Placeholder-Based Mark Creation for Printing Press Setup
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In the printing industry, smaller print shops often lack a complete workflow system like Prinect, leading to incompatibility between customer and print shop prepress software, resulting in incomplete or unusable print job data for marks, as the customer's software lacks information about the print process configuration and machinery, making it difficult to position marks accurately.
Innovation Solution
A method where the customer's workflow system places placeholders for marks in the print job data, which are then transmitted to the print shop's system, using codes like QR codes to encode necessary information, allowing the print shop's system to replace these placeholders with accurate marks, ensuring compatibility and accurate mark placement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the customer's prepress software creates print job data without complete workflow system integration, then compatibility between different software systems is improved, but the accuracy and completeness of mark placement information deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The invention applies preliminary action by inserting placeholder elements into the print job data at the customer's prepress stage, before the actual mark creation. These placeholders contain encoded position information that preserves mark placement data through system transitions. The placeholder is created in advance with embedded coordinates, allowing the receiving system to later replace it with accurate marks without losing placement information.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention uses a placeholder element as an intermediary between the customer's prepress software and the print shop's workflow system. This placeholder acts as a data carrier that transports mark placement information across incompatible systems. The placeholder contains encoded position data that the receiving system can interpret and use to generate accurate marks, bridging the information gap between different software environments.
2Device complexity
If the customer's prepress software lacks information about print process configuration and machinery, then system complexity is reduced, but the precision of mark positioning deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The invention segments the mark creation process into two independent parts: the placeholder insertion phase (customer's system) and the mark generation phase (print shop's system). The placeholder contains only the essential position information needed for mark placement, while the actual mark creation with full precision is handled by the print shop's system that has access to machinery-specific configuration data. This segmentation allows each system to operate within its capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The customer's prepress software performs preliminary action by inserting placeholders with encoded position information, preparing the print job data for later mark creation. This preliminary step captures the essential spatial information without requiring the customer's software to know detailed print process configurations. The actual precise mark generation is deferred to the print shop's system that has the necessary machinery-specific information.
3Device complexity
If complete workflow systems like Prinect are not available in smaller print shops, then system cost and complexity are reduced, but the ability to accurately process and position marks deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The placeholder serves as an intermediary that carries mark placement information from the customer's system through to the print shop's simpler workflow system. The placeholder encodes position data in a format that can be processed even by systems without complete workflow integration. This allows smaller print shops to maintain simpler, more cost-effective systems while still achieving accurate mark placement through the information-preserving placeholder mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention enables smaller print shops to use simpler workflow systems by performing the complex mark placement calculation in advance at the customer's end. The placeholder contains pre-calculated position information that the simpler system can directly use without needing complex workflow integration. This shifts the computational burden to the customer's system, allowing the print shop's system to remain simple yet accurate.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
Method for creating marks for setting up a printing press by a computer in the pre-stage of a printing process, characterized in that the pre-stage comprises at least two separate applications, wherein the first, creating application creates neutral placeholders with information about size and position for required marks, while the second, applying application recognizes the placeholders and replaces them with the actual required marks.