At drupa 2004, Xerox proposed a mixed (integrated) operating mode for offset printing and digital printing, which combined to bring greater economic benefits to printing companies. The integration of offset printing and digital printing shows that the application of digital printing has reached a new level. This cannot be separated from the digital printing workflow software developed by Creo and Xerox in accordance with JDF standards: Prinergy and FreeFlow.

1. Business opportunities come from market analysis

After many years of practical application, the trend of another integrated production process of offset printing and digital printing has emerged, and it has become one of the main countermeasures for the printing industry to obtain greater profits and occupy more markets. Offset-based printing companies are gradually realizing that the market share of digital printing will grow at a double-digit rate in the next few years. The scope of application of digital printing is becoming wider and wider, consumables prices are declining, and the boundaries between traditional printing and digital printing are increasingly blurred. The information provided by Drupa 2004 shows that the boundaries between the above two printing processes have increased from the previous 500 printing to the 3000 India. Finding a reasonable use of digital printing has become a problem that commercial printing companies must consider. Adding digital printing equipment to the workflow enables the combination of an offset press and a digital press to give full play to the advantages of both to increase the company's production capacity and increase profitability.

For independently distributed production systems, it is indeed difficult to jointly use offset and digital printing. However, the digital workflow based on the JDF technology is different. The production environment established by the digital workflow software is not only the high integration of the three major processes of prepress, printing, and postpress, but also the integration of the enterprise's production process and management functions. If most of the printing business accepted is fixed content, but part of the content on the page is variable information, it can not be completed with only one kind of equipment, and two printing processes should be combined to print fixed content by an offset printing press. Print variable information.

2. Xerox Digital Workflow Software FreeFlow

FreeFIow is a workflow software developed by Xerox for the specificity of digital printing processes. Interaction and effective integration between customers and enterprises is the dominant mode of modern industrial production. For this reason, FreeFIow divides the management content of printing enterprises after a digital printing business. For business processing, process management and output management three modules.

The workflow defined by FreeFIow is similar to that of offset printing. First, the prepress-to-job completion of the output management part can all be realized in the digital printing system; secondly, the bridges of the digital printing press in relation to prepress and printing are rasterized, and offset printing may be possible. Contains a more complex process; third, the digital printing system is directly recorded on paper as a result of interpretation by RIP; and fourthly, prepress, rasterization, printing, and postpress processing are independent productions in the offset printing workflow. The process needs to be implemented with different equipment.

According to the explanation given in the FreeFIow white paper, the software defines the workflow as the automatic processing of all or part of the business activities. It can be seen that the workflow concept explained in the FreeFIow white paper can not stay in simple business activities, but should be fully understood as all the activities involved in digital printing, both purely commercial and production activities.

The strategic goal of FreeFIow is clear, that is, the initial point of management is located in the position just entering the production activity, and it is business negotiation and product design. Xerox hopes that FreeFIow will use the open interface and JDF standard; strengthen the links between all aspects of the printing production chain, and integrate the entire production process. At the same time, it also strengthens the relationship between the printing company's business management and production processes, and achieves the goal set by the CIP4 to develop the JDF standard. .

3. The basic idea of ​​mixed operation mode

At the Drupa 2004 show, Xerox and Creo exhibited solutions for offset and digital printing mixed operation modes, which means that users of Prinergy's digital workflow software can access Xerox from within Prinergy. Job ticket information for digital printing systems. The information exchange between Prinergy and FreeFIow is achieved through the computer's graphical user interface. The print job details defined within Prinergy can easily be received by the Xerox FreeFIow Workflow Software's print manager and electronic job tickets generated by Prinergy. Based on the realization of digital printing press control and management.

The integration of offset and digital printing workflows into a hybrid operating model is a new print production architecture, and it is the JDF-defined standard that provides this basic architecture. As far as the technical essence of the JDF standard is concerned, it applies not only to offset printing, but also to digital printing. The JDF standard can accommodate different devices regardless of whether the printing device controls analog or digital. It is the JDF-defined operating mechanism that can process data flows from different workflow software, exchange data between different applications and production systems, communicate information, and use these data to achieve effective control of print jobs.

4. The main advantages of mixed operation mode

Offset printing and digital printing are not contradictory, but at present the two printing processes use their own workflows. The problem is how to combine them. As a result, the overall integration of offset and digital printing production processes results in increased production efficiency and more flexibility in the choice of printing methods, leading to revolutionary changes in production patterns.

With the rapid development of technology, the requirements of customers for printing service providers are diversified. Printing companies must choose the most reasonable production equipment and processes on the basis of considering production costs. Compared with offset printing and digital printing, the former is more suitable for long-run printing. The advantage of digital printing lies in its quick response to the market. It is suitable for short-run printing, on-demand printing and personalized printing. The combination of offset printing and digital printing is consistent with the trend of technology development.

The content of the page depends on the content of the printed matter, but also depends on the customer's requirements. The integrated offset and digital printing workflow allows for a mixture of offset color pages and digitally printed color pages, as well as a mixture of offset color pages and digitally printed black and white pages. The problem lies in the number of prints. And print content. When printing companies undertake a printing business, they can create digital documents containing color and black-and-white pages on the front end of the printing.