Why do people buy fuel efficient cars when they drive a lot?

[Marco Roos]

Simple: because they want to save money! And because I am Dutch, this fascinates me ;-).

If you're not printing with a digital large format device you'd better skip this piece of writing art, unless you expect more jokes about nationalities, which I can't assure ;-).

But to get back to the car idea: in times things go well people buy a more expensive car and save on the fuel, total car costs are equal then, but: you've got leather seats! It is surprising to see that only a few companies in this industry looked at ways to save as much inks as possible and invested that saving in a better 'seat'.

Yesterday I talked about professionalism and changes in our industry, one of the biggest changes will be that printing companies will (have to) look much closer on their running costs, ways to improve their efficiency and ways to create a better overview of their company. One of those things that help tremendously, is to understand how the technology works. Do you know there are still people using CMYKcm or even CMYKcmyk ink setups in their printer to print mesh banner murals or billboards? Light inks do not increase your color gamut (= the total amount of color you are able to create with a certain ink set and a material): they only improve the smoothness in areas with lower ink coverages (read: "light colors". Do you think you can tell the difference when a print is stuck to the train you still see that difference? There are printers today that offer automatic switching of ink sets based upon the print speed you choose.

I think this is a great development. Turning off light inks can save you up to 40% of inks, depending on the printer you're using and the ink set the printer has, depending on your printer resolution it is hard to tell the difference.

The great news is: you can do this with ANY printer, it requires a bunch of settings, new profiles and a different sales strategy for your output (Because customers should pay more for a higher quality and lower quality should cost YOU less). Of course you will need some training and your pre-press should be setup correctly, but I assume that has been set correctly for many year already ;-). (because you all have the best print shop in the world, with the most difficult customers. Right? ;-)). By the way: that was not meant cynical, just Dutch (=direct) ;-). You can have the best printer in the world, the best color profiles for your medias....the 'SISO Rule monster' always catches you.

Ink is something you use every day, (almost) everybody complains about prices but the majority of the print shops is using way too much ink. And not only because of the wrong usage of light inks. There is a lot more you can do in a profile to save ink. Just changing the way you create black in the RIP software can save you up to 10%.

If you are an ink supplier you probably hate me by now ;-). But realize that only the companies that deliver sustainable quality, cost efficient solutions and a support concept to their customers will be part of the future of our industry. Therefor I would love to have comments on this to get your opinion about ink savings and efficiency.

Have a great day! And remember: hobby time is over! :-)

P.S. SISO Rule means: Sh*t In Sh*t Out. (Please replace the asterisks yourself, I don't want to be called 'the guy that is offending people'.

Next topic (if I find the time): workflow improvement. Unless more than 50% of the readers doesn't want to hear from me anymore... ;-)

[Margaret Davis]

I find that I am getting some kind of perverse delight in watching the demise of the U.S. auto industry. I feel the guilt of driving a full size older truck with less fuel efficiency is easing as I am denying a new purchase to the domestics and therefore not rewarding their total lack of responsiveness to climate needs, fuel costs, and general failure to evolve. Maybe some kind of sick reduce, reuse, recycle aspect to it. Better using it than it being in a junkyard? I think so.


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orange electronics

[Rainald Schröder]

Hi Marco, as usual you are right and you touched important topics.
Regarding the entire printing process you need to look at the media as well - big differences in consuming ink is not expected, but reality.
It is exactly now the time to look at the processes to find the "real solution" and that doesnt mean at all to find only the "cheapest solution".
It is good to read words like sustainability, efficiency, support concept - they are describing the needed differences from good, healthy to standard companies.

[Herman Hartman]

There is more to do on ink savings than only switching of colors that do not help you. There are a lot of prints made just to test files and find out of the color is right or not. There are a lot of prints made just for the waste bin because there are made mistakes in making of the file or setting up the print in the RIP. A more predictable workflow is one of the things that can help to make sure all prints are right at the first time an save a lot of cast in not only ink be also in time and the use of media. Working on an more standardize way than the industry is doing now will be a very important part of making workflows predictable. Coming back on the issue Marco mentioned here above. One of the mean reasons print company’s use more ink than needed they want to be on the save side. But the do no know really the save site from what. And they can not argument with there customers on subject as wy I can see micro bending standing right before the print and why it is not important at all when these print is mounted on a billboard with an viewing distance from at least 25 meter distance. How to work on with viewing distance is just one for the issues we should talk about. Coming back tot this billboard I mentioned If it comes colors. A billboard that stand outside in broad daylight need often mort saturated colors to look the same on an distance as a print just hanging inside a shop. Any idea how you can do this on an predictable way without print again and again? There is a lot more to say about this subject as Marco will probably do in his next column.

[Andrew Thornhill]

Marco, it's a facinating topic and one I don't really know that much about. As an ex-designer and someone who worked in the repro business for a number of years I'd like to hear more about the techniques for reducing ink usage.