So if we're going to change color with data...

We need a way to talk about color and changes to color that makes sense for what we are trying to do.

There is a lot written about color and profiling and so forth but I have yet to find something that talks about color in the way we need it here for changing it with data.  Since I had paying customers that needed a new way to manage color I had to invent one.

So what drives this new description of color?

For one thing, we have to work with a layman's perspective on color:

• One thing that's obvious but for which I can find very little is non-color specialists think about color in terms of lighter and darker shades, i.e., not "more black" is darker.  Mathematica has this notion built in but as far as I know things like Illustrator do not.

• Non-color specialists seem to like quantized color values - that is a set of color choices presented with some "distance" between choices.  For example, Red = 0%, Red = 5%, Red = 10%, and so on.

• Non-color specialists also seem to like statements like "this is too green" or "too yellow" - particularly for things like images and shading.  Though they don't seem to be able to vocalize "not green enough".

From a device perspective we have to able to work with difference between devices  - both in a technical sense as well as in the layman's sense:

• We need to parameterize how the device responds to quantized color values.  So instead of looking at a smooth curve relating to how a device presents a colorant we instead look at the presentation of the colorant in fixed steps.

• We need to understand how the device responds to the ink limits we need to produce jobs economically.  So our focus is not so much on making the inkjet output look like the output from an Indigo, iGen or Xeikon but instead focus on a customer-acceptable at the ink limits we must work at.

• We need to understand the devices calibration limits, i.e., to what tolerance can the device be calibrated in a regular production cycle.  In particular we need to understand this relative to the quantized color values we are interested in.

• We are not concerned here with all devices but only the set of devices tied to our manufacturing process.

From a descriptive perspective we need to be able to "measure" and "write down" differences in color values:

• We need a Rosetta stone that will allow everyone to talk about the color they are working with in the same external way.  This concept is much like traditional profiling - but with one significant difference:  The Rosetta stone has to be accessible to the user.  In today's profiling the use of calibrated systems allows profiles to be created and embedded in files.  However, these profiles are not easily accessed nor are they even "visible" to production personnel, i.e., I need special tools to inspect the file for even the presence of such information.  So we want to "extract" the notion of calibration from the process so that it can stand separately.

•  We need a tool that allows users to capture differences in color values - both interactively and systematically.

• We need a language to describe concrete color changes as well as a language to talk about what kind of "thing" the color changes apply to.

From a mathematical perspective we need to have a model of color to address our needs:

• We need a model that supports both discontinuous changes as well as continuous changes.  For those without math backgrounds continuous means I can draw a smooth curve to describe what I am talking about, i.e., a continuous function describes what I am talking about.

• We need a model that "looks like" what must be done to the color.  This is rather a hard concept to pin down but I will try a bit later.  The idea is that someone can easily visualize the model from what's required and vice versa.

• Our model must support continuous and discontinuous color change simultaneously.  In our world a given item may have two, unrelated color issues.  Another way to say this is that there is discontinuity between the color issues.  For example - the document may appear "too red" and an issue with the color of red text.  While a continuous change of red over the document in general might solve one of the problems it makes the other worse.

Given all of this we need to come up with an underlying mathematical model that can be controlled by data.  So what does this mean?

Well, for a statement or direct mail piece today data controls things like the addressee, their account number, and so forth.  We have a direct mapping between data values the output - the data changes the text.  In more complex VDP applications there may also be an indirect relationship between the data the output - for example the notion of a selector value (say 1 through 5) that controls which coupon is associated with the document.

What we need here is a data model that says what dynamic color changes, i.e., we need to parameterize the change process.  So, like case of the coupon above we might say #1 means use the "$5 off coupon", #2 means use the "$10 off coupon", and so forth.   We don't actually store a copy of each coupon in our database, we store a parameter that controls which coupon is used.

So, like the coupons we take our example of red and say that a parameter, say #1, says apply the correct set of red color transforms and for another parameter, say #2, says we apply the correct green color transform and so on.

Unlike coupons there is a notion applying color transforms only when a given color issue is present.  For example, we need very light RGB grey to be a bit darker.  This may be a general device problem which requires all documents to be processed accordingly as opposed to the notion of the red problem as described above.

"Industrial Color" - Changing color with data

So if I have a high speed inkjet or other manufacturing device what is going to characterize the work.

(My comments here are for a "typcialy" situation and certainly don't all apply in all cases.)

• Each produced piece is unique (or part of a unique group) and has associated metadata associated with it.
• High speed - A thousand feet per minute or roughly two 8.5" x 11" full color duplex items per foot.
• Time critical - The work is contractually bound to be completed within a short period of time.
• Tight economic constraints -  The pricing of the contract typically spans months or years and relies on tight cost control over every element, i.e., not too much waste, etc.
• Manufacturing intensive - This involves many additional steps before and after the print or imaging function.  
• Modest color accuracy - These items, while involving a full spectrum of color, are operational items that have some physical use, e.g., an ID card, a mailing statement, etc. and, as such, color, while important, isn't the primary function of the item.  Accuracy within about 5% typically is acceptable.
• Require co-mingling - The manufacturing process only works in an economic sense if the items are manufactured in a group - but items in the group may have separate, incompatible color requirements.
• Low-skill operators - Manufacturing succeeds only if the personnel costs are kept low so the manufacturing process has to be easy for unskilled workers to master.
•  Primarily "Hands Off" - The manufacturing process is highly automated - the operators are controlling the machines.

While at first glance this may appear to be your typical VDP-type workflow it really is not.  There are several reasons for this.

Industrial color work involves an industrial manufacturing environment.  Typically the manufacturing process has a dedicated manufacturing line.  The cost of this line to a large degree dictate the type of work and the general amount of flexibility available to add new work.  As in any other manufacturing scenario the cost of the line is typically high and the price that can be charged per piece low; implying a high volume is required to make money.

Color, just like any data processing aspects, has to be handled by unskilled labor.  I can't have a long row of color specialists working on parts of a 100K PDF in order to get it out by noon.

In a typical print environment this is accomplished with a press - I make artwork, plates, etc. once and print many (maybe millions) of identical pieces.

Inkjets change this game.  As costs drop an inkjet replaces the printing press.  No plates are required and I can print the same number of pieces at a slightly higher cost but I can make them unique.  So what was once black print on pre-printed shells becomes full color direct printing with no shells.

Given all this there is really a fork in the road.  Down one fork, from a business perspective, one could continue to think about all this as an extension of the typical VDP workflow - just more pages, more paper, and so forth.

The smarter approach is think of this as something different:

• Each piece to produce is unique and can have unique requirements.
• A set of these pieces fit into a manufacturing group.
• The big win is to manufacture the pieces as efficiently as possible.

This doesn't really sound all that new or interesting, does it?  Well, at least it doesn't if you don't think it through.  And, in fact, it really isn't if you think that about color as being "the same" throughout this process, i.e., like a mailing job on pre-printed paper.

But that thinking is very limited.  The only reason to think that way is that is how things have been done in the past - after all all the logos are the same on that big roll of pre-printed paper.

To us "Industrial Color" is the ability to change the color aspects of each piece being manufactured just like (and just as easily as) we change the data aspects, e.g., a mailing address.

For example, let's say I get 100K pieces a day from a customer for mailing.  These are full color but there are 10 lots of sub-work (different logos, etc.) all with distinct color issues (lot #1 is over all too green, lot #2 is fine except for a bad RGB maroon in a logo, etc.).  Worse, all of these pieces need to be comingled for mailing. What do I do?

If you're into traditional VDP-type workflows you probably turn the work away because there are too many color problems to fix on too many pieces and there aren't any tools that can handle the workload. (Industrial customers don't want to hear that the 100K page file they just gave you has bad color - they don't care - it has to be printed.)

This is where Lexigraph's new tools and our "industrial color" technology changes the game - we allow color to be as flexibly changed and altered as data - both in terms of speed and automation.  Now our problems with this hypothetical job go away.  We figure out which documents need color changes, we add these changes to our mail-processing server, and we run the file through.

After all, color is a data aspect of the document just like the name of the addressee.

The Basics of "Industrial Color Management"

High speed inkjet printing is a game changer in many ways:

- Speed, say 1,000 feet per minute with at least a 20 inch width - so maybe 50,000 full color duplex documents per hour or 400K pages per shift.

- Function and operation derived from the manufacturing line aspect of things (from the Xerox 9700 and IBM 3800's of the 1970's), i.e., its heritage is a high speed B/W printer more than a printing press.

- Cheaper than toner by a lot.

- Doesn't need VDP software because of big, wide, fast RIPs.

This sort of thing is what you might see on your vendors latest high speed inkjet brochure. While on a factual basis this is all true the devil, as they say, is in details. So what are these details (at least from our perspective here)?

- Ink coverage - to make money you have to use as little ink as possible to get the expected result.

- Color - its not like a printing press or toner machine.

- Its a "machine" and not a "digital press" which means that you run it with inexpensive people or you'll lose money.

- It likes high page count files.

- It's fast - which means you have to find 400K pages per shift of work.

So if you're going to invest $2 - $3 million dollars US into something like this you have to be on top of your game and get all of this right or you're not going to make money. So let's follow the "logic trail" on this:

- So you're probably not even looking at a machine like this unless you already are printing a lot of output.

- If you're already printing a lot of output you are more than likely doing it in B/W today because that's the only type of machine that can do it.

- High-speed B/W today does have color - that color is coming from pre-printed shells with black over print - so you probably have a color department that handles the pre-print issue.

- You want color because you can make more money. You make money by offering value to your customer in terms of more impact per piece, etc. (all the usual reasons).

When "everybody does this" what happens to the market?

- More and more companies buy these machines because suddenly no one want's to be able to "just print B/W".

- Ink and printers get cheaper because more people buy them.

- The owners look for ways to "save money" and "get work" by lowering costs to stay ahead of the competition.

- "Lowering costs" forces expensive people and time wasting out of the equation and replaces them with A) 24x7 "lights out" automation and B) the lowering of actual print quality in real terms while keeping "perceived" print quality as high as possible with respect to the customer's expectations.

Bottom line - It's a race to the bottom in terms of cost per piece - at least for many who aren't at the top of their game.

So who win's in a "race to the bottom" like this?

Those that make enough margin so they can focus far enough ahead to jump out of the race when the time is right (just like B/W printers who "get" color now are exiting the race to the B/W bottom.) Inkjet's are new (something like 300 or so installed world wide) so there's time for this race to run and money to be made.

(I don't mean all this in a negative way - just a factual market evolution way. The more clearly you see the true picture the better off you will be.)

So Lexigraph's focus with its new color management system is simple: "Helping you to get the most color you can for the least possible cost over all." All so you can win the race.

New Color Management Technology to be Released...

Here at Lexigraph I am pleased to announce we have completed developed on most of a new type of color management system (CMS) that is designed for enterprise color print and imaging. We have finally completed the various steps required to protect our new invention and so now we can talk about it publicly. I plan to start updating this blog sometime toward the end of this week with a description.

We have been working in this area for some years and have come to realize that things like ICC profiling simply don't work in a large-scale commercial imaging environment (while ICC profiles "work" they don't do what these enterprise customers need). On the PDF Outsider I have started blogging about the tools we have in that area and on the AFP Outsider about how we plan to roll this out there as well.

We believe the "nirvana" of this type of color management is to allow teams of uneducated users in large organizations with drastically different output devices, lighting paper, different software applications, etc. accept unmanaged color jobs from outside and produce them reliably, quickly and effectively with salable color. By salable color we mean "brand acceptable".

If you have an in-house system like this working today for work you compose yourself then this will not interest you. On the other hand, if you have a business that requires you accept unmanaged color work and reliably reproduce the colors in an industrial environment this will be of great interest.

I became involved in this because some customers of our acquired high-speed inkjet systems which that wanted to use to produce color work that had previously been produced on their toner or ink machines. As we worked through the issues it became clear that there was nothing to address this in the market place. Of course there is the ICC and the AFP Color Consortium and so forth, but there isn't a tool set and process for people to use.

There is some minimal information on our web site currently - that will change as this rolls out. Part of the issue with this is that the concepts and process will be very foreign to people familiar with the typical color management process - which is why I want to roll out an explanation slowly and clearly.

We are rolling it out on this blog because is covers both AFP and PDF - the separate blogs for those will be used for any side discussions related to the file-type-specific processes.

The core of this new process has been in production for some time - not the complete package but just enough to know that it not only works but its solid. For those who know me solid means proven - this isn't just some raving speculative nonsense.
Thanks

Todd

Now that I am blogging...

My plan is to regularly update both Outsider blogs. For me this is the most efficient way to communicate with people in a "marketing" sense.  So point your RSS readers at these blogs because most of the action will be there.

I have come up with a "Lone Wolf" logo which I have on the front page of the new Lexigraph site.

My work load has picked up enormously - hopefully this work will all turn into revenue at some point. For sure this downturn will take out a lot of business - particularly in the print end of things - I just hope that I am not one of them.

One of the reasons I started this blog is talk about what we have been doing for so many years - hopefully other will see the value.

The birth of the AFP Outsider...

Finally for today - I am in the process of becoming the AFP outsider.

Follow my anguish here: The AFP Outsider.

My goal here is to describe the processing a bringing a commercial AFP product to life.

I am the PDF Outsider...

I have created a separate blog called The PDF Outsider.

Basically there is a long history of "PDF Dogma" going back to the time of PostScript which virtually everyone but me follows and believes.

My first goal is to talk about my products and how they work - particularly relative to the dogma. The point of interest here is that if I had followed dogma there wouldn't be any products.

My second goal with this blog is to outline the PDF dogma, why it will be a failure in the future with "corporate PDF", and to talk about my solutions.

VoodooIndigo... (an example)

Please take a look at this: http://voodooindigo.blogspot.com/.

This is a good example of what do - it's self explanatory in many ways.

The title includes "voodoo" because the JLT file format was reverse-engineered in a "clean room" environment - a task many thought impossible.

The project very nearly resulting in a large sale for Lexigraph but at the last minute a vendor sensed that we had "scooped" them and deployed some unpleasant tactics to derail our customers plans. The project was a plan to allow non-Indigo printers to participate in the production related to a very large photo site.

The plan was to allow JLYT printer-ready files to be transferred to Xerox printers for production to handle overflow work. A very simple plan, really.  The photo site had 24 Indigo 5XXX printers but sometimes this was not enough.  Our potential customer had a few Indigo's and Xerox iGen's on which some of the overflow would could be handled.

Despite what normal nay-sayers would say color and quality were not an issue - we were able to produce acceptable output and it was hard to tell what it was produced on (as a side note see "The Sneetchs" by Dr. Seuss).

Though the technology described works reasonably well this, at least so far, has never made it as a Lexigraph product (probably because no one knows about it but you never know).

The technology it is based on has made it into other Lexigraph products.

The Lone Wolf...

The idea for this blog came from a luncheon I had today with an old friend in the graphic arts business and her associate.  I was described as a "lone wolf" because I care only about what is good for my customers and not about the corporate world or the reasons it can make life difficult for those who need to get their work done.

I am quite but opinionated.  I am usually right and I can always prove it if I am.  I expect to be paid for results - not talk.

I do a lot of amazing software technology to solve ridiculously complex graphic arts workflow problems in industries that no one knows about or understands to help them make more money with less work. I must be at least half good at it because I've made my living at this for almost twenty years.

Since my company, Lexigraph, Inc., does not do much marketing except by word of mouth no one really has any way to know what we do.

This blog is for me to communicate with my old friends about what I do.   My goal is to talk a few times a week about what I do, how it is done, and why it is done so they can understand me and my business.

This blog is Copyright (C) Todd R. Kueny, Sr.

Hopefully this will be helpful to any readers or followers...