their purposes. This also increases the cost of the entire process. If customers are using output devices for their purposes, or they have devices and let you export them to other places, they want to control these devices. In this case, you have to send your proofs into a sequence (for example, a trading shop sends files to an advertising agency Fiery type device or other color digital copy front end). When you want to send a document to the customer, you must first send an e-mail to the customer (if this is done, this step can be done automatically), and the document will be placed in the print queue. When the customer wants to output, they enter their own screen and change your job from "hang" to "active". If you have proofing equipment and communication lines, you have to decide whether to allow customers to print their work on your output device. This means that you may want to understand how much of a customer's printed sheet is not related to your work with the customer. You will want to include the cost of consumables that you can't do. There may also be chores such as media jams and service calls because the opportunity is for the customer to take advantage of the quality of the proofer. In the end, after the client is used to the proofing machine, you may want to wait on line to get the proofs transmitted on the remote connection. This is a big issue to consider. Communication lines First, before you say, “I'm going to use the Internet for remote proofing” or “Let's use ISDN for remote proofing,” you need to consider the frequency and capacity of the files that are transmitted to the remote proofing device. The next question is economics. How much bandwidth does the connection apply for? This will help you decide what type of technology is right for you. After all, remote proofing is basically a special purpose file transfer. Fortunately, the lines used for remote proofing can also be used to support other applications (ie, active high-speed Internet connections can serve multiple purposes in addition to remote proofing applications). When choosing the type of communication line and the size of the line, the first thing to consider is what we call the "one hour principle." Simply state this principle, that if more than one hour is required to transmit any sample, other communication options need to be considered. For example, with a single dedicated ISDN line, 50 MB can be transmitted in one hour. Using a dedicated dedicated T-1 line (from your location to a single remote location) can transmit more than 600 MB in one hour. The speed of Internet file transfer depends on the ISP and the type of connection you are buying, but with the Tier-1 Internet T-1, you can expect reliable delivery of 400 MB per hour. Dedicated ISDN setup is a viable option, especially when there is a strong need for confidentiality (that is, on very special days, when it comes to advanced encryption technology and the company's more advanced IT department, customers do not allow you to send them over the Internet. When working.) Combine multiple ISDN lines to get the equivalent of 200MB/hour. Special T-1 lines are only practical when the customer is relatively close (private T-1 lines are priced by distance), or when the capacity is so large that the use of such lines is still more cost-effective. Frame relay networks are practical for multiple sites that often send information to each other. Typical examples are application systems for distribution and printing. Perhaps a better example is a greeting card company that has a central design point and some production facilities. Each production site needs to make proofs, or vice versa, at the factory's design point. The best communication technology for all remote proofing applications may be the Internet. Because we all need internet connectivity (email, digital job transfer, research and web surfing, and emerging e-commerce applications), why not use the same channels for proofing applications? The online remote proofing connection must be a full-time internet connection. Modems are not suitable due to their low speed and low reliability. ISDN Internet services are generally not available because they are dial-up services similar to analog modems. When dial-up connections are sent over the Internet to send proofs, nothing can be predicted in advance. The lowest-cost, always-on Internet service is DSL (Digital Subscriber Line). DSL can be used in about 30 cities in the United States, and soon more cities will use it. The type of connection that DSL needs is SDSL (symmetric DSL), not asymmetric DSL (ADSL - the type of DSL you see on advertisements, the price is $ 39 per month). Different from SDSL, the sending and receiving speeds are the same, which is necessary for the printing process application system. ADSL is designed for web surfing. Since providers want you to click once, they will look at the screen's network location or video link stream, so the download speed is much faster than uploading. ADSL is more suitable at home, but it is not very useful for printing process file transfer or remote proofing. SDSL has a speed range of 128K (the same speed as an ISDN line - about 50MB an hour) and 1.544MB/sec (a same speed as a T-1 or 400MB/hour). Keep in mind that the practicality of DSL is not insured, even in areas where services are provided. Technical problems with distance and other telecommunication services often hinder local installation of services or limit you to a lower speed. If any, the range of choice is generally 128K~384K. There are several levels of cable modems, which are somewhat exaggerated in the telecommunications industry. Most people think it will take a long time to become a decent business stage. What we generally get is broadband digital cable services. If this happens, these services can indeed provide "full-time Internet" service types, and may also provide high-performance, reliable, and print-process-required service types. In addition to DSL, you can also look at Internet T-1, or a multi-channel Internet T-1 line for high-performance Internet services (a popular option called “N×T”) that combines T-1 lines into one more Big connection). In order to do remote proofing on the Internet, Tier-1 Internet provider services are required. The providers of these services are owners of major backbone networks (representatives such as the well-known AT&T, MCI/Worldcom or Sprint). These companies can provide non-blocking, reliable broadband for mission-critical systems such as remote proofing. As we discussed earlier, each Internet T-1 line can be delivered to a remote location at a rate of 400MB/hour; instead of using a local Internet Service Provider (ISP), this provider already has 10 to 1 (this means The bandwidth he sells is 10 times as large as the contracted Internet backbone, which is now commonplace and oversold or "oversubscribed" his bandwidth. We call this oversubscription a "health club model," which does not provide excellent performance for remote proofing applications. Because the Internet will be more reliable, more convincing, than the ones used today (something that is happening quickly and costing billions of dollars). In fact, we expect that all remote proofing will be achieved through the Internet. With technologies such as real-time proofing and Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) (discussed later), HP and Microsoft will soon have new benchmark specifications on the Internet, which will become easier and faster.