dm screening - ecrm imaging · pdf fileoverview ag50785 rev. 3 dm screening getting started...

DM SCREENINGGETTING STARTED GUIDE

AO12333Rev. 19

AO50785Revision 3

This guide reflects the software as of September 2012.

Additional copies of this manual may be obtained by writing or calling:

ECRM Order Processing

554 Clark RoadTewksbury, MA 01876

Phone No. (US) - +1 978-851-0207 — Fax (US) - +1 978-851-7016 Phone No. (UK) - +44 1923-218255 — Fax (UK) +44 1923-218256

Phone No. (Hong Kong) - +852 2-564-8989— Fax (Hong Kong) +852 2-564-8821

Visit our Internet Web Site: www.ecrm.com

Proprietary Notice

The information contained within this guide is the property of ECRM. No transmission, reproduction, transcription, storage in a retrieval system, translation into any language or other use is permitted in whole or in part in any form without first obtaining written permission of ECRM.

ECRM® is a registered trademark of ECRM Incorporated. Other brand or product names are the registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders.

© copyright ECRM Incorporated 2012

DM Screening Getting Started AG50785 Rev. 3ii

Table of Contents

AG

Overview 1

System Requirements 2Operating system 2Hardware 2RIPMate/Harlequin RIP 2Plate Dot Reader (for Calibration) 2Spectrophotometer 2

Installing ECRM DM Screening 3Preliminary Steps 3Installing the ECRM DM Screening Plug-in 6Installing the ECRM DM Screens 8

Configuring ECRM DM Screening 10

Custom Screens 17

Calibration 19Calibrating the Plate 19Press Calibration 24

Installing the DM Screening License 26

Accessing DM Screen Sets 28

50785 Rev. 3 DM Screening Getting Started Guide iii

iv DM Screening Getting Started Guide AG50785 Rev. 3

O V E R V I E W

O v e r v i e w

This manual explains how to install ECRM DM Screening.

The installation is the same for either the trial version or the fully licensed version.

If you’re installing ECRM DM Screening for the 21-day trial, please be aware of the following.

• The 21-day trial period cannot be extended.

• Do not install this trial until you are prepared to use it.

The ECRM DM Screening Trial includes specific screens that have been developed to optimize the output for specific ECRM CTP-Plate combinations for a typical press.

If your press has dot gain that is either very low or very high, or your CTP-Plate combination is not available, you may require a custom-built screen. This requires requesting the appropriate target from ECRM, printing it on your press, and sending the printed target to ECRM. ECRM will then examine your output, build the custom screen and send it to you. We recommend this entire process be completed before installing the ECRM DM Screening Trial. Please call if you have any questions.

Remember, once the screening trial is installed, you have only 21days to use it. So, be prepared to complete all evaluations in a timely manner when you install the trial.

AG50785 Rev. 3 DM Screening Getting Started Guide 1

D M S c r e e n i n g G e t t i n g Sta r t e d G u i d e

S y s t e m R e q u i r e m e n t s

Operat ing systemPC Windows 2000/2003/2008 / XP / Vista / 7 or later

Mac OS X - 10.4 to 10.7 or later

HardwareGenerating DM screens is CPU intensive. These specifications are minimum. Faster is better.

P C• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8 GHz of faster processor

• 4Gb RAM; Two 160Gb disk drives

• DVD Drive

M A C I N T O S H

• 2.6 GHz Dual Core Intel Xeon processor-based workstation

• 4Gb RAM. minimum; Two 80+ Gb disk drives

• DVD Drive

RIPMate/Har lequin RIPRIPMate/Harlequin RIP v8.3 or later is required.

Plate Dot Reader ( fo r Ca l ib ra t ion )

Plate readers that support an ‘FM’ mode work best at reading ECRM DM plates. We have had good results with the latest Xrite iCPlate2 reader. ECRM offers this reader as p/n MA0721.

SpectrophotometerFor reading press gain. The Xrite i1 is a good choice. ECRM offers this item as p/n MA0775.

2 DM Screening Getting Started Guide AG50785 Rev. 3

I N S T A L L I N G E C R M D M S C R E E N I N G

I n s t a l l i n g E C R M D M S c r e e n i n g

Prel iminary Steps

Step 1 On the RIP workstation desktop, create a new folder called DM Screening.

Step 2 If you received a DVD similar to the one shown at the right, load the DVD into the workstation now.

Note: If you are installing the trial version of DM Screening, you may have received two .zip files from ECRM rather than this CD. If so, skip down to Step 8.

Step 3 Wait for the WorkMates DM Screening screen shown below to open. If it doesn’t, open the DVD and launch the setup.exe program to open the window.

Step 4 Click on the Browse CDROM button as shown below.

Note: DM Screening can also be found on your ECRM WorkMates/RIP DVD.



Step 5 Open the ECRM DM Screening folder on the DVD as shown below. You’ll see the ECRM DM Screening Install and ECRM DM Screening Targets folders shown shown below on the right..

Step 6 Copy the ECRM DM Screening Install and ECRM DM Screening Targets folders to DM Screening folder on your desktop.

Step 7 Close the DVD, skip the next 3 steps, and continue with Step 11.

Step 8 Copy the two .zip files you received from ECRM into the DM Screening folder on your desktop.

Step 9 Extract the files in the two zip files into the DM Screening folder.

Step 10 Delete the two .zip files.



Step 11 At this point, the two folders in the DM Screening folder on your desktop should contain all the files shown below.

Now that you have all the files needed to install and use DM screening readily available on your desktop, you are ready to install the DM Screening plug-in.

INSTALLFILES

TARGETFILES



Instal l ing the ECRM DM Screening Plug- in

Step 1 Launch the RIPMate/Harlequin RIP.

Step 2 From the RIPMate pull-down menu, select the Print File... option.

Step 3 In the Print File window, look in the ECRM DM Screening \ ECRM DM Screening Install folder on your desktop.

Step 4 If your RIP is on a PC, print:DMS Plugin Installer (Win).ps. If your RIP is on a Mac (OSX), print:DMS Plugin Installer (Mac).ps.

PLUG-IN INSTALLERS



Step 5 A license agreement like the one shown below appears. Read the agreement and then close the window it appears in.

Step 6 Once the job is complete, you must restart the RIP.

When the RIP is restarted, you will see the following messages in the RIP’s Monitor window:

Core Screening ECRMDM Plugin

Version 5.n - Copyright (c) 2008-2012 Hamillroad Software. All Rights Reserved.

! ECRM DM Screening Plugin

*** Demo period will expire on: 2:07 PM, Wednesday September 7, 2012 ***

Successfully registered module “ECRMDM (Hqn v8.3+)”

This indicates ECRM-DM Screening has successfully been installed and shows when your trial will expire.

Once the Demo period expires, any jobs that are printed using ECRM-DM Screening will error.

Now that the DM Screening plug-in is installed, you can install the screens.



Insta l l ing the ECRM DM Screens

Installing the ECRM-DM screens is similar to installing the plug-in.


Step 2 In the Print File window, look in the desktop ECRM DM Screening \ ECRM DM Screening Install folder.

Step 3 Select the screen set file that is appropriate for your device. For example, for a MAKO 400, you would print the DMS Screens (MakoN00).ps screen set file as shown below.

The table below shows which screen set file to use for specific CTP devices.

SCREEN SETS

DMS Screens (DPX).ps

Use Screen Set File...For CTP Device...

ECRM DPX

ECRM MAKO 200DMS Screens (NEWS).psECRM NEWS, ECRM NEWSmaticDMS Screens (Mako200).ps and

ECRM MAKO 2/4/8/2x/4x /8x /8x,MAKO 4matic DMS Screens (MakoN).psECRM MAKO 400/800 DMS Screens (MakoN00).psECRM Nautilus DMS Screens (Nautilus).psnon-ECRM Violet News devices DMS Screens (Violet News).psnon-ECRM Violet devices DMS Screens (Violet).psnon-ECRM Themal News devices DMS Screens (Thermal News).psnon-ECRM Thermal devices DMS Screens (Thermal).ps

DMS Screens (MakoN00).ps



Step 4 Click the Print button (see previous illustration).

Step 5 Once the job is complete you must restart the RIP.

When the RIP is restarted, you will see a list of all the screens that were installed in the RIP’s Monitor window.

Note: Typically, “News” screen sets include low resolution screens (up to 1800 dpi), whereas non-News screens sets include high resolution screens (1800/2400 dpi and higher).

You can now implement their use by applying them in your page setups. We explain how to do this is the next section.

Note: Two paths for accessing DM Screens are provided at the back of this book. See “Accessing DM Screen Sets" on page 28.

LIST OFINSTALLED

DM SCREENS



C o n f i g u r i n g E C R M D M S c r e e n i n g

To use DM Screening, you need a page setup with a separations style dot shape configured for DM Screening. Here’s how create such a page setup.

Step 1 From the RIPMate pull-down menu, select the Page Setup Manager... option.

Step 2 In the Page Setup Manager window, select a page setup to use as a template for a new page setup that will use DM Screening. We selected the TIFF 2400 shown below.

Step 3 Click Copy...

• The New Page Setup window opens.


C O N F I G U R I N G E C R M D M S C R E E N I N G

Step 4 In the New Page Setup window click the Separations Manager icon.

• The Separations Manager window pops up.

Step 5 In the Separations Manager window, select an existing separations style to serve as a template for creating a new separations style that will use DM Screening. We chose CMYK Separations as our template.

Step 6 Click the Copy...

• The New Style for device... window opens.

SEPARATIONS MANAGER ICON



Step 7 In the New Style for device... window, enter a Style name: for the new style you are about to create. Your name should include a reference to DM screening, like our example below.

Step 8 Click the Create button.

• The Edit Style for...window opens (see next figure).



Step 9 In the Edit Style for window, pull down the Dot shape: menu and select the appropriate DM Screen-Plate combination for your new style. We chose the MakoN00-SouthernLitho combination shown below because we run Southern Litho plates on a Mako 200 CTP.

Note: For more about Device-Plate combinations, refer to ECRM DM Screen Selection Guide AG50719.

Step 10 If you want to generate extra grey levels, click (check) the Generate extra grey levels box as shown in the figure for the next step. If not, skip the next step and continue with Step 12.



Step 11 In the Limit number of distinct grey levels to popup, select the value you want. We chose 2048, as shown below.

Note: Select 256 levels (or less) for 8-bit screening. Select 512 levels (or more) for full, 16-bit screening)

Step 12 Click OK. This opens the Separations Manager window.

Step 13 In the Separations Manager window, click Select. This applies your new separation style to the page setup you are working on and closes the Separations Manager window.



Step 14 In the New Page Setup window, note that your new DM Screening style is now being displayed as Style: for the page setup.Click on Save As... as shown below.

• The Save Setup window opens.

NEW DM SCREENING STYLE



Step 15 In the Save Setup window, enter a name for the new page setup you are creating (like our TIFF 2400 -DM, shown below), and then click Save.

• The Page Setup Manager window opens.

Step 16 In the Page Setup Manager window, you’ll see the name of the new page setup you just created. Click OK. This saves your new DM Screening page setup and closes the Page Setup Manger window.

You can now use your new page setup to generate output using ECRM DM Screening.

NEW DM SCREENING PAGE SETUP


C U S T O M S C R E E N S

C u s t o m S c r e e n s

If your CTP-Plate combination is not listed, or if your press has dot gain at either extreme (high or low), ECRM can build you a custom screen at a nominal cost. Ordering such a screen requires you to:

Step 1 Print specific target(s) for either a Black (newspaper) or a Black and Magenta (commercial) plate.

Step 2 Print the targets on your press using your standard ink densities.

You should print on the highest quality paper you normally use. ECRM will need 4 copies of the press sheets for analysis.

Step 3 Send the printed targets to ECRM.

When you are ready to image and run these plates, call ECRM for instructions on which targets to use.

EXAMPLE

BLACK TARGET

PLATE



EXAMPLE MAGENTA TARGET

PLATE


C A L I B R A T I O N

C a l i b r a t i o n

Cal ibrat ing the Plate

As you would with any screen, you should calibrate your plates with ECRM DM Screening.

Different DM screens use slightly different dot structures for each of the CMYK and default inks. You can tell this from the beginning portion of the screen name, where

• ECRMDM-S (...) means the screen uses the same dot structure for each of the CMYK separations. Use “Monocrome only” plate calibration to calibrate an “-S” (Single dot) screen.

• ECRMDM-Q (...) means the screen uses a different dot structure for each of the four CMYK separations. Use “Process Colors only” or, alternatively, the special PrintDMSUncalibrated.ps job file to calibrate a “-Q” (Quadruple dot) screen.

• ECRMDM-D (...) means the screen uses the same dot structure for each of the CMY separations, and a different dot structure for the K. Use “Process Colors only” or, alternatively, the special PrintDMSUncalibrated.ps job file to calibrate a a “-D” (Dual dot) screen.

C O M M E R C I A L S C R E E N S

For Commercial screens, differing dot structures are used for each separation, so you need to calibrate each separation independently.

Here’s how to do that.

Step 1 In the DM Screening folder on your desktop, if you need to unzip the ECRM DMII Targets.zip file, do so now extracting the files it contains into the same folder.

Step 2 Launch the RIPMate/Harlequin RIP.




Step 4 In the Print File window, look in the DM Screening folder on your desktop.

Step 5 Select the PrintDMSUncalibratedPlate.ps file as shown below. This file produces separate Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black calibration targets on a single plate.

Step 6 For Page Setup:, select a DM Screening page setup like the TIFF 2400 - DM setup we selected above.



Step 7 Click the Print button. A TIFF file is created and sent to CtServer for output by the platesetter, which then images a plate like this.

Step 8 Process the plate. Then, measure and record the values for each target (C, M, Y, K) on the plate.

Note: Plate readers that support an ‘FM’ mode work best at reading ECRM DM plates. We have had good results with the latest Xrite iCPlate2 reader.

Step 9 From the RIP’s Output pull-down menu, select the Calibration Manager as shown at the right.

• The Calibration (Dot Gain) manager window shown below opens.

Step 10 In the Device: pull-down, select your output device. (Ours was ECRM Tiff to Folder.)

Step 11 In the Color Space: pull-down, select the appropriate selection. (Ours was CMYK.)

YELLOW

CYAN

MAGENTA

BLACK

TARGET

TARGET

TARGET

TARGET

PLATE



Step 12 Click New....

• An Edit uncalibrated target... window like the one shown next opens.

Step 13 Check the Resolution box. Then, from the pull-downs, select the resolution values that were used to print the test target.

Step 14 Check the Dot shape: box and select the DM Screening dot shape used to print the test target from the pull-down menus to the right.



Step 15 In the Name: window, enter a name for the new calibration set you are creating.

Step 16 Enter the target values recorded on the plate into corresponding Calibration Curve(s) blocks in the Calibration Manager. Do this for all four CMYK channels. (In cases where there is not perfect correspondence, enter the 1/2-way value for two plate targets like 94 and 96 as the value for curve block 95.)

Step 17 Click the OK button. This saves the calibration set you just created under the name you entered in Step 15 and closes the window.

Next, you will apply the new calibration set you just created to a page setup.

Step 14

Step 13

Step 15

Step 16

Step 17



Step 18 From the RIPMate main menu, select RIPMate > Page Setup Manager.

Step 19 In the Page Setup Manager window, select the page setup you want to use the new calibration set.

Step 20 Click OK.

• The Edit Page Setup: window opens.

Step 21 From the Calibration: pull-down list, select the desired calibration set.

Step 22 Click the OK button. This configures the page setup for the selected calibration and closes the Edit Page Setup: window.

The page setup you just saved will now uses the calibration set you just applied.

N E W S P A P E R S C R E E N S

When using Newspaper screens, the same dot structures are used for all separations. Therefore, only the K plate needs to be calibrated.

Follow the steps described above for commercial plates, but enter the K values for all four curves.

Plate readers which support an ‘FM’ mode work best at reading ECRM DM plates. We have had good results with the latest Xrite iCPlate2 reader.

Press Cal ibrat ion

Any unique screening will produce different results on Press. The paper you are printing on (coated or uncoated) will also affect your press calibration. So, as with any screen, press calibration will be required for the best results.



C A L I B R A T I O N O P T I O N S

You can use any of the following procedures to calibrate your press. Choose the one you like.

• Use the standard “Printing Press” capabilities of the Harlequin RIP to print a press chart, measure it and create an “Intended Press” (with conventional screening) and an “Actual Press” (with ECRMDM screening) which can then both be selected in your Page Setup.

• Use the standard “Printing Press” capabilities of the Harlequin RIP to print a press chart, measure it and create an “Actual Press” (ECRMDM screening) which can then be selected in your Page Setup, along with selecting one of the standard Printing Press curves such as “(BVD-FOGRA positive gloss)” or “Commercial A”, etc…

• Use the methodology as per ISO or G7 to fingerprint / profile your press and create the required curves.

• If you have a spectrophotometer and know how to do this, then by all means do it yourself. Otherwise, you should ask either your service engineer, plate supplier or a consultant to do it.

P R E S S C A L I B R A T I O N F O R D I F F E R E N T S T O C K / D E N S I T I E S

Calibrating the press as described above means printing a test chart with certain densities (e.g. CMYK -> 1.4, 1.45, 1.1 and 1.8) and then measuring the results. When using uncoated stock, it is quite common to slightly reduce the solid ink densities, which reduces the amount of gain and so produces different results. In this case, the press needs to be calibrated separately for the two different sets of densities that are used for the coated and uncoated stock.



I n s t a l l i n g t h e D M S c r e e n i n g L i c e n s e

If you purchase DM Screening, the DVD you received from ECRM will include a license file that will allow you to run DM Screening on your system. This license file is expressly made for your RIP and has a file name that includes the security number printed on your ECRM dongle (see figure at right).

The procedure for installing the license follows.

Note: The procedure involves selecting a page setup that uses DM screening. If you do not have one, create one now as explained in “Configuring ECRM DM Screen-ing" on page 10.

Step 1 Copy the license file that is on the DVD into the DM Screening folder on the desktop.

Step 2 Launch RIPMate.


Step 4 In the Print File window, look in the DM Screening folder, select the ECRMDM Activation (nnnnn-nn).ps file as shown below.

SECURITY NUMBER

SECURITY NUMBER PORTION OF FILENAME


I N S T A L L I N G T H E D M S C R E E N I N G L I C E N S E

Step 5 From the Page Setup: pull down at the bottom of the screen, select any DM screening page setup (we picked the TIFF 2400-DM shown below).

Step 6 Click Print. This installs your license and closes the Print File window.

You are now ready to use your licensed version of DM Screening.



A c c e s s i n g D M S c r e e n S e t s

Here are two paths for accessing DM Screens.

Path 1 - Via the Separations ManagerRIPMate menu bar

click Color

click Separations Manager

select a Style Name

click Edit

from the Dot Shape pull-down

select a DM Screen set

Path 2 - Via the Page Setup ManagerRIPMate menu bar

click RIPMate

click Page Setup Manager

Select a Page Setup

click Edit

from the Page Setup window’s Style: pull-down

select a DM Screen set


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