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1. Reduction from page size Left Right Top Bottom V Equal values Overwrite orientation the job will be rendered by the specified orienta tion rather than using the one specified in the Rotate entry of the Page object Note that the following order is observed beetween the different sizing tasks Size gt Overwrite orientation gt Scaling Enlarge page by Erase bor der That is scaling applies on the already rotated page etc 6 2 5 Dispro task The dispro task will control the pre distortion of the job necessary in flexog raphy correcting the mechanical distortions of engines etc Turning off this task will cause no pre distortion Turning it on the following options will be available Horizontal acts in fast scan direction horizontally in the screen pre view Vertical acts in slow scan direction vertically in the screen preview Swap values will swap the horizontal and vertical distortion values if the defined condition is true the job is portrait landscape useful for flexography or rotated automatically useful for correcting the mechan ical distortions of the engine Flexography buttons bring up a distortion calculator for flexography which makes dispro calculations easier LLI O lt D a lt U Z cc gt T LL Z oe v Job style name Job style group name Printer share name soso 170 02 a
2. The Ink zone calculation command is in the Job menu and is enabled if a job is selected The following settings are available m Pages to process which pages of the job to calculate the ink zone infor mation for with all pages current page or page range options m Print press style offers the chance to save the properties of several printing presses as styles so then the cylinder size and number of keys parameters will not have to be entered manually each time Neutralize calibration recommended setting is on to work with the in tended shades as in the DTP application rather than the actual shades in the 1 bit TIFF file Calibration curves might produce significant dif ferences Print press styles can be added using the Add button in the right of the print press style drop down box or edited with the Properties button The Press profile dialog has the following settings Cylinder width the width on which the ink keys are placed the width of an ink zone will be equal to the cylinder width divided by the num ber of keys Cylinder length the length is measured on the cylinder circumference Number of keys the number of ink ducts on the offset press In case of flexography it is equal to 1 m Key range the minimum and maximum levels of ink duct keys The de fault values are in percentages but older printing presses may use dif ferent ranges e g the minimum value is 2 the maximum value is 20 I
3. l lt Z lt 2 aa LLJ N gt Language Programs Having these operators enabled are required for some files from QuarkXPress however some files from Corel 9 and Il lustrator 8 will operate properly only if they are disabled Treat as registration color registration colors are special colors that are printed on all plates of a job Normally they can be printed as such be ing defined in the PS PDF file as registration color but some DTP ap plications and many designers prefer to draw registration or other pre press marks as C M Y K 100 Identifying registration colors is necessary for various reasons they must be printed on spot color plates trapping must be disabled for them so Cascade offers the possibility to identify the two frequent cases of intended registration colors are re al registration colors o All components black if checked all colors with all colorants on 100 e g C M Y K Pantone 123 C 100 will be consid ered registration colors o Process components black others white if checked all colors with all process colorants on 100 and all other colorants on 0 e g C M Y K 100 Pantone 123 C 0 will be considered registra tion colors Convert spot colors to process colors if this is on non CMYK colors in a composite file will be automatically converted to CMYK rather than printed as extra separations m Convert RGB black to PS black option will d
4. Ja ANAR Proofing Ji Ink duct control Export image IS S88 Imaging T i Job information Fi Do not show this dialog box on open Imaging options 7 Do not print until checked Vi Mirrored Negative Orientation mace pa Progressive printing Progressive printing Number of inks printed in one pass Print order of inks CMYK123456789 CMYK colors C Mor present OK Cancel working space setting of the PDF viewer application The file size will be significantly bigger in this mode Output type specifies whether a PDF or JPEG Color managed sRGB only file will be exported Compression the quality of the JPEG compression as a compromise between quality and file size Export image to the path the PDF or JPEG files to be exported to 6 2 14 Imaging task The imaging task controls the way the job will be exposed or printed on the media The following options are available Do not print until checked if selected Cascade will hold the job before sending it out for printing allowing modification and verification of the job if the option is not selected the processed pages will be sent imme diately to the Print manager or Tiff catcher Mirrored select if you want to print the job mirrored i e wrong read ing typically for offset printing If you forget to select this opt
5. Proofing fig Ink duct control dP Export image EF Imaging oe gt op v i m Py z a nie 42 Job information 1000 InkDepositYolumecm3M2 PlateInkArea S S S S lt V Send job information to e mail address SalesDept SamplePrinter com Create job information file to Folder E Print job information on OK Cancel Do not show this dialog box on open First we will define an item called Ink deposit volume cm m7 which will specify the ink quantity in cm needed for 1 m of 100 tint This is an empirical value and depends on the ink paper type and other pa rameters Let s consider that the value of this item is 16 2 Then we will define another item called Pages printed with 1 liter of ink its value will be the following formula round 1000 InkDeposit VolumeCm M x PlateInkArea 10000 The formula contains a reference to the PlateInkArea pre defined vari able field as well as a cross reference to the Ink deposit volume cm m item the name is simplified by the insert cross reference command The job information items can be added or removed by the Add item and Remove item buttons The order of the items can be changed by the Move up and Move down buttons The name of the item can be changed by click ing on it The value of the item is displayed in the second column of the
6. Rendering intent specifies the color conversion strategy using the four oe Color management Color conversion i Vv Xlr Sizin ICM based Convert spot colors to process colors standard values Absolute Colorimetric Saturation Relative Colori E A Dispro Sensation paite E s bissk i W V Separations Convert RGB gray to PS gra metric Perceptual These settings will influence only the colors outside 7 a aan Teaser hae of the gamut or close to it i e the colors that cannot be accurately repro Sal Relative colrimetie SS r iat UCR BG duced by the given colorants and printing technology but most of the Be ses parla ae tae v Ex ort image As in document p colors of an average document will not be affected by this setting For E Rhmagna A aee ESE s Fa Job information Disable embedde color spaces or device color spaces obe generic use Relative colorimetric is recommended ignore 4BeginICCProfie comments For all color spaces StudioRIP Disable TN 5044 pseudo operators Overprint black above 100 E Treat as registration color CMYK information in the PS PDF EPS file will not be influenced by V All components black Process components black others white Do not show this dialog box on open OK Cancel the color management settings The ICC ICM file will be used only for converting RGB Lab or spot colors to CMYK
7. 5 6 2 Receiving jobs in the Print manager The Print manager has a hot folder which it checks for newly arrived jobs The jobs have to be TIFF pages uncompressed or compressed with Pack bits CCITT G4 LZW or CCITT G3 1D The received jobs will automati cally appear in the job list so the fact that there are two programs working together even on different computers will be completely transparent from the Client workstation Pages coming from the Cascade Server will contain additional data which helps the Print manager recombine them as jobs recognize their colors etc Pages coming from third party applications will be shown as different jobs 5 6 3 Starting the imaging Once received the job will start to be imaged automatically provided that all the program parts are installed and the print engine is ready no user in tervention is needed At this point the Print manager will be in one of the following states The job is being printed Status bar message Imaging The job is waiting in the queue because the Print manager was paused Status bar message Printing paused The job cannot be printed because the engine is not in a Ready state Status bar message Engine not found in case of EtherSetter interface the Searching for EtherSetter box message will also appear or En gine error The job cannot be printed because there is no connection with the Print manager Status bar message
8. 6 2 15 Job information task The job information settings are designed to carry and collect job specific in formation such as date time customer name number of pages ink usage etc The collected information can be then saved into a folder e mailed or printed for accounting or job management purposes The job information is a list of items Each item in the list has a name e g Job name and a value The values can be simple texts but the power of the job information system is that these they can contain fields such as Variable fields the same list of fields is available as for the pre press time job name plate ink area number of pages sheets etc m Cross references references to other items in the list Formulas values starting with the sign will be considered arithme tic expressions that will be evaluated Example let s create a field that will calculate the ink needed for printing 1000 pages Job syle ELLOS Job style name Job style group name Printer share name AccuSet 170 2400 ba None AccuSet Workflow tasks by Interpretation f sizing F X 4 Dispro a Separations amp Trapping Job name JobName Z Calibration Date LongDate Time a Screening Ink deposit volume cm3 m2 16 2 ZZ Imposition Pages printed with 1 liter of ink 1000 InkDepositYolumecm3Mm2 PlateInkArea Job information Item Value ISSsSs88
9. Add remove or edit job styles by clicking the appropriate buttons in the toolbar of the Job styles docker m Create a copy of a job style useful to create a job style similar to a ref erence m Set a job style as the default by selecting it and clicking on the Set as default button A checkmark in a green square to the left of a job style name indicates that it is selected as the default job style m Create a shortcut to the hot folder of the selected job style by the Create shortcut to hot folder button The shortcut will be created to the desktop If a shortcut with the same name exists it will be overwritten Print a calibration page with the settings of the selected style by the Print calibration page button When adding or editing a job style the Job style window will appear 6 2 2 Job style window The job style window will appear whenever a job style is created or modi fied as well as when a job is opened by the Open command and the Ask for job style on open option is checked in the Client options dialog The job style window has the following controls Job style name the name of the job style as it will displayed in the Job style manager and as the Cascade printers will be created Job style group name the name of the job style group that the job style belongs to By default it is set to the value None i e the job style does not belong to any groups To move the job style into an existing group choose the g
10. cc gt O S UO OQ TE lt Z lt jaa LLI N gt Menu bar ee a Standard toolbar _ i fia 34 MAO dees Ahe g a Ld Context toolbar an lcm gt F 21 64 cm fa 73 Bla xlama Eli E U eA ea H o cle als E T Preview tabs h Separations Tia Preview tools gt amy W of E Preview windows Dockers BOG HE E BR BE BO Be E E E 4 ee j EE Pol mM 41 Status bar _ pF Connected to Localhost iy Composite e i Logged in as Default user F dk Tag Job browser oogt s Bl 4 dy AccuSet 1500 2400 a E Test job 1 pdf Separations Page 1 Cyan Fage 1 Magenta Page 1 Yellow EJ Page 1 Black j Ti Composite Page 1 a Imposition Sheet 1 b E Test job 2 pdF ii Media E High priority ms ee priority Test job 3 odF Imposition styles X lt az 225 Apply standard pre press marks Z5 Book 4 up Z Book 5 up Z5 Double sided 1 x1 5New imposition style 1 5 5addle stitching 4 pages Z 5addle stitching a pages Z Simple 2 up 1 s2 5 Simple 2 up 21 F5 Simple 4 up 2 x2 Z5 5tep and repeat Lee 5 Step and repeat 2x1 25 Step and repeat one 225 Test imposition 225 Work and tumble 225 Wwork and turn zil Print manager K Calibration manager 4 Prepress marks g GhostScri oonga a
11. No Print manager 5 6 4 Pause mode Stop Print manager by clicking on and highlighting its icon in the Print manager docker if there is more than one Print manager in the Cascade system and then clicking on the Pause button in the toolbar In this state the Print manager does not send anything to the engine allowing time to arrange jobs check the print engine wait for a confirmation etc The only way to leave this state is by clicking the Start button It will continue to re ceive jobs that are sent to it and Cascade will continue to process jobs and put them safely into the Print manager queue They will not be imaged until the Start button is pressed Note If there is more than one Print manager each of them has its own state stopping one will not stop the others Print manager will automatically enter Pause mode if m On startup it detects that there are jobs in the queue A print engine error occurs The last printed job was marked either with a Cut flag or Stop after page flag The Start and Pause buttons change the state of a Print manager rath er than of the selected job s 5 6 5 Changing the job list The job list in the Print manager window can be manipulated by the user in multiple ways It is possible to m Un check in order to not print or check in order to re print entire jobs or pages of the jobs in the list m Delete pages or jobs by selecting them and pressing the Delete button m Move jobs in th
12. it is possible to see how the printed sheets will look 8 7 4 Complex book imposition Consider an A5 book being printed on an A2 offset machine with the fol lowing binding scheme the double sided A2 sheets are grouped in pairs sheet 1 with sheet 2 sheet 3 with sheet 4 and so on these pairs of sheets are then folded as in a simple collate and cut scheme resulting in 32 book pages for each sheet pair In addition different vertical gutters will be need ed 0 5 cm in the middle 0 2 cm for the left and the right gutters The hori zontal gutter will be 0 5 cm O T A l lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt Obviously there will be 4 signatures needed as follows As there is no built in imposition scheme for this situation Custom binding will have to be used Enter the pages of each signature in one line ignoring the fact that the pages of the signatures are in several rows For the pages turned upside down a T has to be entered after the page number Imposition style name Test imposition Sheetwise 9T 247 17T 16T 8 25 32 1 15T 18T 237 107 2 31 2 3 2 1 11T 22T 19T 14T 6 27 13T 20T 21T 12T 4 29 6 7 0 3 8 5 Not forgetting to specify 4 and 2 as the number of columns and rows As the vertical gutters will be different uncheck the Equal d
13. 5 2 Processing a job 35 5 2 1 The Job queue 35 5 2 2 Processing phase 35 5 2 3 Preflight warnings 35 5 2 4 The Ghostscript console 36 5 3 Previewing and changing job 36 5 3 1 The viewer window and its controls 36 5 3 2 Separations view 36 5 3 3 Composite view 37 5 3 4 Imposition view 37 5 3 5 Media view 38 5 4 Performing other tasks on the job 38 5 4 1 Exporting to PDF or JPEG 38 5 4 2 Ink duct control 39 5 4 3 Proofing 40 5 4 4 Imposition 41 5 4 5 Retouching 41 5 5 Sending a job to the Print manager 41 5 6 Imaging a job with the Print manager 42 5 6 1 The Print manager docker 42 5 6 2 Receiving jobs in the Print manager 42 5 6 3 Starting the imaging 42 5 6 4 Pause mode 42 5 6 5 Changing the job list 43 5 6 6 Finishing the imaging 43 5 6 7 Commands and job flags 43 5 6 8 Print manager history 44 5 6 9 Archiving files 44 5 6 10 Cassette manager 44 5 6 11 Hide default video mode button 44 6 CONFIGURING CASCADE L sesser 5 6 1 Printer profiles 45 6 1 1 Device properties dialog box 46 6 1 2 Printer profile properties dialog box 46 6 2 Job styles 50 6 2 1 Job styles manager 51 6 2 2 Job style window 51 6 2 3 Interpretation task 52 6 2 4 Sizing task 53 6 2 5 Dispro task 53 6 2 6 Separations task 54 6 2 7 Trapping task 55 6 2 8 Calibration task 56 6 2 9 Screening task 57 6 2 10 Imposition task 59 6 2 11 Proofing task 59 6 2 12 Ink duct control task 60 6 2 13 Export image task 60 6 2 14 Imaging task 61 6 2 15 Job inf
14. A p Print missing process CMYK colors 5 C Mor Y present F Send the page s immediately to the Print manager Send the page s immediately to the Print manager if checked the pages will start to be printed immediately Otherwise the user has the choice to verify how the job is placed on the media of the proofer Progressive proofing enables Cascade to simulate not just the final re sult of the printing process but also the intermediate steps For example a printing press can print one ink at a time in which case the progres sive proofing of a CMYK job will show the four steps of the printing process C CM CMY and CMYK two inks at a time in which case the progressive proofing will show the CM and CMYK steps etc The following settings will control the progressive proofing o Progressive proofing will control whether progressive proofing is en abled o Number of inks printed in one pass specifies the number of inks that the printing process can print in one pass o Print order of inks specifies the order the CMYK and spot colors are printed The digits specify the order of the spot colors For example the CYMK 213456789 string will instruct Cascade that the CMYK colors are printed in a different order the magenta and yellow swapped as well as the order of the first two spot colors are swapped relative to their order in Cascade o Print missing process CMYK colors s
15. A thin overlapping border is used be tween the object and the background giving a tolerance with the regis tration errors Trapping can be created manually by the designer by the design application or by the RIP in RIP trapping Video mode a common term for the Mirror and Negative options and their possible combinations m Work style the work style describes the way the sheet is fed back into the print machine if it is There are the following options Single sid Wrong reading see Mirror
16. If this window is docked to a holder it will be brought to the foreground m Users shows the Users docker window This window manages the us m Update Cascade checks the Cascade web site for the presence of a new ly released version of Cascade and launches the updater application if needed 4 2 7 Dockers menu m Hide show dockers hides or shows the entire panel on the right side of the Client window making the Preview window full width m Auto hide dockers hides the entire panel on the right side of the Client window automatically making the Preview window full width but au tomatically shows it if the mouse is moved to the right side of the Client window similarly to the auto hide taskbar feature of Windows m Dockers show or hide the docker selected in the menu If this window is floating or docked to a holder even if hidden by another docker it will be closed If it is invisible it will be shown either as a floating window or as a docker depending on the default state of the window 4 2 8 Help menu m User manual downloads and opens the Cascade user manual in the em bedded PDF viewer of the default web browser m Cascade on the web opens the Cascade home page m About shows the version and copyright information of Cascade 4 3 STANDARD TOOLBAR Placing the mouse cursor over a button will trigger the display of the tool tip a short explanation in yellow background for the button The standard toolbar conta
17. Pecccccecepocccccccccsesccceccsoseecepecepoese Ceccscceodes Cocccrerccccccveregpoesocccssevecseeseeseeseseeresersoeecsooe secre secocsccedes Contone proof wizard profiles a color printer in contone printing mode creates the ICC profile of the printer and creates a contone proof profile Cece ccesahocscccocccscoveepesseresJocesccccccssecegfose seeseccason Halftone proof wizard profiles a color printer in halftone printing mode for the specified target job style creates the ICC profile and cre Select signature 2 selects the imposition sheets belonging to the sec for details Raster proof wizard creates a raster proof profile profiling the printer Cece scescccecccscemovcsecesecvesecccscesceopoesGJoeseveveve Color checker compares a reference color CMYK or Lab values to a measured color displaying the AE result 4 2 6 Tools menu m Connection settings shows the Connection settings window managing the settings of the Client Server connection such as IP address JPEG compression etc The language of the Client can also be changed here for further details Client options shows the Client options window managing the settings eeccccsrcccccemdoccccccccccopess yesshoces GhostScript console shows the GhostScript console docker window This window shows the text output of the PostScript interpreter Details about PostScript errors as well as processing times and other informa tion are available here
18. Set the profiling accuracy parameter which controls the number of patches printed for the profiling The default value is 3000 for high quality profiles but good quality profiles can be obtained with 2000 or even less patches m Set the ink limitation parameter This controls the maximum quantity of ink that the proofer is allowed to print e g 250 means that for ex ample C 100 M 100 Y 50 is allowed but C 100 M 100 Y 60 is not Generally 250 is enough to cover the whole gamut with the right use of the black ink Higher values may improve the gamut but may also cause ink flow problems Lower values may cure ink flow problems but also limit the gamut the lowest theoretical value with no gamut limita tion is 200 m Choose the black generation value i e the balance of CMY and K inks for printing gray components of colors This value is automatically chosen based on the available light inks on the printer o recommended setting for printers with LK and LLK inks is the high est possible black generation value Maximum as even the lightest grays are smoothly printed without CMY inks o recommended setting for printers with LK ink is Medium black gen eration as in highlights the use of CMYK will still produce smooth er results UO TE o O oO lt Z lt cc LLJ N o recommended setting for printers without light black inks is Mini mum value as using black ink only will prod
19. a typical offset cyan is blended from 85 proofer cyan 15 proofer magenta 5 proofer yellow which may result in somewhat blurry halftones This setting lets the operator turn off or limit the ink blending for process colors e g the cyan halftone being printed with 100 proofer cyan ink resulting in sharper halftones Although the color accuracy of the proof is not affected by this setting the ICC profile will be generated accordingly there are pros and cons to using sharp dots UO TE o O oO l lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt o Advantages sharper more realistic halftones and rosettes indepen dence from the target ICC profile changing the target ICC profile will not imply re profiling o Disadvantages the halftone structure may be visibly different on cer tain colors e g pure cyan tints will have magenta halftones the dif ferent color of the ink may become visible on low line screens Click Next Wait until the patch list used in the color chart is generated the results are cached so for the same values the patch generation will be skipped next time m On sheet fed printers you may choose Transverse printing With this option turned on the rows will be printed along the length of the paper rather than across the width resulting in less rows and therefore fast er reading Click Next The profiling chart consisting of one or more pages will be printed Let the print dry colors w
20. today s RIPs are all using their own version of this techniques to produce moir free halftones However the problem was still far from solved A quote from the user manual of one of the world s leading RIPs shows that problems still exist If you find that you are not getting consistent dot or clear centered rosettes across the full width of the page try varying the requested frequency slight ly or increase Maximum frequency deviation to allow Express RIP to find a screen set with better angle and frequency accuracy The main source of problems is that these supercell techniques are usual ly trying to approximate irrational numbers with rational ones but the re sult is still just an approximation though there are exceptions too see lat er The moir effect is usually not completely erased it is just pushed out side the page but sometimes this fails and the moir remains on the page This may mean a visible moir pattern see the quote above but usually it just means inconsistent rosettes causing color variation within the page Theoretically the use of large supercells would solve this problem as in creasing the size of the supercell would increase the accuracy of the angles However large supercells raise not just speed problems generating and us ing large supercells may be slow but will also increase the likelihood of pat terning see below 9 3 4 Patterning of individual colors Quote from the
21. typically cyan and magenta but ideally black too always improve the quality producing smoother halftones and compact halftone dots Printers designed for printing large drawings quickly e g architecture without light inks might be unable to print smooth halftones Ink consumption certain printers are able to print smooth halftones without using light inks On these printers disabling the use of light UO TE o O oO lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt inks will cause much smaller ink consumption at the expense of a mi nor quality loss On certain printers such as the Epson inkjets many of the above parame ters are adjustable affecting the quality speed and ink consumption of the prints The following chapters will explain the technical problems and the Cascade solutions for them 10 4 1 Light inks Most inkjet printers used for proofing have light inks at least light cyan and light magenta but usually also light black for a smoother output As light shades can also be simulated using only the dark inks the RIP has the freedom to choose the amount of the light inks used Using more light inks will usually improve the quality but will increase the costs of the print as about 3 times more light ink is needed to print the same shade as with a dark ink The light ink usage can be controlled in the Printer profile properties di eee eee Ue eUReurS LARO eee Meee COVeueeUrreereeeeern DS ARRAT
22. 150 halftone dots on 1 inch Line screen lt 2 Cascade line screens are combinations of angle approx imations intended to produce together consistent rosettes Can be used for printing only through its child Dots Media saving maximizes media use and minimizes wastage by rotat ing collecting and arranging the output pages It can also increase the Mirror the offset technology requires the job to be printed mirrored Mirrored jobs are also called as Wrong reading while normal jobs as Right reading Moir interference between repetitive patterns causing a disturbing pattern In the printing industry typically the halftone screen is causing moir interfering with a raster device image elements or with each oth NT system service a special way of running programs available in NT based operating systems e g Windows XP Windows 2003 Server Programs running as system services are launched before any user log ons and can be started and stopped by the Services administrative tool Cascade Server and Print manager can run as system services see Step Overprint a technique to avoid thin white lines around design elements caused by imperfect registration Typically small black texts are print ed over the background without erasing the colors under the texts as it normally should happen PDF Portable Document Format a document format created by Ado be Systems Incorporated which became now a standard in the printing industry as
23. 3 Registering dead nozzles 80 7 4 4 Head alignment 80 BIMPOSITION oo ssccscseeecseescseesesceseeseeess83 8 1 Understanding imposition 83 8 1 1 Separation composite and imposition pages 83 8 1 2 Splitting jobs for imposition 84 8 1 3 Combining jobs for imposition 84 8 1 4 The imposition sheet 84 8 2 Imposition styles 84 8 3 Imposition properties 84 8 3 1 Placement tab 85 8 3 2 Gutters tab 85 8 3 3 Binding tab 86 8 3 4 Sheet tab 87 8 4 Manual imposition 88 8 5 Pre press marks 89 8 5 1 Pre press marks manager 8g 8 5 2 Pre press mark properties 89 8 6 Bleed 91 8 6 1 Understanding bleed 91 8 6 2 Using bleed with Cascade 92 8 6 3 Using the Crop with bleed command 92 l lt Z lt cc LLJ N 8 7 Examples 93 8 7 1 Simple 2 up 93 8 7 2 Step and repeat 2 up 93 8 7 3 Simple book 4 up with gutters 93 8 7 4 Complex book imposition 93 8 7 5 Saddle stitched magazine 94 8 7 6 Imposition with bleed using PDF files 94 8 7 7 Imposition with bleed using PostScript files 95 8 7 8 Imposition with bleed using PostScript files and the expand with bleed feature 95 9 SCREENING os cscesessesesessssseeseessseeeeQZ 9 1 Basic concepts 97 9 2 Understanding moir 98 9 2 1 Traditional offset angles 98 9 2 2 The moir between the cyan magenta and black screens 98 0 2 3 The moir between the yellow and other inks 99 9 2 4 The moir between a halftone screen and a raster device 100 0 2 5 The moir between the halftone screen and image
24. Because they are bitmaps their sides have an entire number of pixels typically 0 20 pixels 9 3 2 Angle inaccuracy It is a simple mathematical fact that with three angles required with 30 de grees between them at least one will result in an irrational ratio between the sides of the squares For example to produce a 30 degree halftone the ratio between the sides should be tan 30 which is an irrational number i e can not be a ratio of two integers In other words with this tiling technique an angle of exactly 30 degrees cannot be achieved Similar problems occur for each different screen frequency at given angle This phenomenon will cause moir between the colors as the sides of the squares have to be whole numbers and therefore have to be rounded up or down the resulting screen angles and frequencies are only rough approxi mations with the result that they are vulnerable to moir In the late 80 s the rip manufacturers searched for angle combinations that minimized this moir effect At the same time low black generation became an industry standard when performing color separations the black was used only for dark colors lowering the likelihood of producing moir with the other colors 9 3 3 Supercells The breakthrough came at the beginning of the gos when a few RIP devel opers succeeded in dramatically improving the quality of digital halftones by using supercells This technique soon became an industry standard and
25. Cascade sys tem you may use one of the defined user names and passwords Other wise use Default user as user name and leave the password box empty m Language each Client can run in a different language as specified here Note that only certain languages are supported by the Cascade system m Server host name or IP address the network address of the computer ener settings Js A P 2 connect to the Server If it is changed it has to be done in sync with the User name Default user Server The default value is 4024 Password eae m Use JPEG compression if the Client will be connected over the Inter D crosniomessiney net or over some other slow network connection it is recommended that ae or JPEG compression be selected to reduce data traffic and thus speed up ZO C response The compression ratio can be adjusted eee The Create shortcut button will save a shortcut to the desktop with the Fl Use JPEG compression current settings i e visible in the dialog but not necessarily saved re Several Server applications can be accessed from one PC by creating a qty cd ty shortcut for each Server this is useful for support engineers or system administrators who are looking after several Cascade systems After pressing OK the settings entered in this box will be stored and the Client will disconnect and then reconnect automatically with the new set tings run
26. The procedure is based on the calibration curve which de cecococoooooo GJococcocosoooooooooooo ooo G oeoo aoo Capstan a simple and cheap technology used by imagesetters and CTPs Capstan based machines have a fixed laser unit and the media is slowly moved by the capstan roller during the imaging The technology has registration and focus problems Client Cascade Client is one of the three executables of the Cascade package This is the visual interface of the whole system and can be in 1352 CMYK stands for Cyan Magenta Yellow and Black the color space of most printing technologies The colors are achieved on paper or other media by the subtractive combination of these colors i e the inks filter the light which passes through Color group style a style that stores the names of the colors that a color Color profiles see ICC ICM Composite color pages which have their color components un separat ed A composite job contains color objects RGB CMYK or other col or models Contone continuous tone a contone image data describes the im age as a continuous variation of the color as opposed to halftoned da ta which works with a limited number of colors usually the pure colors of the colorants simulating a contone output by halftoning techniques CTP Computer to Plate a high quality laser printer printing directly to offset plates used in the offset industry Delta E AE a formula that defines the difference
27. Z lt cc LLJ N gt 1 3 FEATURES OF CASCADE m Compatibility Cascade is designed for compatibility with Adobe s cut ting edge imaging technologies PostScript 3 and PDF 1 7 Film saving Saves potentially wasted material by automatically rotat ing and collecting the pages to minimize the media usage Remote operation Control of the rip on the desktop of every design er or operator As the server application has no visual interface it is an icon in the system tray the client application has full control over the RIP through any network connection Built in imposition User definable styles manual and automatic page arrangement user definable pre press marks bleed Built in proofing Dot for dot and contone proofing systems simulating line screens up to 200 lpi dot for dot or offering perfectly smooth out put contone with good color accuracy typically average AE lt 2 Ink duct control Prints a diagram or exports a PPF or JDF file to con trol the ink ducts of the printing press Trapping Based on a raster based proprietary technology Cascade trapping offers high quality shapes excellent behavior in junctions in the proximity of a third color and with slightly different colors speed and stability due to the fast raster based algorithm and features like auto choke of blacks spot color traps special ink handling narrowed proportional traps mitered traps feathered and anamorphic traps etc Enhanced p
28. a true stochastic struc my ture On the other hand the visual impact of an AM FM transition phase is worse than that of the pure AM phase thus the need to keep it as small as possible The default values are a good compromise be Black dot size tween a relatively small transition phase and a relatively pleasant sto Special settings FM limit Cell size chastic structure at the ends See more in 9 5 6 Increased highlight 7 j E pes quality for flexo lt page 1052 o Pure FM e g 0 3 and 97 100 instead of the dots getting any smaller than the specified limit they are stochastically removed If Black white dot size specifies in microns the size of the dot size that the starting point e g 3 and 97 has a true stochastic structure will be used in the pure FM phase of the FM screening The actual pix this phase will act as a pure FM screen having a pleasant pattern el structure of the dot is also displayed Note that the sizes of the black free look This is why it is preferred by flexo operators due to the and white dots can be different see 9 6 6 Different black and white dot huge dot gain of the flexo in highlights it is very important for this size lt page 107 ai phase to have the highest possible quality even at the expense of a FM limit specifies the end of the pure FM phase From this limit on no lt x lower quality in the FM AM phase more dots will be added but the sizes of the exis
29. any job Print manager checks Printer profile name Epson 3800 halftone proof General Media Proof print engine properties Proof profile Proofer settings Maximum light ink coverage 70 mx Linearization Epson 3800 1440 Maximum normal ink coverage 100 Proofer ICC profile Epson 3800 1440 Simulate paper color Special settings Target simulated job style AccuSet 170 2400 v Halftone ICC profile Epson 3800 Halftone v Process color halftone optimized for Accurate ink color Printer resolution dpi Color correction profile the job for any engine configuration data included If configuration da ta is found it will set up the engine prior to imaging the job The print engine properties table in the Printer profile dialog serves this purpose any engine configuration information set up here will be saved into the TIFF files going through the given profile in order to be passed to the Print manager For example a profile can be set up to switch off the bi directional printing on an Epson printer for all jobs printed through it o click the Copy values button which will be enabled only if the printer is online and in Ready state O tick the check box of the Bi directional mode parameter O set the parameter to Off o click the OK button o the selected parameter value pair Bi directional mode off will be stored i
30. are much more complicated The inkjet inks are usually more satu rated offering wider gamut and simulating the offset inks will be achieved by blending the inkjet inks in the case of the primaries this is also called ink contamination The picture below shows a magenta halftone simulated on a proofer The basis of the halftone is the light magenta ink of the proofer but the normal magenta ink is also used to make it darker see the darker magenta pixels Light cyan and yellow contamination pixels are also visible making it less saturated and obtaining the right color The frequency of this screen is 170 Ipi resampled from 2400 dpi to 1440 dpi Moreover using this technique a raster proofer can simulate any inks used in the printing process not just cyan magenta yellow or black There is ab solutely no difference between simulating an offset magenta or a Pantone 386 C both offset inks will be a blend of the inkjet inks Another common misconception is that only large professional inkjet printers are able to print raster proofs in reality driven by Cascade even small A3 desktop printers produce smooth halftones of 150 200 lpi The doubts are well founded indeed an inkjet printer cannot print with the quality of an imagesetter and inkjet printers working as imagesetters or platesetters are used only for less demanding applications screen printing newspaper industry etc usually on low screen rulings or with stochastic scr
31. because moving the file into a folder is much faster than copying it through a TCP channel On Mac workstations the Open command will see the file system of the Server PC and the shared network resources available to the Serv er PC However it is possible to open a job with the Open command from a Mac if the file to be opened is in a location that is available to the Server PC There fore if the file is on the local Mac workstation this workstation must be shared on the network it can then be browsed from the Open window of the Client Note that dragging amp dropping the job icon over the Client program s window has the same effect as the job would open using the Open com mand 5 1 4 Using the Open with command from Explorer Opening file using the Open with command or double clicking on its icon in an Explorer window essentially starts a new Ripserver exe in lowed to run at the same time if another instance is already running the new instance will pass it the filename for processing then will quit The file always will be opened using the default job style 5 1 5 Using command line parameters Ripserver exe opens the job s whose filename s were passed as command line parameters separated by spaces Enclose the path in quote marks if the name contains space character Ripserver exe also recognises the following command line switches for processing a job pPrinterName the printer the job cames from
32. between Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 This leaves us m We recommend the Full screen for Remote Desktop box is left checked with an application which is installed and runs on the Macs called Remote m Close the Cascade Client and log off as CascadeRemote Desktop Client for Mac and the licenses on the Windows 2003 server nec m Move to the Mac and perform the actions listed below essary to run it called Terminal Services Client licenses In order to let Mac clients control Cascade follow the steps below On the Mac workstation Install any extra Terminal Services Client licences that may be required Install the Remote Desktop Client for Mac application it is on the in on the Windows 2003 server stall CD in the Mac Remote desktop client for Mac folder Install Cascade Server onto the Windows 2003 Server or newer m Start it and set it up with the following data m Let the Setup register the server applications as system services m Let the Setup create an account for the Terminal Services user o Computer IP or host name of the PC running the Server application m Let the Setup launch the server applications o User name CascadeRemote or the user name that was entered earli Finish installation and configuration of Print manager and Server er instead of the default m Reboot the system o Password studiorip or the password that was entered earlier instead Log in with the user name CascadeRemote and studiorip as the pass
33. between two colors Densitometer an electronic instrument that is able to measure dot per centages and densities on various media film paper or plate It is used to build the calibration curve and verify accuracy of output gt cc lt V N O a UO lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt Docker a floating child window which can be docked to a holder Can be used in either state Most of Cascade s windows are dockers Dongle see Hard key Dot halftone dots or stochastic dots are used by the screening technol ogies to simulate shades They are small solid areas of colorants ink toner emulsion on the media typically between 20 microns and tenths of millimeters Arranged in halftone or stochastic screens from the right distance are perceived by the human eye as shades of the colorant Dot for dot raster proofing a proofing technique that simulates the output based on the ripped halftoned 1 bit data keeping the original halftone dot structure Drum relatively complicated and expensive technology used by imag esetters and CTPs Drum machines have the laser unit slowly moving on a carriage during the imaging while the media stays tightened on the drum The technology offers excellent focus and registration Fast scan direction the direction the laser is sweeping the media per pendicular to the Slow scan direction Flexography a printing technology typically used in the packaging in dustry e g plas
34. bit TIFF files will be dropped into When using third party TIFF catcher software this is the place to specify as the location of the TIFF catcher s hot folder Note that this path is relative to the Server PC s file structure Cancel AccuSet 1500 PrintManager No Print Manager third party application for TIFF output Print Manager location Sharing the same computer with the server Different computer name or IP Localhost Print Manager TCP port number 4025 a Ce TIFF hot Folder location relative to the StudioRIP Server PC C ProgramData RIP Print manager Hot Folder Browse 6 1 2 Printer profile properties dialog box To edit the properties of a printer profile select the printer profile item in the Printer profiles docker i e the child node of a device and click the Proper ties button You can also double click the printer profile item The printer profile properties are as follows Printer profile name AccuSet 1500 2400 Device Resolution a0 Eai Colorants F Composite device Contone output Tiff options Compression type File name format JobName FilmName tif V Use PhotometricInterpretation tag for negative Use Orientation tag For mirror wrong reading Printer profile name this is the name which identifies the printer pro f
35. come through the ICC based color management system so the image has the color accu racy of a soft proof However color accuracy is achieved only on low zoom levels where the halftone is invisible and the calibration curves are correctly neutralized Therefore these pictures can be extremely useful not just for checking the in tegrity of the page texts images but also for checking the colors of the job The Export image command is in the Job menu and is enabled if a job is se lected The following settings are available Resolution the resolution of the generated picture defaulted to 150 dpi Higher resolutions are possible but are not recommended for sever al reasons long processing time large JPEG file possible moir prob lems m Exported view specifies whether the composite separations or imposi tion view of the job will be exported m Separations color available only when separations view is chosen Controls whether separations will be exported as black or in their orig inal color Color space o Color managed sRGB recommended for color or content proofing The job will be converted into the standardized sRGB color space which will be dis played in the same way on calibrated monitors In this mode the files will be well compressed and suitable for sending over the Internet o CMYK or N color PDF only recommended only if the separations need to be accessed separately The separations of the job will be
36. command The Print proof command works only for raster proofing and only if a processed job is selected otherwise the menu item will be grayed out Its functionality is described in 5 4 3 Proofing lt page 40 gt 10 3 4 Target ICC for contone Contone proof profiles have information only about the proofer itself but not about the simulated proofing conditions The target ICC profile of the contone proofing must be specified separately independently from the pro filing process The most important advantage of this being that the target ICC profile can be specified or changed with one click As logically the separation profile used for converting the RGB colors in to CMYK is the same as the target profile i e if the ISO Coated profile is used to convert RGB to CMYK then obviously the same ISO Coated will determine how the CMYK colors in the job have to be interpreted Cascade It is critical to set up the Separation profile of the job style properly if contone proofs will be printed with it 10 3 5 Photo printing A special case use of contone proofing is to use it without color manage ment instead of simulating a target ICC the incoming CMYK values will be passed directly to the printer driver and the incoming RGB values will be converted directly to the CMYK color space of the printer For this the separations target color space should be set to the ICC pro open the contone proof profile look for the name of the Proo
37. density values of 100 200 or 300 will instruct the printer to use the small medi um or big droplet sizes while other values will be achieved by the sto chastic combinations of two droplet sizes Outline protection allows the operator to specify a special density val ue for the outlines including the edges of halftone dots to avoid exces tected outline can be specified in device pixels e g on 1440 dpi one pix el will mean 1 1440 inches Density of the protected outline works in conjunction with the Out line protection parameter allowing the operator to specify a special den sity value for the outlines Halve resolution allows the user to halve the horizontal or vertical res olution For example a 1440 X 1440 dpi job can be printed on 1440x720 or 720 X 1440 dpi the Print Manager will resample the job while print ing without a major quality loss achieving double printing speed Note that the density may need to be adjusted after changing this set ting as the quantity of printed ink will also be halved ing a different ink e g cyan instead of black or using a combination of two inks e g yellow black together However on certain professional Epson printers the built in microweav ing system might offer a higher quality output This setting allows the operator to choose the built in microweaving system of the printer Note that certain resolutions might not be supported by the printer in pr
38. density of the trap will be 0 5 X 1 7 0 85 If the density of the trap will exceed the specified value the components of the trap colors will be proportionally reduced to match the maximum density Anamorphic ratio the misregistration in the X and Y directions in the printing process might be different Cascade can compensate for this by applying different trapping in the X and Y directions This value will specify the ratio of X and Y directions in percentages 100 will mean equal trapping in X and Y directions Color reduction The visual impact of the trap can be minimized by re ducing the density of the trap i e the density of the resulting color in i VE Job style name Job style group name Printer share name AccuSet 170 2400 v S a None v AccuSet Workflow tasks the trapped area to match the original density i e the density of the original color in the trapped area This setting adjusts the trap color re duction with a continuous setting from no reduction 0 to full reduc tion matching the original density 100 Image trapping not available in version 3 4 This setting will affect all the images bitmaps on the page in the same way o Disabled there will be no trapping between images and vectors o Spread the image will be spread to the vectors o Choke the image will be choked by the vectors o Centerline the image and vectors will share the trap Internal image trapping not ava
39. digital proofing for The goal of proofing is to predict the output of a given printing technology for example offset by printing a proof it on an inkjet or laser printer Us ing the right color management techniques the printed proof will have ex actly the same or at least similar in case of content proofing color as the final print in case of halftone or raster proofers even the halftone structure will be similar or exactly the same Proofs are used for m Content proofing for spelling errors layout problems etc these proofs are printed quickly without paying too much attention to the im age quality and color accuracy Color proofing predict almost perfectly the color of the output too thus the term contract proofing Printing these proofs may take time print ing an A3 sized high quality contract proof on an average inkjet printer may take 5 10 minutes 10 1 2 Contone proofs Contone proofers use the original PS PDF file process it with their internal PS PDF interpreter apply the right color management and print it on the color printer as a continuous tone image Because the job will be interpreted twice there is a slight chance of con tent differences though in Cascade they will be interpreted by the same PS engine under the same conditions so this chance is little more than theoret ical UO TE o O oO lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt Advantages Colo
40. done m You may change the ICC profile name as it will appear in the Color pro files list m Choose the Contone proof profile name as it will appear in the Print er profiles list The Simulate paper color specifies whether the proof should simulate the color of the target paper typically printing a yellowish tint on the bright white proofing paper in order to match the color of the offset pa per Unchecking this option is not a correct procedure as the proof will still remain absolute possibly resulting in visible white spots in light areas the light colors will still have the paper color counted in but many users prefer it The ICC profile is being generated Please wait it may take a few minutes Done ICC profile name Epson 3800 1440 2009 08 29 16 42 Contone proof profile name Epson 3800 1440 Contone proof V Simulate paper color lt Prev Finish Cancel Clicking the Finish button the proof profile will be created ready to print contone proofs Cocccaheccccccvcccepesocccsvergoecocce 10 2 4 Halftone proof wizard Welcome to the Halftone Proof Wizard The wizard will create the ICC profile of the selected proofing device and job style then will create a printer profile For halftone proofing The jobs printed through the halftone proofing profile will match the colors of the ICC profile specified in the Job style window e g selecting ISO coa
41. edge of the media which cannot be imaged by the print engine An exception is the case of the roll fed machines where Left and Right specify the non im ageable margins but Top and Bottom act as inter page gaps Setting a non zero value will set the Print full media size option see below Horizontal and vertical alignment specifies the alignment of the job on the media horizontally left center right and vertically top center bottom Setting a non zero value will set the Print full media size op tion see below Print full media size specifies whether Cascade sends only the pro cessed image information to the print engine letting the print engine place it on the media based on its internal settings or sends the full im ageable area thereby controlling the positioning of the image on the me dia o check this option if Cascade will control the positioning directly by using the positioning options unused non imageable area align ments o uncheck this option if the engine settings control the positioning and the positioning controls are used only to reflect onscreen the position ing done by the engine Non imageable area Gripper margin Imageable but not used area Media The margin and alignment settings will be effective on the output on ly if the Print full media size option is ticked otherwise they will only modify the preview To understand this an explanation of how Cascade places the ima
42. elements 100 9 3 Understanding digital halftones 100 9 3 1 Threshold maps 100 9 3 2 Angle inaccuracy 101 0 3 3 Supercells 101 9 3 4 Patterning of individual colors 101 9 3 5 Limited number of shades 102 9 3 6 Poor highlight and shadow quality 102 9 3 7 Tonal jumps 102 9 4 Understanding stochastic screening 103 9 4 1 Advantages 103 9 4 2 Disadvantages 103 9 4 3 First order FM screening 103 9 4 4 Second order FM screening 104 9 5 Cascade AM screening technique 104 9 5 1 High rendering speed 104 9 5 2 Consistent rosettes 104 9 5 3 Filtering out the patterning 105 9 5 4 Gray enhancement 105 9 5 5 Great highlight and shadow detail 105 9 5 6 Increased highlight quality for flexo 105 9 5 7 Low pass filtering of the tonal jumps 106 9 5 8 Other advantages of the stochastic technique 106 9 6 Cascade FM screening technique 106 g 6 1 Second order stochastic screening 106 9 6 2 High rendering speed 106 9 6 3 Moir free screening 106 9 6 4 Smooth look 106 9 6 5 Round and rounded dots 106 9 6 6 Different black and white dot size 107 9 6 7 Flexibility 107 9 7 Screening type settings 107 9 7 1 AM settings tab 107 9 7 2 FM settings tab 108 9 7 3 Limits tab 109 9 8 Test screen window 109 10 PROOFING sessies M 10 1 Basic concepts 111 10 1 1 What is digital proofing for 111 10 1 2 Contone proofs 111 10 1 3 Halftone proofs 112 10 1 4 Raster proofs 112 10 1 5 Comparison of proofing techniques 113 10 1 6 Color accuracy AE 113 10 2 Setting up the
43. in Cascade and jobs are never interrupted however in case of queued jobs jobs sent to job styles with higher priority selected will be processed first m Page range specifies the pages of PDF files to process by default all pages will be processed Job style name Job style group name Printer share name AccuSet 170 2400 bel Nore AccuSet Workflow tasks Size Enlarge page by j interpretation i sizing First matching item from the list Left Dispro V Ao mMediaBox Right A Separations 7 M cropBox Trapping L D BleedBox Top g a a a R 1 Calibration F A Trimbox E Screening jE ArtBox Bottom 5 7 Z Imposition KA Pagesize V Equal values y Proofing Vv GAHWwsize fii Ink duct control ImagingBBox Scaling Export image V PageBoundingBox Imaging Horizontal q5S858 i Job information Custom 100 Yy V Equal values width Height v Others Erase border Overwrite orientation Do not show this dialog box on open OK Cancel RGB Grayscale threshold will replace all colors under a certain per centage with white and above a certain percentage with black In case of RGB colors the grayscale equivalent of the color will be considered It is us
44. is not recommended as the proof will still remain absolute possibly resulting in visible white spots in light areas the light colors will still have the paper color counted in but many us ers prefer it Clicking the Finish button the proof profile will be created ready to print contone proofs 10 2 5 Raster proof wizard This wizard will create a raster proof profile that will simulate the results of the selected job style Unlike the contone proof wizard which profiles the proofer itself without taking into account the target ICC or generally the simulated printing conditions during the profiling process the raster proof wizard will be done only for the given printing conditions as they are speci fied in the selected job style A different raster proof profile is necessary for each simulated job style For each new job style or if any of the settings of a profiled job style is changed ICC screen or calibration settings a new profiling procedure is necessary otherwise color accuracy isn t guaranteed Although creating a raster proof profile is possible without the contone pro filing being done i e an ICC profile being done for the given printer profile for better spot color accuracy it is strongly recommended that a contone pro Raster proof wizard The Raster proof wizard can be launched from the Proof menu The follow ing steps have to be performed A table containing the measurements of 78 patche
45. is only able to paint white or black rectangles over the image Retouching works for separations or composite pages Using it on separa tions is useful when only certain plates need to be modified for example de leting the CMY components of a text keeping just the black one There are two tools available for retouching at the left of the preview window Paint white tool erases by painting white areas on separations or composite pages Useful for retouching pages deleting unneeded texts or objects for example Paint black tool fills by painting black areas on separations or com posite pages Useful for retouching pages deleting unneeded texts or objects on black background for example 5 5 SENDING A JOB TO THE PRINT MANAGER After the job has been modified and or verified it can be marked as checked However if the Do not print until checked option is off in the job style be ing used the job or page of the job will be printed immediately there are enough pages processed to start printing An understanding of what happens to a job when it leaves the job brows er is important This is the phase when all the manual or automatic modifi cations applied to the job are rendered such as pre press marks imposition film saving or automatic rotation This is also the phase when the job da ta finally leaves the Server and is passed to the Print manager or to the third party TIFF catcher software which ma
46. list but also in the box below the item list this is where it can be edited too Above this box there are two insert buttons too OLR L a NAO L one available as for the pre press marks m Insert cross reference inserts a cross reference to another list item The drop down list contains the list of the already existing items Typically the items are pre defined in the job style job name number of pages etc There may other items which are defined but the values need to be filled by the operator when opening the job customer name requested quantity offered price etc The result of the job information task is a text report that contains the item names and the evaluated values The job information report will group the values into global sheet page and plate dependent values e g the ink quantity will be displayed for each plate but the job name will be displayed only once The report can be m Sent to the specified e mail address Saved as text file to the specified folder Printed on the specified Windows printer PEE N eee es ae eg eee capes The Color profiles window manages the ICC ICM files present in the sys tem Install a color profile to use for color separation by adding it here The profiles added are automatically copied to the Cascade folder with no need to keep the ICM ICC file in its original location If the Client is connected through the network or Internet the file will be safely uploaded copie
47. nFriendlyName name to be displayed in the Client program s Job browser Default value the file name sJobStyle used job style Default value the default job style rlow normal high job priority Default value normal priority m t used internally for transparency flattening The order the command line switches are specified is not significant and they may precede or follow the file name s If more than one file name is present they will share all command line settings including the n switch The following command line will open 2 jobs as they would come from Ac cuSet1500 printer processing on high priority using AccuSet 1500 2400 dpi job style and displaying the name Summer Collection for both items Ripserver exe c users dtp summer collection2 P DF e calibration P DF en rhigh sAccuSet 1500 2400 dpi nSummer Collection pAccuSet1500 5 2 PROCESSING A JOB 5 2 1 The Job queue The opened jobs are queued to the printer profile specified by the job style If the PostScript engine is idle the job will start to be processed immediate ly otherwise it will wait in the queue The queue can be observed and mon itored in the job browser window Jobs can be deleted or moved using drag amp drop in the queue to change their processing order 5 2 2 Processing phase A blinking green arrow indicates that a job is being processed To follow the processing progress select the job in the Job browser li
48. nologies with worse accuracy e g silk printing may not be able to achieve better accuracy than 5 8 If the values aren t accurate enough for the given technology try to identi fy the possible measurement problems and perform another dot gain com pensation procedure rather than creating the curves now 6 6 INK MANAGER 6 6 1 Ink manager window The inks known by the Cascade system are managed in the Ink manager window These ink definitions are used for m on screen preview of the jobs m proofing m trapping On installation Cascade s ink list contains only a few inks When a job is processed by Cascade it will be checked for ink definitions and all new ink definitions will be added to the Ink manager Existing inks can be modified or new inks can be added manually using the Add ink Remove ink and Edit ink buttons on the toolbar of the Ink manager The Add ink and Edit ink but tons will display the Ink properties window Ink name Red Color model CMYK y ISO Coated Zz Color values Trapping parameters Cyan C Magenta M Yellow Y Black K Old ink Ink manager X cf im Cyan im Magenta E Yellow EER L Transparent Red Green Blue old eight Cyan El Light Magenta ELight Black m 6 6 2 Ink properties window The ink properties window enables the user to edit the parameters of an ink The following optio
49. only if it does not touch pages the mark will be printed only if it o Signature group index indicates how many times a signature has does not touch the pages but it may touch other marks been used until the current sheet for double sided works it is equiva Print only if out of the bounding box of the pages the mark will be lent to the sheet index printed only if it outside the bounding box of the pages useful for ex o Primary distortion the pre distortion in percents applied in fast ternal crop marks scan direction Overprint overprints the mark If not checked the imposition module o Secondary distortion the pre distortion in percents applied in will erase the background under the entire rectangular area technically slow scan direction the page of the pre press mark Recommended settings are off for color o Mirrored returns Right reading or Wrong reading depending on the scales but turned on for crop or fold marks mirror setting of the job o Negative returns Positive or Negative depending on the negative The placement tab controls how the mark will be placed on the sheet Marks setting of the job usually have several placements for example a crop mark will be placed in 8 different locations two at each corner of a page Color specifies the way the color of the mark will be handled A new placement can be added with the Add placement button Once add ed assign it a name such as top left and then defi
50. operation e g painting with C 100 M Y K o0 knocks out all CMYK components while the expected behavior would be to leave all the zero components M Y and K untouched From the point of view of the DTP application the workaround for this was to define special col or spaces in this example a color space containing only a cyan compo nent However from the RIP point of view it is possible to define the Force nonzero overprint option which will knock out only the nonzero components in case of C 100 M Y K o knocking out only the C as the other 3 components are zero o For DeviceCMYK color space the Adobe definition of nonzero over print for the CMYK color space only o For all color spaces nonzero overprint for any color space Overprint black above option overrides the overprint settings of the PostScript jobs and ensures that any black or dark gray vector objects over the specified percentage will be overprinted 6 2 7 Trapping task In high quality reproduction of color documents the gaps caused by the misregistration of the press are commonly avoided by creating an overlap called a trap between areas of adjacent color The trapping parameters de fined by the Level 3 revision of PostScript as well as Cascade s proprietary parameters are below Trap width the width of the traps for regular colors see the exceptions below m Black trap width the width of the trap when one of the adjacent colors is consider
51. optimized for flexo increasing the quality of the FM part at the expense of slightly decreased quality in the AM part Using a principle that allows the centers of the halftone dots to slowly drift away when the percent age falls below a given level typically 30 35 reaching an entirely sto chastic structure at 3 5 Removing dots from this stochastic grid will be come practically imperceptible thus visible patterns will disappear almost entirely 4 Pure AM gt lt AM FM transition gt lt Pure FM UO Z LLI Lu cc U N lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt 9 5 7 Low pass filtering of the tonal jumps cade using a low pass filtering technique for example to achieve a 50 tint the rip uses 48 49 50 51 and 52 dots distributed stochastically The bandwidth of the filter can be explicitly specified A wider filter will cause smoother gradients but also noisier tints Using low pass filtering is especially important on old capstan machines or any other devices with high dot gain The noise introduced by a filter bandwidth of 2 4 is imperceptible while the improvements are spectac ular This technique also smoothes out the abrupt change in density caused when halftone dots start to touch there is no need to use elliptic dots to dis tribute the shock the low pass filtering distributes it well insufficient gray levels 4096 gray levels no filtering 4096 gray levels low pass visible steps no
52. per network only the first record will have to be changed 7 3 5 Establishing connection step by step In case of problems a deeper understanding of how the Print manager es tablishes connection with the EtherSetter box may be necessary Here is the step by step procedure The Print manager reads the record specified by its Interface board file lt page 78 gt Ifa static IP is specified it will try to connect directly If au to is specified it will follow the procedure below It will broadcast an identification request All the EtherSetter boxes in the network will reply with their current settings m It will choose the right box based on the Interface board setting see tiate a suitable IP for it m If the IP of the box is in the right subnet and isn t in conflict with other EtherSetter IPs in the subnet it will connect to it m Ifthe IP is not suitable it will initiate another DHCP request assuming that the cable was plugged in later m If the IP is still not suitable Print Manager will assign an IP address calculated from the IP of the PC the last number being 124 or in case of multiple EtherSetters per network 125 or more 7 4 CONFIGURING EPSON PRINTERS As Epson printers allow Cascade a low level control of the printing process droplet size paper feed head movement operators can fine tune the avail able Epson printing parameters for their specific needs 7 4 1 The Epson parameters The Epson printer
53. produces data describing the color of a given sample in terms of various parameters typically Lab or XYZ values m Spot colors colors that are obtained by the use of one special ink e g orange instead of combining process colors e g magenta and then yel low m Stochastic screening see FM screening m Cascade port a virtual port created by Cascade which acts like an LPT or USB port Cascade Server captures all the data written to this port m StyleXP a small program for using skins e g Mac style controls on a Windows XP or Windows 2003 Server operating system Supply cassette the cassette the roll fed machine is fed from System service see NT system service m Take up cassette used only with imagesetters a cassette that receives and stores the imaged but still light sensitive film until the film is pulled out to be processed TIFF Tagged Image File Format a flexible bitmap format created by Aldus Corporation in 1986 which has become a standard in the printing industry Gained popularity due to its flexibility m TIFF catcher an application that is able to print TIFF files on a specific print engine typically CTPs by exposing a hot folder where RIPs can drop the processed TIFF files Traditional halftones see AM screening Trapping a technique to avoid thin white lines around design elements caused by imperfect registration when overprint is not possible e g red object on green background
54. proofing system 114 10 2 1 Spectrophotometer setup 114 10 2 2 Proofer linearization wizard 114 10 2 3 Contone proof wizard 115 10 2 4 Halftone proof wizard 117 10 2 5 Raster proof wizard 118 10 2 6 Test proof wizard 121 10 2 7 Color checker 122 10 3 Printing proofs 122 10 3 1 The proofing task 122 10 3 2 Proof job styles 122 10 3 3 Print proof command 123 10 3 4 Target ICC for contone 123 10 3 5 Photo printing 123 10 4 Adjusting the speed and quality 123 10 4 1 Lightinks 124 10 4 2 Banding 124 10 4 3 Bidirectional mode 125 10 4 4 Comparison table of settings 125 11 GLOSSARY 127 l About Highwater EROE ENE EE E E E Highwater Cascade is a PostScript 3 PDF 1 7 and TIFF compatible soft ware RIP designed for high speed and high quality devices like imageset ters or platesetters as well as for inkjet and laser printers or any other raster printing devices Unlike other RIP s all Cascade s features are written in to the core software eliminating the potential conflicts which exist in many plug in workflow solutions Cascade is based on the GhostScript PostScript PDF engine from Artifex Software Inc but uses its own high speed rendering modules 1 2 THE AIM OF CASCADE Cascade is a high quality comfortable and powerful pre press workflow in tegrated into one interface The designers of Cascade had the special inten tion to Create an intuitive easy to use very visual interface similar to the DTP application
55. refer ence To use the color checker follow the steps below m Open the color checker from the Proof menu m Set up the Reference ICC profile e g ISO Coated for offset m Set up the reference color o for spot colors choose them from the list if not listed define them in o for process colors specify the CMYK values Point the spectrophotometer on the target print or proof over a compact area of the given color large enough for a measurement on a DTP 41 a larger area may be needed because it s difficult to align a given area un der the sensor and measure it The difference between the reference and the measured color will be dis Reference ICC profile Color checker 150 Coated Printed color Measured color PANTONE 356 Cl M 10 3 PRINTING PROOFS There are three ways to print a proof in Cascade Using the Proofing task of a job style m Opening a job with a proof job style Using the Print proof command of the Proof menu for raster proofs only 10 3 1 The proofing task The easiest way to proof a job is to check the Proof task and set up the eossooccooccocoooo gooo can be used if the proof is printed together with the original job e g the off set plates and the proofs are printed together This method isn t suitable for printing a proof only without the orig inal job This method will act in slightly different ways for contone halftone and
56. selects the imposition sheets belonging to the first signature In cases involving double sided jobs it will select the odd sheets ond signature In cases involving double sided jobs it will select the even sheets a gt Q a O te Q D or wn gt D D ea fan Qu an Wn fat j m D va m r fa ge n a 5 U gt m O NN O a Oo aN Peecccccccccesocecepescorceccceocecsfecse poscsecscce E J 2A D or N La D A or a o To N 5 N AT u 2 ia om ig N om a y g N g gt O ct ia eu ro jae 0a ig N o ee ro E gt Q Q Ee e oO g gt N N 3 fe O ge oD 5 N om a oD gt Q Q 3 M 3 MN NN Q a Qu O nN oD Qu gt ame eecasocccvccccccepecceccecs Coccccccccpecccedoccccccccccccpecsc posesoson m Prepress marks shows the Prepress marks docker window This win dow manages the available prepress marks in the Cascade system If this window is docked to a holder it will be brought to the foreground Crop with bleed shows the Crop with bleed window used for cropping pages The cropped parts will remain available as bleed See section 4 2 5 Proof menu Proof prints a raster proof of one or more pages of a job on a proofing device You need to have a raster proof profile created first See sections
57. size is twice as big as it should be mathematically for that resolution and causes the dot distortion shown in the illustration below The first picture shows how the RIP makes halftone dots of 5 white pixels each so mathematically their area is the same Once this pattern is imaged using the oversized laser which may not be perfectly focused the sharp white dots become blurred and the black runs into the white Film designed for imagesetters typically has a very high gamma the result is sharp dots of different sizes Unfortunately for statistical reasons the dots tend to be grouped in groups of bigger and smaller dots and this causes the moir effect The dark areas are especially vulnerable but on poor quality screen sets it can also appear in mid tones As this problem does not occur on high quality print engines such as drum imagesetters where the dot is perfectly focused and is the right size some RIPs designed for such print engines can afford to ignore this problem On capstan devices a good RIP is necessary one that provides pat tern free screens even with high dot gain 9 2 5 The moir between the halftone screen and image elements If there are repetitive image elements in a job radiator of a car texture of a jacket window blinds etc they may produce a moir with the halftone screen This is the typical situation where the stochastic screen comes into its own because it is absolutely immun
58. stored un changed so the displayed colors will depend on the CMYK working space setting of the PDF viewer application As embedded images are compressed in a lossless manner in this mode the file size will be significantly bigger Output type specifies whether a PDF or JPEG Color managed sRGB only file will be exported m Exported pages the pages of the job to export with all pages current page or page range options m Compression the quality of the JPEG compression as a compromise between quality and file size Resolution Exported view Imposition Separations color Black Color space Color managed sRGB NA Output type PDF z Exported pages All After clicking the OK button the save dialog box will appear 5 4 2 Ink duct control The ink duct control feature can make the life of the offset printer much eas ier and at the same time can offer more constant quality Cascade is able to calculate the ink coverage for each ink zone of the page belonging to each ink duct and to print a diagram or to export a PPF or JDF file that will con trol the offset press directly The ink duct control feature can be used either through the ink duct task of the job style or by the Ink zone calculation command Ink zone calculation ik Pages to process hit a Current page Range Print press style New press profile x oF x V Neutralize calibration
59. technically all have some trade offs and often their combination or customization is necessary for good results But this technology is in constant development and as a result output is steadily im proving Consequently the screening technique is the soul of a RIP this is the part that has the most significant effect on the output quality as well as on the processing speed There are several ways of simulating shades but they all rely on two basic screening techniques Q m Traditional Amplitude Modulation AM halftones use dots in fixed po sitions a grid and vary the sizes of the dots to control the intensity of the shade Stochastic Frequency Modulation FM screens use dots of a fixed size usually the smallest dot size which the print engine can reliably pro duce but change the density of the dots effectively the distances be Screening tween them to control the intensity of the shade Traditional halftones are still the basic screening technique because they of fer two major advantages Much better color stability in mid tones than stochastic screens bad printing quality affecting mostly the highlight and shadows while the stochastic screening offers constant color stability only with good qual ity printing A smooth look on uniform colors that stochastic screens can produce on ly with very fine dots So even though stochastic screening has some clear advantages eliminat ing the possibilit
60. the default tool Use the left mouse button to zoom in Combin ing it with the CTRL key or using the right mouse button will zoom out of the image Selecting a rectangular area on the image zooms to that area Using the mouse wheel combined with the CTRL button will zoom in and out m Hand tool moves the image within the viewing area without using the scroll bars pressing and holding the space key will temporarily switch to the hand tool Scrolling the image is also possible by using the mouse wheel with horizontal or without vertical the SHIFT key held down m Measuring tool is used to measure the size of a given area of the job se lect the area to be measured with this tool without releasing the mouse button The width and height of the area selected is shown at the bot tom of the window m Paint white tool erases by painting white areas on separations or composite pages Useful for retouching pages deleting unneeded texts or objects for example m Paint black tool fills by painting black areas on separations or com posite pages Useful for retouching pages deleting unneeded texts or objects on black background for example Each of the four views has the following controls located around the view windows Horizontal and vertical measures change the measuring units by clicking the button in the upper left corner Four view orientation buttons change the viewing orientation with out changing the job itsel
61. the me dia view The simplest way to do this is to select the jobs to be sent and then check them all together by the Check selected jobs button in the toolbar 5 6 IMAGING A JOB WITH THE PRINT MANAGER 5 6 1 The Print manager docker The recommended way of using Cascade is with the Print manager as the interface between the RIP and the print engine wherever possible The al ternative is to use third party software that will accept 1 bit TIFF files into a hot folder a TIFF catcher in which case the Print manager will not be used If Print manager is being used it can be controlled directly from the Cli ent making many useful features available The Client can control several Print managers in one window each Print manager having its own icon in the Client s Print manager docker The Client connects to the Print manager s through the Cascade Server application so no additional data channels are needed even if some of the Print managers are on different computers f Print manager BOOB eoe daad al eH Done at Details Flags Name 4 amp AccuSet 1500 4 History i b 2009 ag eres job 1 pdf 3 of 4 2 56m x22cm 16 19 i ADA Sheet 1 64mx22m E Sheet 1m cae 64 cm x 22 cm BE Sheet1 33 64cm x 22cm 15 56 o AMA Sheet 1K 64cm x22cm 16 19 i a FFE Test job 2 pdf 4 pages 0 88 m x64cm 17 11 gt gt Epson 3800 O Engine busy Printing
62. the table the RIP would correctly assume that printing 98 will result in a 100 tint Indeed the densitometer would measure the printed 98 tint as 100 however most operators would consider this abnormal behavior and would expect 100 always to be printed as 100 On the other hand this policy will prevent operators from defining such limitations intentionally e g limiting the maximum tint to 902 common in the gravure industry or knocking out tints below 2 common in the flexo industry These limitations can be defined in the screening type set 6 4 5 Negative calibrations A special case of calibration is to calibrate a system that works with nega tive output To calibrate such a system do the following m print a calibration page with the same settings you intend to print your jobs therefore in negative m select the Negative tab of the Calibration curve editor box m enter the values just as you read them e g Printed 10 measured 95 Negative calibrations will be used only if the jobs are processed with the Negative option ticked in the job style 6 4 6 Applying a calibration Once the calibration curve has been created and saved it can be applied to one or more job styles The dialog below will appear automatically as a re minder Q The calibration curve has been saved but not applied yet To have any Db effect you must apply it to a job style Apply the calibration to the Following job
63. then folded on the saddle typically it is used only for 2x1 and exclusively for sheetwise schemes ddaa Adaa 8 page saddle stitching First sheet front top left and back bottom left respectively second sheet front top right and back bottom right When using saddle stitching the number of pages must be specified for the scheme to be applied Collate and cut is the typical imposition scheme for books the sheet containing 2 4 8 or more pages on each side is folded consecutively on the horizontal and vertical axis until the size of one page is reached then it is cut on the sides except on the saddle where it is bound It too is an exclusively sheetwise scheme AEAEE 16 page collate amp cut Front left back right m Custom To create more complicated imposition schemes use the cus tom option which enables the page list for editing Each row in the list represents a signature The pages are numbered from left to right and from top to the bottom the page numbers are separated with commas a T after a page means a 180 rotation R means a clockwise rotation L means a counter clockwise rotation a sign before the number means absolute page number while the normal numbers are relative to the be Workand tir used tor portraitpage ginning of each signature cycle and can be repeated to the infinite Imposition style name Custom style Placement Gutters Binding Sheet Binding Cu
64. tone proofers use the original PS PDF file process it with their inter nal PS PDF interpreter apply the right color management and print it on the color printer as a halftoned image using a halftone structure that is as similar as possible to the target simulated halftone However as quality halftone proofers simulate the ink colors of the tar get technology not just the spot colors but even the slightly different col ors of the process inks also called ink contamination halftone proofers are more than just profiled halftone printers Beyond the accurate simula tion of halftone inks Cascade s halftone proofing implementation succeeds in maintaining the full gamut of the proofer by controlling the ink contami nation and when needed progressively removing it A major disadvantage of halftone proofing is that although very similar to the target its halftone structure may be visibly different for example a ma genta halftone of a few percents may be added to pure cyan tints in or der to get accurate color on the proofer while raster proofers usually at the expense of a worse color accuracy will keep the original halftone structure dot by dot the color management taking effect through the ink color mod ulation Advantages Color accuracy the typical color accuracy is about AE 1 Fairly good halftone simulation although not keeping the original dot structure the halftones are very similar and most differenc
65. two sheets will be imposed and ready to image immediately without waiting for the rest of the pages to be processed 6 2 11 Proofing task This task needs to be used if the job is processed normally e g for a CTP or imagesetter but a proof needs to be printed too Do not check this profile if the only purpose of the job style is to print a proof otherwise the proof will be printed twice as the proof of the proof The following controls are available Proof type Raster halftone and contone proofs can be chosen assum ing that there are proof profiles of the appropriate type defined in the system Choose the needed proof type and proof profile LLJ O lt D a lt U Z cc gt T LL Z oe v Do not print until checked the proof job will stay in the job browser Job style name Job style group name Printer share name AccuSet 170 2400 gt A amp ore 7 accuset waiting for confirmation until it is checked goe ne ee Orientation the orientation of the proof job as printed on the proofer X interpretation Xit Sizing Contone proof 7 Do not print until checked E e ose ar 5 am e raat Progressive proofing simulates the printing passes progressively See A Separations E rann ET Macoe 5 4 3 Proofing page 40 gt y Calibration Epson 3800 halftone proof x a Screening ZZ Imposition Raster proof SP Proofna Epson 3600 raster proof 7 Progressive proofing 6 2 12 Ink duct c
66. when new update found Cascade checks regularly for updates on the Cascade web site With this setting turned on new versions will be reported on the Client m Use monitor ICC profile uses an ICC profile for the monitor of the giv General Preflight Shortcuts V Ask for job style on open Launch on startup For this user account Full screen for Remote Desktop V Display warning box on new calibration curve V Display update window when new update found Use monitor ICC profile en workstation linking the sRGB color space to the device RGB space of the monitor Note that many monitor calibration software will apply the monitor ICC on system level in which case applying it again here will lead to wrong result 6 8 2 Preflight tab The Preflight options let the user customize the severity levels of the pre flight warnings If some warnings are perceived as annoying by the user for example the rotation warning appears often but it only warns about slow rendering the warnings in question can be set to Ignore to stop it appear ing The action of each warning can be set by clicking on the small triangle near the item and selecting the desired action Ignore Warning Critical Cc Cientoptons E General Preflight Shortcuts ae Job stopped Warning PostScript error Critical Media area violation Critical Film wastage warning Warning Rotatio
67. which objects of the PS PDF EPS file the cur rent screening type should be used A line screen frequency can be as signed for each screening type a screening type being used if the line screen of the given object matches the line screen specified as usage con dition There is always a default line screen in which the usage condi m Traditional stochastic screening specifies whether traditional AM or stochastic FM screening will be used AM FM settings the detailed settings for each screening type Limits allows the user to define upper and lower screen limits e g lim iting the maximum tint to 90 common in the gravure industry or knocking out tints below 2 common in the flexo industry 9 7 1 AM settings tab The AM settings tab defines the parameters of the traditional AM screen ing The following controls are available m Frequency the line screen frequency in dpi of the halftone Specifying Default will use the global line screen frequency value defined in the job style dialog or coming from the PostScript file It is strongly recom mended that this value is kept and used change it only in special situa tions when a second different line screen is needed than the default one m Frequency tolerance unless a very accurate line screen frequency must be achieved for special reasons leave it on 2 Cascade needs the free dom to choose the best screen set in the proximity of the required one e g in case of 17
68. within the job For exam ple if the film saving has grouped a CMYK job into two TIFF files one containing the cyan and magenta plates the other the yellow and black plates the first TIFF file will have the index 1 and second one will have the index 2 o InkName the full name of the ink e g Cyan or Pantone 368 C o InkShort the short name of the ink e g C or P368C o Number suffixes for text fields each text field can have a number at tached at the end this will ensure that the resulting string will have a fixed length longer strings will be truncated shorter strings will be padded with spaces Example JobName6 will return a job name of exactly 6 characters o Number suffixes for number fields number fields can have a number attached at the end which will add leading zeroes if the number has less digits than specified Example FilmIndex3 will return oo1 for the first TIFF file Use Photometriclnterpretation tag for negative if negative pages are sent out this option will specify whether Cascade will invert the infor mation resulting in a baseline TIFF containing inverted information which can be read by all TIFF readers guaranteed or it will be sent out as positive data but with the PhotometricInterpretation tag set to nega tive resulting in high speed and efficiency but possible incompatibility if the TIFF reader cannot handle this tag correctly Possible reasons for uncheckin
69. 0 2 it will search for the best screen set in the 166 6 173 4 lpi range for the best quality screen set Limiting this free dom may lead to quality problems patterning on individual films in consistent rosettes while leaving it on 2 Cascade guarantees consis tently perfect quality Dot shape the shape of the screen dot Specifying Default will use the global dot shape value defined in the job style dialog for coming from the PostScript file It is strongly recommended that this value is kept and used change it only in special situations when a second different dot shape is needed than the default one Hybrid transition limits flexo option OFF specify the minimum and maximum allowed size in percents or microns of the screen dots As a result the halftone will have the following phases UO Z LLI LLI cc U N o Pure AM e g 3 97 the dot has a perfect grid structure and acts look of gradients See more in 9 5 7 Low pass filtering of the tonal jumps like a traditional halftone dot lt page 106 gt If the slight size variation of halftone dots is not desired it can o Pure FM e g 0 3 and 97 100 instead of the dots getting any be turned off setting it to 0 It may be further increased for suppress smaller than the specified limit they are stochastically removed See ing the banding or patterning of the output device more in 9 5 5 Great highlight and shadow detail lt page 105 gt Dot center
70. 1000 1200 14in 1200 dpi F AccuSet 1000 600 14 in 600 dpi AccuSet 1000 3000 13 3 13 3 in 3000 dpi AccuSet 1000 2400 13 3 13 3 in 2400 dpi E AccuSet 1000 1800 13 3 13 3 in 1800 dpi X m Once the printer profiles have been successfully created at least one job style must be created only then will the Next button be enabled See chapter 6 2 Job styles lt page 50 gt for further details Add Print Engine Wizard The printer profiles have been created and are ready to use You can now create job styles to make these profiles available without making manual changes each time you want to use them Job styles are collections of settings defining the way the jobs are managed and processed printer profile line screen dot shape geometry etc It is recommended that job styles are created now For the most frequently used settings Job styles can be specified manually or by using the corresponding hot folder For jobs arriving at the StudioRIP port the default job style is applied There must be at least one job style in the system Add job style 3 2 SETTING UP THE NETWORK PRINTERS 3 2 1 Setting up network printers on PC Cascade will automatically create a Windows printer for each job style cre ated these printers can then be used from any Windows application This behavior can be turned off by checking the Create printer on
71. E fre VERY ree Maximum light ink coverage control which specifies the maximum permit ted coverage density of the light inks Increasing this value to 100 will improve quality but may cause ink flow problems as the paper may not support too much ink The default value of 70 will on most inkjet print ers avoid ink flow problems Light inks are useful not just for avoiding visible droplets in highlights but also have an important role in suppressing the mechanical inaccuracies of the printer Banding grainy tints or moir can be partially or completely removed by the use of light inks On most printer models high speed modes produce good quality only with extensive use of light inks Using light inks the Cascade proofing module will also produce more compact halftone dots less crumbled than the ones made purely from dark inks Therefore using the default levels of Cascade is recommended However on low line screen rulings or in less demanding conditions using less light inks might produce the required result with much lower printing costs Also ink flow problems can be avoided by decreasing these values 10 4 2 Banding Certain printer models such as Epson allow Cascade to adjust the quality of the interlacing at the expense of the printing speed The interlacing setting can be accessed only on certain printer models in the Print engine properties window in the Print manager docker select the pro
72. Four times Spectrophotometer calibration K 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Perform an extra iteration lt Prev Next gt Cancel Clicking Finish the Color finder wizard will return and the table will be filled with the primary color values found It is strongly recommended that these values are saved with the Save to file button so that these partial results can be re used later m Click Next A table will appear which will contain the amount of proofer inks for achieving various mixed colors of the target device The proce dure is exactly the same as for the primary colors the Color finder wiz ard has to be started printing and measuring another 4 charts so in total 8 charts will have to be printed and measured in the raster profil ing process Again it is recommended that the partial results are saved Having both the primary and mixed colors found the profiling is done By clicking the Launch color finder button the Color finder wizard will Find the target primary colors on the proofer You may want to save the results to an INI file to avoid repeating this procedure if for some reason you have to run the wizard again IF you have the results saved you can read them now Launch color finder Load from file Save to file ic M K c M A 2 0 0000 o joz Click Next and fill the color correction profile name as it will appear in the Color correct
73. Job information E all other inks Dot gain compensation Cyan C Dot gain compensation E Magenta M Dot gain compensation E Yellow v Dot gain compensation Hi Black K Y Dot gain compensation Device linearization curves AccuSet 170 Ipi SSIS TSISISIBIEGISISISIE F Do not show this dialog box on open OK Cancel Dot gain compensation curve the curve that is intended to compensate for the dot gain on the final media paper plastic etc and match it to a standard predefined dot gain e g generic offset Commonly the final result isn t expected to be linear but rather to match the selected non linear dot gain of the ICC profile chosen i e 50 measures 60 70 For each type of curve there are 5 curves available 4 for the process colors and 1 for any other colors The following actions are possible m Click the Equal curves button in the right side of the list to specify whether a single curve will be used for all colors or there will be a sepa rate curve for each of the process colors m Click the Edit curve button to edit the existing curve or create a new m Click the arrow in the Response curve tab of the list to choose a pre de fined curve from the drop down list or to remove the chosen curve As the two sets of curves will be inter linked they are technically inter changeabl
74. LES A physical printing device appears in the Cascade system as one device and several printer profiles belonging to it represented in the tree view control of the Printer profiles docker as a device node and printer profile child nodes The device item holds the global settings of the physical device the de vice name the connection details of the Print manager and the hot fold er location where the TIFF files will be created The printer profile items hold all the other settings of the device resolu tion media size page placement and device specific settings There is a separate printer profile for each set of settings Typical reasons for having several printer profiles for one device m different resolutions m different media sizes m composite and monochrome modes supported e g an inkjet printer used both with paper as composite device and with inkjet film as mono chrome device m different device settings needed e g different laser intensities needed for two types of media The approach of having printer profiles rather than just moving all settings to the job styles is necessary from several points of views but the main consideration is the media saving feature Two pages can be printed on the same piece of media only if they have the same resolution laser intensity etc though on some drum machines it is possible to image twice with differ ent parameters on the same piece of media but that is an excepti
75. Let the print dry colors will stabilize Taking into account the accuracy needed at this phase the recommendation is to wait at least 10 minutes Calibrate the spectrophotometer by clicking the Spectrophotometer calibration button m Start reading the printed chart row by row normally using only the but tons on the spectrophotometers no interaction is needed on the PC Af ter a successful read the row index parameter will be incremented oth erwise an error message will appear In the case of a reading error a row can be re read by decrementing the row index before the read m After the last row is read the Next button will become active Turning on the High quality profile option will cause a substantially slower ICC generation process roughly 20 40 minutes instead 1 2 min utes but if the highest possible accuracy is required you may want to check it Wait until the linearization chart is printed let it dry and then start reading the strips with the spectrophotometer Calibrate the spectrophotometer first if necessary You may limit the inks by adjusting the maximum ink percentages Read strip a a J Spectrophotometer calibration High quality ICC generation time demanding Next gt Cancel m Click Next The profile will be generated according to the setting above it will take 1 40 minutes The Next button will become active when the ICC profile generation process is
76. MediaBox CropBox etc definitions m Reduction from page size the trim size will be computed from the page size defined in the Sizing task and reduced by a certain amount For ex ample a PostScript file may be generated 5 mm larger than the actual trim size and then reduced by 5 mm with these controls The result will be a bleed of 5 mm m Prepare pre press marks option will control whether the RIP will pro cess the selected pre press marks with the job this will make the rip ping process a little longer up to a few seconds for each job depending on the complexity and quantity of the selected pre press marks howev er pre press marks will only be available for jobs which were processed with this option on It is recommended that if using imposition features often this option is left checked Apply style option will apply a pre defined imposition style see chapter 8 lt page 83 gt to the job automatically and is particularly useful ifthe same imposition style is used often It also means that if for example a col or catalog with 128 pages is imposed with a collate and cut imposition scheme with 8 pages on each side of a sheet the imposition scheme can be 1 defined before processing the catalog 2 saved as an imposition style and 3 selected here in the Apply style list When processing the job the imposition style will be applied automatically The benefit will be that after the first 16 pages are processed the first
77. Name 4 2 AccuSet 1500 a History a 2009 July a 3 Friday APA YoustomerGui a August b 18 Tuesday 4 gt 26 Wednesday p E Test job 1 pdf b September a ra Test jab 1 pdF RG Sheet 1c EA Sheet 1M iE E Sheet 1 wi WOCustomer Guide pdf i WE Sheet 1 WF Sheet 1 WJ E Sheet 1 Wf Sheet 1 4 2 Epson 3300 t E 4 Te History b Pl lipage 118tem f 2t 6 em 2 24 65 g8 Printing paused Engine ready Goa 4 la Sie Details Flags Size Done at amp 26660 660 6 4 2 Job styles shows the Job styles docker window This window man ages the available job styles in the Cascade system If this window is Printer profiles shows the Printer profiles docker window This win dow manages the available printer profiles in the Cascade system If this window is docked to a holder it will be brought to the foreground Upgrade license opens the License upgrade window This window al lows the on site update of Cascade Contact your local dealer for more details on enabling currently disabled features Show licenses opens the License window This window shows the op tions enabled on the hard key and therefore available with the current Cascade license Contact your local dealer for more details on enabling currently disabled features Exit quits Cascade client only The Server will still be running and oth er users will be able to work through other connected Clients 2 Cali
78. OK Cancel Seamless screen Join vertically Do not show this dialog box on open LLI O lt D a lt U Z cc gt T LL Z oe v l lt Z lt cc Lud N types for certain objects on the page e g a given bitmap printed with stochastic screening the rest of the page with AM screening This fea ture doesn t work in version 3 4 o The Add screening type button will add a new screening type item o The Delete screening type button will remove the selected screening type item unless it is the default one o The Screening type settings button will display the Screening type set Peecccsecccssevs Poe gh decscccsccsccs hocccepocsQoccccechece Screen rules o Override frequency the frequency specified in the job will be ignored using the frequency defined in Cascade instead o Override dot shape the dot shape specified in the job will be ignored using the dot shape defined in Cascade instead o Snap angle to multiple of 7 5 makes sure that all angles in the job will be a multiple of 7 5 all common screen sets including offset flexo or silk printing are all using angles that are multiple of 7 5 For example old Level 1 PPDs often defined slightly deviated angles to reduce moir as the RIPs were unable to achieve accurate screen angles which obviously are wrong values for modern RIPs and need to be corrected o Snap to angle set built on K or b
79. OOOGCOOO VO e QS8 QdGO_g EOP gE OOOSSOSGOOOOOOOSOO G6 ES8S0SG08 poetoe 000000000000000000 0900000008 000000 CO SOSSOSHSOHOOOSOLEHS 840 9000Se 0G 096006 OOCCOOOOHSOOOOSHSOD 000999080996 Q9 e9SO OO0SGOOOOSGOOSHSOSG GOOOE HOS QO00H9SE09 Printing the same pixel row with more than one nozzle is particularly in teresting because it can improve the quality at the expense of the printing speed the more nozzles per scanline the better the result is usually print ing at about half of the maximum possible speed but giving dramatically improved results As some proofers use their own algorithms for selecting the different noz zles for the same row there are quality differences between different proof ers with respect to banding Cascade claims better results than most oth er proofers when using Epson printers especially taking into account the availability of the Quality setting that can control the number of nozzles per scanline achieving the best possible result at the expense of slower printing 10 4 3 Bidirectional mode Another source of banding and moir is the bidirectional printing mode when the head prints in both directions introducing another source of inac curacy Usually printing in bidirectional mode will cause banding or moi r on halftones so turning it off if the option is available might improve the quality Certain inkjet printers allow Cascade to control whether the head prints in both directions Bidirectional p
80. Printer profile that the job belongs to Resolution in dpi of the job Dot type and screen frequency of the screen used Job style AccuSet Printer profile AccuSet 1500 2400 Resolution dpi 2400 Dot type Euclidean Screen frequency lpi 170 Ipi The separations can be viewed as black and white or in their true colors by the Show in color button located at the bottom of the view window 5 3 3 Composite view The composite view shows the pages of the job as composite color pages even if the input job was pre separated Apart from the standard CMYK custom colors can also be seen in their true colors Switch to composite view either by clicking the Composite tab above the view window or by expand ing the Composite node under the node of the job in the Job browser then clicking on a separation page Composite pages can be deleted moved within the job or to another job If there are unwanted composite pages in the job remove them by selecting them in the Job browser and then clicking the Delete button on the toolbar or pressing it on the keyboard Within the composite view it is possible to change the colors of the pages Usually it will be unnecessary to use this feature because Cascade is able to intelligently guess how the separations should be grouped into the correct color pages even for pre separated pages with poor color information How ever there may be cases when it is desirable to modify the colors and the g
81. S Printer profiles X 42 AccuSet 1500 AccuSet 1500 2400 AccuSet 1500 3000 4 amp Epson 3800 i Epson 3800 1440 dn Epson 3800 720 Epson 3800 raster proof Epson 3800 contone proof 6 1 1 Device properties dialog box To edit the properties of a device select the device item in the Printer profiles docker i e the parent node of the printer profiles and click the Properties button Note that double clicking the device item will expand or collapse the printer profiles rather than opening the properties dialog The device properties are as follows Device name this is the name that identifies the device and is used by the Print manager docker each device will have one item having the name specified here No Print manager tick this option if no Print manager will be used in this case the Print manager location box will be grayed out Print manager location controls how the Server connects to the Print manager if it does o choose Sharing the same computer with the Server option if the Print manager and the Server are on the same PC and therefore no IP ad dress is needed o specify the host name or IP address of the computer running the Print manager to connect to if the Print manager and the Server are on different PCs o specify the TCP port number the Print manager is listening on for in coming connections Print manager hot folder path specify the folder that the 1
82. Select the pre press marks to be used m Press the Apply button Check the imposition in Imposition view 8 7 2 Step and repeat 2 up Consider the situation above but with only one A4 page that for econom ical printing will be placed as two copies on an A3 sheet In this case perform the same steps as above except Check the Cloned pag es box before pushing the Apply button 8 7 3 Simple book 4 up with gutters Consider a book with 240 pages of A5 without bleed with a collate and cut imposition requested with 0 2 mm vertical and 0 5 mm horizontal gutters m Print the work on the intended final print size A5 in this case includ ing all 240 pages m Process it in Cascade m Select the processed job in the Job browser window Click on the Imposition button or menu item the Imposition style win dow will appear Set the Number of columns to 2 and the Number of rows to 2 m Set 0 2 mm as Vertical gutter and 0 5 mm as Horizontal gutter m Select Collate and cut in the binding box m Select the pre press marks to be used m Press the Apply button m Check the imposition in the Imposition view m By selecting the Arrow tool to the left of the preview window and then selecting the sheets two signatures will appear the odd sheets will have the first signature pages 5 4 8 1 the even sheets will have the second signature pages 3 6 2 7 m By selecting the Zoom tool exiting the signature view
83. TP applications Dot gain compensation is a method that tries to deal with this unfortunate situation instead of linearizing the output device it tries to reach the dot gain that is expected by the ICC profile used in the color separation process In simple terms it will try to give exactly 68 or whatever the ICC profile expects on the paper for the 50 halftone screen 6 5 2 Why use dot gain compensation Though the ideal solution would be to have an ICC profile for each paper type line screen etc in reality dot gain compensation is the only practical way for most printing houses to correct for dot gain problems Dot gain compensation is typically used for correcting the slight dot gain variations of the offset press caused by technological issues like different plate type higher halftone frequency older press machine etc trying to match a generic or ISO standard offset ICC profile used in the pre press process However it may be useful even for printing jobs separated using a generic offset profile on completely different technologies like flexography or silk screen printing having at least the right dot gain is usually a great quality improvement If any of the printing parameters are substantially different e g stochas tic screening instead of AM it is almost certain that dot gain compensation will be needed However there are so many parameters involved in the print ing process that at least checking wh
84. a few issues to clarify m Why the halftone screens have to be placed at different angles o Pure cyan magenta and yellow are independent colors in the color spectrum they should not interfere with each other the cyan filters exclusively the red light the magenta the green light and the yellow the blue light In a perfect world they would not interfere However the inks used in offset printing are imperfect especially the offset cy an which is very far from pure cyan also filtering a good part of the green light and the magenta is imperfect too So in practice there will be a moir between the cyan magenta and yellow caused by the overlapping filtering characteristics of the inks The black screen which has to be used for a number of reasons O can cause moir with any other ink O Using two or more colors at the same angle will not cause moir at least theoretically however it will be a huge risk for the print er a small shift between these two screens can cause enormous col or changes m Why exactly these angles o By positioning the halftone screens with 30 degrees between them moir is minimized producing the so called rosette pattern o However only 3 screens can be placed this way because the fourth would be placed at go degrees from the first one which means in practice that they will have the same angle o The lightest and purest color the yellow is normally placed between the
85. able This will only hap pen if the resolution exposure pairing exists in the table The driver files used for the print engine interface board and its parameters typically the communications port are specified through the Engine driver DLL and Driver parameters fields These are engine specific and are nor mally configured at initial setup Contact your dealer if there are problems with these History Print engine Special Print engine type Print engine specifications Imaging speed Inter page delay F Drum technology Set exposure Engine driver DLL Driver parameters Agfa AccuSet 1500 V Set feed amount before cut to F Supply cassette alarm below Take up cassette alarm over V Stop imaging on take up alarm AgfaDIl dll EtherApis dll 27 000 lines min ies 2 fe seconds ofan Im n gt Exposure table a Board index if there is more than one board in the system this index identifies them the index is allocated by the BIOS of the computer the eecccebocccccccesfecccesccscrceeseeseeceseeenes lt page 77 gt Priority class and priority value Print manager by default runs at a very high priority in the system enabling it to serve the print en gines with a continuous flow of data Priority class High Priority val ue Time critical If there are any engine interruptions a higher value should be chosen Wa
86. act independently previewing different jobs for example The only clue that another Client is also connected to the Server is that some times jobs will be started stopped modified etc So a design studio with de signers at 10 20 workstations can install the Client on each of the worksta tions Each designer will be able to control the whole printing process view ing their own or others jobs from their workstations 2 3 2 Installing Mac Clients Cascade Client cannot run natively on a Macintosh workstation Therefore a special setup is used for Mac workstations which results in providing the full functionality of Cascade Client on a Mac workstation It is based on Microsoft s free Remote Desktop Client for Mac application available for download on Microsoft s web page and the Terminal Services Client licens es that are a feature of Windows servers Extra Terminal Services Client li censes may have to be purchased from Microsoft to enable sufficient users This scenario requires that the Cascade Server is installed on a machine running Windows 2003 Server or newer This setup lets multiple Terminal Services clients connect remotely to the Windows server using the same ac count dedicated to Cascade but at the same time allows each client to see a different desktop and perform different work Note Microsoft changed the name Remote Desktops Clients to Terminal m Check the Launch on startup for this user account box Services Clients
87. ality settings and their effects More light inks Finer interlacing Bidirectional mode Speed problems 1 1 Horizontal banding VA a Grainy tints U T False moir j a 1 Greater costs ji Adjusting these values might have serious effects on the printing speed and quality For example printing an A3 proof on an Epson Stylus Pro 4800 7800 9800 using the 1440 X 1440 dpi mode takes about 6 minutes in bidirectional mode and with the Good speed value in the interlacing setting but it will take more than 15 minutes in unidirectional mode and the Normal value of the interlacing setting Similarly printing without light inks with the Highest speed interlacing quality setting and in bidirectional mode will produce a grainy output with horizontal banding and false moir While using abundant light inks uni directional mode and the Normal interlacing quality setting will produce a perfectly smooth output and visible rosettes UO TE o O oO 11 Glossary AM Amplitude Modulated screening a screening technology which uses dots on fixed positions a grid varying their sizes to achieve the Bleed an extra area of a few millimeters around the page an extension of the intended design offering tolerance with the cutting precision for TATALO L e LOO AA Calibration a procedure which corrects the dot gain or other color dis tortion of the print engine or the printing process by pre distorting the printed jobs
88. an be combined for example if Free space is less than 10 GB and File is older than 365 days are checked files will be erased when the free space is under 10 GB but files older than a year will be deleted anyway It is very important to check one of these options allowing Cascade to keep some HDD space available for efficiency and for system stability It is rec ommended that about 10 GB HDD space is kept free the temporary files of Cascade might need a few gigabytes If the History doesn t keep the files they are grayed out the moment they appear in the list one of the conditions above is true all the time e g the HDD space is already less than 10 GB and therefore Cas cade tries to keep the needed HDD space by deleting them immedi ately 7 1 2 Print engine settings The Print engine settings are normally defined when running the Add print engine wizard However if using a print engine that is not listed the set tings will have to be entered manually Other settings such as the take up cassette alarm settings would normally be set manually Imaging speed and inter page delay helps the engine to calculate the imaging time normally the speed of a laser based print engine is given by the speed of the spinner which is the same for all the resolutions so 2400 dpi is twice as slow as 1200 dpi the inter page delay is very im portant on drum machines where a good part of the time is taken by ad vancing the media mov
89. an machines or inkjet printers where the length of the job is measured along the media length axis m Sheet fed or fixed length specifies whether the print engine uses vari able media lengths typically roll fed engines or fixed lengths typical ly sheet fed or CTP Try to use maximum media length this option is useful for drum ma chines where the maximum engine throughput speed is only achieved if a full drum is imaged at once For example with an A2 engine print ing A3 pages the speed will double if two A3 pages are printed in one imaging Many drum machines have geometrical distortions Using this feature on these machines will cause separation pages to have registration er rors It may be advisable to print more slowly but more precisely by turning this feature off Proof profile is checked only for proof profiles Proof profiles are creat ed by the Raster Halftone and Contone proof wizards and will output special TIFF files containing extra color management information that will be used by the Print manager m Maximum light ink coverage specifies the maximum permitted cov erage density of a light ink e g light cyan typically used by inkjet printers Increasing this value to 100 will improve quality but may cause ink flow problems as the paper may not support too much ink The default value of 70 will on most inkjet printers avoid ink flow problems Maximum normal ink coverage specifies the ma
90. and Print manager are running the Cascade Cli ent can be started on the local computer or on a workstation on the network m On the server PC the Client can be started by its menu shortcuts Start button Programs menu Cascade or Desktop icon or by dou ble clicking on the Cascade Server icon in the system tray The Client should start and connect to the Server without error messages m On a network workstation the Client can be started by its menu short cuts Start button gt Programs menu gt Cascade or Desktop icon The first time the client is run an error message will appear because it will be unable to connect to the server on the local machine click Cancel which will bring up the Connection settings dialog box Fill out the box normally only the IP address of the server has to be entered then click the connection settings dialog box Connection error An error occurred while trying to connect to the Server Please check the following 1 The Server is running 2 The network connection to the Server is working properly 3 The host name or IP address of the Server is filled out correctly 4 The Server uses the samme TCP port address as this client 5 There is no firewall rejecting this TCP port between the server and this client You can retry connecting with the current settings or you can modify the connection settings If Cascade Client fails to connect to the Server the Server is verifia
91. ar Similarly the mirror negative and orientation controls can change the way the job appears on the media The state of these controls is inherited from the settings of the Imaging task in the job style but they can be changed on a per job basis There are viewing options for the media view by toggling the button Con tinuous view the media can be viewed as one continuous roll or individual pieces of media The Show in color button will help visualize how the differ ent colors are placed on the media even if on the film they are really com ing out as black Changing the negative state of the job at this level is not recommend ed if there are calibration curves involved Calibration curves must be applied in a different way for negative jobs during the halftoning pro cess therefore the negative option needs to be specified in the job style 5 4 PERFORMING OTHER TASKS ON THE JOB 5 4 1 Exporting to PDF or JPEG Cascade is able to export pages of the jobs as PDF files or JPEG pictures These files are intended as soft proofs and aren t recommended for further processing the PDF files will also contain embedded JPEGs or other bit map data rather than vector graphics The embedded images are the same quality as the onscreen previewing system of Cascade Incase of halftone jobs they are resampled from the original 1 bit TIFFs therefore false moir can occur If Color managed sRGB output is chosen the colors
92. are able to create PDFs with bleed This means that if the designer has set up the right page size in the design and has designed a bleed area around the page the design application will create a PDF file which apparently viewed in Acrobat Reader for example will show a bigger page than the real page size but will contain the trim box information which will describe the original page borders Cascade then can open this PDF file will automatically detect the two different sizes and will handle the bleed correctly Several design applications e g QuarkXPress InDesign offer the pos sibility to set up a bleed area around the page on printing adding this extra area to the page size This will mean that the original page size will be lost however specifying the same bleed size in Cascade it can be re calculated If the design application cannot automatically create a PostScript file with bleed a page size that is equal to the original page size plus the size of the bleed area must be specified manually when cre ating the document For example by adding an extra 1 cm bleed area to the page size the 1 cm bleed can be cropped back in Cascade and then treated as bleed area This can be done when the file is opened using eeecccccce woccepoceccccccccccccccccese meee c pesatososn weccecaseocccccceeioccecccccssccepescecessce The third workaround is to specify the original page size on print with out bleed and then to instruct Casca
93. ascade system start installing the appropriate parts on the computers The recommended installation order is Configure your network so that the different parts of Cascade can com municate with each other on a typical intranet LAN no modifications are necessary m Install the interface board if any m Connect up the EtherSetter box if any Ensure that the 314 party TIFF catcher of the engine is running and con figured if any m Set up the print engine for the connection with Cascade including any Windows drivers and Windows printer ports Install the Print manager s if it will be running on different comput ers than the Server m Install the Cascade Server together with the Print manager and Client if they will run on the same computer Plug in the hard key dongle m Set up the print engine on the first launch of the Print manager the in stallation process will automatically prompt the user to do so m Install the Cascade Clients on all workstations where needed Set up the printer profiles and job styles on the first launch of a Client the installation process will automatically prompt the user to do these 2 2 1 Setting up the print engine Some print engines require configuration to enable proper communication with EtherSetter Highwater or SCSI interface Refer to the user manuals of these print engines to verify or set the following Agfa EtherSetter PciAPIS Highwater no settings requi
94. ase angle makes sure that all an gles in the job will be in the screen set suitable for the given technolo gy e g based on 45 for offset based on 37 5 for flexo etc For ex ample it can automatically transform the angles of a job with offset angles into flexo angles o Skin tone protection place Y angle between C and K places the yel low angle or the angle of any color coming on the standard angle of yellow o in offset terms between the C and K angles 30 in off set terms The result will be eliminated M Y moir orange skin tones no change for the C Y moir and an increased K Y moir visible only for high black generation o Yellow moir reduction will reduce the moir caused by the yellow screen by increasing its frequency by 12 o Override colors of separations according to the color table ignores the colors declared in the PS PDF EPS file and will replace them in the order they will be shown under the Separations item of the job browser with the items of the Color table tab of this dialog For exam ple if the color information has been lost for a pre separated CMYK job checking this option and using the default CMYK colors of the Color table will apply cyclically if needed the process colors to the plates of the job o Override angles of separations using the angle table ignores the an gles defined in the job and looks up the angle of the given color in the Angle table It is po
95. atesetter or printer Z s a lt x l z H N l lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt m Recommended configuration there is a dedicated computer for the server application but the clients are placed on different workstations and connect through the network with it In this scenario each worksta tion is running a copy of the client giving each operator full control over the RIP and the jobs they are sending to it The Print manager is run ning on the same machine as the Server ime B Ss i s Print Engine StudioRIP imagesetter platesetter or printer Server amp Print Manager a na E FB S StudioRIP StudioRIP StudioRIP Client 1 Client 2 Client 3 m Advanced configuration more than one Print manager is installed possibly more than one per computer each Print manager has to be running on the computer where the interface card is installed for the print engine connected to it unless using EtherSetter interfaces which B Internet StudioRIP Client 1 rr sud pi i a StudioRIP StudioRIP Print Manager 1 Print Manager 3 Print Manager 2 as w E o jEr th Da A O gy _ a StudioRIP StudioRIP Print Print Print Client 2 Client 3 Engine 1 Engine 2 Engine 3 communicate through a network interface clients in addition to the regular intranet network connections can connect over the internet also 2 2 PERFORMING THE INSTALLATION Having planned the C
96. be resized Turning the sizing task off will instruct Cascade to use the default page size m Erase border sets the border the Cascade won t mark outside either Turning it on the following options will be available by using the First matching item from the list or specifying custom val ues press the Border button to select the appropriate option If the m Size defines the entire processed size of the job If the imposition task is option is unchecked no portions will be erased turned off this is the displayed and printed size of the job If the impo sition task is turned on this may become depending on the imposition task settings the bleed size i e displayed and printed only if the impo First matching item from the list will extract the size of the file from the various size declarations of the PostScript PDF and EPS files As their use by the various DTP and pre press applications isn t very con sistent Cascade allows the user to fine tune the size extraction proce dure to get the best possible result with their applications Cascade will search for the first definition in the list that is ticked and also present in the PS PDF EPS file The user can change the order of the size defini tions and can check or uncheck them By default the MediaBox defini _ A First matching item From the list E Marso J MediaBox 7 A CropBox J BleedBox A TrimBox Ki Pagesize GAHWSize
97. bly run ning and the hostname or IP address was entered correctly then there may Antivirus firewall or other protection software often causes connec tion problems between the Client and Server Connection failure or blocked communication after a successful connection can both be caused by such software 3 1 3 Starting the Client for the first time If the Client successfully connected to the Server the Add print engine wiz ard will be launched automatically for first time configuration This wizard can also be launched manually at some later time from the File menu As the print engine is already set up in the Print manager the client will first try to connect to the Print manager and to acquire the print engine information Therefore the Print manager should already be set up and running at this point except in the case when a third party TIFF catcher application will be used instead of the Print manager Add Print Engine Wizard The RIP will now try to locate and connect to the Print Manager If the Print Manager is not running or not set up yet please launch it and set it up You may use third party software instead of Print Manager in which case you will have to specify the hot folder location of this program Print Manager location Sharing the same computer with the server Different computer name or IP Localhost No Print Manager third party application for TIFF output Print Manager instance ind
98. bration menu New calibration curve creates a new calibration curve by showing the Print calibration page opens the Print calibration page window used for printing calibrated or un calibrated test pages These pages can then be measured with a densitometer to create or check calibration curves Dot gain compensation opens the Dot gain compensation window used for adjusting the dot gain of the printing press to match an ICC Calibration manager shows the Calibration manager docker window This window manages the available calibration files in the Cascade sys tem If this window is docked to a holder it will be brought to the fore mation Define new ink creates a new ink by showing the Define ink window Ink manager shows the Ink manager docker window This window manages the available inks in the Cascade system If this window is Add color profile adds a new ICC ICM color profile to the Cascade Color profiles shows the Color profiles docker window This window manages the available ICC ICM color profiles available in the Cascade system If this window is docked to a holder it will be brought to the 4 2 3 Job menu Check selected jobs sends the job s selected in the Job browser win dow to the Print manager or to the third party TIFF catcher software for printing Uncheck selected jobs un checks the selected job s holding them in the Job browser list until they are checked Stop job stops processing the selected job b
99. but ton the marks will just be removed note that when moving the pages later the marks will not follow the pages they will have to be removed and added again 8 5 PRE PRESS MARKS Prepress mark properties I CHOOSCHHSHOHSHOHSHOHSHSHOHSHHOHOHOHHOHHOHSHHOHSHOHHEHSHOHOHSHHHOHHOHHHOHSOHOHSEHOEOHCOHCHOHOOE8EEEE E Object placement Name i canca Color bar Cascade comes with the most common pre press marks but other marks peis Icon can be defined or the existing ones can be changed Ol ett te P Ps N S Distance Scale Applies to 0 5 em x 100 Bounding box of pages on sheet Z 8 5 1 Pre press ma rks ma nager Graphic object PS EPS PDF file color bar prn a 2 Prepress m rks Text object gt BR os m 10 5 Name Distance Scale Font name Font size jil ii 12 f Calibration bar 0 25 cm 100 Szinsk la io Bru mma Color bar 0 5 cm 100 EK Color names 0 5 cm 100 Color K SH neal A i ie Alternate the colors of the pages use in conjunction with step amp repeat gt E 17 Internal crop mark 0 25 cm 100 E Print only if does not touch pages Sa Job info doubl rsided Aem L Print only if out of the bounding box of the pages 2 Job info single sided 0 25 cm 100 Y s pag l My user defined mark Ocm 100 F Overprint Registration mark Ocm 100 m Graphic object import a PS EPS or PDF file as the design f
100. button o selecting the Uncalibrated spot colors option is recommended only if spot color accuracy is not critical as a less accurate approximation algorithm will be used The Simulate paper color option will specify whether the paper white of the target technology will be simulated typically printing a yellowish tint on the bright white proofing paper Paper color simulation is only possible if the proofer is contone profiled mein For accurate spot color reproduction it is recommended that the ICC profile of the proofer is used Paper white simulation is also only possible if an ICC profile is specified This ICC profile is generated by the Contone proof wizard If the proofer has been already profiled the wizard automatically chooses its ICC profile or the profiling process can be started by clicking the Launch profiler wizard button Raster proofing is possible without specifying the ICC profile of the proofer the lack of the ICC profile will only affect the accuracy of spot colors and will disable paper color simulation Calibrated spot colors ICC profile for calibrated spot colors Epson 3800 1440 v Launch profiler wizard V Simulate paper color Uncalibrated spot colors m Click Next A table will appear which will contain the amount of proof er inks for achieving various percentages of the primary colors i e cy an magenta yellow and black of the target device Norma
101. c cess If opening port 4024 proves impossible for some reason change the TCP port used to some other commonly used port number such as the ones used by HTTP FTP POP3 etc which presumably are already open and no further network configuration will be necessary on both the clients and on the server on the server modify the connection settings by right clicking the server icon and entering the Settings menu If the Cascade Server has a local IP the router has to be configured to for ward TCP port 4024 on its public IP to the local IP address of the PC run ning the Cascade server Example the device acting as a router has the public IP of 83 103 131 214 and the Cascade server is running on the PC with a local IP of 192 168 0 3 To achieve a connection TCP port 4024 on the device with the public IP 80 103 131 214 has to be mapped to the TCP port on the PC with the local IP of 192 168 0 3 This will mean that the incoming connections for the Cas cade server will be automatically redirected to the local PC which is actual ly running it If Clients are granted access via the Internet use Cascade s password con trol otherwise unauthorized people could take control of Cascade and the cade with password control The Cascade Server cannot be accessed through a proxy server only via direct TCP connection 2 2 7 Installing the hard key Cascade is protected by a USB hard key dongle The hard key protects on ly the Server applicatio
102. connects to the Print manager s normally through TCP port 4025 but if 2 or more Print manager applications are running on the same PC further TCP ports will be used with port numbers assigned incrementally from 4025 i e 4026 4027 etc Therefore any computer running a copy of Print manager has to expose port 4025 and 4026 4027 etc whichever apply to incoming connections It is important that these TCP channels are open between the Clients the Server and the Print managers On a typical internal LAN network all ports are freely accessible on all machines on the network therefore no spe cial configuration is necessary If there are firewalls or other obstacles in the system that could obstruct access to these ports remove them or con figure them properly Software protecting individual PCs from outside at tack such as the Windows Firewall built into Windows XP by Microsoft and ZoneAlarm by ZoneLabs will block the ports required by Cascade and they will have to be configured to allow communication through the above listed ports If access to the Cascade system from the Internet is required TCP port 4024 has to be opened and forwarded if the computer does not have a public IP address to give the Clients access 2 2 6 Connecting from the Internet to a Cascade Server If the PC running the Server has a public IP address then opening port 4024 on the firewall protecting the network should be sufficient to allow a
103. creen limitations is to let the operator implement these limi tations The available settings are m Minimum limit the minimum screen percentage that prints normally Tints below the minimum limit will be printed as specified below Values under minimum limit printed as specify the percentage used for printing the tints below the Minimum limit value This is typically either equal to the minimum limit e g under 3 everything is printed as 3 or equal to zero e g under 3 is everything is printed as 0 m Maximum limit the maximum screen percentage that prints normally Tints above the minimum limit will be printed as specified below Values above maximum limit printed as specify the percentage used for printing the tints above the Maximum limit value This is typical ly either equal to maximum limit e g above 97 everything is print ed as 97 or equal to 100 e g above 97 is everything is printed as 100 seccseseescesesees 28 TESTSCREEN WINDOW L L The Test screen window provides a visual interface for testing the screen set tings of a job style It can be accessed by pressing the Test screen button in The goal is to test the reaction of the screening system as set up in the job style including the effects of the screen rules angle tables etc for the possible incoming values whether and how the angle screen frequency plate name etc are declared in the PostScript file Note that while testing a screen that
104. d party TIFF catcher is used pay attention to chosing the right option Installation type Please choose the installation type you want to perform Full install Install all components The hard key permits only one copy of the Server Full install for third party TIFF catchers Install all components except Print Manager typically For CTP Client Controls all the Functions of the system Can be installed on all the workstations Print manager Interface application For the printer imagesetter CTP May run separately Custom m Step 2 if custom install has been chosen select which parts of the pro gram to install Here the user can decide whether the three files types PRN PS and EPS will be associated with the Cascade c Components Please choose the components you want to install Server Client Print manager windows printing support PRN file association PS file association EPS file association SSSSSisis E Step 3 choose the destination folder where Cascade will install the exe cutables the data folders and the shared public folders The data files of Cascade may intensively use the HDD space depending on the Print manager settings so if the default drive pointed to by the operating sur Destination folder Please choose a location where the RIP Folder will be created Data files Shar
105. d to the server through the TCP channel The color profiles can be added and removed by the Add and Remove but tons in the toolbar of the Color profiles window a Color profiles x ja Acrobat Distiller 4 a A Epson 1400 1440 T a Epson 1400 720 A Epson 3800 1440 A Epson DX7450 1440 A Epson R1800 cmk 1440 A Epson R1800 cmk 720 A Epson R2400 1440 A Epson R2400 720 ay Euroscale Coated a Euroscale Uncoated A 150 Coated Fogra 27 X 20 color profiles 6 4 CALIBRATION 6 4 1 Understanding calibration Calibration allows operators to correct for inaccuracies and variations in the dot percentages that are inevitable in the various pre press and press processes Dot gain is a common phenomenon in many of these processes and calibration can correct for this as well as any inaccurate dot sizes pro duced by print engines or any non linearity in the media In essence cali bration pre distorts the dots in the opposite direction by the right amount to compensate for equipment caused distortions To achieve this the printed values are measured with a densitometer and the results entered into a ta ble This table will be interpolated by the Cascade and applied to the dots The steps of the calibration process are as follows m Check whether the density of the engine i e the density of a 100 tint matches the parameters recommended by the manufacturer try chang ing chemica
106. d for each target Allimposition types Job ripped once The most important quality factor of a proofer is the color accuracy i e how close the colors of the proof are to the colors of the target print As visu al comparison is subjective and not always relevant there are standardized methods of estimating the accuracy of the proofing systems These methods are based on the color difference formula called delta UO TE o O oO lt Z lt 2 aa LLJ N gt E which defines the difference between two colors measured with a spec trophotometer in the Lab color space There are different delta E formulas the one considered best is the CIE 2000 formula as used by Cascade as it gives the most uniform results while older formulas sometimes give high values for visually indistinguishable colors The interpretation of the del ta E value is subjective but a generally accepted interpretation is the fol lowing m lt 1 a perfect match the color differences are indistinguishable to the human eye m 1 3 an excellent match the color differences are distinguishable only on large patches touching each other i e without a gap Patches sepa rated by gaps are generally not distinguishable m 3 6 a good match the color differences are clearly distinguishable on large touching patches but are generally difficult to distinguish on two different prints e g the difference between the proof and the ori
107. d magen ta 30 degrees Dot shape the default dot shape Can be and by default will be used by the Screening type settings dialog m Screening type one or more screening types can be defined in a job style there will be a default screening type and there may be one or more screening types with a screen frequency value defined as Usage condition If the screen frequency of a given object in the PS PDF EPS file matches this value the matching screening type will be used oth erwise the default screening type will be used It is possible to assign a special screen frequency to certain objects in the job in most DTP ap plications so using this feature it is possible to use different screening ma s s lt Job style name Job style group name Printer share name AccuSet 170 2400 H B Nore AccuSet Workflow tasks Default screen values T P Interpretation A f T Zt Sizing TEETAN K loners ange Pola W Dispro 170 pi 45 v deg Euclidean T A Separations amp Trapping Screening type Screen rules Color table Angle table Y Calibration V7 be Screening i Z Imposition Proofing Name Usage condition a Default screening type Default a Stochastic screening 100 Ipi v fa Ink duct control Export image ed Imaging T Job information v Test screen
108. d to be replaced by the intended spot colors Choose a previously defined color from the drop down list by clicking the arrow near the corresponding button or by clicking on the button define a new color New color group styles can be created and saved if the same color combina tions are being used regularly For example if two colors e g blue and or ange are often printed but are printed as cyan and magenta Define the two colors used making a color group of these two colors and then save it as Blue and orange color group style It is then possible to change any subse quent jobs by one click into Blue and orange A color named Transparent is defined to allow previewing the job with certain colors hidden typically for checking the overprint by temporarily hiding the black ink changing it into transparent Do not use the Number of colors setting for temporarily hiding col ors Use the Transparent ink instead 5 3 4 Imposition view The imposition view is intended to show exactly what will come out on the press in this view it is possible to add pre press marks create complex im positions etc Note that jobs with bleed may use the trimmed size by default rather than aa O lt x J z aa A l lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt the full processed size depending on the job style settings checking the Imposition option will do this by default in which case neither of the pre view windows
109. de s job style to expand this page size with a certain bleed area The problem with this workaround is that several applications such as the QuarkXPress place the design in a clip box so even if the bleed information exists in the PostScript file it will be erased by the clip box However there are several applications which work fine with this approach CorelDraw for example This can be done when the file is opened using the Enlarge page size option of weccccodocccccsce CrocesscecedesecG poe 8 6 3 Using the Crop with bleed command The Crop with bleed command can be accessed from the Imposition menu and it will be applied to the selected job As its name suggests this com mand cannot extend the processed area so if bleed information does not ex ist in the processed data it has no effect Crop with bleed ik Margins V Equal margins margins Reset sheets The cropped parts will be available as bleed in imposition IF you Db use pre press marks or leave spaces between pages the cropped parts will become visible It is useful if the processed pages contain the bleed area too and need to be cropped to the original size of the page effectively transforming the cropped area into bleed area The crop will be performed on the entire processed size of the page rather than on the visible page size This will have two consequences Subsequent crop commands will not decrease the s
110. e Remote Desktop a remote visualization system by Microsoft A small client program can connect to a Windows XP or Windows 2003 Serv er user account remotely through the network from PC or Mac work Stations Rendering intent color conversion strategy Due to the fact that a range of RGB colors are out of the CMYK color space gamut these strategies describe how to convert these colors and eventually their neighbors The strategies that Cascade uses are standard and are wide RGB stands for Red Green Blue the color space of most displays The colors are achieved by the additive combination of these colors Right reading see Mirror RIP Raster Image Processor a software and or hardware equipment which translates page description languages typically PostScript to raster bitmap data It may also offer previewing imposition job man agement and other features Rosette a flower like pattern produced by the interfering halftone screens typically cyan magenta and black A rosette is consistent if the same pattern is kept on the whole print area without shifts or moi r s Saddle stitching is used for publications with few pages usually not more than 32 pages The pages are collected stitched on the saddle woe aheatececcscccscceGChoccccsccepessG esccccce CCC CEES CHOC CCE SOLE EEpoesorerooeperegRoocesesdece Screening a technology used by most print technologies to simulate shades of their colorants AM traditio
111. e Large file Exported view low quality good quality Export settings Compression Trapping 1 Calibration Imposition a Screening Imposition g Proofing Original ink v fi Ink duct control Color space Ef Imaging i Job information Output type PDF X Export image to C Users StudioRIP Desktop SoftProof Be SJ S S S S Separations color IS SSSe lt Do not show this dialog box on open OK Cancel Separations color available only when separations view is chosen Controls whether separations will be exported as black or in their orig inal color Color space o Color managed sRGB recommended for color or content proofing The job will be converted into the standardized sRGB color space which will be dis played in the same way on calibrated monitors In this mode the files will be well compressed suitable for being sent over the Internet o CMYK or N color PDF only recommended only if the separations need to be accessed separately The separations of the job will be stored un changed so the displayed colors will depend on the CMYK Job style name Job style group name Printer share name AccuSet 170 2400 ba B ore AccuSet Workflow tasks V interpretation Ai Sizing 4 Dispro a Separations Trapping 1 Calibration J a Screening Z Imposition
112. e a special problem appears there can be shift errors of a few tenths of millimeters but sometimes even a few millimeters due to inaccuracies of the printing and the cutting processes the edge of the cut page will not fall exactly on the edge of the design elements leaving thin white borders at the margins The problem is avoided by the designers using an extra area of a few milli meters around the page as an extension of the intended design This will of fer some tolerance with the cutting precision even if the cut falls some 1 2 millimeters from the intended place the white border will not appear This area is called bleed The pictures below illustrate bleed the first without bleed and the second with bleed Handling the bleed is extremely important for imposition programs The imposition module must know where the intended trim area is so that it can position the crop marks correctly plus it must be able to handle the bleed area including it on the final print where it is necessary So the ability to handle the bleed does not mean that the RIP will automat Artwork without bleed left and with bleed right ically create an extension to the design this has to be done by the designer it means that it has to be able to work with two page sizes the trim box and the bleed media box The problem with the bleed is that the PostScript language does not have di rect support for it not even the Level 3 release i e
113. e for example linearization curves can be applied as dot gain compensation curves the actual names linearization and dot gain com pensation are just hints If any curves for any purposes need to be applied to the job they can be applied in either of the two locations One thing to understand though should you want to customize the calibrations is that the defined curves are response curves rather than transfer curves one be ing the inverse function of the other which is the straightforward solution for linearization as the curve reflects the actual measured values of the en gine at the target printed values and also the function needed by the ren dering module being applied over the halftone map rather than over the ac tual incoming colors 6 2 9 Screening task The screening task is done for all jobs that are not composite and natural ly turned off if a composite profile is selected The following options are available m Frequency the default screen frequency in lpi lines per inch Can be and by default will be used by the Screening type settings dialog K or base angle the default angle in degrees It is the base angle for building the angle set In the case of angles being assigned by color name e g typical color PDF files this will normally be the angle of the black Other angles of the angle set will be derived from the base angle typically the cyan will be 30 degrees from the base angle an
114. e a shortcut Select the action the shortcut has to be removed from Select the shortcut to remove in the Assigned shortcuts list m Click the Remove shortcut button 6 9 OTHER SETTINGS 6 9 1 Server options The server options are global settings for Cascade lt Imposition buffer size l V Allow fast copy F Print black plate First Y Search for updates automatically F Create printer only for the default job style V Share the created printers V Allow lazy write for TIFF Files Imposition buffer size affects how quickly a page can be rotated on the final rendering when it is sent to the Print manager A value of 100 MB is usually enough for a good speed larger values may cause prob lems in the memory management of Cascade Allow fast copy affects the speed of Cascade If this setting is on the files will be sent to the Print manager by a single file move operation which takes milliseconds if this is possible that is no imposition automatic rotation or other post rip changes having been made to the page m Print black plate first certain systems expect the black separation to be sent first Checking this option will change the order of separations al ways sending the black first Search for updates automatically enables or disables the automatic in ternet update feature of Cascade If turned on Cascade will regularly check f
115. e desired resolu tion e g 1440 X 1440 dpi with the native head resolution e g 720X180 dpi is to perform several head passes 16 passes in this example Be fore each head pass the paper is fed and the start position of the head is adjusted by 1 1440 inches After the 16 passes are done and a 1 inch wide 1440 X 1440 dpi image is built the paper is fed by one inch How ever feeding the paper uniformly by the same amount typically about 1 5 millimeters will greatly improve the result m One scanline printed by more nozzles given the uniform feed tech nique each scanline on the paper will have several nozzles aligned dur ing the printing process Distributing stochastically the pixels of the scanline between the available nozzles will also greatly improve the re sults The explanation of the improved results is that the droplets won t form com pactly misaligned groups anymore but rather will have their own almost r Quality Highest speed r Bidirectional mode On r Borderless printing On r Paper thickness Default 4 Drying time per scan O sec r Drying time per page O sec r Density D 4 Dutline protection f r Density of protected outline r Halve vertical resolution f Cancel r Ink s used for separations r MicroWeaving random misalignment The result is a uniform visual noise rather than banding with a dramatically reduced visual impact LOLOCOCOCLOOC
116. e g two PciAPIS boards are plugged into the same PC the two Print manag ers will distinguish the boards using the board index parameter one of the Print managers will use board o the other one will use board 1 Installing a second board later may change the existing board number ing The newly installed board may be numbered as o and the old one has changed to 1 This is because it is the BIOS of the computer that indexes these boards In this situation change the cables the boards or the indexes Not all boards support instance indexes Ask your local dealer about whether the boards have support for this feature If not the second Print manager will have to be installed on another computer EtherSetter interfaces have a slightly different indexing policy as they are networked and therefore may be visible from more PCs running Print man agers soeeeeeseeseesse 23 ETHERSETTER INTERFACES L EtherSetters are proprietary Cascade interfaces for imagesetters and plate setters They are small external boxes connected by Ethernet to the RIP and by a device specific cable to the print engine implementing its specific hard ware and software protocol e g APIS Pelbox LI2 LI5 Speedway As they connect through Ethernet they don t require Windows device drivers The only practical problem connecting them is to create the TCP IP link between the Print manager and the EtherSetter box Usually the link is created automatically without a set
117. e good PostScript files the use of this option should not be necessary PDF flattening the transparency flattening policy of Cascade It is rec ommended that it is left on Auto to allow Cascade to check whether the job contains transparency or not However if the PDF contains either transparency the Cascade checking mechanism cannot detect or new features which are beyond current PDF handling implementation it can be set temporarily to Always Skipping the transparency check by set ting the usage to Never may slightly speed up the job processing but is not recommended for regular use tion is the most desirable one first in the list and checked but if it is not present in the file Cascade will search for the CropBox BleedBox Pa geSize etc definitions If no match is found the Custom size will be de faulted see below Custom will set the page size directly ignoring the page size definitions of the file The Width and Height fields will define the size of the box while the OffsetX and OffsetY fields will define the position of the box on the page negative values allowed Enlarge page by will enlarge the extracted defined size Useful for files with missing bleed definition e g if the defined size is the trim size enlarging the defined size by 5 mm will provide the needed bleed Scaling resizes the job by a given percent 100 meaning no resize 6 2 4 Sizing task Both page size and page contents will
118. e imaged jobs will be stored in the History available under the History node of the Print manager window grouped based on the year month and day of printing These jobs then can be m Previewed again by the View button located on the toolbar of the Print manager docker Imaged again by the Reprint button also on the toolbar of the docker Searched for in the record of the Print manager even if the job has been physically erased from the hard disk information like name size color date will be stored and never erased 5 6 7 Commands and job flags Jobs or pages of the jobs can be marked with the following flags Mirror flag prints the pages of the jobs mirrored in the fast scan direc tion wrong reading Negative flag prints the pages in negative Cut after page flag will cut the media after printing the marked page or the last page of the marked job The media will be cut and the Print manager go into Pause status Stop after page flag will put the Print manager into Pause status The mirror and negative flags will be passed to the driver which will try to apply them at hardware level if available e g Agfa imagesetters support both mirrored and negative imaging otherwise they will be applied direct ly to the image data There are a few additional commands in the Print manager Cut the media manually by clicking the Cut button m Reset the print engine with the Reset button m Edit the settin
119. e is no DCHP server in the system the automatically assigned IP will be 192 168 0 124 m if the IP of the box is outside of the subnet modify temporarily the IP address of the PC to match the subnet of the box Typically you will have to access the http 192 168 0 124 page Modify the settings save them and then restart the box Fill in all the fields correctly not just the IP The Linux system of the boards will detect faulty settings e g the gateway being in a differ ent subnet than the IP and will not work correctly To keep the assigned IP change the EtherSetter ini file too see the chapter below 7 3 4 EtherSetter configuration file There is a configuration file in the Cascade program folder typically C Program files Cascade EtherSetter ini Normally this file doesn t need to be changed however for static IP configuration it will be necessary The file contains records like Board 1 IP auto Port 4023 Leaving the IP setting on auto will allow the Print Manager to negotiate an IP address with the box keeping the DHCP assigned IP or on DHCP fail ure assigning one When static IP assignment is wanted the static IP needs to be entered in to the configuration file instead of auto This will instruct the Print Manag er not to send broadcast messages at all but rather to try to connect to the given IP directly The board number in brackets refers to the Interface board field of the of one board
120. e length of the media used with the current profile in feed di rection o for a sheet fed machine set the height of the sheet plate o for a roll fed machine with limited image length e g drum imageset ter set the drum size o for roll fed machine with unlimited image length e g capstan imag setter set zero m Page placement options sets whether two pages coming from the same job or from different jobs can be printed on the same piece of media Useful with imagesetters or large format inkjet printers Printer profile name AccuSet 1500 2400 i Me Media size Alignment Sheet plate type Horizontal Vertical Transverse Width Page placement Length Collect all pages Unused area Non imagable area Left Left Top Top 0 Right 0 Right 0 0 Bottom Bottom F Print full media size Fast scan in feed direction e g drum technology Sheet fed or fixed length e g CTP desktop printer Try to use maximum media length m Unused area specifies the area measured from the edge of the media rather than from the imageable area which for various reasons is not intended to be printed irrespective of imageable or not The grip mar gin is a typical example of this Setting a non zero value will set the Print full media size option see below Non imageable area specifies the area measured from the
121. e lighter tint will always be spread under the darker one Old and new ink the preview of the original and the edited ink 6 7 USER MANAGEMENT By default Cascade is configured for a small office network letting Cas cade clients connect without any password protection In many cases this will be unsatisfactory Typical reasons are To prevent unauthorized user access when Cascade s Server is accessi ble from the Internet m To restrict access to only a select group in the enterprise when Cascade is running within the corporate network To compartmentalize Cascade use for example by having a group of users who are only allowed to print jobs but not permitted to modify the RIP settings To overcome these issues Cascade has built in user management This re stricts access to the RipServer by the creation of accounts with user names and passwords and the removal of unprotected accounts such as the De fault user 6 7 1 Users window The user accounts are managed in the Users window The accounts listed here can be changed or deleted and new accounts can be created At least one account must exist in the system it is not possible to delete an account if it is the last remaining one on the list When Cascade installs there is a us er named Default user with a blank password To add password protection the blank password will have to be replaced or new users created and given passwords not forgetting to delete the defaul
122. e list to change their orders with drag amp drop m Move pages with drag amp drop including from job to job The tick mark near the job or page icon shows whether the page is ready for imaging or not By default the jobs pages are always ticked when they ar rive in the list i e they will be printed without user intervention but m they can be un ticked by the user in order to prevent printing a page at all or to wait for a confirmation m pages are progressively un ticked by the Print manager as they are im aged After a page is imaged the Print manager will search for the first ticked page in the list and will start to image it As they are progressively un ticked the pages will be imaged in their natural order except when the list has been changed by the user m a job has been dragged and dropped in front of the currently imaged page m the currently imaged job has been dragged behind another job m a page or job has been ticked before the currently imaged page 5 6 6 Finishing the imaging If a page has been imaged the container job will be checked for removal A job is removed from the list when one of its pages finished imaging success fully and there are no more checked pages in the job This means that A job may be removed even if some of its pages may not have been im aged at all if they were unchecked by the operator m Unchecked jobs can stay in the list indefinitely waiting to be checked Th
123. e needed Cascade s ad vanced screening techniques succeeded in making these improvements 9 3 5 Limited number of shades Another well known problem of digital halftones is that the number of shades on a given device resolution is limited by the possible sizes of a half tone dot This is expressed as number of shades device resolution screen frequency For the typical 170 lpi 2400 dpi this means 200 shades for lower device resolutions or higher screen frequencies this could be even less However to achieve a smooth gradient at least 1000 shades are needed The answer to this problem arrived together with the supercell technology which also solved the moir problem and became the current de facto in dustry standard If the possible sizes of the halftone dots are very limited due to high line screen on low resolution for example there is no interme diate dot size between 10 and 11 an intermediary shade of 10 25 can be achieved by using 10 for three quarters of the dots and 11 for the other quarter of the dots distributed evenly This technique was a breakthrough in its time because this was the main obstacle to using high screen frequencies With this technology line screen 4 quantity 34 quantity of 11 dots of 10 dots frequencies of 180 200 Ipi can easily be reached at 2400 dpi without losing shades when previously these frequencies were restricted to higher resolu tion machines 9 3 6 Poor hig
124. e to any kind of moir 9 3 UNDERSTANDING DIGITAL HALFTONES Digitally created halftones have some specific problems caused by the fact that they are made by a raster device 9 3 1 Threshold maps Most digital halftone systems use a threshold map halftone map for gener ating halftone screens The picture below shows a threshold map a gray scale bitmap converted into halftoned black and white bitmaps The con version is similar to the usual grayscale to black and white conversions but uses the target gray value as the threshold level of the conversion If a grayscale bitmap typically 300 dpi is to be converted to halftoned monochrome bitmap typically 2400 dpi each of its gray pixels is treated as gray squares of 8 x 8 device pixels assuming the resolutions above As the halftone map must match the resolution of the device the threshold map covering the entire page would occupy a few gigabytes even for an av erage imagesetter or platesetter Just storing this sort of information would be a problem not to mention the time needed to generate it So the halftone map is tiled A tile for an obliquely angled halftone consists in two squares the tangent of the side ratio gives the tiling angle and this is equal to the ratio of the sides of the two squares By storing two bitmaps corresponding to the two straight squares on the picture allows the RIP to reproduce the whole halftone map by tiling see the oblique rectangles
125. e to see the preflight warning text at the status bar of the Job browser window or clicking on the Job information button above the window g GhostScript console Processing job C ProgramData StudioRIP temp 1 tmp a Checking for PDF 1 4 transparency E Page 1 no transparency done Processing pages 1 through 1 Page 1 Page output of images 4 of rectangles 2404144 Interpreted 4 4s TIFF s saved 4 4s TOTAL 8 85 TOTAL job time 9 1s E 4 p aa O lt x J z aa A lt Z lt cc LLJ N 5 2 4 The Ghostscript console It is possible to follow the messages of the PostScript PDF engine in the Ghostscript console docker Both stdout and stderr outputs are redirect ed to this window including PostScript errors or warnings In addition de tails of processing e g rendering times will appear here 5 3 PREVIEWING AND CHANGING JOB A job can be previewed by clicking on its listing in the Job browser tree view The preview will appear in the viewer window on the left Tig Separations Ti Composite 1 Imposition EH Media BOE sO T i HT 4 EMepalnM lt 1 gt bl tpage 642mm t 222mm 679 29 mm 5 3 1 The viewer window and its controls On the left of the windows there are 6 tools Arrow tool this is used exclusively in the imposition view for selecting and moving pages on the sheet Zoom
126. ed and placed onto the media The picture below shows how the 8 separation pages are grouped into 2 composite pages and the composite pages are imposed on one sheet Cascade imposition works with the composite pages of the job the ones O T A lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt shown under the Composite node of the job browser tree The results of the imposition are the sheets shown under the Imposition node Uig Job browser aongee Bly oA 4 Sp AccuSet 1500 2400 a F Test job 1 pdF 4 ie Separations _ Page 1 Cyan _ Page 1 Magenta _ Page 1 Yellow _ Page 1 Black _ Page 2 Cyan _ Page 2 Magenta _ Page 2 Yellow _ Page 2 Black 4 ty Composite _ Page 1 Page 2 4 Imposition _ Sheet 1 D Media gt Job queue Done An imposition can only be made up from pages of the same job To cre ate an imposition using pages from different jobs first combine the jobs 8 1 2 Splitting jobs for imposition If different imposition styles will be used on different pages of a job first split the job resulting in two jobs then each of them can be imposed in its own style Here is an example the color pages of a book will be printed on an A3 ma chine the black and white pages will be printed on an A2 machine There fore the black and white pages will have a different imposition scheme from the color pages Select the color pages of the job under the Co
127. ed files Program files C ProgramDatal downloads FTP Pub GIB28 hidownload Install MSOCache NVIDIA PerfLogs Program Files ProgramData Naess system isn t large enough choose a different location It is recommend ed though to keep the program files at their default location Changing the file locations of an existing installation can be done by running the Setup and specifying the new location The data files from the old location will be safely moved into the new location Cascade will need large areas of HDD space for storing the 1 bit files If your PC has multiple drives or the HDD has multiple partitions choose the biggest one for the data files Step 4 if this installation is a re install or an upgrade of the Server choose whether to perform a clean install or to keep some of the old settings sur Server Previous installation found Setup has detected that the Server is already installed Clean install delete and replace all the previously installed parts Update the Server Preserve From previous installation V Calibration curves V Inks Printer profiles Color profiles V Job styles V Server options v V Imposition styles V Prepress marks V Users m Step 5 if a previous install of the Print manager is detected three choic es will be offered 1 Installing a n
128. ed rosette controls whether the C M and K screens will form dot centered or clear centered rosettes Small registration errors m Hybrid transition limits flexo option ON specify the minimum and can cause color changes these are less noticeable if clear centre rosettes maximum allowed size in percents or microns of the screen dots as are used Dot centered rosette appear more pleasing to the eye well as size of the dots at the other end of the AM FM transition phase As aresult the halftone will have the following phases 9 7 2 FM settings tab o Pure AM e g 35 65 the dot has a perfect grid structure and acts The FM settings tab defines the parameters of the stochastic FM screening like a traditional halftone dot The following controls are available o AM FM transition e g 3 35 and 65 97 as the dots get small _ er from 35 towards 3 and from 65 towards 97 in our exam Seeing re ple they are slowly drifted towards a stochastic structure from the ee ema Co n I Ipi r 0 0 i i i z gridpoints ending up at 3 and 97 in this example in a struc et aie eo ture that looks almost perfectly stochastic If the values are closer to B a the extremes e g 30 instead of 35 or 70 instead of 65 the soso aa Dot size structure reached at the end of the phase will be less stochastic If the values are closer to 50 e g 40 instead of 35 or 60 instead of FIR 65 the structure reached will be closer to
129. ed to be black see definition of black below Step limit has an influence on deciding whether two adjacent colors need trapping or not Increasing this number will cause certain colors not to be trapped Black limit specifies whether a tint can be considered black and there LLI O lt D a lt U Z cc gt T LL Z oe v lt Z lt cc Lid N fore trapped as black assuming that its ink is dark enough to be con sidered black see below Typically tints over 95 are considered black m Black density limit if an ink has a neutral density above the value spec ified here it will be considered black Normally only very dark inks have to be considered black Sliding trap limit specifies when the trap will start to be shared be tween two adjacent colors if the ratio between the neutral densities of the two colors is above this limit i e the density of the two colors is close enough instead of the light color trapping the dark one they will share the trap shifting the trap gradually instead of a jump when trap ping vignettes Increasing this value will tighten the transition area on vignette traps Density limit if a non zero value is specified as the density limit the density of the trap will be limited to the density of the original color in creased by the value specified here e g if the value specified is 70 and the density of the original color is 0 5 then the maximum
130. eening However it would be the wrong conclusion to think that they are unable to produce prints that are visually equivalent to an offset print The trick is that while imagesetters must produce compact sharp halftone dots otherwise it could not be used by the printing press the halftone dot on the proofer can be crumbled the human eye is unable to perceive that on the paper An inkjet printer with a resolution of at least 1200x1200 dpi used in conjunction with light inks is able to produce a perfectly smooth halftone screen of up to 200 lpi which the human eye can hardly distinguish from offset printing although this halftone screen cannot be used for fur ther processing because microscopically the dots are crumbled and have low density 10 1 5 Comparison of proofing techniques Below is a table with the advantages and disadvantages of the three proof ing techniques Contone Excellent average AE 1 Color accuracy Halftone simulation None Theoretical chance Data integrity for errors Flexibility Profiled once Automatic Imposition simulation l at impositions only Speed Job ripped twice 10 1 6 Color accuracy AE Halftone Excellent average AE 1 Good fairly similar look Theoretical chance for errors Profiled for each target Automatic impositions only Job ripped twice raster Good average AE 2 5 Excellent dot for dot Errors are impossible Profile
131. eful for achieving pure black for texts when the Convert RGB black to PS black of the Separations task will not work due to color manage ment issues e g choosing a threshold of 98 will usually transform the color managed RGB black into pure RGB black PDF password the user or owner password to be used to open a pass word protected PDF file Disable unsafe file operations instructs the PS interpreter module to ignore any file operations that may harm the computer by design Post Script files are allowed to change or delete files in the system Disable deprecated Do PS directives Do PS directives allow applica tions embed native PS EPS code in a PDF document Since PS EPS code may potentially harm your computer see Disable unsafe file op erations these directives are deprecated hence PDF reference recom mends avoiding their usage Merge similar Pantone colors corrects for the very common error of mistakenly including the same Pantone color with slightly different names e g PANTONE 339 C vs PANTONE 339 CV If plates with such names are detected Cascade will automatically merge these plates into one single plate Guess color information if this option is on the RIP will try to guess how to assign color information to the pages and how to group the sep arations in composite pages in cases of PostScript files with poor or bad page and color information This may not always work correctly so if using programs which generat
132. egular History jobs but at any attempt to access them a window will appear asking for the right DVD to be inserted into the PC To archive jobs from the History select years months days jobs or pages of jobs and then click the Archive button The Archive jobs window will ap pear Choose the DVD writer drive you want to use the maximum archive size i e the size of the DVD and a label that you will use to identify the DVD later then click the Archive button If the selected jobs do not fit on the DVD they will be archived only partial ly You can then continue archiving the selected jobs by inserting another blank DVD the previously archived jobs will not be archived again The Archive files command will copy the high resolution bitmap Files from the History to backup storage devices such as CD DVD or other media accessible through the file system of the PC running the server application The HDD space occupied by the archived Files will then be freed but the jobs will still be listed in the History and accessible for subsequent use from the storage media Choose storage media CD DVD on the Print Manager PC ATAPI DYD A DH2044P 9P54 Z Other location relative to the Print Manager PC C Users RIP Desktop g CD DYD options Maximum archive size 4450 5 MB CD DYD label RIP 1 5 6 10 Cassette manager The Cassette manager toolbar can be shown or hidden by the Show cassette manager butto
133. er is set to Printer based The procedure for registering dead nozzles is as follows m Print a nozzle test page and search for the dead nozzle s m Write down the ink e g Light cyan and number of the nozzle For ex ample on the picture above nozzles 137 and 155 are dead m Open the DeviceSettings ini file in the Print manager data folder in Notepad m Create a section called DeadNozzles see example below at the end of the file m Create a line with the name of the ink C M Y K LC LM LK or LLK followed by the sign and the numbers of the dead nozzles separated by commas each comma followed by a space m Save the file and restart Print manager In the example above the newly added section will look like this DeadNozzles LC 137 155 7 4 4 Head alignment Epson printers may have head misregistration problems i e different inks printed in slightly different position causing blurry edges Cascade can be set up to compensate for this registration error by sending the various sepa ration planes pre shifted in the opposite direction to the registration error so that the result will be a perfect registration To align the heads of an Epson printer follow the steps below m Print the Inkjet head alignment pdf file from the Proof charts folder of the installation CD using a native i e not proof Epson printer profile If the printer does not have some of the light inks you may delete them by selectin
134. er will present the Client application 4 1 THE MAIN WINDOW As shown on the picture on the next page the main window contains the fol lowing controls m Menu bar located at the top of the main window Standard toolbar located under the menu bar containing buttons for common operations such as Open Context toolbar changing its contents depending on the current view separations composite imposition media Four preview windows for the four views the view can be changed by the tabs at the top of the windows Four preview tools to the left of the preview windows m Preview settings bar under the preview windows Three holders for dockers customizable Two buttons Hide show dockers and Auto hide dockers controlling the Status bar at the bottom of the window 4 2 MENU ITEMS 4 2 1 File menu m Connect will connect the Client to the Server Normally does not have to be used because the Client connects automatically on startup It is useful when the connection was lost for some reason and manual recon nection is necessary Disconnect disconnects the Client from the Server m Open opens a PostScript EPS PDF JPEG BMP or TIFF file for pro cessing The opened file will be uploaded to the Server through the TCP communication channel and processed Add print engine wizard starts the Add print engine wizard See sec LLJ Q lt x U V lt lt U m Z O cc lt x gt lt
135. es are invisi ble to the naked eye Disadvantages data integrity there is a slight theoretical chance for content differences between the proof and the print m lower speed the file needs to be processed twice imposition only automatic impositions that can be replicated in the proofing process can be simulated 10 1 4 Raster proofs Raster proofers take the already processed raster data as it will be imaged on the imagesetter CTP simulating the in rip imposition halftone dots etc on the proof Advantages Guaranteed data integrity content differences between the proof and the print are impossible Halftone simulation the look of the proof will be more authentic it also might help in detecting moir s Imposition simulation the user has the ability to simulate even manual ly made impositions Ease of use using the already ripped files proofs can be created with one mouse click m Fast the job does not have to be processed twice Disadvantages Reduced color accuracy the typical color accuracy is about average AE 2 5 whereas contone proofing can achieve average AE lt 1 Several profiles needed the profiling operation needs to be done for each simulated ICC as well as for every utilized line screen calibra tion curve etc It is a common misconception that the simulated C M Y and K halftones are made directly with the C M Y and K inks of the inkjet printer In reali ty things
136. es generated by Cascade Normally the folder name is automatically changed together with the Print manager instance index setting If Print manager runs on a network computer the share name of the hot folder catcher the path of the hot folder needs to be entered here Add Print Engine Wizard Choose the print engine you would like to add If the print engine cannot be Found in the list or you would like to change some of the property values you can Freely edit the data below Agfa AccuSet 1000 Print engine properties Short name Maximum length inches AccuSet 1000 100 Available media widths inches Drum technology 10 12 13 3 14 Composite device Available resolutions dpi Printer inks 600 1200 1800 2400 3000 The hot folder location is relative to the Server It may be easier to run the Client on the Server PC for this setup to avoid confusion m If the connection to the Print manager has succeeded the print engine information will be retrieved and filled in automatically If a third party TIFF catching application is being used the engine type will have to be specified at this point m Print engine properties can also be modified manually or a custom print engine can be created by filling out the fields Most of the fields are self explanatory The Composite device field specifies whether the print engine is color e g inkjet printer or monochrome e g CTP i
137. es into composite pages Technically a job can be passed to the Cascade in five ways Using the Cascade printers Using the hot folder system m Opening the job by the Open command of the Client or drag amp drop over Client program s window m Using the Open with Ripserver exe command from Windows Explorer As a RipServer exe command line parameter 5 1 1 Using the Cascade printers Unless having the Create printer only for the default job style option checked or the Share the created printers option unchecked Cascade will create and share a printer for each job style as they are added For example if a job style called New job style is created in the Cascade system a printer called Cascade New job style will be automatically added to the operating system and becomes visible over the network as the New job style network printer Cascade Server captures all the print jobs printed on this printer and will open them using the job style called New job style In effect Cas cade will act as a PostScript printer any Windows program will be able to print directly to it without making PostScript files or performing any oth er operations Having the shared network printer created automatically and unless there is a firewall or an operating system setting blocking the visibility of the printer it is possible to print to this network printer from anywhere in the network Windows XP automatically connects to shared netwo
138. ess Immediately after comple tion of the setup the interface board should be fitted in order to use Cas cade If the print engine to be connected to Cascade uses a Windows commu nication port typically an inkjet printer choose the right port in the Com munication port box Normally this is straightforward as the port name is similar to the engine name e g USB HP DesignJet 130 but it might be difficult if the name of the port has a generic name e g USB USB2 0 Printer In most cases the USB port used by Epson printers has the following name USB USB2 0 Printer Hi speed Devices using Windows communication ports can also be set to use the Win dows print spooler As a last resort this option is always available choose the right printer with the SPOOL prefix in the Communication port box This is necessary when the use of the communication port is difficult or im possible the print engine is connected through Ethernet Fireware port etc or the USB port is shared for other functions If the print engine to be connected to Cascade uses a Windows print spool er i e it is a windows monochrome printer such as a HP LaserJet 4000 the Windows printer box will become active allowing the user to choose the printer Monochrome Windows printers can be driven using the Windows monochrome printer device and then choosing the right printer from the list 3 1 2 Connecting the Client Once the Cascade Server
139. etect whether a vector ob ject was intended to be black but the program which generated the PostScript file was unable to handle CMYK or by mistake an RGB black is present in a design in either case the R G B o colors will be converted to C M Y 0 K 100 this option only works when the force nonzero overprint option is checked Convert RGB gray to PS gray similar to the previous option converting any R G B x colors into C M Y 0 K y where y is com puted from x m Manage gray images as RGB converts grayscale images to RGB i e after a color separation resulting in grays achieved from CMY compo nents It may improve the quality of grayscale images in certain con ditions m Enable overprint enables overprint management for composite files pre separated files must have the overprint rendered during the sepa ration process Turning off this setting will disable overprinting in composite files m Enable white overprint enables the overprint of white objects In most cases white objects are set to be overprinted only by mistake as the re sult is that they won t be printed so keeping this option unchecked is recommended Force nonzero overprint in PS versions before 3015 102 an overprint ed object leaves untouched only components that the current paint op eration doesn t contain e g painting with a spot color did not touch the CMYK components but knocks out all components from the current paint
140. ether the dot gain is correct or not is definitely recommended If the dot gain is substantially different first search for technological faults non linear films or plates wrong exposure time wrong ink density on the paper etc If all the possible technological faults are ruled out dot gain compensation will be needed 6 5 3 How it works The dot gain compensation technique uses a second set of calibration curves like the linearization curves of the imagesetter CTP if any to reach an ex pected target dot gain LLI O lt D a lt U Z cc gt T LL Z oe v lt Z lt cc LLJ 2 The steps of a dot gain compensation procedure are as follows The target ICC profile is chosen This is the profile that is used for color separation typically ISO coated Cascade extracts the dot gain curves from the chosen profile A dot gain compensation chart is printed e g on the offset press The chart is measured with a spectrophotometer Using the two curves the desired target dot gain and the actual measured dot gain Cascade calculates a compensation curve that applied to the jobs will match the desired dot gain m Cascade saves the computed compensation curves The curves will be available in the Calibration manager and naturally in the Dot gain compensation section of the Job style dialog m If requested the curves will be automatically applied to the specified job style
141. etwork printers and all the jobs sent to them will be captured by the Cascade Server application 3 2 2 Setting up network printers on Mac Mac workstations using OSX can use the shared network printers without modification Use the Add printer utility to connect to the printer Mac workstations using Mac OS or earlier can also connect without modifica tion if the Cascade Server is running on a PC with an NT Server OS e g Windows 2003 Server provided this has services for Macs installed file and printer sharing Neither of these cases needs third party applications With Mac OS 9 running on the Mac workstations and XP or other non server OS on the server PC Miramar PC MacLan or other third party software will be needed 3 3 SETTING UP THE HOT FOLDERS Using the hot folder system is a fast and easy way to send previously creat ed PDF or PS files from the workstations It is the only practical way to do it from a Mac workstation where the Open command of the Client sees the file system of the server PC rather than of the workstation The working principle of the hot folder is the following there is a root hot folder located in the folder specified during the installation as Shared fold ers on XP systems the default is C Documents and Settings All Users Documents Cascade HotFolder and on Vista systems the default is C Us ers Public Documents Cascade HotFolder containing one folder for each job style a
142. ew instance for systems with more than one print engine connected to the same computer 2 Perform a s a lt l z H N lt Z lt cc LLJ N clean install or 3 For re installations and upgrades keeping some of the settings of the previously installed Print manager Set n M Print Manager Previous installation Found Setup has detected that the Print Manager is already installed New instance for driving more print engines from the same PC Clean install delete and replace all the previously installed parts Update the Print Manager Preserve From previous installation V History V JobList V Settings m Step 6 after the Setup program performs the installation there are a number of choices o Set up the automatic launch of the server applications on startup this is recommended for simple XP installations o Register the server applications as system services this is recom mended only for Mac clients using Windows Server 2003 or newer and will start the server applications without a user logon however the tray icons will not appear anymore and manually starting stop ping the applications will be more complicated they can be started stopped from the Services application of Windows o Create NT user accounts for the Terminal Services users this is obligatory for Mac Clients specifying the account name and pass word Note a b
143. ex 1 aa Print Manager TCP port number 40235 TIFF hot Folder location relative to the StudioRIP Server PC RIP Print manager Hot Folder The following choices are available Sharing the same computer with the server for default setup one Print manager installed on the same PC as the Server no additional settings are needed Different computer name or IP if the Print manager is on a different computer than the Server application it will be necessary to specify the IP number or host name of that computer No Print manager third party application for TIFF output if connect ing through a third party TIFF catcher application to the print engine select No Print manager and fill out the hot folder location of the TIFF catcher The Cascade section in the path string will be replaced by the Server application to the path of the Cascade data folder m Print manager instance index if more than one Print manager appli cation is running on the same PC it will be necessary to specify its in stance index 1 for the first one 2 for the second one and so on Chang ing the index will also modify the port number and the hot folder loca tion automatically Print manager TCP port number normally it is automatically changed together with the Print manager instance index setting change it manu ally only if a special setup is needed TIFF hot folder location the path of the hot folder expecting the TIFF fil
144. f such values are specified Cascade will perform linear interpolation on the ink duct data to match the specified range aa O lt x J z aa A lt Z lt cc LLJ 2 Press profile Press profile name Heidelberg GTO 52 General Cylinder width Cylinder length Number of keys Key range Placement Left margin Right margin Top margin Bottom margin Alignment Orientation of portait sheets aeee a Orientation of landscape sheets me p a Left right top and bottom margins define the area on the plate where the job will be placed Alignment defines the horizontal and vertical placement of the job on the plate relative to the margins defined above Orientation of portrait sheets if the orientation of the sheet in Cascade is portrait that is its width is less than its height then the orientation Print Export to file Close 10 11 12 13 14 115 16 9 Cyan 14 18 20 20 22 21 21 i21 9 8 9 32 138 39 137 128 Magenta 9 12 13 14 16 15 15 16 1 0 1 27 35138 136130 Yellow 11 11 111 114 116115 115116 1 0 O 17 21 125 22 123 Black 10 13 is i15 16117 entail ry 3 7 21 22 i27 126 119 setting chosen here will be used for the placement of the given job on the plate Orientation of landscape sheets if the orientation of the sheet in Cas cade is landsca
145. f very useful for checking vertical or upside down texts m Navigation buttons change which page to view with these buttons Color monochrome button only available for the separated views separations and media specifies whether a separation page will be shown as black amp white or in its original color m Continuous film view button only available in the media view speci fies whether the media is shown as one continuous piece of media or as separate pages Labels show the numerical sizes of the pages Changing the color view mode or preview orientation does not change the output these are just preview options 5 3 2 Separations view The separation view shows the pages of the job as separations in black amp white or in their original color Separated pages can be viewed even if the in put job was composite Switch to separations view either by clicking the Separations tab above the view window or by expanding the Separations node under the node of the job in the Job browser then clicking on any separation of the page Separation pages can be deleted or moved within the job or to another job If there are unwanted separation pages in the job remove them by selecting them in the Job browser and then clicking the Delete button on the toolbar or pressing it on the keyboard In the separations view the toolbar contains some general information about the job m Job style being used for processing the job
146. f 1X1 m Cell size some technologies use fixed cell sizes for impositions for ex ample labels with fixed sizes By specifying the cell size the pages will be centered into these cells irrespective of their size m Pre press marks available only if the Prepare pre press marks option is checked in the job style Keep gripper edge in the same position it is particularly important Imposition style name Book 8 up Gutters Vertical Horizontal Equal gutters Equal gutters 1 2 0 3cm 1 2 0 5cm 2 3 0 3cm 3 4 0 3cm on CTP machines where the gripper edge must fall in the same position on the plate The effect of this setting will be that on double sided impo sitions the pages but not the pre press marks of the second signature will be rotated by 180 which in practice means that the gripper edge will be always in the same position m Transverse if the media saving has rotated the pages normally done counterclockwise ticking this option will also rotate imposition to match the orientation of the pages Normally imposition works on up right pages only so leaving this option un ticked will result in incorrect imposition for rotated pages m Clone pages Multiple copies of the same page step and repeat 8 3 2 Gutters tab In the gutters tab specify the horizontal and vertical gutters of an imposi tion If the Equal gutters box is t
147. fer ICC profile Proof tab m open the job style choose the ICC profile of the proofer in the Separation profile box Sep arations task m open the Color Profiles folder in the Cascade data folder on Vista the default location will be C ProgramData Cascade Color profiles you will find the ICC profile of the proofer m install the ICC profile of the proofer into the DTP applications you in tend to use as the printer press profile From this moment on files printed through this setup will use the maximum gamut of the printer and will print accurate colors Note that colors defined as CMYK might be very different from the ge neric offset CMYK colors 10 4 ADJUSTING THE SPEED AND QUALITY With very few exceptions modern inkjet printers that are A3 or wider are able to print good quality contone and raster proofs The major quality is sues are m Speed printing an A3 proof might take between 5 and 30 minutes the printing speed is often adjustable at the expense of the quality Halftone quality mechanical inaccuracies often cause grainy halftones or moir The accuracy of the head and paper movement has therefore a huge impact on the halftone quality Color gamut the colors of the printer inks heavily influence the color accuracy of the output Certain printers are unable to reproduce the off set inks accurately and therefore the proofs will have bad color accuracy m Light inks the light versions of the CMYK inks
148. for it to boot m Connect the power cable to the EtherSetter The power LED should light immediately and the Ready LED should start flashing m When the EtherSetter finished booting after about 1 minute the Ready LED should light Now the EtherSetter will establish communication with the imagesetter and having succeeded will light the Engine link LED wizard will appear to allow you to choose your imagesetter from the list of available devices Choose the driver for example EtherAPIS for Ag fa or EtherLino for Linotronic m Once the Print manager is running the PC link LED on the EtherSet ter should light If immediate communication is not established the first time try rebooting the EtherSetter and restarting the Print manager For non standard networks it may be necessary to configure the EtherSetter 2 2 3 Legacy systems with interface boards Fit the engine interface card into the PC that will connect to the print engine Connect and start the print engine then start the PC It should say that it has Found new hardware Point it to the appropriate driver on the install CD or folder m for a Cascade PciAPIS interface card the driver is in the Drivers PciA PIS folder for a Highwater Designs Ltd PCI interface card the driver is in the Drivers HighWater folder 2 2 4 Connecting to a third party TIFF catcher In this scenario the Print manager will not be used to drive the engine and will not be installed Ensu
149. ft version of the ICC International Color Consortium profile These files describe the color space of one or more devices and define the way to transform a color from one color space to another Cascade uses color profiles for the RGB to CMYK conversions More needs to be said here now Imagesetter a high quality laser printer printing on photo sensitive media film or paper used in the pre press industry The printed films can then be copied to offset plates or used for other printing technolo gies Imposition a procedure of arranging pages for printing typically two or more pages on a sheet which then will be folded and or cut In rip separation the process when the RIP is performing the color sep aration typically producing the four C M Y and K plates from a composite job JDF an industry standard designed to simplify information exchange between different applications and systems in and around the graphic arts industry Cascade uses JDF to transfer ink duct control informa Job browser the most important docker of the Cascade Client man aging the job list and allowing operations like previewing deleting or 312 Job style specifies how a job will be processed printer profile screen frequency dot size geometry in rip separations etc Job styles can be ager lt page 51 Line screen v the number of halftone dots per unit measured in lpi lines per inch or Ipc lines per centimeter A 150 lpi screen has
150. g marks size is used each side of it containing both the front and the back The o Center pages centers the content of the sheet horizontally vertical same thing is printed on both sides of the sheet but so arranged that ly ignoring the marks in other words centering the bounding box of each front page has the back page on the reverse side The work and the pages without the marks O turn and work and tumble styles can be combined with binding styles o Align left right top bottom aligns the content of the sheet horizon for example a saddle stitched job 2X1 can be printed as work and tally vertically to the left right top bottom of the sheet ignoring O tumble transforming it into a 2X2 job the marks based on the bounding box of the pages lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt ITEE Fo o Horizontal vertical gap specifies the alignment gap i e the distance between the bounding box of the pages and the specified edge of the sheet For example left alignment with 1 cm gap will place the left most page at 1 cm from the left edge of the sheet Imposition style Imposition style name Book 8 up Placement Gutters Binding Sheet Sheet size Automatic fit all pages and marks Custom size width 50 cm Height 35 Ca Content placement Horizontal Gap Center pages rm cm v Vertical Gap sop 2e m PEPEE A e e a EE To make an imposition wi
151. g only the corresponding composite page having the same size and con tent as the corresponding composite page When making an imposition the number sizes and content of the sheets is changed This can be done in two ways Using the imposition window which automatically performs the impo sition for the standard imposition schemes or Using the controls on the toolbar which gives manual control of the po sitions of the pages E R eres 2 res ice aaa ana eeeoean Using the automatic imposition is the easiest way to create impositions The automatic imposition settings can be saved for later use and can even be ap plied on the fly in processing time for books or catalogs The imposition window manages the Imposition styles Using this win dow impositions can be added removed or edited By using the Apply im position button the imposition can be applied to a selected job The Clear Imposition button will remove any imposition from the current job E e cuss ieee nage soo E E PE When adding or editing an imposition the Imposition properties window will appear A slightly modified version of this window will appear too when clicking on the Imposition button on the main toolbar or choosing the Imposition menu item With this window opened either apply the imposition settings on the se lected job using the Apply button or save the settings as an imposition style Save or OK depending on which way the window was opened Pushin
152. g the Apply button the RIP will automatically resize the sheets to l Imposition styles tTI Z Z5 apply standard pre press marks ZZ Book 4 up p fe Book 8 up ZDouble sided 1 x1 ZZ Saddle stitching 4 pages Z Saddle stitching 8 pages Zsimple 2 up 1 x2 ZZ Simple 2 up 2x1 Z simple 4 up 2 x2 Zstep and repeat 1x2 Z Step and repeat 2x1 Z Step and repeat 2 x2 fit the contents and will apply the imposition to all the sheets of the cur rent job If Cascade detects that the imposition scheme is wrong the Apply button will be disabled and an error message will appear under the window ex plaining why the RIP considers that the settings are invalid 8 3 1 Placement tab Imposition style name Book 8 up Placement Gutters Binding Sheet O00 4 Cell size As the pages of the selection Custom size Width Height em adl MERE R Br A V Keep gripper edge in the same position Transverse for counterclockwise rotated pages Clone pages for step and repeat In the placement tab the following options are available m Number of rows and columns the exact number of rows and columns that will appear on the sheet taking into account the pages doubled by the work and turn and work and tumble styles Example For a double sided A4 job which will be printed with work and tumble a 1x2 page must be specified instead o
153. g the unnecessary plates in the Job browser and clicking the Delete button m Search for the best registration in each row Note that there is a row for horizontal X and another one for vertical Y registration look for the best registration match only on the given axis e g in the LCx row look for the best horizontal registration ignoring the eventual misregistra tion on the other axis opte opoe m In the example above the best cyan registration is in the 2 column vertical misregistration ignored and the best magenta registration is in the 1 column m Open the DeviceSettings ini file in the Print manager data folder in Notepad m Create a section called HeadAlignment see example below to the end of the file m Create a line for each row with misalignment For example in the ex ample above the Cx line needs a correction of 2 so enter the name of the line Cx followed by the sign and the correction value 2 Null corrections can be ignored i e their lines can be omitted very small correction values may also be ignored m Save the file and restart Print manager In the example above the newly added section will look like HeadAlignment Cx 2 Mx 1 aa LLJ J lt Z lt x aa A 8 Imposition Cascade has a built in imposition system which is able to work with pre press marks and is able to perform complex impositions saddle stitching collate and cu
154. g this option o Use of third party TIFF catchers which may not be compatible with this tag o Only the job area rather than the entire film plate needs to be in verted Using the tag the print engine may be instructed to work in negative mode e g Agfa imagesetters inverting the entire imaged area e g film width rather than just the job Use Orientation tag for wrong reading if mirrored pages are sent out this option will specify whether the mirroring will be rendered by the Cascade resulting in a baseline TIFF containing mirrored information which can be read by all TIFF readers guaranteed or it will be sent LLI O lt D a lt U Z cc gt T LL Z oe v lt Z lt cc LLJ N out as right reading data but with the Orientation tag set to mirrored resulting in higher speed and efficiency but possible incompatibility if the TIFF reader cannot handle this tag correctly If you use third party TIFF catchers you may want to uncheck this option Sheet plate type contains a list of predefined page sizes Choosing a predefined page size will fill the width and length fields automatically m Transverse used in conjunction with sheet plate type swapping the width and height of the selected sheet plate Width the width of the media used with the current profile perpendic ular to the feed direction In case of roll fed media this will be the width of the roll Length th
155. ge on the print area is necessary Some print engines provide limited or no control for positioning the image on the media therefore Cascade offers a simple but effective way to control the position of the image imaging the maximum im ageable area placing the image on this area according to the settings and leaving the areas outside of the image unexposed or fully exposed in case of negative printing However this method has several disadvantages Imaging the maximum area including the white borders is usually slower than imaging just the effective image Setting up the print engine if possible might yield better speed m Cascade performance might also be affected by creating larger output files Setting up the margins with wrong values might cause inaccurate place ment or imaging errors Therefore on most print engines the Print full media size option is turned off by default On CTP machines which need accurate placement of the image on the plate the recommended setting is on Fast scan in feed direction on drum engines the job width is confus ingly measured along the media axis i e the jobs are go rotated from their normal position so this option needs to be checked in order to have the automatic rotation media saving and media count functional ities working properly o Check this option for drum engines where the width of the job is measured along the media length axis o Leave it unchecked for capst
156. ginal print can be hard to spot m 6 10 an acceptable match the color differences are clearly distinguish able even on different prints but the difference is not disturbing When estimating the accuracy of a proofer the average AE maximum AE and maximum AE for primaries are taken in account 10 2 SETTING UP THE PROOFING SYSTEM 10 2 1 Spectrophotometer setup It is impossible to set up the proofer without a spectrophotometer therefore it is critical to have a spectrophotometer installed in the system The spec trophotometer has to be connected to a PC that runs the Client application rather than to the Server PC The spectrophotometer can be set up by the Spectrophotometer setup item in the Proof menu The following settings are available m Spectrophotometer model in version 3 3 only X Rite DTP 41 and Eye One are available Communication port the port that the spectrophotometer is connected to Grayed out if the connection is managed automatically Proof test wizard Choose the ICC profile of the target device then measure the test page Target ICC profile 150 Coated Read strip 1 Spectrophotometer calibration m Patch height scan direction as the profiling charts will be generated for the chosen spectrophotometer the width and height of the generated patches are set up here affecting measurement accuracy but also speed and print costs This is the dimension of the pa
157. gs of the print engine by clicking the Engine properties button aa O lt x J z aa A lt Z lt cc Lud 2 Note that some of these features may not be available on all machines 5 6 8 Print manager history they are held they can be reprinted entirely or partially with no need to re rip them A full list of all the printed jobs containing their characteristics such as the size of the job the date it was printed etc is never deleted as it occu pies insignificant disc space but is stored as a permanent archive of all the jobs imaged through the Cascade Print manager Once the actual job data has been deleted from the history its listing will appear as grayed out these files cannot be reprinted To view or reprint jobs or pages select them in the history list and then click the View or Reprint buttons on the toolbar This is possible only if the jobs are still on the hard disk do not appear as grayed out in the list If the media saving has grouped two separations into one TIFF for exam ple a cyan and a magenta plate together then it will not be possible to view it as a single color page However if the plates were kept separately the job will be recombined exactly as the original one was 5 6 9 Archiving files Files from the History can be archived to DVD The archived job will appear in the History with a DVD icon and will be available for reprint or viewing like the r
158. hart rather than an ICC profile file there are not enough information to verify the profile In this case please quit this wizard Print the test page with the proofer job style If there is no job style For the proofer typically For raster proofing Follow the usual path of printing the proof When the proof is printed click on the Next button Print test page with job style Contone proof V Send the page immediately For output lt Prev Next gt Cancel test chart will be printed now Wait for the printer to finish and let the print dry m If a job style was used the Target ICC profile box will be automatical ly set to the ICC profile used by the job style Otherwise the target ICC profile should be manually selected Calibrate the densitometer by clicking on the Calibrate densitometer function m Read the test chart The measured AE values will be displayed for each patch Choose the ICC profile of the target device then measure the test page Target ICC profile 150 Coated X Read strip 1 e m fy k k fa b o fo fo ss 4os3f s o lo lo e74 27 5 36 7 o sos 14 3 21 5 5 Spectrophotometer calibration o S ao fo fo ee 257 s1 o hoo fo fa9 3_ 4 8 foss lt Prev Next gt Cancel m Click Next The evaluation of the test will be displayed as follows o Average AE general the average of all AE values
159. has not been generated before it may take seconds or even min utes for the screens to be generated and displayed in the preview area By default the tester is set up to test a typical PDF situation only the col or names and nothing else is declared so the angles are looked up from the Angle table and the default screen frequency dot shape etc will be used It is possible though to simulate line screen and angle declarations too as ex plained below The following controls are available m Dot percentage will change the simulated percentage of the select ed color s Each color has its own percentage but they can also be Check dot Color name Black Cyan Magenta Yellow Color and angle Send color name only Send angle only Send color name and angle Line screen Send line screen information Ipi P Ri fe aY A B tio aere bai KAILO VEIA 5th _ etree Grey levels 4094 Desired shade 44 15 Real shade 44 1 UO Z LLI Lu cc U N changed together by selecting multiple colors and then adjusting this Color and angle specifies whether the color name angle or both will be control sent to the screening module m The list of the tested colors by default cyan magenta yellow and m Line screen specifies whether and what line screen information will be black sent to the screening module This is the way to test any extra screen ing types cond
160. hat the RIP can produce is set with in the controls If the requested dot percentage falls below the specified limit for example 4 as on the picture below instead of reducing the dot size the dots are stochastically removed the pattern is thinned PECLIPAL TST Ete eer eRe ee rs a tes 4 Pure AM gt lt Hybrid FM gt E PEAL TEEL PALT Pid IRETE s te ae hand t Pas tag rte tte tea te Oep tug Oe hes fey tat a Cascade s hybrid screening is probably the best technique available because it is stochastic and therefore produces a pleasant and smooth look Regulat ed patterns used by many other RIP solutions offer a much less pleasing look 9 5 6 Increased highlight quality for flexo Reproducing highlights is a key problem in flexography as there is often huge dot gain in this area typically 2 will print as 10 15 Therefore having good color depth and pattern free halftones in this area is critical The standard Cascade hybrid screening as presented in the previous sec tion offers the desired color depth but even though it is stochastic the FM part isn t entirely pattern free This isn t a problem in offset where the hy brid screening protects only the highlights under 2 3 and the slight pat tern is practically invisible However with the huge dot gain of flexo it may become visible and offensive Therefore SGSS Second Generation Cascade Screening offers a hybrid screening
161. he dot gain ex tracted from the chosen ICC file Dot gain table the dot gain table contains nine columns in three groups o Printed the first column containing the printed values o Desired columns 2 5 containing the desired percentage for each of the CMYK inks o Measured columns 6 9 containing the actual measured percentag es for each of the CMYK inks The four strips of the Dot gain compensation chart will have to be read with the spectrophotometer Then after reading all four strips successful ly the OK button will become active and the curves can be saved If the Add curves to job style box was checked the curves will be added to the chosen job style too 6 5 5 Checking the dot gain The dot gain of the press can be checked by following the instructions of the 6 5 4 Dot gain compensation wizard section with the following differences If you want to check the accuracy of the previously performed dot gain compensation procedure the dot gain compensation curves must be ap plied like the linearization curves if any when printing the Dot gain compensation chart No compensation curve has to be created The Dot gain compensation window will be used only for displaying the dot gain values After the values are all read compare the Desired 1 4 and Measured 5 g columns Assuming that the technologies being used have good color re peatability e g offset the differences should not be more than 2 3 Tech
162. he parent node will come to the foreground e g will show the Compos ite preview if a composite page has been selected m check a job by clicking on its checkbox or by clicking on the Check se lected jobs button in the toolbar of the Job browser docker this will send LLJ Q lt Y V lt x U a O cc lt x gt lt cc O S UO m TE lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt the job to the Print manager or to the third party TIFF catcher software for printing m stop a job by selecting it and then clicking on the Stop button this will stop processing the job but the already processed pages will remain available delete a job by selecting it and then clicking on the Delete button combine jobs by selecting them and then clicking on the Combine jobs button this will transform the selected jobs into one job containing all the pages of the original jobs split jobs by selecting separations or composite pages of a job and then clicking on the Split job button this will create a new job extracting the selected pages from the original job m merge plates by selecting separations pages of a job and then clicking on the Merge plates button the selected plates will be merged into one plate The source plates will be deleted except the last one selected the plate which is visible in the preview window which will contain the re sult of the merge m drag pages within one job or fr
163. his launch the application from the Start menu or right click the tray icon of a running Print manager then click the Device manager menu item The Cascade device manager will display the currently installed Print manager applications on the PC You can add remove start and stop Print managers using the buttons in the toolbar When a new Print manager is added the Device manager will automat ically assign an index to the newly created Print manager configuring the TCP port of the control channel and the hot folder path accordingly Then Perec ccccsccscecceepecescoecsscceseceseee eeeeJocccccccvegpoeccccesccscceccepeesGoccescce Once Print manager is set up and running the Server must be connect ed to it To do this start the client and launch the Add print engine wizard manually from the File menu eeccccccccfecsc pocscaton m Print manager instance index has to be set to 2 for the second instance 3 for the third instance etc This setting will automatically modify the port number and hot folder path the Server will try to connect to m If the Print manager is on a different computer select the Different computer option specifying the IP or host name of the computer that runs the Print manager to connect to as well as the name of the shared lt page 76 gt The Server will then try to connect to the Print manager If it does not suc ceed check whether the IP or host name is correct or whether there is a fire wall or
164. hlight and shadow quality The problem of poor highlight and shadow quality is another problem for traditional halftones because most print engines have problems handling small dots When the size of the black or white dot falls below a critical val ue the technology will be unable to reproduce it the dot will be lost on the film plate or paper Some RIP manufacturers are unable to find solutions for this problem but most RIP manufacturers use the gray enhancement technique presented in the previous chapter to overcome this problem using it in the special case that the bigger dot size is equal to the minimum allowed dot size and the smaller dot size is zero The problem with this approach is that if the range of shades to achieve is high for example the minimum dot size the print engine is able to repro duce is 8 so the o 8 range has to be achieved by the gray enhancement technique a big supercell has to be used and therefore an offensive pattern will appear if the dots are ordered The innovation of the technique Cascade uses to avoid this problem is that instead of using an ordered pattern as the one presented in the picture a stochastic approach is used avoiding any disturbing patterns 9 3 7 Tonal jumps Finally there is the problem of tonal jumps This is caused by the distortions of the print engine the intended mathematically computed and the real measured on the film sizes of the dots are not in a linear relatio
165. icked only the first gutter will be editable and will be applied for all the gutters Imposition style Imposition style name Book 8 up Binding sheet Binding Collate and cut z Work style ST 12T 9T 8T 4 13 16 1 A 7T 10T 117 6T 2 15 14 3 Number of pages O T A l lt Z lt cc LLJ N The creep option is useful for saddle stitching for other binding types it will be grayed out the more pages there are in a saddle stitched publication the more that the inner pages move out from the binding edge compared to the outer pages the phenomenon is known as creep To compensate for the creep the gutter is progressively increased on the pages working from the inside of the book to the outside by the amount specified in the creep option 8 3 3 Binding tab In the binding box there are the following options m Perfect binding the output is intended to be cut and collected on sin gle sided works this means that the pages are numbered simply in their natural order On sheetwise double sided works the even and odd pages are on different sides of the sheet and the back is numbered from right to left to match the front Perfect binding single sided Perfect binding Single sided left sheetwise right m Saddle stitching it is used for publications with few pages usually not more than 32 the pages are collected stitched on the saddle and
166. icking Next a proof chart will be printed Wait for the printer to finish Check the print for ink flow problems If the 100 patches are wet then almost certainly there will be ink flow problems on mixed color where a higher quantity of ink needs to be absorbed Let the print dry colors will stabilize Calibrate the spectrophotometer by clicking the Spectrophotometer calibration button Start reading the printed chart row by row normally using only the but tons on the spectrophotometers no interaction is needed on the PC Af ter a successful read the row index parameter will be incremented oth erwise an error message will appear In the case of a reading error a row can be re read by adjusting the row index before the read After the last row is read the Next button will become active If this is a re linearization due to ink flow problems during the profiling process the ink quantity needs to be limited by choosing lighter patch es as the darkest possible color for each of the 4 inks For example you may decide that the 90 C patch is dark and saturated enough to pro vide the needed gamut but light enough to avoid ink flow problems As a rule of thumb the selected C M Y and K patches should be a bit darker than the 100 patches of the target technology e g offset If ink limitation is necessary type the percentages of the identified patches to CMYK limits table the first value being the C limit the sec ond the M l
167. ies combined with stochastic high light shadow protection enable the use of line screens of 200 300 Ipi on offset machines offering better and more consistent results than the equivalent FM screening 9 4 3 First order FM screening The first order FM screening inspired by the Floyd Steinberg algorithm builds a threshold map by placing the pixels to present a smooth dispersed look The obtained threshold map is then magnified to reach the needed dot size typically using dots of 2 X 2 3x3 or 4 X 4 pixels by 2 3 or 4 times magnification This technique has a number of disadvantages The dots are squares rather than circles inevitably distorted by the off set machines UO Z LLI Lu cc U N lt Z lt cc LLJ N The dots can be placed only at certain positions using 2x2 pixel dots for example the dots can have only even coordinates This ordered placement will cause a moir on slight registration errors The so called chessboard effect will appear near 50 which will cause local plugging and therefore unstable and noisy tints 9 4 4 Second order FM screening The second order FM screening techniques try to overcome the problems mentioned above There are several different second order techniques used by RIPs but their common characteristics are as follows The dots are freely placed avoiding moir on registration errors Typically over 20 the size of the dots
168. ilable in version 3 4 Enabling it will enable trapping between the image elements This setting may cause strange results and it is recommended that it be used only in controlled situations Draft quality will increase the speed of trapping by doing the trapping between two objects with disregard to the presence of a third color ob ject or the white background while normally at the expense of a low er speed Cascade will adjust the trap shape to minimize the potential risks m Use ink manager the ink definitions in Cascade hold the trapping pa rameters of each density opacity etc Checking this option the trap ping module will extract the parameters of the inks from the ink man ager Use the following list allows the user to override the ink definitions in the ink manager for a specific job by defining the ink parameters for each ink in the order they will appear in the Separations list of the job browser J interpretation ir Sizing 4 Dispro a Separations Trapping Z Calibration 3 a a a R Screening Imposition Proofing fa Ink duct control Export image Imaging Job information qg a a lt Do not show this dialog box on open Trap settings Trap width Black trap width Step limit Black limit Black density limit Sliding trap limit Density limit Anamorphic ratio Color reduction Feather mage trap
169. ile and is used by the Job style and other windows Resolution the device resolution in dpi In case of raster proof profiles it is the resolution of the target device typically an imagesetter or CTP rather than the one of the proofer typically an inkjet printer Colorants applies to composite devices only specifies the colorants magenta Y yellow K black c light cyan m light magenta k light black or gray I light light black or light gray In addition the colorants field may have a 2 suffix e g CMYKcmz2 specifying the ability of the device to use a second smaller dot droplet size on the giv en resolution improving the quality of the print in highlights For ex ample the Epson Stylus Pro series will use two droplet sizes on 720 dpi 12 5 pl and 3 5 pl but only 3 5 pl on 1440 dpi resulting in a 2 suffix on 720 dpi and no suffix on 1440 dpi Composite device specifies whether the device is used as separations device typically imagesetter or CTP or as composite color device typically inkjet printers If you want to use a color inkjet printer as separations device e g printing on transparency film for screen print ing you will have to turn this option off Contone output specifies whether the device driver expects continu ous tone data i e without halftoning either because the device is able to print shades of colorants directly or more likely the halftoning
170. ill stabilize Taking into account the accuracy needed at this phase the recommendation is to wait at least 10 minutes Calibrate the spectrophotometer by clicking the Spectrophotometer calibration button Start reading the printed chart row by row normally using only the but tons on the spectrophotometers no interaction is needed on the PC Af ter a successful read the row index parameter will be incremented oth erwise an error message will appear In the case of a reading error a row can be re read by decrementing the row index before the read m After the last row is read the Next button will become active Turning on the High quality profile option will cause a substantially slower ICC generation process roughly 20 40 minutes instead 1 2 min utes but if the highest possible accuracy is required you may want to check it Click Next The profile will be generated according to the setting above it will take 1 40 minutes The Next button will become active when the ICC profile generation process is done m You may change the ICC profile name as it will appear in the Color pro files list Choose the Contone proof profile name as it will appear in the Print er profiles list The Simulate paper color specifies whether the proof should simulate the color of the target paper typically printing a yellowish tint on the bright white proofing paper in order to match the color of the offset pa per Unchecking this option
171. imit and so on The easiest way to identify the percentage of a patch is to count it back from 100 on the chart and then in the ta ble e g the 5 patch from 100 is 92 5 Click Next The results will be saved automatically into the chosen pro file The name of the linearization curve will also contain a time stamp Check the Verify linearization button to verify the results recommend ed only if there are doubts about the process normally it is not neces sary measure the printed chart and compare the printed and mea sured percentages Redo the linearization if the results are inconsistent 10 2 3 Contone proof wizard This wizard will profile the proofer generating an ICC file that will describe the printer using Cascade s contone proofing screening technology the giv en paper resolution ink and printer settings The result will be a new proof profile a printer profile with the Proof profile option checked that will con tain the linearization and ICC profiles and will be ready for printing con tone proofs It is strongly recommended that the contone proof wizard is run even if only raster proofs will be printed as it will greatly improve the spot color accuracy The Contone proof wizard can be launched from the Proof menu The follow ing steps have to be performed Choose the profile of the proofing device this must be a native col or printer profile i e not a proof profile and not a monochrome print
172. ing of Cascade architecture is recommended This is beneficial be cause the real power of the Cascade is only fully realized when it is config ured to work in a network The Cascade package consists of three separate programs i e executa bles m Server which does the actual processing work of the system m Print manager which interfaces with the print engines m Client which is the visual user interface for the system One and only one Cascade Server should be installed per site it is the serv er that carries the license dongle More than one Print manager can be in stalled one for each print engine driven by Cascade and finally multiple Clients can be installed possibly one on each workstation the number de termined by the number of simultaneous operators desired at the site The three programs of Cascade are separate units executables therefore each can be installed on its own separate computer or they may be grouped in any combination desired If the Cascade units are located on separate com puters the communication between them is done through the network con nection linking the machines Some possible scenarios for installing the Cascade system are illustrat ed here m Basic configuration the Client Server and Print manager all run on the Same computer and the print engine is connected directly to this com puter E StudioRIP Client Server amp Print Manager l Print Engine imagesetter pl
173. ing the carriage or waiting for the on line pro cessor m Set feed amount before cut History Print engine Special File deletion condition History Folder is greater than GB v History folder is greater than j gt of storage space Free space is less than a Y Free space is less than lt of storage space File is older than o Unchecked Print manager will send a simple cut command without specifying the length of the feed to the imagesetter The settings of the engine or a default value will be used o Checked The feed amount is set by the Print manager overriding the settings in the engine Drum technology option helps the Print manager to display the used media length correctly Supply and take up cassette alarm settings will specify when the Cas cade Client should show by blinking the cassette icons in the cassette manager toolbar that there is too little media in the supply cassette or too much media in the take up cassette Stop imaging on take up alarm if this option is checked the imag ing will stop when the amount of media in the take up cassette reaches the preset level see above Until the cassette is cleared jobs can on ly be printed one by one clicking on the Start button after each print ed page m Set exposure if ticked the rip will set the density of the engine to the exposure value previously set in the exposure t
174. ining Page 3 Page 3 Page 4 Page 4 in this situation the number of logical pages per sheet is 2 while the number of physical pages is 4 Sheet cycle is number of signatures the number of sheets with differ ent imposition scheme this is typically one for singe sided work or two for sheetwise work but there are special cases when other values are used for example if the collate and cut technique uses two sheets instead of one after the sheets are folded one is placed into the other like for saddle stitching then it will have four signatures Signature buttons a button will appear for each signature by pushing the button it will select all the sheets belonging to that signature for ex ample with two signatures pushing the button of the second signature will select the even sheets of that job Page placement the horizontal and vertical positions of the selected page s on the sheet relative to the top left hand corner of the sheet Page number the number of the selected page s this number can be absolute linking directly to the composite page of the specified number or relative this is used for repetitive schemes the relative page num bering is always relative to the first page of one sheet cycle Page orientation mirror and negative buttons applied to the select ed page s Pre press marks by pushing these buttons the pre press marks of the specified type will be removed and then added again releasing the
175. ins mostly icons which are doubling menu items such as Open Connect etc explained in the previous chapter How ever there are a few icons and tools that were not described previously Zoom drop down box sets and displays the zoom of the current pre view Values can be chosen from the list or entered from the keyboard with or without the sign Fit page Fit width and Fit height values are also available Zoom to fit sets the zoom to fit in the entire page Zoom to width sets the zoom to fit the width of the page Zoom to height sets the zoom to fit the height of the page 4 4 PREVIEW WINDOWS The preview windows allow jobs to be viewed before they are sent to the print engine There are four preview windows Separations Composite Im position and Media The first three are previewing the job that is selected or the job with a child node selected The preview is empty if no job is selected The media view is previewing the printer profile that is selected or the printer profile with a child node selected The preview is empty if no print er profile is selected This inconsistency is caused by the fact that the media saving can put pag es from two jobs on the same piece of media so the media has to be pre viewed at printer profile level See the description of the preview tools and preview settings bar in sec eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee eee ee eC eer eee eeeeees Cee BEere ree of the f
176. int er based microweaving mode and most desktop models don t support printer based microweaving at all 7 4 2 Printing on inkjet film For most technologies inkjet films need to have high density To achieve the required density much higher quantities of ink need to be printed on the film than on the paper However large quantity of ink will increase dot gain and will distort the shape of the screen dots The first picture shows a halftone dot printed with small droplets having small dot gain but also low density the second picture shows a halftone dot printed with big droplets having adequate density but also high dot gain Cascade s Epson driver can control the ink density at droplet level through the VSD Variable Droplet Size feature of Epson printers allowing the user the choice of where to print bigger or smaller dots so the driver can be fine tuned for the various media types Typically a one pixel thin outline at the Ink s used for separation allows the operator to print separations us aa LLJ J lt x lt x aa am lt Z lt cc LLJ N edges needs to be printed with a smaller droplet than the inner pixels but other settings are also possible The last picture shows a halftone dot print ed with big droplets for the inner pixels but small droplets at the edges with sufficient density and low dot gain at the same time The recommended procedure to set up inkjet film pri
177. intensity of the shade being reproduced 9 4 1 Advantages Using FM screening has a number of advantages compared to the AM screening m All moir is eliminated especially the moir between the image elements and the halftone screen as well as the moir between the colors m Under a dot size of 40 p the dots will become practically invisible for the human eye but can be still safely reproduced by an offset machine m The image generally becomes sharper This technique suits certain devices like inkjet printers which do not have a fine control over the size of the dot but can safely reproduce a given fixed dot size much better They can achieve better image quality by frequency modulating a constant dot size m Print technologies like the flexography or serigraphy have additional moir problems with AM screening FM screening resolves these prob lems too 9 4 2 Disadvantages FM screening is still little used in the field This is explained by the follow ing disadvantages m In the case of AM screening poor printing quality affects only high lights and shadows With FM screening it affects the whole tonal range Uniform colors have a noisy grainy appearance as compared with AM screening Using imagesetters the small dots used by the stochastic screens are easily lost when transferred to the plate using CTP systems however the dots are safely reproduced on the plate m Advanced AM screening technolog
178. ion here you have several further choices to turn the job into mirrored m Negative select if you want to print the job in negative common in flexography Though there are further choices for turning jobs into neg atives this is the only place to do it if there are calibration curves in volved otherwise the calibration curve will be applied incorrectly The mirrored and negative options will show their effect only in media view This makes previewing the job easier Orientation controls the orientation of the job when placed on the me dia o Automatic finds the orientation that fits on the media If the job fits the media in both orientations chooses the one that is more econom ical Note that for single pages it may seem that it chooses the wrong orientation but the RIP assumes that usually there will be more than one page of the same size to be collected on the width of the media otherwise registration problems could occur if when reprinting a color it has a different orientation than the other plates o Normal Left Right 180 specifies the orientation of the job explic itly LLI O lt D a lt U Z cc gt T LL Z oe v lt Z lt cc LLJ 2 Progressive printing designed for proof jobs i e the ones that are ei ther generated by jobs that have the Proofing task checked or opened directly for proofing Therefore it is the clone of the progressive print
179. ion profile setting of the printer profiles and the ras ter proof profile name as it will appear in the Printer profiles list By clicking the Launch color finder button the Color finder wizard will find the target mixed colors on the proofer You may want to save the results to an INI file to avoid repeating this procedure if for some reason you have to run the wizard again If you have the results saved you can read them now Launch color finder Load from file Save to file M e M a 3101000 90 0 iE 1 0 lt Prey Next gt Cancel m Check the Verify color correction box for verifying the results recom mended only if there are doubts about the process normally it is not necessary and measure the printed chart The AE values of the primary and mixed colors will be displayed They should be similar to the values seen in the last step of the Color finder wizard You have successfully completed the Raster proof wizard Choose a name for the color correction profile and the raster proof profile Color correction profile name Epson 3800 1440 2009 10 21 14 37 Raster proof profile name Epson 3800 1440 raster proof Verify color correction Clicking Finish the raster proof profile will be created ready for print ing raster proofs 10 2 6 Test proof wizard It is strongly recommended that the test proof wizard is run after either proof
180. ir Usually this is a rare combination and the CMYK colors generated by the color separation pro files are not vulnerable to this effect However manually specified CMYK colors with strong K components may cause moir when using the skin op timized angle scheme In conclusion we recommend using the skin optimized angle scheme for works with large skin surfaces as well as for general use but be aware of the dangers and change to standard yellow angles when necessary Using skin optimized screen set may cause a strong moir between the black and yellow inks IN EN N fos SS BS SS EE UO Z LLI Lu cc U N l lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt 9 2 4 The moir between a halftone screen and a raster device This moir is caused by the interference between the halftone raster e g 170 Ipi and the device raster e g 2400 dpi When this moir occurs it is visi ble on individual colors especially visible on films in the dark areas when viewed on a light table Typically the cyan or magenta screens have lines or other patterns in the 80 95 shades This phenomenon is exclusively caused by the dot gain of the imagesetter platesetter or other printing equipment If the whole printing chain could keep the pixels as sharp squares the moir would not appear To examine how this phenomenon occurs we will consider the case of a typical imagesetter with a dot size of 20 microns at 2400 dpi This dot
181. ired bleed something like 5 mm and print the job otherwise calcu late the exact page size of the job with bleed in the case of an A4 page and 5 mm bleed this will become 220307 instead of the original size of the A4 210X297 and specify it in the printer s page properties m Open the PostScript file with Cascade or if working through Cascade printer or hot folder modify the appropriate job style in either cases using the same Job style dialog check the Imposition task and in the Reduction from page size fields enter the exact bleed value specified in the design application The bleed area will be cropped from the file with the final cropped page in the on screen preview the bleed area falling outside the sheet Instead of specifying the bleed within the job style it is also possible to use the Crop with bleed command of the Imposition menu after the job has been processed m By putting pre press marks on the page making an imposition with gutters moving the page on the sheet or performing any other opera tion which brings the bleed onto the sheet without being covered by an other page the bleed will be clearly visible 8 7 8 Imposition with bleed using PostScript files and the expand with bleed feature m Set the page size in the design application InDesign CorelDRAW etc to the intended final cropped size of the page and make the design ex tend beyond the defined page size by a few millimeter
182. is a typ ical dangerous combination for old rips containing the same percentage of cyan magenta and black Modern RIPs are all able to produce relatively accurate screens so the moir between the cyan magenta and black is usually impossible using any CMK color combinations the pleasant rosette pattern will appear in stead of moir Even some of the latest RIPs are unable to achieve the high accuracy needed to avoid problems This happens particularly in adverse condi tions like flexo angles high line screen or low resolution When the necessary accuracy is not achieved the effect is that the same color has different shades in different corners of the sheet or in certain cas es the moir can be visible on the page 9 2 3 The moir between the yellow and other inks The yellow ink causes trouble even with the latest RIPs The moir caused by the yellow ink is suppressed and usually hardly visible for the human eye but sometimes it becomes visible As the yellow is between two other inks cyan and magenta in the tradi tional printing it causes a regular moir pattern with the two neighboring colors This moir pattern is clearly visible on films when placed on the light table respectively between the yellow and cyan and the yellow and magen ta films On the final print this moir is usually almost invisible or at least much less visible than on the films because the cyan magenta and yellow are rel at
183. is a variable intended to be used in the Placement tab It o Long date and short date the date in long and short formats e g defines the relative distance of the mark from the page This variable is April 20 2005 vs 4 20 2005 used in the default prepress marks included with Cascade however but o Time the time when the job was processed for newly defined marks it might not work well if the distance variable o Page number s the page number s used on the current sheet is not used in the proper way o Sheet number the number of the sheet as in the Imposition list i e m Scale resize the mark by changing this value 100 means the origi the back of the first sheet is sheet 2 O nal size o Side index 1 for even sheet numbers 2 for odd sheet numbers for Applies to sets whether the mark will be applied to the bounding box of double sided works it is intended to mean whether it is a front or O the pages on the sheet or to each page back side o Sheet index for double sided works meaning the number of the O Alternate the colors the mark will be monochrome and printed con physical sheet i e the sheet index of the back of the first sheet is still secutively in each color as it is repeated useful for color bars 1 not 2 as its number is o Cyan magenta yellow and black o Signature index the number of signature used on the current sheet on double sided works it is equivalent to the side index Print
184. istances box and fill the gutters table Imposition style name Test imposition Placement Gutters Vertical Horizontal Equal gutters F Equal gutters 1 2 2mm 1 2 5mm 2 3 Smm 3 4 2 mm 8 7 5 Saddle stitched magazine Consider a magazine with 36 pages of A4 with the following binding tech nique double sided A3 pages with two A4 pages on each side which will be collected stitched at the saddle and then folded To do this From the DTP application print the job at the intended final print size A4 in this case m Process it in Cascade Select the processed job in the Job browser window Click on the Imposition button or menu item the Imposition style win dow will appear m Set the Number of columns to 2 In the Binding box select Saddle stitching m Enter manually the number of the pages in the job in this case 36 This is very important m Select the pre press marks to be used m Press the Apply button Check the imposition using the Imposition view There will be 9 signatures each one referring to the pages by their absolute page index i e 1 meaning explicitly Page 1 and not the first page of each signature cycle Use the sign before the page number each time when re ferring to an absolute page number and not a page index in the signature 8 7 6 Imposition with bleed using PDF files m Set the page size in the design application InDesign Quar
185. itioned by a given lpi value This control will be automat o New colors can be added with the Add color and Delete color buttons ically set if a screening type is selected in the Job style window prior to o Selecting one or more colors will show the selected color s in the pre pressing the Test screen button view area useful for testing rosette or moir Show all colors in black will modify the display of the preview area o The color can be changed by clicking on the arrow to the left of the showing all selected colors in black icon and selecting the desired color from the ink list o The angle can be changed by clicking on it and typing it into the edi tor which should appear in a second l lt Z lt cc Lid N 10 Proofing Cascade has its own built in proofing system Acting from the inside of Cascade rather than being an external application it is able to proof jobs in various stages processed printed or archived and views composite or imposition with one click As the proofer appears in the Cascade system as another printer profile printing a proof will be as simple as printing any other job in the Cascade system assisted by the same media saving and previewing environment Cascade has implemented both widely used proofing models its contone and raster dot for dot proofing modules allow users to choose the right so lution for their specific needs 10 1 BASIC CONCEPTS 10 1 1 What is
186. ively independent colors the overlap between their filtering characteris tics is relatively small so in practice it is only the impurities of the inks that are causing the moir The first two pictures below illustrate that there is no big difference between the two extremes of the moir in the C Y and M Y moir s The moir is oscillating between the two extremes a light and yel lowish green or a light and yellowish pink but as the two extremes are al most the same so resulting moir won t be very obvious These differences can be very slight but are sometimes visible so there are various techniques used to suppress or avoid this moir The frequency of the yellow is increased by approximately 12 this reduces the moir period making it finer and so less visible having the same effect as increasing the yellow s angle compared with its two neighbors unfortunately a practical impossibility Using elliptic dots will reduce the contact surface of the dots minimiz ing the differences between the two extreme colors Using higher line screens generally reduces the visibility of the moir For skin tones the yellow is placed between the cyan and black avoid ing completely the M Y moir which is often visible on skin colors with the traditional angles replacing it with the Y K moir As the last picture above shows of the color combinations that create the most noticeable moir the worst is the Y K mo
187. iven group from the list To create a new group that the job style should belong to type the name of the new group into this field m Printer share name the share name of the Cascade printer as the net work workstations will see it If PCs with older operating systems or Mac computers are used in the network it is recommended that a short name is chosen maximum 8 characters without special characters The icon in the right of the box will show whether the name is consid ered compatible with older systems Workflow tasks contains the list of the available tasks that will be per formed for the jobs opened with the given job style Only the checked LLI O lt D a lt U Z cc gt T LL Z oe v lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt tasks i e with the check box in the left of the task name ticked will be executed Certain tasks are grayed out because they must be e g in terpretation or cannot be e g screening for a contone job executed in the given circumstances Selecting a workflow task i e clicking on the name of the task will show the properties of that task in the right side of the Job style window Workflow task properties will show the properties of the selected workflow task Each workflow task has its own set of properties For a detailed description of the properties of each workflow task see the fol lowing sections Do not show this dialog box on open will uncheck the Ask fo
188. ize of the page accu mulating the crop sizes m Specifying bleed values of o will remove the bleeds reverting to the original page size The command will be applied to the selected job in this case implicitly to all the composite pages or to the selected separation or composite pages If the Mirror margins option is checked for pages with even index the Left out side value will mean the left side the Right inside value will mean the right side while for pages with odd page index the left and right margins will be swapped Having the Equal margins option checked the same amount will be cropped from the left right top and bottom of the page as specified in the All margins box The Reset all sheets in job option will re initialize the imposition sheets before the crop operation such that each sheet will contain one composite page the size of the sheet being equal to the page size without the bleed If left un ticked the cropped pages are displayed using the current imposition scheme 8 7 EXAMPLES 8 7 1 Simple 2 up Supposing two A4 pages without bleed which have to be put on the same A3 page Print both pages using the intended final print size A4 in this case as consecutive pages of the same job m Cascade will rip the jobs m Select the processed job in the Job browser window Click on the Imposition button or menu item the Imposition style win dow will appear m Set the Number of columns to 2 m
189. kXPress CorelDRAW etc to the intended final cropped size of the page and make the design extend beyond the defined page size by a few millime ters m Export the document to PDF including in the PDF options a few mil limeters of bleed the picture below shows this setting for the Corel DRAW 12 m Open the PDF file with Cascade the bleed area will be automatically detected and processed but it will be hidden falling outside the sheet which by default has the size of the cropped page Publish to PDF Settings 77 _ General Objects Document Prepress Security Advanced i No Issues W Bleed Limit 50mm Printer s marks E Crop marks Registration marks File information Densitometer scales Lo Cancel f Help o cS m By putting pre press marks on the page making an imposition with gutters moving the page on the sheet or performing any other opera tion which brings the bleed onto the sheet without being covered by an other page the bleed will be clearly visible 8 7 7 Imposition with bleed using PostScript files m Set the page size in the design application InDesign QuarkXPress CorelDRAW etc to the intended final cropped size of the page and make the design extend beyond the defined page size by a few millime ters m If the design application is able to handle bleed on print specify the re qu
190. lank password is not acceptable for a Terminal Servic es account ap n i Setup has completed successfully Launch the Server on startup Launch the Print Manager on startup Run as NT system service Launch the Server now Launch the Print Manager now Create shortcuts to Desktop _ Create account for Remote Desktop users Account name RIPRemote E Step 7 If the two Launch now boxes are ticked the Server and Print manager will start immediately On first startup the Print engine setup Pecccceces pocegpecsccccccesecccescesevcsecccpese poesssccce 2 3 INSTALLING CLIENTS 2 3 1 Installing PC clients Multiple copies of the Clients can be installed within the network one on each computer that may want to control the RIP In most cases any worksta tion on the network will require the Client Normally the Cascade Client is automatically installed as part of a full in stall together with the Server and Print manager However on worksta tions it will have to be installed separately Installing Cascade Client is ex tremely easy start the Cascade setup program and choose the Cascade Cli ent option under Step 1 of the installation procedure The Cascade Client application is not just a remote visualization of the server window it is actually a completely independent program that com municates with the server If two or more Clients are connected to the serv er each can
191. lling Mac Clients 18 3 GETTING STARTED llles 2l 3 1 Starting for the first time 21 3 1 1 Starting Print manager for the first time 21 3 1 2 Connecting the Client 22 3 1 3 Starting the Client for the first time 23 3 2 Setting up the network printers 24 3 2 1 Setting up network printers on PC 24 3 2 2 Setting up network printers on Mac 24 3 3 Setting up the hot folders 25 3 3 1 Setting up the hot folders ona PC 25 3 3 2 Setting up the hot folders on Mac running OSX 25 3 3 3 Setting up the hot folders on a Mac running OS 9 or earlier 25 l lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt 4 FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND CASCADE L l 4 1 The main window 27 4 2 Menu items 27 4 2 1 File menu 27 4 2 2 Calibration menu 29 4 2 3 Job menu 29 4 2 4 Imposition menu 29 4 2 5 Proof menu 30 4 2 6 Tools menu 30 4 2 7 Dockers menu 30 4 2 8 Help menu 31 4 3 Standard toolbar 31 4 4 Preview windows 31 4 5 Dockers 31 4 5 1 Job browser 31 4 5 2 Calibration manager 32 4 5 3 Color profiles 32 4 5 4 Ink manager 32 4 5 5 Imposition styles 32 4 5 6 Job styles 32 4 5 7 Ghostscript console 32 4 5 8 Pre press marks 32 4 5 9 Print manager 32 4 5 10 Printer profiles 32 4 5 11 Users 32 5 PRINTINGAJOB a ivcsceaeseesseeeeessseeedS 5 1 Opening a job 33 5 1 1 Using the Cascade printers 34 5 1 2 Using the hot folder system 34 5 1 3 Using the Open command of the Client 34 5 1 4 Using the Open with command from Explorer 34 5 1 5 Using command line parameters 35
192. lly this will be done by the Launch color finder button but the results of previous ly performed color finder wizards can be loaded by the Load from file button The Color finder wizard will find the best approximations of the request UO TE oO lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt ed colors by printing and measuring charts consecutively by default 4 print and measure cycles the latitude for error of each color being incrementally reduced by the consecutive prints Perform the following steps o At the first step calibrate the spectrophotometer clicking on the Cali brate spectrophotometer button o Wait for the chart to be printed and let it dry o Measure the chart with the spectrophotometer o The last two columns will show the best measured AE results M as well as the best expected AE results E for the next cycle o Click Next and do the next cycle o After the first 4 obligatory cycles further cycles can be made by checking the Perform an extra iteration box It is worth performing further iterations if there are colors with high measured AE values it is desirable to have AE lt 1 for most values and no values with AE gt 3 and at the same time the expected values for the next cycle are con siderably smaller otherwise it is perhaps a gamut limitation The Color Finder Wizard will match a list of target colors on the proofing device by repeating the printing and measuring steps
193. ls adjusting the density etc m Print an un calibrated test page m Add a new calibration curve or modify an existing one The installed color profiles must be CMYK profiles Monitor calibration or other profiles will not work and if used may produce unpredict able results Measure the printed calibration page with a densitometer m Enter the measured results in the table of the added modified calibra tion curve e g 40 measured as 47 5 etc m Save the calibration curve assigning a name to it In case of a new calibration curve let Cascade apply it to the job style it has been made for Optionally print a calibrated test page to verify for accuracy 6 4 2 Print calibration page A test calibration file is included in Cascade ready for immediate printing m Select the Print calibration page item of the Calibration menu The Print calibration page window will appear m Select the job style that the calibration will be made for The job style holds the printer profile and screen settings that influence the calibra tion curve The default job style is used implicitly m Select whether to print an un calibrated or calibrated page o The un calibrated page has to be printed before the calibration pro cess This is the page which will be measured and entered into the ta ble of the calibration curve o The calibrated page should be printed after the calibration and it is also recommended that it is printed
194. lt m Make sure that TCP port 4025 is not blocked on the PC running Print manager either by turning off firewalls and antivirus software or con figuring them to let this port in m Share the hot folder of the print manager By default the hot folder on an XP computer is in the C Documents and Settings All Users Ap plication data Cascade Print manager HotFolder on a Vista system it is defaulted to C ProgramData Cascade Print manager Hot Folder The path can be different if a different data folder has been specified on setup or there is more than one Print manager on the same PC Make sure to enable write access too m Jt is recommended that the functionality of the share is verified i e a file can be successfully copied into the shared folder from the Server PC using Windows Explorer In the first step of the Add print engine wizard set up the network path of the shared hot folder e g WorkstationP M HotFolder If the connection does not succeed no control or data link check whether the IP or host name is correct whether there is a firewall or other obstacle between the Server and Print manager computers the hot folder is properly shared and the share name is properly entered in the wizard 7 2 2 Installing two Print managers on the same PC using the Device manager To run more than one instance of the Print manager on the same computer the easiest solution is to run the Cascade Device Manager application For t
195. lt x lt x aa A lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt 7 2 1 Installing Print manager on another computer To install a Print manager on a different computer than the one running Cascade Server run the Setup program on that computer choose the Print manager option in the setup wizard and follow the steps described in sec tion 2 2 6 Installing Cascade then set it up as described in section 3 1 1 Starting Print manager for the first time Once Print manager is set up and running the Server has to be connected to it To do this start the Client If there is no other print engine defined in the system the Add print engine wizard will be launched automatically by the Client If a print engine is already defined launch the wizard manually from the File menu Follow the steps described in chapter 3 1 3 Starting the Client for the first time The most important thing is to choose the Different computer option specifying the IP address or host name of the computer which runs the Print manager to be connected to The Server will then try to connect to the Print manager The connection is done through two channels A control channel through a private TCP port by default 4025 A data channel through a shared hot folder If the Server and Print manager run on the same computer these data chan nels are usually set up without problems However when they run on differ ent computers the procedure is more difficu
196. ly for the de fault job style box in the Tools Server options dialog The printers that are created will also be shared over the network unless the Share the created printers box is unchecked The share name of printers can be edited in the properties of each job style see 6 2 Job styles lt page 50 gt It is recommended that short share names are chosen if workstations running Mac or older Windows systems are to be connected Unless the operating system or a firewall is blocking them the shared printers should be visible from the workstations Depending on which op erating system is being used look in either Network Neighborhood or My Network Places and search for the server PC By right clicking on its icon and choosing Connect the drivers will be installed on the local PC and a lo cal printer will be created and connected to the shared printer on the server Ow gt Network 192 168 0 2 gt X A File Edit View Tools Help Organize v Network and Sharing Center gt aa v Wr Favorites 2 J Libraries AccuSet Proof otFolder e Homegroup j Computer Ge Network M Note Windows XP or newer systems may detect and install the shared network printers automatically These will appear in the Printers and fax es window of the workstations In this case manual installation will not be necessary Once the network printers are installed on the workstation they can be used just like any other n
197. m The curves can be also added manually to any job style 6 5 4 Dot gain compensation wizard The first step of the dot gain compensation procedure is to print the Dot gain compensation chart suitable for the installed spectrophotometer located in the Proof charts folder of the installation CD The file has to be printed with the imagesetter CTP linearization curve applied if used but without any dot gain compensation curves applied You will also need a spectrophotometer attached to the Cascade system See Compensation curve name Offset 170 Ipi OK EF Add curves to job style AccuSet 170 2400 v Target dot gain Linear Import from ICC 150 Coated nF Dot gain table Read strip 1 ka Spectrophotometer calibration 14 7 112 3 112 8 _ 14 4 If you have the chart printed and the spectrophotometer installed open the Dot gain compensation window from the Calibration menu The following settings will be available Compensation curve name the name of the calibration curve Four curves will be created with the ink name appended to the end of the chosen name Add curves to job style if checked the created curves will be added to the chosen job style as extra calibration curves Target dot gain specifies how the target dot gain values are initialized in the dot gain table o Linear the output device will be linearized i e no dot gain o Import from ICC the table will be initialized with t
198. magesetter laser print er Note that composite devices may be used as monochrome for ex ample inkjet printers with inkjet films in which case this field needs to be unchecked The Printer inks field specifies the inks colorants used by the compos ite device on certain models in a specific order Each colorant is de scribed by one of the following characters C M Y K c m y k or I For example KCMYcm means that the printer has black cyan magenta m LLI um lt H Va J H LLI J lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt yellow light cyan and light magenta colorants and it expects the print ing information to arrive in this order The wizard will automatically create profiles for the resolutions and me dia sizes selected in the window check only the combinations that are necessary thereby avoiding overcrowded controls later Add Print Engine Wizard Please select the media width and resolution combinations you would like to use in Future on this device Each combination you select will be stored as a printer profile Each printer profile acts like an independent printing device has its own film saving rules film queue etc You can change the names of the profiles For shorter names For example Printer profile name Media width Resolution ou V AccuSet 1000 3000 14 in 3000 dpi V AccuSet 1000 2400 14 in 2400 dpi AccuSet 1000 1800 14 in 1800 dpi V AccuSet
199. mmand set 1 GB RAM 10 GB HDD Network or Internet connection for remote clients 1 4 2 Cascade Client Recommended system requirements Windows 7 Vista or XP or newer Intel Pentium 4 m 1 GB RAM m 1280 X 960 X 16M resolution 100 Mbps network connection or faster Internet connection for optional over the net remote client connection Minimum system requirements Windows 7 Vista XP 2000 or 2003 or newer Intel Pentium 512 MB RAM m 1024 X 768 x 64K video resolution m Network or Internet link to the server usable over dial up 1 4 3 Cascade Client on Mac Recommended system requirements m Mac OSX 10 3 2 Panther or newer m 1280 X 960 X 16M video resolution m 100 Mbps network connection or faster m Remote Desktop Connection for Mac free software Internet connection for optional over the net remote client connection Minimum system requirements m Mac OSX 10 4 or newer E 1024 X 768 x 16M video resolution m Remote Desktop Connection for Mac free software m Network or Internet link to the server Note Macs running OS 9 or earlier have full printing ability to the Cascade however they cannot control it remotely using the Cascade Client Lid m lt x U N lt x U aa lt lt x a IT O aa lt x 2 Installation 2 1 BASIC CONCEPTS For performing a simple installation without understanding the Cascade stand
200. mp w d a black generation formulas using customizable black generation param m UCR BG the separation will be based on simple undercolor removal and badis Pre dstorton eter Not recommended as the result is much inferior compared to ICM VI interpretation A Sizin Horizontal jose wo ta based separations A Separations ices E Disable embedded CIE color spaces PS PDEF EPS files can contain 1 Calibration 100 Se Flexography sneen La embedded color profiles that will control the color separation of one or 42 Imposition wap values Proofing meer more objects in the file e g an RGB picture may contain an RGB pro figs Ink duct control oor file of the digital camera that took the picture Normally the interpreter Dob information IS S358 iISSSe8 lt will transform these colors into RGB or CMYK which is then passed to the color management of Cascade Disabling embedded CIE color spac es will pass these colors through unchanged treating them as though they were RGB for colors with 3 components or CMYK for colors BP rit tN dleo basat open LK cancel with 4 components Depending on the embedded color space this can result in slight color differences in most cases as usually the conver sion is between two color spaces of the same type e g device RGB to 6 2 6 Separations task SRGB but also in completely w
201. mposite node and click the Split job button The selected pages will be extracted from the job and a new job will be created containing these pages The new jobs can now be imposed separately Use drag amp drop to move pages from one job to another this works only for separation or composite pages 8 1 3 Combining jobs for imposition To impose the pages of different jobs into one imposition first combine them resulting in one job containing the combined pages from the two jobs Then impose them Here is an example Two A3 designs from different companies in differ ent files It would be more economical to print them together on an A2 sheet Open and process all of the files select the job items in the Job browser win dow then click the Combine jobs button in the toolbar The imposition can then be made using the combined pages 8 1 4 The imposition sheet The imposition sheets are shown under the Imposition node of the job tree in the Job browser each imposition sheet having its corresponding node An imposition sheet has a user definable size and contains one or more composite pages and pre press marks There are controls for the position and orientation of each composite page on each imposition sheet When a job opens it automatically generates one sheet for each compos ite page Initially there is no difference between the composite pages and the imposition sheets they are equal in number each imposition sheet contain in
202. n it has to be installed on the computer that runs the Server Do not plug the hard key in until after the Cascade has been in stalled the hard key drivers will be installed with the Cascade A common problem with the hard key is that the USB ports are not in stalled properly in Windows this happens quite often with USB 2 0 ports which may require drivers from the install CD of the motherboard If the hard key does not work correctly carefully check that the USB port is work ing properly If the hard key is not installed Cascade runs in Demo mode In Demo mode all the functions of Cascade will work properly but the text Cascade DEMO and a link to the RIP s website will be printed all over the pages 2 2 8 Installing Cascade The Cascade setup program will have to be run on each PC that will have any Cascade components installed on it Within the setup program the us er can select which components to install on any given machine The setup choices are explained below Insert the Cascade setup CD It will automatically launch the setup pro gram The installation can also be started manually by running Setup exe from the setup folder Before launching the installer a small dialog box will ask for the lan guage to use It is defaulted to match the language setting of the oper ating system m Step 1 Choose which installation type to perform The options are self explanatory A common mistake is to choose full install when a thir
203. n image elements and screen m moir between different inks ing lt page 193 Instead of moir a noise will appear on overprinted inks Using small dot sizes this noise will be fine enough to be imperceptible and pleasant to the human eye 9 6 4 Smooth look A special filtering technique enables Cascade to produce very smooth tints with FM screening suppressing considerably the specific blue noise of sto chastic techniques Individual films and therefore the stand alone colors will be almost as smooth as with the traditional halftoning and the noise will only appear on overprinted inks in other words mixed colors 9 6 5 Round and rounded dots Unlike many other stochastic screening technologies which typically use squares the stochastic screening of Cascade produces real round dots if a minimum of 3 x 3 pixel dot grid is used and it also optimizes the dot place ment to form when possible rounded shapes without sharp angular cor ners or thin lines In order for Cascade to achieve very smooth dot shapes the recommenda tion is to work on high resolution to allow the RIP to use at least 4x4 pix el dots However even if dots of 2 x 2 pixels have a square shape they still produce rounded clusters with a pleasant look 9 6 6 Different black and white dot size A unique feature of Cascade s stochastic technique is the ability to use dif ferent dot sizes in the highlights and shadows This is useful because the dot gain
204. n on the toolbar of the Print manager docker The Cassette manager is particularly useful if the print engine is roll fed It shows the amount of media remaining in the supply cassette as well as the amount of media inserted in the take up cassette on engines with online processor this usually shows the amount of media on the bridge When loading a new roll of media be sure to enter the amount of loaded media by entering the number in the Supply cassette box and then press ing Enter Note that Cassette manager functionality is print engine dependent and may not or only partially work on some engines 5 6 11 Hide default video mode button The video mode right reading wrong reading positive and negative is shown as a job flag by the Print manager However to avoid overcrowd ed flag lists but also to emphasize jobs which have unusual video modes checking the Hide default video mode button will show the video mode flag only if it is different from the default job style s video mode For example if the default job style is right reading and positive then an F sign should appear near the jobs i e the default video mode flag How ever if this button is checked the flag will disappear All the other video modes used that are different from the video mode of the default job style in this case mirrored negative or both will be shown regardless of the state of this button 6 Configuring EROE 6 1 PRINTER PROFI
205. n the table and applied to all jobs printed from this moment on through this profile Printer profile name Epson 3800 raster proof Quality Good speed Bidirectional mode Off Borderless printing On Copy values EEE AE 9s oes eae eencga ete Job styles hold the parameters of how each workflow task interpretation trapping proofing etc has to be done It is similar to the page setup or job ticket concepts of other workflows Each job in Cascade has its job style information attached either one of the defined job styles in the Cascade system a job style loaded from file or edited on per job level after a manual open command The rules of attaching job styles to jobs are as follows For jobs coming through a Cascade printer the job style that the printer belongs to will be attached to the job For example printing to the Cas cade Offset 170 lpi printer will attach the job style called Offset 170 lpi to the opened job Ceecceyocccccscccoccjecs c pooscateon attached to the job For example placing a file into the subfolder called Offset 170 lpi will attach the job style called Offset 170 lpi to the opened job For jobs opened with the Open command in a Client the job style win dow will appear if the Ask for job style on open option in the Client set tings is checked and the settings specified in this instance of the Job style dialog box will be applied these
206. n warning Warning Screen angle warning Warning Resolution limit exceeded Critical Size limit exceeded Critical Imposition denied Critical Stochastic screening denied Critical PS error after Showpage Warning Error opening file From History Warning GhostScript performed an illegal operation Warning Error opening TIFF file Critical F7 he 4644 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 6 8 3 Shortcuts tab The shortcuts tab allows the user to customize the keyboard shortcuts Shortcuts can be assigned to menu items such as Open as well as to other special actions such as changing the preview tools or zooming To assign a shortcut Action Shortcut cance Halftone proof wizard Hide show dockers Ctrl D Imposition Imposition styles Ink manager Ink zone calculation New shortcut Ctrl D Assigned shortcuts Ctrl D Hides shows the dockers panel on the right side of the main window LLI O lt D a lt U Z cc gt T LL Z v lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt Select the action in the action list the shortcut has to be assigned to m Click in the New shortcut box m Press the new keyboard shortcut m Click the Add shortcut button m If the shortcut has been used in another action it will be automatical ly removed The new shortcut will be added and will appear in the Assigned short cuts box To remov
207. nal and FM stochastic screen ings are the two basic screening technologies Hybrid screenings are combinations of the two technologies Separations grayscale pages which are the separated color compo nents of one color page For example process color pages are the combi nation of four separations cyan magenta yellow and black A pre sep arated job contains the separations as independent grayscale pages i e 4 pages for a process color page Server Cascade Server is one of the three executables of the Cascade gt cc lt V N O l UO lt Z lt cc Lid N package This is the brain of the system It has a minimal user inter page 13 m Sheet cycle the number of signatures sheets with different imposition scheme in a job This is typically one for single sided work or two for m Sheet in the imposition terminology means an imposition page m Sheetwise double sided both sides of the sheet will be printed with different plates m Signature in the imposition terminology means an imposition scheme which may be repeated over several imposition sheets Slow scan direction the direction the media capstan or the carriage drum is moving It is perpendicular to the Fast scan direction Do not confuse it with the feed direction in case of the drum machines they are perpendicular m Spectrophotometer an accurate instrument that measures color across the visible spectrum and
208. nd bearing the same name as the job style If files are dropped in to these hot folders the files will be processed following the rules below m Files dropped into the root folder or into a subfolder which does not have a job style with the same name will be processed using the default job style m Files dropped into a subfolder bearing the same name as a job style will be processed using the appropriate job style m Files dropped into a sub subfolder bearing the same name as a job style of a subfolder bearing the same name as a job style group will be processed using the appropriate job style group and job style com bination For example if two job styles are being used named 170 lpi offset and a 150 pi flexo shortcuts can be created on the desktop to these two hot folders created automatically by the Cascade in the root hot folder and then any files dropped into these shortcuts will go to the appropriate job style 3 3 1 Setting up the hot folders on a PC On a PC setting up the hot folders is done by a one button click in the Cli ent m Start the Client application and connect it to the Server m Go to the Job styles window m Highlight the job style to create a hot folder for m Press the Create shortcut button The shortcut to the hot folder will be created on the desktop It can be moved if necessary 3 3 2 Setting up the hot folders on Mac running OSX First create any shortcuts on a PC if there is no
209. ne it with the following o As in the file the mark will be placed on the sheet as is color or parameters monochrome o Black or the darkest color the mark will be monochrome and the Orientation the orientation of the mark in the current placement darkest color will be used useful for crop marks Apply specifies if this placement will only be applied if the page is land o Print on each color of the page the mark will be monochrome but scape portrait or both This can be used for example to place a mark will appear on each color useful for registration marks on the longer side of the page by adding two placements one being ap plied only if the page is portrait and will be placed on the left side for example the other one being applied only if the page is landscape and Prepress mark properties M gt 8 will be placed at the top for example Position this is relative to the bounding box of the pages or to each page ia a depending on the setting in the Object tab Placement rentation jandscape X top sid Position T Left Horizontal Centre 0 cm ov 0 Vertical Bottom oo Alignment ocd mi 0 o Horizontal and Vertical position The first pair of fields define what the mark will be positioned relative to Left Center Right respective ly Top Center Bottom are self explanatory The Left fold position means the centre of the space between the current page and the pre
210. ning the Cascade Server This is the setting which usually has to be changed when connecting from a workstation TCP port number the number of the TCP port used by the Client to LLJ QO lt D Vp lt U Z cc gt T LL Z oe v Print manager Print manager is a separate program that outputs the processed pages It may run on the same computer as the Server or on a different computer in the network More than one instance of Print manager can also be used for multiple print engines Print manager has its own settings interface but the Print manager dock er of the Cascade Client application provides most of its visual interface The Client connects to the Server application and the Server is connected to one or more Print manager applications some of them on different comput ers This is daisy chained communication and it is not necessary for the Cli ent to have direct connection to the Print manager s If an error message box pops up with the text Cascade Print manager Cannot load the imagesetter drivers when starting Print manager then the engine drivers are misconfigured and all output will be impossi tails on this but probably a call to your dealer will be necessary to re solve this problem Ce ere ht itr te el Lr eee eee ee ere Print manager can be configured by its Settings dialog This can only be done from the computer that runs Print manager the Client is not able to access these se
211. ns are available m Ink name the name of the ink as used in the PostScript or PDF file Color model Except for the cyan magenta yellow black and transpar ent colors which have CMYK definitions and cannot be edited speci fies the color model used for the definition of the ink o Lab this is the most desirable way to define spot colors as it will en sure the most accurate match on proofers o RGB these values are interpreted as SRGB values so they may be subject for further color management even when displayed on the screen o CMYK these values are device dependent and will be interpreted according to the ICC profile specified for the current job in the Sep aration profile field of a job style The value of the ICC profile box in the right of the Color model box will not be stored and is used for lo cal visualization purposes only Ink properties m O Ink name Red Cca Color model CMYK ISO Coated Color values Trapping parameters Type Density 0 92 Old ink New ink LLI O lt D a lt U Z cc gt T LL Z oe v lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt Color values the definition of the color in the specified color model Trapping parameters the parameters of the ink used by the trapping module o type specifies the ink type normal transparent opaque ignored o neutral density specifies the darkness of the ink so that th
212. nship Add ing one pixel can increase more or less the real size of a halftone dot depend ing on the current shape of the dot and the position of the newly added pix el A pixel which should add 1 to a halftone dot can sometimes add only 0 3 on the film at other times the same pixel added to another halftone dot in a different position can add 2 3 This phenomenon can be ampli fied by the dot gain on the paper A very strong tonal jump can occur at 50 when using the Euclidean dot shape approaching 50 the dots should have square shape and as the dot percentage increases the corners of the dots will come into contact with each other The dot gain will distort the linearity of shades where the dots are in contact with each other producing a jump when the corners are close enough The human eye will easily perceive this non linearity of the gradient Printed Measured 9 11 5 1 0 5 10 12 1 1 5 11 13 5 Many RIPs do not offer a solution to this problem Cascade uses a low pass filtering technique to avoid the tonal jumps 9 4 UNDERSTANDING STOCHASTIC SCREENING Stochastic screening is also known as FM Frequency Modulated screen ing It uses a fixed dot size usually the smallest size that the printing equip ment can consistently produce but varies the density of the dot pattern to achieve the desired shades Technically the frequency of the dots is modu lated in proportion with the
213. nt manager application s in the Cascade system If more than one Print manager is used in the system each 4 5 10 Printer profiles Printer profiles can be added removed or edited in the Printer profiles win dow Normally the profiles are generated by the Add print engine wizard 5 Printing a job A job s route through the Cascade is as follows m A job can arrive to the Cascade Server in one of five ways through the Cascade printers through the hot folder system by starting a new Cas cade Server instance with the job name on command line by double clicking the job s icon from Windows Explorer or by opening it with the Client The job is queued in the Job queue then processed If the Do not print until checked option is turned off in the job style the pages will go to the Print manager immediately in this case it is as sumed that they are ready to print If this option is turned on the job will stay in the job browser list to allow the operator the chance to do tasks like preview modify impose proof export JPEG calculate ink duct information etc It will be sent to the Print manager or 3 par ty TIFF catcher only after it is marked as checked by ticking the check box to the left of the job in the Job browser Once it arrives at the Print manager the processed job will be queued and printed unless the print engine is not ready for printing or the Print manager is paused Finally assuming the job goes via
214. nting is as follows Print the calibration chart of the Cascade and measure the solid 100 areas with a densitometer m Adjust the Density value of the printer typically a value between 200 eoobccoccccccccccepececeecepeeccccesccccccosceccepesc ves O sity Dmax on the film Turn on Outline protection start with a 1 pixel outline and the Density of the protected outline value set to 100 m Check the halftone quality with an eye loupe If the dot gain is too high increase the Outline protection value to 2 3 pixels m If the dot gain is low increasing the Density of the protected outline val ue may improve the quality of the halftone dots When the density and dots are satisfactory print the calibration chart again and calibrate the printer 7 4 3 Registering dead nozzles There are situations when one or more nozzles of the printer are permanent ly blocked software or hardware head cleaning operations failing to cure the problem A blocked nozzle even if it s blocked only partially not placing the droplet in the right way can seriously damage the quality of the output 150 1607 c _ 170 179 Cascade allows for this possibility by registering one or more nozzles as dead and then not using them at all for printing As the microweaving sys tem uses multiple nozzles for one scanline anyway this will be done without any speed or quality loss Note that this feature is not supported if the Mi croWeaving paramet
215. o Maximum AE general the maximum AE value o Maximum AE primaries the maximum AE value of the primary col ors i e all tints of C M Y and K The results of the evaluation will also be displayed in common terms excellent good acceptable or out of tolerance Proof test wizard Yalue Comment Avera e dE general 0 9 Excellent Maximum dE general 2 2 Excellent Maximum dE primaries 1 3 Excellent The color accuracy of the proof is excellent lt Prev Finish Cancel UO TE o O oO The worst of the three results will be displayed as the general result of the test Using a decent quality printer and paper with no gamut problems Cas cade proof test results should be at least good but usually excellent espe cially for contone proofs which are more accurate In cases of worse results the possible problems need to be investigated 10 2 7 Color checker While the Test proof wizard offers a generic evaluation of the proof accuracy the color checker wizard can evaluate the accuracy of a given color either on the proof or on the target print e g offset against an ICC profile This tool is especially useful in cases of color differences between the proof and the target print e g a blue background is greenish on the proof and red dish on the target print as the operator can check both colors against the reference ICC profile finding out which of the colors was closer to the
216. o be performed Choose the profile of the proofing device this must be a native col or printer profile i e not a proof profile and not a monochrome printer CecescesccvecccceseJecsesceseccssere Peeerecccccccccccceesccee gooo Gepecsccoedes m Select the target job style this will specify the simulated ICC profile and the screening parameters that the halftone proof will simulate e g ISO Fogra 27 150 lpi Euclidean etc m Set the profiling accuracy parameter which controls the number of patches printed for the profiling The default value is 3000 for high quality profiles but good quality profiles can be obtained with 2000 or even less patches m Set the ink limitation parameter This controls the maximum quantity of ink that the proofer is allowed to print e g 250 means that for ex ample C 100 M 100 Y 50 is allowed but C 100 M 100 Y 60 is not Generally 250 is enough to cover the whole gamut with the right use of the black ink Higher values may improve the gamut but may also cause ink flow problems Lower values may cure ink flow problems but also limit the gamut the lowest theoretical value with no gamut limita tion is 200 m Set the Process color halftone optimized for parameter as Cascade simulates all inks of the target e g offset technology not just the spot colors but also the cyan magenta yellow and black inks the simulated process color inks are blended from the proofer inks e g
217. of the CTP imagesetter or press usually increases the size of the dots in the highlights and reduces the size of the dots in the shadows which in ex treme cases causes the plugging effect Using bigger dots in the shadows than in the highlights enables Cascade to achieve the same black and white dot size on the final printing 9 6 7 Flexibility Another unique feature is that Cascade lets the user optimize the stochas CeecccccccvcvccccccssccececpoeseG poccescesos RE TEE 2 teca resets an a eee aceite epeeadvn The default Cascade screening parameters are optimized for generic offset use so most users will have to specify only the line screen frequency How ever using the Screening type settings dialog it is possible to fine tune the screening for the special needs of each printing technology or each job The following settings are available Screening type settings S F Traditional 4M screening Stochastic FM screening AM settings Limits General settings Frequency Default v pit 2 Yo Dot shape Hybrid settings Hybrid transition limits 3 v 35 29 wvm 100 lum 100 j um Flexo optimized hybrid screening Special settings Low pass gradient smoothener filter width V Dot centered rosette m Name the name of the screening type as listed in the Screening type list of the Screening task in the Job style window m Condition specifies for
218. of the default word or with the login name and password specified by the network ad o Display size full screen ministrator o Add it to the keychain so that clicking on it will automatically start it Perform all the first logon specific tasks Windows tour etc so that on with these settings the next logon they will not reappear Optional install a Mac theme StyleXP with Panther or Tiger scheme is m Create an alias of it on the Desktop or other convenient place recommended this will make Mac users feel comfortable with the win m Connect to the Cascade Server PC by running the created alias dows they see on their workstation m Start the Cascade Client application from the menu icon that should be Starting the Client with this alias will give full control of the Cascade Serv available in the Start menu If the Client is not able to connect to the er with one exception when opening any kind of files the file system visi server then the Server is probably not running check whether it was in ble will be the one of the Server PC which effectively runs the Client There fact installed as a system service fore in this installation scenario the Cascade port or the hot folder system Go to Client Options in the Tools menu will have to be used to print rather than the Open command s a lt l z H N 3 Getting started P E E a E a e AR a ecu eaun ee eeaats After the installation when the serve
219. ofer device then click the Print engine properties button enabled only if the printer is in Ready state Then adjust the Quality parameter By choosing a higher interlacing quality setting it is likely that the band ing will disappear but the printing speed will decrease Choosing a lower interlacing quality setting the banding might appear but the printing speed will increase as well It is recommended that the fastest possible interlacing quality setting is chosen consistent with producing banding free output Note that the light To understand the banding phenomenon the two major technical prob lems behind must be identified nozzle inaccuracy each nozzle places the droplet consistently with ap proximately the same error i e the same distance in the same direction from the required position of the droplet m feed inaccuracy the paper isn t fed by exactly the required amount The banding is caused by the fact that compact bands on the paper typi cally one or more neighboring rows of pixels contain pixels with the same placement error e g 5 microns above their required position and beside it is another narrow band of pixels containing pixels with another placement error e g 3 microns under their required position The human eye will per ceive this as offensive banding To suppress this banding a special interlac ing technique is used based on two ideas Uniform feed the most straightforward idea to build th
220. om one job to another allowed for sepa rations and composite pages this will move the dragged pages chang ing their order or moving them from one job to another export JPEG images of one or more pages of a job proof of one or more pages of a job by printing it on a proofer manage the queue under the Job queue node allowing deletion of queued jobs or to change their order by drag amp drop 4 5 2 Calibration manager The calibration curves can be added removed or edited in the Calibration eee Oe eee eee ee eeu ee ee eeeeeeys EEE Cee SEeer ee oy 4 5 3 Color profiles The Color profiles window manages the ICC ICM files present in the sys 4 5 4 Ink manager The inks known by the system are managed in the Ink manager window 4 5 5 Imposition styles The imposition window manages the imposition styles Using this win 4 5 6 Job styles The job styles specify how a job will be processed printer profile screen frequency dot size geometry in rip separations etc These styles are eee e eee eee ereue res Eee rere eee ery ere Yen lt Page 51 4 5 7 Ghostscript console This window is the text output of the PostScript interpreter Details about PostScript errors as well as processing times and other information related to processing are available here 4 5 8 Pre press marks Pre press marks can be added removed or edited in the Pre press marks 4 5 9 Print manager This window is the user interface of the Pri
221. ommended only for specific print engines Cascade takes a different approach it has proven that perfect rosette can be produced not just by the traditional angle scheme but by angles and fre quencies that deviate slightly from it From this point of view searching for an accurate approximation of each of the angles is not the ideal approach the search should be oriented to finding values that together produce accu rate rosettes instead Cascade developed a formula for this it calculates the consistency of the rosettes for deviated frequencies Using this formula and surrendering the obsessive requirement to find accurate approximations for each of the an gles dozens of screen sets with perfectly consistent rosettes can be found for each line screen frequency 9 5 3 Filtering out the patterning Having many available moir free screen sets is very useful because it will be needed to address the problem of patterning presented in the previous sections 9 2 3 lt page 992 and 9 3 4 lt page 1012 Thatis because the approach Cas cade screening takes to overcome this is based on the empirical observation that some screen sets seem to have immunity to this patterning phenome non Analysis revealed that on some angles the dots of different shapes are distributed evenly and then there are no visible groups of bigger or small er dots In the practice this means that the possible screen sets will have to be fil tered in order
222. on style Book 8 up Y Right Top Bottom Equal values F Do not show this dialog box on open OK Cancel Checking the imposition task is necessary for any of the following m to prepare pre press marks m to extract the trim size of the job to apply imposition styles automatically The following options are available Trim size defines the trim size i e the final size of the product without bleed and pre press marks of the job With the imposition task turned on this will become the displayed and printed size of the job while the Turning on imposition may change the displayed and printed size of the job although the processed size remains the same and available as bleed First matching item from the list will extract the trim size of the file from the various size declarations of the PostScript PDF and EPS files As their use by the various DTP and pre press applications isn t very consistent Cascade allows the user to fine tune the size extraction pro cedure to get the best possible result with the used applications Cas cade will search for the first definition in the list that is ticked and also present in the PS PDF EPS file The user can change the order of the size definitions and can check or uncheck them By default the Trim Box definition is the most desirable one first in the list and checked but if it is not present in the file Cascade will search for the
223. on to the rule and the point of media saving is to fully exploit the media at a given size Therefore media saving can only work efficiently if one physical print engine is treated as several logical printers each one with its own media saving system For example if four jobs are sent in any order two of them at 1200 dpi and the other two at 2400 dpi the first two will be grouped together by the media saving of the 1200 dpi profile the same will happen to the other two on the 2400 dpi profile Then the two profiles will send the jobs to the same Print manager so they will eventually appear in the same list The jobs will then be printed on two pieces of media at the correct resolutions Normally printer profiles are generated using the Add print engine wizard which starts automatically on the first run of Cascade or by the profiling LLI O x D Vp x v cc J LL Z O v lt Z lt cc LLJ N wizards which create proof profiles It is strongly recommended that the wizards are used rather than manually adding profiles add profiles manu ally only if the exact meanings of all available settings are clear Adding a new device is only possible using the Add print engine wizard The Add printer profile button will add a printer profile to the currently se lected device Removing or editing devices or profiles are possible using the Remove printer profile and Edit printer profile buttons
224. one ICC profile specifies the ICC profile of the proofer in halftone mode for the given target job style It is set up by the Halftone proof wiz ard and if the screen set tings of the target job style are changed it is recommended that the Halftone proof wizard is rerun creating a new halftone ICC profile Process color halftone optimized for specifies the sharpness and col or accuracy of halftone dots It is set up by the Halftone proof wizard Simulate paper color specifies whether the proof should simulate the color of the target paper typically printing a yellowish tint on the bright white proofing paper in order to match the color of the offset paper Un checking this option is not a correct procedure as the proof will still re main absolute possibly resulting in visible white spots in light areas the light colors will still have the paper color counted in but many us ers prefer it Printer resolution the real resolution of the proof printer for raster proof profiles Note that the resolution of the printer profile as specified in the Media tab is the resolution of the target device i e imagesetter or CTP rather than the real proofer device i e inkjet printer Color correction profile holds the profiling information for a specific combination of target device proofer device screen and calibration set tings It can be created by running the Color correction wizard Print engine properties before imaging
225. ontrol task a ne pusi Number of inks printed in one pass a a i Calculates the ink coverage for each ink zone of the page belonging to each LA Imaging Proofed view 2 Ea i composte Print order of inks ink duct of the offset machine and prints a diagram or exports a PPF or Imposition CMYK123456789 2 JDF file that will control the offset press directly The following options are available Progressive proofing IS SS S35 S3S358 a Print missing process CMYK colors C Mor present Do not show this dialog box on open OK Cancel E O utp ut type The proofing task will be disabled if there are no available proof pro a Diagram printed on prints an ink zone diagram on the specified Win files in the system dows printer typically a small office printer o Ink duct file exported to exports a PPF or JDF file to the specified folder Proofed view o Ink duct file type the type of the exported file PPF CIP 3 or JDF CIP 4 o Composite the composite view of the job will be proofed as shown in the Composite preview window Print press style the parameters of the print press cylinder size num o Imposition the imposition
226. or a new version on the Cascade web site and if available will propose downloading it and updating the current installation Create printer only for the default job style by default Cascade cre ates a shared Windows printer for each defined job style Operators may prefer to avoid this especially having a large number of job styles Turn ing on this option will create only one Windows printer for the default job style m Share the created printers turning this option off the created Win dows printers will not be shared The keep delete opened jobs options enable or disable archiving the opened i e PS PDF jobs in a Cascade folder for a certain time By de fault jobs are kept for a week m Storage path specifies the folder where the archived jobs will be stored Allow lazy write for TIFF files when disabled Cascade writes the TIFF files to the HDD without using the cache system of the operating sys tem keeping the RAM free Enabling it may speed up the RIP but in creases the risk of memory problems even system freezes Archive Keep opened jobs Delete opened jobs after Storage path C Users Public Documents RIP Output 6 9 2 Connection settings The connection settings dialog can be accessed by the Connection settings item in the Tools menu or by clicking Cancel after a failed connection at tempt Available settings m User name and password if there are users added to the
227. or the Pre press marks can be added removed or edited in the Pre press marks mark window There are the following choices m Text objects use texts as pre press marks choosing the type size and style of the font the text can contain one or more special fields m Make a copy of an existing pre press mark by the Create copy button in order to make changes on it but in the same time to keep the origi o Job name the name of the job as it appears in the Job browser nal one too a Job style the name of the job style used for the job m Set the Distance or Scale parameters of all the marks if no mark is se o Resolution the resolution in dpi of the job lected or of the selected ones see detailed descriptions of these param o Color name the name of the ink used on the current plate eters below o Angle the angle in degrees of the current plate o Line screen the line screen frequency in lpi of the job o Dot shape the name of the used dot shape 8 5 2 Pre press mark properties o Plate ink area the painted area in cm of the current page useful When adding or editing a pre press mark the Pre press mark properties for calculating the used ink window will appear The Object tab controls the global settings of the mark o Plate count the number of separated plates in the job o Page count the number of color pages in the job m Name and icon o Sheet count the number of imposition sheets in the job Distance this
228. ormation task 62 6 3 Color profiles 63 6 4 Calibration 63 6 4 1 Understanding calibration 63 6 4 2 Print calibration page 63 6 4 3 Calibration manager 63 6 4 4 Calibration curve editor 64 6 4 5 Negative calibrations 64 6 4 6 Applying a calibration 64 6 5 Dot gain compensation 65 6 5 1 Understanding dot gain 65 6 5 2 Why use dot gain compensation 65 6 5 3 How it works 65 6 5 4 Dot gain compensation wizard 66 6 5 5 Checking the dot gain 66 6 6 Ink manager 67 6 6 1 Ink manager window 67 6 6 2 Ink properties window 67 6 7 User management 68 6 7 1 Users window 68 6 7 2 User properties window 68 6 8 Client options 68 6 8 1 General tab 68 6 8 2 Preflight tab 69 6 8 3 Shortcuts tab 69 6 9 Other settings 70 6 9 1 Server options 70 6 9 2 Connection settings 70 7 PRINT MANAGER 73 7 1 Configuration 73 7 1 1 History cleanup settings 73 7 1 2 Print engine settings 74 7 1 3 Special settings 75 7 2 Non standard scenarios 75 7 2 1 Installing Print manager on another computer 76 7 2 2 Installing two Print managers on the same PC using the Device manager 76 7 2 3 Print manager instance index 77 7 2 4 Interface board index 77 7 3 EtherSetter interfaces 77 7 3 1 Multiple EtherSetters per network 77 7 3 2 Default IP assignment 77 7 3 3 Static IP assignment 78 7 3 4 EtherSetter configuration file 78 7 3 5 Establishing connection step by step 78 7 4 Configuring Epson printers 79 7 4 1 The Epson parameters 79 7 4 2 Printing on inkjet film 79 7 4
229. other PCs in the network launch the Client on the server and create the shortcuts there This will force the hot folders to be shared on the network a folder named HotFolder will appear when browsing the Server from the network On the Mac Use Go Connect to Server then browse to find the Cas cade Server PC and its hot folder Mount HotFolder and or its subfolders Each job style has its corresponding subfolder bearing the same name You may want to add aliases to these folders on the Desktop 3 3 3 Setting up the hot folders on a Macrunning OS 9 or earlier Using PC Maclan the subfolders of the hot folder job styles must first be shared on the Cascade server PC This is not the same as the built in Win dows sharing Right mouse click on the folder to be shared and select Ap pletalk sharing Moving to the Mac In the Chooser select Appleshare The Cascade server PC running Maclan should be visible Highlight it and click OK The shared folders will now be listed Select the correct folders from the list ticking Connect at startup to avoid doing this every time the Mac is restart ed Each selected folder will now appear as a desktop icon m LLI um lt H Va J H LLI J 4 Finding your way around Cascade The entire Cascade system is controlled by the Client application s which exhibit the integrated graphical user interface of the Cascade Server and Print manager applications This chapt
230. other obstacle between the Server and Print manager computers If it finds a Print manager other than the one that was expected check whether the instance index is specified correctly When using the same kind of interface boards for the two or more Print 7 2 3 Print manager instance index One important point to note is that the Print manager instance index which was specified when running the Add print engine wizard in the Client is the instance index of the Print manager on the computer where it is installed rather than globally in the Cascade system Here is an example m On the computer called Server there is a Print Manger installed the instance index of it will be 1 because it is the first Print manager on this computer it will listen on port 4025 and its hot folder will be in the Print manager folder m On the same Sever1 computer another Print manager is installed its instance index will be 2 because it is the second Print manager on this computer it will listen on port 4026 and its hot folder will be in the Print manager 2 folder On another computer Server2 a third Print manager is installed its in stance index will be 1 and not 3 because it is the only Print manager on this computer it will listen on port 4025 and not 4027 and its hot folder will be in the Print manager folder and not Print Manager 3 7 2 4 Interface board index If two Print managers use the same kind of board in the same computer
231. our views in sections 5 3 2 lt page 302 5 3 3 P98C 37 gt 5 3 4 lt Page 372 and 5 3 5 PAge 38 gt 4 5 DOCKERS Cascade uses several windows for managing styles profiles inks etc These windows can be used as floating child windows or can be docked into one of the three holders located at the right side of the Client window The following operations are possible with these windows dock a floating window drag the window over one of the three holders by clicking and holding on its title bar with the left mouse button and dragging it m undock a docked window drag the window out from the holder by clicking and holding on its tab with the left mouse button and dragging it m close a docked window uncheck the appropriate item in the Dockers menu or undock the window and then close it m show an invisible window check the appropriate item in the Dock ers menu or use the appropriate menu items or buttons if available e g the Job styles window can be shown by its menu item in the File menu 4 5 1 Job browser This docker manages the jobs in the Cascade system It allows you to m select a job by clicking on it After a job has been selected it can be pre viewed or other operations can be performed on it m select pages of a job by expanding the node of the job and selecting a child node This operation will also modify the foreground background status of the preview windows such that the preview window matching t
232. parameters can be configured in the Print engine prop erties dialog of Epson printer accessible through the Print engine proper ties button in the toolbar of the Print manager docker The following op tions are available note that choosing Default for the options below means that the settings recommended by the Cascade configuration files will be applied Quality suppresses the banding of the printer at the expense of printing is chosen consistent with offering a pleasant banding free output Bidirectional mode specifies whether the print head prints in both di rections achieving almost double speed It is recommended that it is turned off for top quality output especially if halftones are printed but in many cases typically for contone proofs the double speed is more important than the often barely visible quality loss Borderless printing prints the image on the media without leaving the default border of a few millimeters Some printer models may not sup port it or support it only partially e g only horizontally Paper thickness adjusts the distance of the print head from the paper Some printer models may not support it Drying time per scan the time in seconds that the printer waits be tween two head scans so that the ink can dry Drying time per page the time in seconds that the printer waits be tween two jobs so that the ink can dry Density the density of the ink the valid range is 0 300 using
233. pe that is its width is longer than its height then the orientation setting chosen here will be used for the placement of the giv en job on the plate Clicking the OK button of the Ink zone calculation dialog the Ink zone dia gram window will appear and in a few seconds the diagram s will start to arrive from the Server The following choices are available m Print prints the diagram on to a locally installed Windows printer i e on the PC running the Client Export to file generates a PPF CIP3 or JDF CIP4 file that can be used by newer models of offset presses 5 4 3 Proofing If the Cascade proofing system is properly set up raster proofs of the jobs can be printed with the Print proof command in the Proof menu The com mand is enabled only if a job is selected Raster halftone or contone proofs can be also printed through the Proofing task of the job styles The following options are available Proof profile a special printer profile created by the Raster proof wiz ard See 10 2 Setting up the proofing system lt page 114 gt for further infor mation Proofed pages the pages of the job to proof with all pages current page or page range options Proof profile Epson 3800 raster proof z Proofed pages Progressive proofing Proofed view Progressive proofing Number of inks printed in one pass All pages Print order of inks Current page CM K123456789 Range
234. pecifies what to do in a case where one or more of the 4 process colors are missing in the proofed job The Never setting will not print missing process colors the C M or Y present option will print the missing process colors only if at least one non black color is present but will only print K if black is the only process color the C M Y or K option will print the miss ing process colors if any process color is present the Always option will always print all four CMYK colors regardless of whether they are present or not The effect of the Print proof command is that the selected page s are copied into the selected proof profile When sending jobs from proof profiles Cas cade will embed all the necessary information for proofing into the outgoing TIFF file so that the Print manager will be able to apply the right color man standing of how the Cascade proofing system works 5 4 4 Imposition Cascade has a post RIP imposition system This means that the imposi tion is done after the jobs have been processed i e when they are in the job cade imposition system works 5 4 5 Retouching Minor retouching tasks such as erasing unnecessary objects on white or black background can be easily done with Cascade even after processing Note that at this phase the job doesn t contain vector objects anymore it is now one high resolution bitmap Therefore retouching isn t object based e g a text object on a bitmap cannot be removed it
235. ping Disabled Internal image trapping Draft quality higher speed Ink trap parameters Use Ink manager Use the following list Type Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal 4 AB LEWELELELELEUELELELELEUELELE 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 vr OK Cancel 6 2 8 Calibration task The calibration task applies the device linearization and dot gain compen sation curves to the job If turned off no calibration will be applied over the job There are two sets of curves available Device linearization curve the curves that intend to correct the non lin ear behavior of the imagesetter CTP or other device that produce an in termediate media such as film or plate which can be measured with a densitometer Commonly these intermediate media are expected to be linear i e 50 measured as 50 Job style name AccuSet 170 2400 Job style group name Printer share name lH a None v AccuSet Workflow tasks J interpretation sizing Ink Response curve A Dispro E ali other inks AccuSet 170 Ipi ja Separations 7 i Bca ic AccuSet 170 Ipi isan O Magenta M AccuSet 170 Ipi gt on ration Yellow v AccuSet 170 Ipi E Screening deck fy 2 Black K ZZ Imposition E 7 Proofing fis Ink duct control ot gain compensation curves SP Export image hd Imaging Ink Response curve i
236. process is done at TIFF catcher or driver level For example the OKI la ser printer driver of Cascade expects contone data as a special high fre quency 32 level halftone is used Compression type this option is enabled only if the TIFF output feature is enabled in the Cascade license otherwise the generated TIFF file will be encrypted and only the Print manger will be able to read it having the TIFF output feature enabled standard TIFF compression types can be chosen CCITT G4 CCITT G3 1D LZW Packbits a special Cas cade compression type designed for 16 bit contone data Packwords as well as no compression File name format defines the naming convention of the output TIFF files especially useful with third party TIFF catchers which may ex pect a given convention The format string contain variable fields such as job name sheet name ink name written as the name of the field in brackets e g JobName The following fields are defined o JobName the name of the job as it appears in the job browser o JobShort the name of the job with any non alphanumeric characters removed including spaces resulting in a name containing only let ters or digits o FilmName the name of the piece of media that belongs to the printed TIFF as appears under the Media node in the job browser o FilmShort same as above but alphanumeric characters only see al so JobShort o FilmIndex the index or the output TIFF file
237. r accuracy the typical color accuracy is about AE 1 m One profile needed the profiling work needs to be done just once and then various ICC files can be simulated by one mouse click Disadvantages data integrity there is a slight theoretical chance for content differences between the proof and the print m lower speed the file needs to be processed twice imposition only automatic impositions that can be replicated in the proofing process can be simulated The slightly confusing name of the contone proof leads to the common mis conception they don t use screening techniques but rather print contone im ages directly Although the image of contone proofs look smooth and on the good quality ones there is no visible screening under a lens or micro scope the presence of the screening becomes obvious However the smooth est possible screening algorithms are used so that on good quality proofs the output looks indeed contone to the naked eye When printing contone proofs Cascade uses a different screening tech nique than normally using an inkjet printer it will take advantage of a spe cial inkjet optimized stochastic screening technique enhanced by the use of light inks and the variable droplet size technology of many printer models 10 1 3 Halftone proofs Halftone proofers are hybrid contone raster proofers their working princi ple is similar to contone proofers but their result is similar to raster proofs Half
238. r job style on open option in the Client options dialog as a result the job style win dow will not appear when executing the Open command the default job style will be used instead 6 2 3 Interpretation task Job style name Job style group name Printer share name AccuSet 170 2400 H B Nore AccuSet Workflow tasks Printer profile Job priority interpretation A At sizing de AccuSet 1500 2400 v Normal a Dispro Page range RGB Grayscale threshold A Separations G Trapping All pages White threshold S S S S S Calibration Range a Screening 2 _ ZZ Imposition E Black threshold g Proofing Security 2s fig Ink duct control PDF password Export image Imaging J Job information V Disable unsafe file operations F Disable deprecated Do PS directives Auto recommended Always IS SSSI PDF flattening a Others Never F Merge similar PANTONE colors V Guess color information Do not show this dialog box on open OK Cancel Printer profile the profiles available in the system will be listed here note that by choosing one of the profiles the user effectively selects res olution and media width Job priority the priority of the opened job Only one job is processed at a time
239. r launches for the first time and any other times it detects that no print engine is set up or if the Change print engine menu item is selected it starts the Print engine setup wizard In this section the term print engine refers to the physical device connected to the PC and that will produce the output Please select the print engine from the top drop down list By choosing the print engine to be used with Cascade the Driver properties box will be auto matically filled in with the best choice For example if Agfa AccuSet 1000 is m LLI um lt H N J H LLI J l lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt chosen the choices will be either to drive it with the Cascade s EtherSetter box PciAPIS board or HighWater s HWo76 interface board Cascade will detect which of these boards is present in the system and will automatically select the correct one Pant Engine Setup Wear Welcome to the Print Engine Setup Wizard This wizard will help you to connect an imagesetter printer or CTP to the RIP Please choose the print engine you would like to use with the RIP Agfa AccuSet 1000 Z Driver properties Engine driver DLL AgfaDIl dll Driver parameters EtherApis dll Communication port Windows printer e Ll The driver you have selected is present in the system If the interface board is not yet installed the wizard will warn about it but will not prevent completion of the setup proc
240. r practically any line screens Good color stability in highlights and shadows even on low quality print engines Perfectly smooth gradients Very high rendering speed 9 5 1 High rendering speed High rendering speed demands that the fastest technique possible is used This meant supercells had to be used with a fully optimized algorithm Ras terizing bitmaps or vector objects can be done without complex mathemati cal operations the resulting halftone is already computed and is available in memory it just has to be tiled This approach offers the possibility of ras terizing full page bitmaps in tenths of a second 9 5 2 Consistent rosettes The main problem of the supercell technique is that to achieve the angle and frequency accuracy that offers consistent rosettes over large pages huge su percells are necessary However huge supercells mean much slower speeds high memory needs and vulnerability to patterning With this in mind RIP designers usually try to find lucky screen sets ones which offer good accuracy with relatively small supercells usually less than 20X20 but not more than 50X50 halftone dots Unfortunately there are very few of these screen sets and most are not very good So in most cases these RIPs are either using very few recommended screen sets or in cases where there are many screen sets offered the quality is inconsis tent throughout the set or certain screens are selectively rec
241. r programs Cascade Server and Print manager are launched their normal running state is shown by a system tray icon as these programs don t have graphical interfaces except a few dialogs The user interface will be provided by the Cascade Client appli cation The two server applications can be stopped by right clicking their icons in the system tray and clicking Exit They can be restarted using their Start menu or desktop icons E GET If the servers are running as system services the icons will not appear Use the Services administrative tool to stop start these programs If settings changes are necessary stop them and then restart them as regular applications On startup the Server and Print manager will open their TCP ports to lis ten for incoming connections port 4024 for Server and 4025 or higher for Print manager Some operating systems such as Windows XP SP2 with Windows Firewall enabled or security applications will ask whether these programs should be allowed to open these ports Let the Cascade Server and Print manager open the TCP ports Other wise they will not be able to work properly If there are options avail able for permanently remember this setting check them When Print manager is started for the first time the Print engine setup wiz ard will be started The next chapter describes how this wizard has to be completed 3 1 1 Starting Print manager for the first time When Cascade Print manage
242. ras ter proofs m Contone halftone proofs a second job with the same parameters as the original one including imposition will be opened in the specified contone halftone proof profile The proof job will start to process after the original one is finished Raster proofs a second job will be created in the specified raster proof profile as soon as the job is checked i e sent to the Print manager or the TIFF catcher If you change your mind and don t need the proof open the Job information of the job and in the Workflow task uncheck the Print raster proof option 10 3 2 Proof job styles It is possible to create job styles for proofing so jobs opened with the given job style will print only proofs without printing to the target device image setter CTP To create a proof profile do the following the operation is the same for all proof types In the Job styles docker select the target job style i e the one used for printing to the imagesetter CTP etc m Create a copy of it with the Create copy button m Open the newly created copy and give it a name e g Offset 170 lpi proof In the Interpretation task select the proof profile to be used in the Print er profile drop down box m Uncheck the Proofing task we don t need a proof of the proof Incase of contone proofing uncheck the Calibration task From this moment on jobs opened with this job style will print proofs di rectly 10 3 3 Print proof
243. re that the TIFF catcher is running and that its input hotfolder is shared write privileges have been granted and that it is accessible to the PC running Cascade Server Incase of a networked TIFF catcher try whether the network path of the hot folder is visible and writable from the PC running Cascade Serv er For example enter the network path e g TiffCatcher HotFolder into a Windows Explorer window and check whether files can be cop ied into the hot folder m Write down the tested network path and use it in the Add print engine 2 2 5 Setting up the network In most cases Cascade installation will require no special configuration of the existing computer network However in special cases interconnected networks clients connecting from the internet into a firewalled intranet the s a lt l z H N l lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt network administrator will find the information below useful to configure the local network for Cascade compatibility There are two communication channels that Cascade uses between its com ponents The Client s connects to the Server by default through TCP port 4024 therefore the computer running the Server has to expose port 4024 to in coming connections The port number can be modified to a new setting applied to both the Server and the Client If this setting does not match on Server and Client communication is not possible m Cascade Server
244. rectly as CMYK Lab value pairs rather than explicit dot gain curves The main disadvantage of this method is that the line screen or dot shape settings the paper type the print technology or press type have influence on the dot gain therefore using the same ICC profile might produce very differ ent results On the other hand profiling a press is so long and complicated that almost nobody does it not to mention doing it with all the different pa per types halftone settings etc If the printing industry worked on the principle of linearizing not just the imagesetter CTP but the output too using a second set of curves i e having the 50 halftone actually 50 on the paper life would be much simpler printers would have better control over the output checking for the accuracy of the percentages and the differences between the various ICC profiles would be much smaller in most cases using the same generic ICC profile would produce satisfactory results after a successful linearization Unfortunately the current practice is such that the printing industry doesn t use linearized presses therefore things are much more complicated To make matters even worse CMYK became an industry standard in pre press i e designers convert everything into CMYK considering RGB an unprofessional color space without knowing exactly what CMYK color space are they actually using but generally using the default offset color space of the D
245. red m Ultre Highwater no settings required Linotronic EtherSetter Highwater o LI2 set up to 8 16 MHz Clock Sender Master Receiver Clock By panel and LI5 o LI5 set up to 9600 baud 8 bits no parity CTS RTS Scangraphic Highwater o for HW772 or HWo972 LI5 set up to 9600 baud 8 bits no parity XON XOFF o for HW773 or HWo73 set Data Input mode FPI ECRM EtherSetter Highwater SCSI o Mako amp Knockout series Serial mode set to Overscan Mode OFF Image Offset 100 units Overscan Mode ON Image Off set 300 units o VR series with firmware v2 2 1 or newer Interface set to Serial o VR series with firmware under v2 2 1 Highwater only Interface set to Remote then HasSerial parameter in the appropriate file in the Cascade HW folder set to o m EXXTRA o for HW774 or HW974 boards set Any Stop Start mode except Con trolled Backup o for HW775 or HW975 boards set Stop Start in Controlled Backup mode only m Canon BX JX Printer must have Canon buffer card installed m Scitex Dolev see lt page 11 gt in the Pci Plugin User Guide manual provid ed by HighWater in PDF format on the installation CD 2 2 2 Installing an EtherSetter box uring EtherSetters m Connect the cable from the engine imagesetter CTP to the EtherSetter m Connect the network cable to the EtherSetter either through a network switch or directly from the LAN adapter of a PC Turn on the engine and wait
246. regularly to check whether the calibration has corrected the distortions of the print engine On the calibrated page the printed and measured values have to match e g the printed 60 has to be measured as approx 60 m Select whether to print a single black page or all four process colors Select whether to print immediately or preview before printing m Click print 6 4 3 Calibration manager The calibration curves can be added removed or edited in the Calibration manager Just creating a calibration curve is not enough it will have to be applied to a specific job style otherwise it will have no effect However the user will be prompted after finishing defining a calibration curve to decide LLI O lt D a lt U Z cc gt T LL Z oe v lt Z lt cc Lud 2 how to apply the new calibration curve this dialog box is explained below under the section 6 4 6 Applying a calibration To create a new calibration curve click on the Add button in the Calibra tion manager window To edit an existing calibration double click on it within the Calibration manager window The Calibration curve editor win dow will appear YZ Calibration manager x Z AccuSet 170 Ipi Z Dot gain compensation Z Dot gain compensation Dot gain compensation Z Dot gain compensation EA E R 8 cE AN 6 4 4 Calibration curve editor The calibration curve editor allows the
247. review Any job can be previewed at different levels sepa rations composite imposition media using ICC based color manage ment press and monitor ICC profiles supported and continuous zoom High speed Cascade is one of the fastest rips available several times faster than the majority of rips on the market Simultaneous operation Several designers or operators can work si multaneously with Cascade by connecting as many client applications as necessary to the server Flexible output Cascade is designed to work with imagesetters CTPs and inkjet printers It can use the Cascade EtherSetter interface or inter face boards with imagesetters and the TIFF output can be used in con junction with many CTP systems Multiple outputs Cascade can drive multiple output devices simulta neously Flexo friendly Flexo distortion and flexo screens built in Flexo print ers can work with Cascade simply and easily without the need for ex tra programs m Consistent rosettes Our unique screening technique achieves consis tent rosettes with a pleasant look even in very adverse conditions large page low resolution high line screen flexography angles m Extra gray levels Smooth gradients are guaranteed even on engines with serious technology limitations by using more than 4000 gray levels on almost any resolution frequency combinations Excellent color stability Highlights and shadows are protected by our hybrid screening method ins
248. rinting is almost twice as fast as unidi rectional but introduces another source of inaccuracy in droplet placement which may cause grainy tints or false moir on halftones The bidirectional mode setting can be accessed only on certain printer models in the Print engine properties window in the Print manager dock er select the proofer device and then click the Print engine properties but ton enabled only if the printer is in Ready state Then adjust the Bidirec tional mode parameter Before turning the bidirectional mode on a print head alignment proce dure is recommended if available for the printer model This will minimize the head inaccuracies calibrating the head placement accuracy Most modern inkjet printers have considerably worse droplet placement accuracy in bidirectional mode though both Epson and Hewlett Packard announced head accuracy improvements for their latest models Using bi directional mode halftone dots of 150 200 lpi line screens are less sharp visible especially under a magnifier and without liberal use of light inks grainy tints or even moir will almost certainly appear Therefore for the best quality bidirectional mode is not recommended However the speed doubling offered by the bidirectional mode may be at tractive particularly when with a liberal use of light inks the quality loss could be almost imperceptible 10 4 4 Comparison table of settings Below is a table with the possible qu
249. rk print ers with Macs and other older systems manual installation may be nec essary To summarize when printing to these printers from any application in the network the print job will automatically be processed by Cascade With the proper setup it can be automatically printed too without any user interven tion 5 1 2 Using the hot folder system Using the Hot Folder system is the recommended way to process PostScript or PDF files especially for pre press studios that deal with files from differ ent customers all needing different job styles Shortcuts to the correspond ing hot folders of the job styles can be easily created in the Job styles docker lt page 25 for more information Dropping a PDF PS or EPS file into these hot folders or dragging them to their shortcuts will automatically pass the files to the Cascade The files will be opened using the job styles with the same name as the name of the subfolder or using the default job style if there is no matching job style name 5 1 3 Using the Open command of the Client The Open command of the Client program is the best way to open a job and manually specify the job style The job is loaded by the client which sees the file system of the PC running it as local and then it is transmitted to the server through the TCP connection between the Client and Server This command may be slower than the hot folder system if the Client and the Server are on the same computer
250. rning this may result in the PC running Print manager becoming non responsive to user actions effectively to freeze whilst outputting to the print engine Continue imaging after cut normally the Print manager enters pause mode after a cut operation requesting user intervention before continu 7 1 3 Special settings Further settings available in the Special tab of the Settings dialog ing working However on certain machines this isn t necessary and im aging can continue after a cut operation Use this option in such situa tions Hot folder path Specifies the folder for receiving the incoming TIFF m Launch Print manager on startup if checked Print manager will be files For installations with multiple hard disk drives or partitions it started automatically on the system startup may be necessary to change this setting This is the place where the m Run as NT service used in conjunction with the previous setting If large amounts of data files are stored Be sure when modifying the lo checked Print manager will be started as a system service but will not cation of the hot folder to also change the setting in the printer profiles have an icon in the system tray and will be started before any user logon too Also be sure to move the contents of the original hot folder to the m Language the language of the Print manager application does not new location affect the language of the Print manager docker in the Clien
251. rong results e g blue grass in case of If turned off the output will be grayscale even for RGB CMYK jobs oth color spaces of different types erwise it will control the process of color separations with the following op Ignore BeginICCProfile comments Disables the automatic loading tions and use of an input color space that is contained in a PostScript file as DSC comments starting with the BeginICCProfile comment ICC ICM based the color separation will be based on ICC ICM files This profiles are sometimes embedded by applications to convey the exact in setting is highly recommended put color space allowing better color fidelity Checking this option may Separation profile will specify which ICC ICM file to use when RGB result in improved performance at slightly reduced color fidelity Lab or spot colors are converted to CMYK manage the separation pro Disable TN 5044 pseudo operators TN 5044 pseudo operators are not files in the Color profiles window a part of the official PostScript specification however they are defined in Technical Note 5044 Color Separation Conventions for PostScript This separation profile will be used as the target simulated ICC profile joe a Job style name Job style group name Printer share name AccuSet 170 2400 ba B Nore AccuSet for contone proofing Workflow tasks
252. rouping of the pages especially if imposition will be applied later which is based on composite pages Color group style Er CMYK v x Number of colors 4 E l O Each composite page retains the number of separation pages associated with it including the respective names of the colors It is possible to modi fy the names of these colors the number of separations associated with the page and even define new colors The control bar indicates the settings of the selected composite pages If the selected pages differ the settings cannot be displayed in which case a message will appear offering the chance to select one page only Color group style X afa x Number of colors The color group styles of the selected pages are different Click here to select the currently viewed page When no pages are explicitly selected the program will treat all the pages in the job as being selected so if the pages of the job use different or extra colors the message above will be displayed Here are a few simple examples of how to change the job with this control m Cascade recognized the pre separated pages of a CMYK job as differ ent monochrome pages simply choose the CMYK color group style from the list which will set the number of colors per page to 4 and the colors of each page to Cyan Magenta Yellow and Black Spot colors were sent as process colors e g Pantone 300 C as cyan and the process colors now nee
253. s On print specify the exact crop page size of the job so for an A4 job with 5 mm bleed specify the exact size of the A4 without the bleed i e 210X297 mm m Open the PostScript file with Cascade or working through Cascade printer or hot folder modify the appropriate job style in either cas es using the same Job style dialog check the Sizing task and in the En large page by controls specify the bleed value 5 mm for example The bleed area will be added to the file but this will still be invisible in the on screen preview the bleed area falling out of the sheet m By putting pre press marks on the page making an imposition with gutters moving the page on the sheet or performing any other opera tion which brings the bleed onto the sheet without being covered by an other page the bleed will be clearly visible Some applications such as the QuarkXPress put the printed page into a clip box In this case this method will be ineffective as only a white border will be added to the page as bleed O T O A svccsesnsavescenseness SI BASICCON EPTS oa Unlike the graphics displays of computers which can electronically control the intensity of colors most printing equipment is not able to print shades of their colorants ink toner etc directly Offset machines laser and inkjet printers all use screening techniques to simulate shades None of these tech niques is a perfect solution
254. s printed with the tar get printing conditions must be filled There are two choices o Choose the ICC profile to simulate selecting the Import from ICC box and choosing an ICC profile from the list This is recommend ed if there is an ICC profile for the given printing technology typi cally offset o Measure a previously printed target chart which can be found in the Proof charts folder of the installation CD This is recommended if no ICC profile can be found for the given technology e g silk printing Example to profile a silk screen printing technology line print the target chart suitable for the installed spectrophotometer to save costs together with a real job as it s a small 342 cm strip by silk screen printing then uncheck the Import from ICC box and read the print ed strip with the spectrophotometer The results can be saved with the Save to file button and can be read back with the Load from file button m Click Next and choose the target simulated job style This is the job style that is used for the target technology e g silk printing as in the example above The screen settings calibration files etc used during the profiling process will be extracted from the specified job style Dou ble check that no further changes will be made on the job style as any change e g changing the calibration curves will result in color inac curacy Choose the printer profile of the proof device This must be a na
255. s that the designers are familiar with allowing jobs to be previewed at all levels of processing separations composite impo sition media Integrate all workflow tasks into the same interface All different tasks job processing and management previewing imposition proof ing imaging history are integrated into one interface where each can be interacted with and managed from m Keep the architecture flexible Cascade can be used in small pre press studios as single computer and single engine installations as well as in large publishing houses as multi computer and multi engine installa tions where various departments have to control the workflow m Offer full control While various components of Cascade can be in stalled in various places of the building designers and operators have full control of the whole workflow process from their workstations m Provide accurate color preview with continuous zoom This type of preview is orders of magnitude more useful than the current capabilities of popular alternatives to Cascade two levels of magnification micro scopic and full page and output colored with over bright inks without color management Match or surpass the speed and quality of the state of the art in the RIP market offering several screening types that can be fine tuned for the special needs of each customer Lid m lt x U N lt x U aa lt lt x a IT O aa lt x lt
256. same user manual Decreasing the Angle accuracy or Fre quency accuracy settings also gives Express RIP more freedom in se lecting a screen and may produce patterning on individual films but this may also increase the likelihood of moir effects between plates The patterning on individual films term above is referring to the moir effect described in chapter 9 2 4 The moir between a halftone screen and a raster device The quote shows that the problem still exists and is quite se rious One approach to correct this problem would be to use dots of the same shape but this would move the center of gravity of the dots from their mathematically ideal place and the human eye seems to be very sensitive to this Another approach would be to anticipate the distortions and apply a pre distortion to the dots in theory the resulting dots would have the correct size on the final print However we consider this approach too dangerous as the immediate result of any technological problems causing different dis tortions than expected would be the appearance of patterning The solution adopted by the majority of the RIP manufactures is to on ly use certain well tested screen sets which fortunately are not vulnerable UO Z LLI LLI cc U N lt Z lt cc LLJ N to this moir phenomenon because the dots are well dispersed It impos es limitations and is an area where improvements ar
257. settings can be temporary in which case there is no need to save them In most cases the job styles are stored as a simple list but in the case of a large number of job styles they can be structured in groups a job style can be either in the root i e not belonging to any group or can be placed into a job style group If a job style is located in a job style group The name of the job style as referenced from other dialogs of Cascade will have a suffix made of the group and a backslash character e g My Group MyJobStyle The hot folder system will follow the group structure e g placing My JobStyle into the a job style group called MyGroup the hot folder be longing to the job style will become Hot folder MyGroup MyJobStyle relative to the Cascade shared documents folder as specified during the setup process 6 2 1 Job styles manager The job styles are managed in the Job styles window Though the job styles are arranged and displayed in a tree structure job styles belonging to a group will be displayed under the tree nodes representing the job style fel Job styles F Xx E S al AccuSet 120 1200 AccuSet 170 2400 E Contone proof fe Raster proof groups in most cases the tree structure will look like a simple list by de fault no job style groups are defined and therefore the job styles will be dis played in the root of the tree The following operations are allowed
258. ssible to use color names like Unidentified color HN which will be assigned to the N color of the job that didn t have a matching color name o Guess unspecified separation colors by angle according to angle table if the angle of a plate is defined in a pre separated job but its name isn t Cascade will assign a color to the plate by looking up the color of the given angle in the Angle table Color table see the Override colors of separations according to the color table option above Colors can be added and removed using the buttons in the right of the table and the color can be changed by clicking on the color icon or its arrow Angle table assigns angles to color names used by the Override angles of separations using the angle table and Guess unspecified separation col ors by angle according to angle table options above Colors can be add ed and removed using the buttons in the right of the table the color can be changed by clicking on the color icon or its arrow the angle can be changed by clicking on the angle text of a selected item then typing into the editor that appears in about one second note that two clicks are nec essary to edit the angle of an item that is not selected The angle values will be automatically updated if the K or base angle field is changed m Seamless screen ensures that the left and the right and or the top and the bottom edges of the job will not produce broken halftones on joining The most impor
259. st by clicking on its name A progress bar and other information will be then available in the sta tus bar of the Job browser window Jobs can be stopped using the Stop button on the toolbar Stopping the job may take a few seconds As the pages of the job are processed they appear in the job browser tree and can be previewed even if there are other pages to process They can also be deleted changed moved etc The job can also be sent for printing whilst it is still being processed though this does not allow the possibility of verifying it on the screen or modify it Uig Job browser MO OB S B og 4 AccuSet 1500 2400 gt E C Test job 1 pdf gt E B Test job 2 pdf gt Media 4 Job queue High priority 4 Normal priority amp Test job 3 pdf Ki Test job 4 pdf Low priority 5 2 3 Preflight warnings Cascade will warn the user if potential errors are detected regarding a job such as using the same screen angle on plates belonging to the same page job sizes which exceed the media size etc The preflight warning will appear as an exclamation mark in the job icon with yellow or red background depending on the severity of the detected problem The preflight warning reporting is fully customizable typically a warning can be ignored but remember that the severity cutoff level may The warning can be viewed by selecting the job with the warning then clicking on the Click her
260. steps visible tonal jumps filtering smooth linear output 9 5 8 Other advantages of the stochastic technique Finally the use of these stochastic techniques has a few other advantages For example on print engines that have banding or other similar problems such as many capstan imagesetters with vibration problems or drum im agesetters with carriage rail problems the problem can be masked by the careful use of slight stochastic noise over the raster 9 6 CASCADE FM SCREENING TECHNIQUE 9 6 1 Second order stochastic screening Cascade uses a second order stochastic FM screening technique This technique is optimized for the press industry and is less suitable for inkjet printers The power of this screening technique relies on round or rounded dot shapes which are generated by high resolution digital devices like CTPs or imagesetters and then are easily reproduced by analog technologies like offset printing flexography or serigraphy te eet Ld sno E P s ont E SOP ESP rw SIE i f OETA RESELLERS OAST te tthe O E asite te e t t AEE P at Ce helt aa gt Haf 4 9 6 2 High rendering speed Cascade uses exactly the same threshold map based technology for FM screening that it uses for AM screening so it can offer the same very high speed as it does for traditional halftoning 9 6 3 Moir free screening The stochastic screen of Cascade overcomes all the possible moir effects including m moir betwee
261. stom Work style Sheetwise Number of pages ST 12T 9T 8T 4 13 16 1 7T 10T 11T 6T 2 15 14 3 Work and tumble used for landscape pages The previous cut amp collate example 8 3 4 Sheet tab itt t tyl eae aaa ia The Sheet tab controls the final size of the imposition sheet as well as the positioning of its contents The following options are available The work style describes the way the sheet is feed back into the print ma Automatic fit all pages and marks will set the size of the sheet auto chine if it is There are the following options matically to fit all pages and marks m Custom size enables the operator to set the size of the sheet manually m Single sided the sheet goes through the print machine once it is print with exact width and height values ed only on one side m Content placement specifies the placement of the content of the sheet m Sheetwise the sheet is double sided and has a front page on one side with the following options and a back page on the other side Work and turn and work and tumble an old and well used trick to save o Center pages and marks centers the content of the sheet horizontal time Instead of printing the front of the page then changing the plates ly vertically taking in account the marks too if any in other words on the printing machine and printing the reverse page a sheet of double centering the bounding box of the entire image includin
262. style AccuSet 170 2400 A Do not do anything yet F Do not ask this question again The easiest way of applying a calibration to a dot is to let this dialog ap ply it to the default job style Calibrations can be also applied manually in the Job style dialog 6 5 DOT GAIN COMPENSATION 6 5 1 Understanding dot gain Dot gain is a widely misunderstood subject Pre press operators are usually surprised to find out that a 50 halftone will become 60 70 on the paper moreover it must be 60 70 on the paper to produce the expected result For historic reasons today s printing industry has ended up with quite a complicated and difficult way of controlling the dot gain of printing de vices The film or plate is linearized with calibration curves therefore a 50 halftone will be measured as 50 on the film or plate m Printing it on the press a dot gain occurs and the 50 halftone typical ly becomes 60 70 on the media The printed result is profiled and an ICC file will be created that de scribes the connection between the device independent Lab color space and the CMYK color space of the press m When separating a Lab or sRGB color in the DTP application or in the RIP i e converting it to the CMYK color space of the device the con version algorithm will take into account the dot gain of the press as de scribed in the ICC profile However the ICC profile contains the dot gain information only indi
263. t appli TCP port number As explained above this is the port number that the cations Print manager listens for the Server to connect the default value is of 4025 For multiple instances of Print manager on the same comput 7 2 NON STANDARD SCENARIOS er this port number will be automatically set to a different value by the Setup program Possible scenarios for placing Print manager relative to the Server tistan Print engna See m One Print manager using the same computer as the Server this is the TCP port number 4025 E 2 fastest and recommended scenario it is also the default E Interface board 1 Priority class Priority value Normal Below normal Continue imaging after cut Hot Folder path C ProgramData RIP Print Manager Hot Folder Browse E Launch Print manager on startup Run as NT system service Language W English United States m Print manager on a different computer done for several possible rea sons bigger HDD capacity logistical reasons etc m Two or more Print managers some of them on the same computer as the Server others on other computer s In all of these scenarios there is one Cascade Server that connects to all the Print managers The Client application will treat all these Print managers as items in the Print manager list controlling them directly and easily aa LLJ J
264. t etc Cascade has a post RIP imposition system which means that the pages are first processed and the imposition is performed on the processed pages This has several advantages m 100 certainty that a page will not be changed during the imposition whilst with PostScript based imposition software there is no certainty that problems will not occur due to the complexity of PostScript m Pages that are step and repeated over a sheet will be processed only once Verifying the job during the imposition is possible right down to pixel level with no need to process the job again and again to check if for ex ample there is a white hairline between two pages Completely different jobs with different screen settings can be com bined on the same sheet The only disadvantage to this approach is when jobs that have halftones right to the edge of the page for example a page with a 20 gray back ground meet These may have broken halftones on the touching edges of the pages This presents problems if there will be a single cut between the pages The only practical solution in these cases is to use two cuts between the pages 8 1 UNDERSTANDING IMPOSITION 8 1 1 Separation composite and imposition pages Cascade builds the final print in three steps m the separations are grouped into composite pages m the composite pages are arranged in imposition sheets and the imposition sheets are then separated again if need
265. t user To add a new user click on the Add button in the toolbar of the Users win dow To edit an existing user s properties double click on the user name 8 Users X lt Default user Administrator 6 7 2 User properties window When editing an existing user account or creating a new one the User prop erties window will appear Specify the login name and password of the user account as well as the special rights Users who can change both settings and manage users are in effect Cas cade administrators Users who can neither change settings nor manage users have full use of the RIP they can print jobs make impositions etc however they cannot make any changes which could impair its functionality User properties Administrator Cancel Password HR k Confirm password Hk Special rights V Change settings V Manage users 6 8 CLIENT OPTIONS Client options are a set of options stored separately from the global settings each client with the client itself therefore each client can have its own set tings Most of these settings are hidden i e non user managed such as the sizes of the dockers but others can be accessed from the Client settings di alog and set manually 6 8 1 General tab m Measurement units inch millimeter centimeter point and pixel op tions if for some reason the pixel is undefined there is no device res olution
266. tant use of this feature is to produce flexo sleeves that can print continuous infinite images e g wallpapers but it can be use ful for imposition as well Turning on the Seamless screening option will slightly change the size of the job up to a few millimeters in the given direction e g the Join vertically option will change the job height The quality of the yellow screen may also become worse m Test screen displays the Test screen window which provides a visual in terface for testing the screening system of the job style The test is made globally for the entire job style rather than for the selected screening PeeccccccresececcccescvecesesccoseosoepeseGJocsosceseorn 6 2 10 Imposition task Job style name AccuSet 170 2400 Workflow tasks zs Interpretation St Sizing 4 Dispro a Separations a Trapping Z Calibration Screening Job style group name a None Trim size First matching item From the list js TrimBox J MediaBox amp CropBox amp BleedBox l gamete Proofing fa Ink duct control Export image EF Imaging 4 Job information amp ArtBox a Pagesize 7 GAHWSize a ImagingBBox Reduction from page size Left Printer share name y AccuSet Others Prepare pre press marks V Apply impositi
267. tch in the scan direction m Patch width the dimension of the patch that is perpendicular to the scan direction After setting up the parameters click Next The wizard will attempt to es tablish the communication between the Cascade and the spectrophotometer and will report the result 10 2 2 Proofer linearization wizard The proofer uses a very fine stochastic screening for proofing used both by the contone and raster modules To achieve good color accuracy and moir free output the proofer must be linearized Cc Wait until the linearization chart is printed let it dry and then start reading the strips with the spectrophotometer Calibrate the spectrophotometer first if necessary You may limit the inks by adjusting the maximum ink percentages Read strip 1 Spectrophotometer calibration CMYK limits 2 100 100 100 100 The Proof linearization wizard can be launched from the Proof menu The following steps need to be performed Choose the printer profile that needs to be linearized At this point a native color printer profile is needed i e not a proof profile and not a monochrome printer profile It is important to choose the profile with the required resolution for high quality proofs the recommendation is to choose the highest possible resolution typically 1440 or 1200 dpi For fast content proofing the recommendation is to choose lower reso lution 720 or 600 dpi After cl
268. tead of using dot sizes below a certain us er definable limit the dots are stochastically removed Low pass filtering Using more than 4000 shades of grays is not enough for perfectly smooth gradients because high dot gain causes linearity problems even after calibration using a stochastic technique Cascade can filter out the linearity problems offering pleasant smooth gradi ents even on old capstan imagesetters Protecting skin tones Using a yellow screen of 30 magenta and yel low screens will not produce moir at all m Stochastic screening A high quality second order stochastic screen ing technique offers smooth tints with no graininess on individual films and moir free results on color jobs m User friendly interface Cascade s interface is easy to understand and simple to use The intuitive attractive and simple interface gives a true Windows Vista Windows 7 or XP look feel and comfort with object trees lists dockers and drag amp drop 1 4 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS 1 4 1 Cascade Server Recommended system requirements Windows 7 Vista or XP or newer for PC clients only m Windows 2003 Server or newer for PC and Mac clients Intel Pentium 4 on 2 4 GHz or newer m 2 GB RAM 100 GB HDD hard disk space Internet connection for optional over the net remote client connections Minimum system requirements Windows 7 Vista XP 2003 or 2000 or newer m Intel Pentium 4 or compatible MMX co
269. ted ICC will proof an ISO offset printer Profile of the proofing device Target job style Epson 3800 1440 y AccuSet 170 2400 zi Profiling accuracy High x 3000 patches Ink limitation Process color halftone optimized For 250 akg accurate ink color x lt Prev Next gt Cancel This wizard will profile the proofer in halftone mode for a given target job style generating an ICC file that will describe the printer using the screen ing technology of the target job style on the given paper resolution ink and printer settings The result will be a new proof profile a printer profile with the Proof profile option checked that will contain the linearization the con tone and halftone ICC profiles and the target job style and will be ready for printing halftone proofs Halftone proof profiles are less flexible than contone proof profiles as they can be used only for the job styles they have been profiled for but more flexible than raster proof profiles as the calibration of the target job style will not affect color accuracy A different halftone proof profile is necessary for each simulated job style For each new job style or if any of the settings of a profiled job style is changed ICC or screen settings a new profiling procedure is necessary otherwise color accuracy isn t guaranteed The Halftone proof wizard can be launched from the Proof menu The fol lowing steps have t
270. th unusual page positioning with pages of differ ent size or to position pages manually or on an exact location use the man ual imposition tools The changes are applied to the selected sheets If there is no sheet selected which happens by default the changes will be applied to all the sheets in the job m O22 l l FH Ala mr Ho mB HRe FOO Td dla Ra OT ES If the selected sheets are not the same the controls will be disabled Controls available are Sheet width and sheet height the size of the sheet m Physical pages on sheet the number of pages which will be physically printed on the page for example if one page is repeated 4 times on the sheet this has to be set to 4 Add page button will add a page to the sheet that can then be changed or moved m Remove selected pages button will remove the selected pages includ ing pre press marks Select all pages button will select all the pages on the sheet including pre press marks useful for moving the whole contents of the sheet by drag amp drop Logical pages on sheet each sheet has linked a certain number of log ical pages composite pages under the Composite node typically this is equal to the number of physical pages for common book impositions or is equal to 1 for step and repeat however it may be necessary to use custom values for example each sheet will contain 4 pages Sheet 1 containing Page 1 Page 1 Page 2 Page 2 and Sheet 2 conta
271. the Print manager the job will be ar chived in the History from where it can be retrieved for reprinting if nec essary The following chapters will describe in detail the steps above 5 1 OPENING A JOB Cascade accepts PostScript of PDF jobs either as PS PDF files or as Post Script data coming through the Cascade printers The typical ways of opening jobs in Cascade are Printing to a Cascade printer from an application Exporting a job to a PDF file and then opening the created PDF file with the Open command as a RipServer exe command line parameter by selecting Open with Ripserver exe from the Explorer s File menu or through the hot folder system Generating a PostScript file either by a special command of the DTP application or selecting the Print to file option and printing to a Cas cade or another PostScript printer then opening the created PostScript file with the Open command as a RipServer exe command line parame aa O lt x J z aa A l lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt ter by selecting Open with Ripserver exe from the Explorer s File menu or through the hot folder system Cascade accepts either composite or separations jobs but in most cases we recommend using composite trapping is only possible on composite jobs there is more control over the separation process overprints for example the processing speed is higher and there are no problems with grouping separation plat
272. the reset button on the box the EtherSetter boxes are configured to automatic IP con figuration through DHCP Normally they will get an IP just as any other aa LLJ J lt x lt x aa A l lt Z lt 2 aa LLJ N gt computer in the LAN would avoiding possible IP conflicts and no further intervention will be needed either from the user or from the Print Manager If the DHCP request fails the automatically assigned IP will be 192 168 0 124 If this IP is outside of the subnet of the Print Manager PC the Print Manager will choose an IP that is in the right subnet e g if Print Manager has an IP of 192 168 3 23 then the chosen IP will be 192 168 3 124 If there are more EtherSetter boxes in the system the last number of the IP will be increased e g the second board will have an IP of 192 168 3 125 in the previous example until a free IP number is found 7 3 3 Static IP assignment Static IP assignment may be needed when m the network administrator wants to control the IP of the box m the EtherSetter box and the Print Manager are in different LAN seg ments and auto setup broadcast packages are not propagated between them To configure the IP settings of an EtherSetter box its HTTP service has to be accessed For this the IP address of the box needs to be known m if there is a DHCP server in the system find out the assigned IP from the DHCP log or lease table m if ther
273. there is no standard way for a design application to create a PostScript file containing both the trim box and media bleed box sizes it will contain only the size of the page Fortunately the newer versions of PDF have support for bleed providing a more automated way of working with it Art box Trim box This might be a caption Printer s marks Bleed box Media box O T O A lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt The picture above shows how the different boxes are defined in the PDF file The important one is the trim box which stores the size of the intended final size of the printing this is the box the imposition relies on 8 6 2 Using bleed with Cascade It is very important to understand that in Cascade the bleed is by default in visible This is because the size of the sheet is set to the trim size i e the in tended final size of the job so the bleed area falls outside the sheet and is therefore invisible The bleed becomes visible when it is on the sheet Nor mally this happens in all the cases when it is needed particularly when us ing pre press marks imposition with gutters etc If there is any doubt about whether there is bleed available in a job put the crop marks on and compare the result to the previous picture chapter 8 6 1 Understanding bleed With Cascade there are three ways of working with bleed The newer design applications e g InDesign Corel Ventura
274. tic bags Needs a specialized screening due to its spe cial technological requirements FM Frequency Modulated screening a screening technology which uses a fixed dot size varying the density of the dot pattern to achieve GhostScript a PostScript and PDF interpreter distributed under GPL GNU licensing conditions available also for commercial redistribu tion from Artifex Software Inc Gradient a continuous change from a color to another Offering a smooth gradient from black to white is an important technological goal of printing technologies m Gutter space between rows or columns of pages in an imposition Hard key a small device attached to the computer securing against software piracy Cascade is freely downloadable from the Internet it is the hard key which protects the program from piracy Without a hard key attached to the computer Cascade will run in demo mode The hard key also holds the license information i e which features of Cascade are enabled and can be easily upgraded History the database where the Print manager application stores the printed jobs in chronological order grouped in years months and days Hot folder a folder that is monitored by a program for the appearance of new files In the Cascade system the Server is watching for PS or TACLI CepoveeccccsccsccsccsecessoreceecepoeeGyosscason eoecasoccopoccccceccsccccce tings lt page 75 ICC ICM ICM Image Color Management is the Microso
275. ting dots will be in creased instead The default value is 17 which empirically seems to lt m Flexo optimized hybrid screening controls whether the FM AM tran produce the most pleasant result F sition phase will become available or not m Cell size specifies the size in device pixels of the supercell Small su yA m Low pass gradient smoothener filter width achieves better color ac percells may cause a tiling effect the human eye may recognize the re curacy at the expense of slightly noisier tints generally improving the peating pattern of the stochastic screen On the other hand big super cells may cause bad screen generation performance normally generat ing the four stochastic screens takes about one minute The cell size of 500 pixels seems to be a good compromise 9 7 3 Limits tab Certain print technologies need the minimum or maximum screen percent age to be limited m It is common in the gravure industry to limit the maximum tint to 80 90 Itis common in the flexo industry to knocking out tints below 2 soo Name Default screening type Condition Ipi Traditional 4M screening Stochastic FM screening FM settings Limits Upper and lower screen limits Minimum limit a Yo Values under minimum limit printed as 0 Yo Maximum limit 100 Yo Values above maximum limit printed as 100 wo The goal of the s
276. tive color printer profile i e not a proof profile and not a monochrome ard will fail Select the settings that will be used for the proofed jobs It is very important that the screen dot and calibration settings match exactly the settings of the jobs that will be proofed in Future Settings Target simulated job style AccuSet 170 2400 z Printer profile of proof device Epson 3800 1440 x m Click Next and choose whether the spot colors will be calibrated i e a contone ICC profile will be used for their accurate reproduction o Selecting the Calibrated spot colors option an ICC profile can be specified in the ICC profile for calibrated spot colors drop down list This must be the result of a previously performed contone profile wiz ard If the chosen printer profile has already been contone profiled this option will be automatically selected the ICC profile will be au This table describes the colors of the target press it s default setting is the ISO Coated ICC profile You may import the color values From other ICC profiles or if you have a test chart printed by the target press you can read it with a spectrophotometer Spectrophotometer calibration V Import From ICC 150 Coated Sd Save to file Load from file tomatically chosen too otherwise the contone profiling can be done at this phase by clicking the Launch profiler wizard
277. to avoid patterning on individual films a considerable part of the available screens will be disregarded because they are dangerously prone to patterning However given the large number of available screen sets there will be perfect quality screen sets even after the filtering process giving to Cascade users the freedom to choose accurate dots for their needs 9 5 4 Gray enhancement Gray enhancement overcomes the problem of the limited number of gray shades Cascade relies on supercell technology for its gray enhancement The novelty of Cascade s technology is that it uses large supercells with sto chastic patterns rather than small supercells with regular patterns This means that there will be no disturbing patterns in the grays even on very high line screens the stochastic technique will always offer a smooth look Cascade s gray enhancement eliminates the need to apply a typical work around for the limited gray levels problem using high resolutions Line screens of up to 300 lpi can easily be achieved on 2400 dpi without losing shades Moreover on high quality drum machines line screens of 150 180 Ipi can be used safely even on low resolutions such as 1200 or 1800 and gra dients will still look smooth and perfect 9 5 5 Great highlight and shadow detail Cascade achieved greater highlight and shadow detail by using a hybrid technique in the extreme shades Cascade combines FM technology with the AM screens The minimum dot size t
278. to calculate with a default 1000 dpi is used so 1000 pixels 1 inch Ask for job style on open if this option is checked the Job style dialog will always appear when opening a job with the Client Launch on startup for this user account with this option checked the client will start at user logon it is particularly useful with Remote Desktop clients principally Mac clients because the Remote Desktop window will automatically start the Client without any user interven tion Full screen usually it is used in conjunction with the previous setting With this option checked the Client will be launched in full screen mode i e with no title bar and with the Start menu covered This is useful with Remote Desktop clients because o For PC client with Windows Remote Desktop connection the Re mote Desktop window will not contain a second title bar the title bar of the Remote Desktop application and a second Start menu the Start menu of the server giving the feeling that it is a real Cascade Client window rather than a Remote Desktop window o Mac with full screen Remote Desktop connection it will look and feel more like a real Mac application with a menu bar at the top and no Windows Start menu at the bottom Display warning box on new calibration curve with this setting turned on when defining a new calibration curve a dialog will appear to help apply the calibration curve to the appropriate dot Display update window
279. ttings Open this dialog by clicking the small film icon of the Print manager in the system tray If the Print manager is running as a system service access to this dia log is not possible In this case stop the Print manager service by the Services administration tool and then start the Print manager as a regular application 7 1 1 History cleanup settings The most important configuration settings of the Print manager are the His tory management settings These settings control how the Print manager deletes old files from the history and by doing so keeping the Hard Disk Drive HDD from filling up or storing more information than desired By ticking the appropriate boxes the files will be deleted in chronological order when any of the following conditions are met aa LLJ J lt x lt x aa A l lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt History folder is greater than a certain limit physical size or percent of the HDD This option will limit the HDD space occupied by the Print manager to within a certain limit providing space for other programs m Free space is less than a certain limit on the HDD physical size or per cent of the HDD This option is useful when Cascade runs on a dedi cated computer and maximizes Cascade s use of available HDD space m File is older than a certain number of days For example if this number is set to 7 files older than a week will be deleted These settings c
280. two darker colors the cyan and magenta o The black as the strongest color is placed at 45 degrees because this is the most pleasing angle for the human eye 9 2 2 The moir between the cyan magenta and black screens Having exactly 30 degrees between the cyan magenta and black screens produces a moir called rosette pattern Even if de facto this is moir it is so fine and pleasant to the human eye that printers do not consider it as be ing a moir However slight angle or frequency differences in the traditional angle scheme can cause very disturbing moir patterns On the left picture there is a good rosette on the right picture there is a flawed rosette While the good rosette looks the same on the whole printing area the flawed rosette is changing its structure across the printing area causing shade differences and therefore moir ROR OTURO RORE POLERNE DAG osode z TR ANA e mises are oe Ox G0 Hote Es ogo ga RO iste G ROSO ESO OAO RRO tote os a 0 ae os Bes Bo ox ae Seaman KE s 08 03 ge 0 Seog oe rie Ro com 4 iat cx F Bos Sees E S AN ig nos es v e Serao 250 SEO OX aN X Sor So EO RORO SORIO FOS o SRR PORE g aongee s erse g Gs OCG aie oy S sises 5 esi oe Older RIPs are often unable to produce accurate angles and frequencies causing moir s for certain color combinations especially when the color separation is made with a high black generation The picture above
281. uce grainy tints in high lights and midtones Welcome to the Contone Proof Wizard The wizard will create the ICC profile of the selected proofing device then will create a printer profile For contone proofing The jobs printed through the contone proofing profile will match the colors of the ICC profile specified in the Job style window e g selecting ISO coated ICC will proof an I50 offset printer Profile of the proofing device Epson 3800 1440 v Profiling accuracy High x 3000 patches Ink limitation Black generation 250 Ea minimum z If color accuracy is the main consideration and the graininess of the tints is less important use maximum black generation even for print ers without light black inks the color stability will be considerably bet ter m Click Next Wait until the patch list used in the color chart is generated the results are cached so for the same values the patch generation will be skipped next time m On sheet fed printers you may choose Transverse printing With this option turned on the rows will be printed along the length of the paper rather than across the width resulting in less rows and therefore faster reading The patches are being generated Please wait it may take a few minutes Cached TI file found Done E Transverse printing m Click Next The profiling chart consisting of one or more pages will be printed
282. up procedure the installation is smooth and easy in almost any network configuration However in special situa tions multiple EtherSetters per network EtherSetter and Print Manager in different LAN segments etc the information below might be useful For Pee ececcceeoesceceseeseeieccesevsserseseseseseeseserereceesoposegPesccateon 7 3 1 Multiple EtherSetters per network In case of multiple EtherSetter boxes per network each Print Manager will choose its own EtherSetter box according to the Interface board setting in the Special tab of the Settings dialog of the Print Manager application The numbering of the boxes is done in the increasing order of their unique IDs board 1 in the system having the smallest ID board 2 having the next ID etc If a new box is introduced into the system it will not necessarily have a higher index as board index is determined by the unique ID of the boxes rather then by the order of appearance in the network When new box es are introduced into the system boot up the Print Manag ers one by one if the Print Manager doesn t connect to the right box change the interface board and try again until it connects to the right box It is very important to have all boxes running when the Print Managers boot up If box 1 is switched off during the boot up procedure box 2 will become box 1 7 3 2 Default IP assignment By default as well as after a reset operation initiated by pushing
283. user to build a calibration curve by entering printed and measured values i e desired and actual values into a table It is also possible to edit the curve manually by dragging the setpoints on the curve with the mouse The entered values can be integer or decimal values in the range of 0 100 More value pairs will result in a better defined calibration curve especial ly at the extremes close to o and 100 The values entered in the two col umns are the printed value written on the calibration page and the mea sured value read on the densitometer The calibration curve above is typical for a capstan imagesetter on a rel atively high line screen 170 lpi and with the density Dmax set correctly As shown a 50 tint came out as 58 as measured by the densitometer 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 V Show the resulting transfer curve With the calibration curve applied to the dot when a job has a 50 tint in it the rip modifies this downwards printing maybe 42 forcing the print en gine to produce an accurate 50 tint It does this across the full range of tint values for the dots that it has been applied to Printed or measured values of 100 or printed values of 0 will be reject ed the value pair will disappear after entering it The reason is that they would lead to wrong results such as 100 tints having halftone dots if the 98 measured as 100 value pair is entered in
284. ut the previously pro cessed pages will remain available Delete job s deletes the selected jobs in the Job browser window Combine jobs transforms the selected jobs into one job containing all the pages of the original jobs Split job creates a new job extracting the selected pages from the orig inal job Merge plates merges the selected plates of a job resulting in one plate The source plates will be deleted except the last one selected the plate which is visible in the preview window which will contain the result of the merge Export image exports one or more pages from the job to JPEG files See Job information displays the Job information window containing in formation about the job as well as the pre flight warnings if any 4 2 4 Imposition menu Imposition opens the Imposition window used for making new imposi Clear imposition removes the imposition and initializes the job to its initial state before any imposition Imposition styles shows the Imposition styles docker window This LLJ Q lt x U N lt x U a O cc lt x gt lt cc O S UO m TE lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt window manages the available imposition styles in the Cascade system If this window is docked to a holder it will be brought to the foreground Select pages on sheet selects all the objects pages and pre press marks on an imposition sheet Select signature 1
285. vi Step and repeat E ial a Glo a variable defined in the previous tab The use of this variable is highly recommended because it simplifies positioning b i lentes ous one where usually the fold marks are placed similarly the Right gt unti touches postion l fold Top fold and Bottom fold options mean the centre of the right O TE top or bottom space The second pair of fields can specify custom x et gt offsets The last pair of fields can specify offsets using the Distance TT N o Alignment Having defined the horizontal and vertical position lines of the mark above the Alignment defines how the mark will be placed relative to these lines left centered right respectively top centered bottom m Step and repeat using this option an object can be step and repeated in the following ways o For each color of the sheet which for a CMYK job would mean 4 for example o For a given number of times which can be specified o Until touches position the mark will be repeated until a certain po sition on the page is reached Direction and spacing the direction of the step and repeat can also be specified as can the spacing between the marks End position when using the Until touches position option the position which the mark must not touch should be specified 8 6 BLEED 8 6 1 Understanding bleed When a work has design elements touching the edge of the pag
286. view of the job will be proofed as shown ber of ink ducts positioning etc Print press styles can be edited add in the Imposition preview window containing pre press marks and ed or removed with the buttons in the right of the combo box See 5 4 2 eventually several pages per sheet Ink duct control lt page 39 gt for further details about defining a print press style Neutralize calibration neutralizes the effect of the linearization curve Job style M y so that the ink duct control information will reflect the real image on the eer e film or plate rather than the calibrated bitmap before exposure Te fireman paies T 4 sizing Diagram printed on J Epson syts Da7 seres J 6 2 13 Export image task 2 carte Err a Exports the PDF or JPEG preview of the job to a specified folder The fol 2 Epean lowing options are available aS Teg TA Bret es Resolution the resolution of the generated picture defaulted to 150 dpi gt aire Higher resolutions are possible but are not recommended for several lt reasons long processing time large JPEG file and possible moir prob F lems a E OE S m Exported view specifies whether the composite separations or imposi tion view of the job will be exported Job style name Job style group name Printer share name AccuSet 170 2400 H B Nore AccuSet Workflow tasks u interpretation Xit Sizing Resolution 4 Dispro 150 dpi A Separations _ Small fil
287. well as in home and office use Gained popularity by porta bility small document size flexibility and by the fact that the Acrobat Reader is freeware Physical pages on sheet the number of pages which will be physically printed on the imposition sheet Platesetter see CTP PostScript PS a page description language created by Adobe Systems Incorporated in the 1980 s which became now a standard in the printing industry Usually design or general use applications create PostScript data which is then interpreted by the RIP of a printer imagesetter or CTP PPD PostScript Printer Description a text file that describes a Post Script printer used by the PostScript drivers Preflight warning if Cascade detects potential problems about a job it will warn the user by placing an exclamation sign in the job s icon on yellow or red background The description of the warning is also avail Print manager Cascade Print manager is one of the three executables of the Cascade package It is the interface between the Cascade system Printer profile a virtual representation of a print engine with one reso lution and one media size A physical print engine has one or more cor Cece cer socrsvercccoopccveee files spage 45 gt Process color color that is obtained by the use of the four standard inks CMYK Proofer a system typically software and an inkjet printer that simu lates the output of a printing press or another printing devic
288. will be grown rather than add ing more dots to increase dot density m The chessboard effect is avoided usually by the so called clustering ef fect te et4 r eee o teg P we TA eae SORE ESP rw SIE i e e0 0 4 IT P me L3 4 eces Sies OR rS ASN A e byte i S es ett SEER RAO ECS NES Noh b E RIRES IT pale eee bY The major improvement of the second order FM screening techniques is in their abilities to produce shapes which can be well reproduced by the print engines rounded thick robust shapes rather than angular thin fragile ones but at the same time offering a smooth pleasant look by T R eg ce EN E A eal L cats cawarieags The AM amplitude modulated screening is the traditional halftone tech nique which uses a fixed grid of dots changing their size in order to achieve the desired shades which technically means that the amplitude of the dots is modulated with the intensity of the shade From the outset our objective was that Cascade s AM screening tech nique had to comprehensively and effectively overcome the problems de scribed in the previous chapters When designing Cascade s screening tech nique the following clear goals were set m Consistent rosettes to be achieved even on large pages and high line screens Freedom for the user to choose angles and frequencies Imperceptible patterning to the human eye even on low quality print engines m 4096 shades of gray fo
289. will show the full processed size in other words the bleed will remain hidden Only the parts of the bleed that fit on the sheet are vis ible impositions will generally create space for the bleed to show by in formation Switch to imposition view either by clicking the Imposition tab above the view window or by expanding the Imposition node under the node of the job in the Job browser then clicking on a single page Imposition sheets cannot be deleted or moved the very nature of im position does not make it possible Therefore to delete an imposition sheet delete the composite pages of the job belonging to an imposi tion sheet For a deeper understanding of how the imposition works we recommend 5 3 5 Media view The media view allows previewing of the jobs as they will be arranged on the media Switch to media view either by clicking the Media tab above the view window or by expanding the Media node under the node of the job in the Job browser then clicking on a single page This is the only preview where the effects of the mirror and negative settings are visible in order to keep the readability and accurate col ors of the other three previews The media settings size media saving etc which influence the placement settings of the printer profile that affect the way the jobs are arranged on the media the Page placement and Try to use maximum media length options can be changed via the controls on the toolb
290. wizards contone halftone or raster This will test the proof in nor mal working conditions i e printing the proof as a regular PDF job rather than an internal test so having good results in this wizard will guarantee that the proofer is accurate The test proof wizard works only for ICC based proof profiles so raster proofs based on measuring the Target chart cannot be tested The working principle of the wizard is that it prints a chart containing CMYK patches and compares the printed and measured patches with the values specified by the ICC profile i e whether the measured Lab value of a given CMYK patch matches the Lab value provided by the ICC profile The Test proof wizard can be launched from the Proof menu The following steps have to be performed m Check the Print test page with job style box if there is a job style creat ed for printing proofs see more in 10 3 2 Proofjob styles lt page 122 and choose the given job style Alternatively print the Proof test PDF file suitable for the installed densitometer from the Cascade program fold Cece cahoccccvcccccceG Popocseceyoce proofed job does not need confirmation e g for checking the position ing on the media m Click Next If the Print test page with job style box was checked the Welcome to the Proof test wizard This wizard will verify the color accuracy of an ICC based proof profile WARNING If the proof profile has been made using a target c
291. www highwaterproducts com AN afc CASCADE US dIHOIPMIS OLOZO 45uAdoD Copyright StudioRIP srl Cascade RIP Cascade Workflow and the Highwater Cascade Logo are trademarks of HighWater CTP Ltd PostScript and Adobe are registered trademarks of Adobe systems Incor porated Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation Pantone is a registered trademark of Pantone Incorporated Epson is a registered trademark of Seiko Epson Incorporated All other company and product names cited are trademarks or registered trademarks of their re spective owners and are used without intention of infringement Equipment specifications are subject to change without notification Cascade User Manual rev 3 5 1 Table of Contents be eerie oar eee coneene aeeeassteaneeueseeas 1 1 Overview 9 1 2 The aim of Cascade 9 1 3 Features of Cascade 10 1 4 System requirements 10 1 4 1 Cascade Server 10 1 4 2 Cascade Client 11 1 4 3 Cascade Client on Mac 11 2 INSTALLATION leserene 2 1 Basic concepts 13 2 2 Performing the installation 14 2 2 1 Setting up the print engine 14 2 2 2 Installing an EtherSetter box 15 2 2 3 Legacy systems with interface boards 15 2 2 4 Connecting to a third party TIFF catcher 15 2 2 5 Setting up the network 15 2 2 6 Connecting from the Internet to a Cascade Server 16 2 2 7 Installing the hard key 16 2 2 8 Installing Cascade 16 2 3 Installing Clients 18 2 3 1 Installing PC clients 18 2 3 2 Insta
292. ximum permitted cov erage density of a normal ink e g cyan If on a given resolution the density of the 100 tints are unnecessarily high causing ink flow prob lems in mixed colors reduce this value if possible without limiting the gamut of the printer Linearization holds the linearization information of a proofer device at a specific resolution A linearization profile can be created by running the Proofer linearization wizard A linearization file will be necessary to run the Raster Halftone or Contone proof wizards and will be copied to the resulting proof profiles Proofer ICC profile the ICC profile of the proofer in contone mode It is created by the Contone proof wizard and for accurate spot color re production it is recommended that it is created before running the Ras ter proof wizard It must be created before running the Halftone proof wizard As Cascade has its own rasterization linearization and ink manage ment modules it doesn t make any sense to use ICC profiles created by other applications the result will certainly be inaccurate Target simulated job style specifies the job style that a halftone proof simulates It is set up by the Halftone proof wizard changing it may af LLI O lt D a lt U Z cc gt T LL Z oe v lt Z lt cc LLJ N fect proofing accuracy For contone proofs this field will be set to Half tone proof Halft
293. y be installed on another computer If the Allow fast copy option is checked in the Server options dialog and if there are absolutely no changes to the job not even automatic rotation this process consists of a simple file move operation which takes milliseconds if the Print manager is on the same computer and disc partition as the Server otherwise the source TIFF files have to be read combined and written to a aa O lt x J z aa A lt Z lt cc Lud 2 single destination TIFF file This may take a few seconds for each page pos sibly even longer the transfer time is a function of the connection speed be tween the Server and the Print manager the computer s speed the file siz es and the complexity of the rendering operations to perform such as rotat ing a page When media saving is turned on a job will only be sent to the Print man ager when there is absolute certainty that a following page cannot fit on the same piece of media To achieve this the first page will be held until the sub sequent page is processed and has been assessed to see whether it will fit on to the media with the current page To allow media saving to put two pages from different jobs on the same piece of media it will be necessary for both jobs to be marked as checked and thereby released to the Print Manager at the same time This will en sure that the media saving can perform in the way that is shown in
294. y of several kinds of moir s offering good color stability in highlights and shadows and offering smooth gradients today s print ing industry still overwhelmingly employs traditional halftones Some RIPs such as the Cascade use hybrid screening to improve the characteristics of the traditional half tones best of both worlds approach UO Z LLI LLI cc U N l lt Z lt cc LLJ N gt The big disadvantage of the traditional halftone is its vulnerability to dif ferent kinds of moir s and these will be discussed in detail in the next sec tion deveesescccesseses 2 UNDERSTANDING MOIRE leseese Moir is a phenomenon recognized by many people but understood by few Experienced typographers or engineers have often vague and erroneous ideas of exactly why moir appears The moir appears when two repetitive patterns are interfering causing the disturbing moir effect Unfortunately in the printing industry grids and rasters are very common so there are many opportunities for the moir to occur The most important ones are Interference between halftone screens Interference between a halftone screen and a raster device m Interference between a halftone screen and image elements 9 2 1 Traditional offset angles The traditional printing uses 15 45 and 75 degrees for the cyan black and magenta screens and o degrees for the yellow screen To understand why these angles were chosen there are

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