ISO/TR 19300:2015
(Main)Graphic technology — Guidelines for the use of standards for print media production
Graphic technology — Guidelines for the use of standards for print media production
ISO/TR 19300:2015 provides guidelines to enable print industry stakeholders to use ISO/TC 130 and related standards in print media production workflows. The use of these standards is intended to enhance production quality, business performance, profitability, and sustainability.
Technologie graphique — Lignes directrices pour l'utilisation des normes pour la production de supports d'impression
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TECHNICAL ISO/TR
REPORT 19300
First edition
2015-09-01
Graphic technology — Guidelines for
the use of standards for print media
production
Technologie graphique — Lignes directrices pour l’utilisation des
normes pour la production de supports d’impression
Reference number
ISO/TR 19300:2015(E)
©
ISO 2015
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ISO/TR 19300:2015(E)
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ISO/TR 19300:2015(E)
Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Terms and definitions . 1
3 Graphic supply chain . 1
3.1 Stakeholders, roles, and responsibilities . 1
3.2 Use cases and product relationships . . 3
4 Base concepts . 4
4.1 Viewing conditions . 5
4.2 Colour measurements . 5
4.3 Printing condition . 5
4.4 Characterization . 6
4.5 Grey reproduction and grey balance . 6
5 Workflows . 6
5.1 Design stage . 6
5.1.1 RGB images . 7
5.1.2 Process-dependent and process-independent design workflows . 7
5.1.3 Preflighted press-ready files . 8
5.1.4 Proofing systems . 9
5.2 Prepress stage .10
5.3 Printing stage .12
5.4 Postpress stage .12
6 Carbon footprint calculation .13
7 Interrelation of printing standards .13
Bibliography .15
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ISO/TR 19300:2015(E)
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of
any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or
on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation on the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity
assessment, as well as information about ISO’s adherence to the WTO principles in the Technical
Barriers to Trade (TBT) see the following URL: Foreword - Supplementary information
The committee responsible for this document is ISO/TC 130, Graphic technology.
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ISO/TR 19300:2015(E)
Introduction
Standards are documented consensus agreements containing safety, technical specifications, or
other precise criteria to be used consistently as rules, guidelines, or definitions of characteristics for
materials, products, processes, and services. In many cases, they provide uniformity, which allows
worldwide acceptance and application of a product or material. The aim is to facilitate trade, exchange,
and technology transfer. Standards help to remove technical barriers to trade leading to new markets
and economic growth for the industry.
Today, companies are facing fundamental changes in the way they do business. Strategies and business
practices are continuously being evaluated to determine how to maintain and increase market share,
reduce costs, increase productivity and safety, and achieve and maintain a competitive edge.
Graphic arts companies face these changes starting from a point at which the standards are not
completely adopted by the market even if they provide complete technical guidelines. Graphic
industries are only a small part of the graphic market made up of micro and small handcraft companies
throughout the world. During recent years, many transformations have occurred in the market. Digital
communications and digital media technology have driven restructuring in the graphic arts industry.
ISO/TC 130 is working to reflect these changes in the standard development structure with new
approaches and ideas to follow today’s market and trends and anticipate future requirements.
All graphic arts companies can use the structure of the published standards to support their business
and to harmonize production workflows irrespective of the size of the company. Published standards
for the printing, publishing, and finishing industries enable processes to run faster, more predictably
and more efficiently, and to be more cost effective by
— providing uniform, defined procedures, and tools that help users produce quality products for
their customers,
— facilitating interconnectivity and process integration among systems,
— allowing users to communicate easily with one another,
— enhancing product quality and reliability at a reasonable price,
— increasing distribution efficiency and ease of maintenance,
— improving health, safety, and environmental protection, and
— reducing waste.
The language used to write standards in recent decades mainly reflects the needs of printers and the
printers’ suppliers, ignoring the other actors in the printing supply chain. This Technical Report tries to
describe the relationship between standards with all the actors in the graphic supply chain taken into
account, preparing the market for tomorrow’s standards structure.
The composition of the graphic arts supply chain varies depending on the kind of product manufactured
and the size of the graphics project measured in terms of the number of copies, but tends to be similar
around the world. Every actor or stakeholder in the supply chain may be a single person, a small
company, or a big organization. In every case, thanks to the digitalization of the graphic arts supply
chain achieved mainly over the past 20 years, instruments, methodology, and production standards can
be the same irrespective of the size of the stakeholder’s organization. Today, a single freelance designer
can use the same software and provide the same results as a gigantic multi-national agency and there is
no technical reason why they should not use the same standards. The same is true for printers. A small
printing company with the ability to produce at the same quality level can compete or collaborate with
big companies if both follow the ISO standards. .
All the ISO/TC 130 standards, particularly the process control standards, aim to describe the so-called
“standard quality”. Many people in the graphic arts industry think that this “standard quality” is good
for big production companies distributed worldwide, but not for small regional production companies.
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ISO/TR 19300:2015(E)
This was not the intention of ISO/TC 130 because if the “standard quality” reflects the minimum set of
warranties that a supplier needs to give to customers, in terms of fulfilling the expectation of a small
variability within printing runs, most of the companies that ignore ISO standards have big problems
in maintaining a constant level of predictable quality of the final results. Without such predictability,
the result is likely to change in every printing run and the final product will be a unique handcrafted
printed product, which in most cases, is unlikely to fulfill the needs of customers in any scenario.
The set of parameters used to define the print quality attributes of a final graphic product have not
been described in any document up to now, but ISO/TC 130 is working with other ISO committees
to define such a set. ISO/TC 130 standards describe and define certain parameters for a printing
product, together with their tolerances, but ignore most of them. Since most ISO standards are related
to properties of materials and to process control, the quality is here defined by parameters related
to single and unfinished print. Within ISO aims and tolerances, there is the possibility of delivering
different products so that small companies making regional products can benefit from standardization
and produce something both unique and precious. At the same time, big companies can follow ISO aims
and tolerances strictly to guarantee predictability and consistency around the world. Quality control
of the final product is not, in most cases, standardized so finishing processes such as lamination,
varnishes, and binding, which affect customer satisfaction, will depend on the ability of printers,
finishers, or converters.
Digital printing is more and more widely used in graphic arts production and its processes interrelate
and overlap with traditional printing. There are many different fast-changing digital printing
technologies and it is now included in many conventional printing companies. We can consider a
printing process as digital either when the image is transferred to the substrate by a digital technology
and there is no printing form or when the process has the ability to change the image with every print.
Digital printing influences workflows and process control. International Standards that support digital
printing are under development within ISO/TC 130, for instance, the ISO 15311 (all parts). Other ISO
documents can be used in a digital printing workflow, for instance, the ISO PAS 15339 (all parts).
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TECHNICAL REPORT ISO/TR 19300:2015(E)
Graphic technology — Guidelines for the use of standards
for print media production
1 Scope
This Technical Report provides guidelines to enable print industry stakeholders to use ISO/TC 130
and related standards in print media production workflows. The use of these standards is intended to
enhance production quality, business performance, profitability, and sustainability.
2 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
2.1
International Colour Consortium profile
ICC profile
collection of transforms, encoded as specified in the ICC profile specification which is used to convert
image data between device space and profile connection space
[SOURCE: ISO 12637-2:2008, 2.71]
2.2
preflighted press-ready file
prepress file which contains all technical elements required by printing and postpress processes
defined for the production, verified by a preflight software
2.3
proof
hard or soft copy reproduction made using various technologies to simulate an intended printing output
[SOURCE: ISO 12637-2:2008, 2.104]
2.4
use case
category that combines graphic products that have been developed for the same marketing purpose
2.5
validation print
print produced directly from digital data early in the production chain, meeting the requirements of
ISO 12647-8 representative of the concept for the final product
[SOURCE: ISO 12647-1:2013, 3.42]
2.6
stakeholder
any person or organization that is involved in graphic supply chain or can give inputs for print process
3 Graphic supply chain
3.1 Stakeholders, roles, and responsibilities
A complete and coherent description of the graphic supply chain, as referenced by ISO/TC 130 standards,
is not explicitly declared in any document. Depending on the use case and the product concerned,
stakeholders may play different roles and share different responsibilities as stated in Table 1.
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ISO/TR 19300:2015(E)
Table 1 — Description of stakeholders, roles, and responsibilities
Stakeholder Description, roles, responsibilities
Print buyer The purchaser of a single graphical product or of some coordinated graphical products.
Their role may include the following:
— communicate the customer expectation to all relevant stakeholders;
— contracts to confirm technical specifications compatible with printing production
standards;
— approval of validation prints and proofs;
— approval of OK sheets or OK samples;
— approval of the print run;
— approval of the finished job.
Has the responsibility to communicate the specifics of graphic design in a manner consistent
with relevant standards.
Designer A person who plans the appearance and/or structure of a graphic project prior to it being
produced. Their role is not covered in existing ISO/TC 130 standards.
Prepress A person or organization that enables the printing of a generic graphic project using a
company/ specific printing process.
operator
Their role may include the following:
— digital file conversion;
— content adaption;
— composition, page layout;
— colour transformations;
— generation of a digital reference file;
— production of printing forms.
Has the responsibility to follow pertinent ISO/TC 130 standards during any transformation,
including the following:.
— assurance of data integrity;
— providing the correct preflighted press-ready data or the correct printing forms to the
printer;
— responsibility for communication between stakeholders if there are any technical
problems between the graphic project being received from designer and technical
information about the printing process being received by the printer.
Printer A person or an organization that prints the job using a specific printing process.
company/
Their role may include the following:
operator
— communication to the prepress operator of the technical details of the printing process;
— printing the job according to the technical specification of the print run;
— delivery of the job to the next process responsible.
Has the responsibility either to follow ISO/TC 130 standards relating to the printing process
or to follow other agreements between the parties. In every case, it has the following
responsibilities:
— use printing substrates and inks compatible with ISO/TC 130 standards or with
agreement between parties, any process compatible substrates, and inks;
— communicate to the prepress operator and/or designer and/or print buyer about any
visual differences between the proofs provided and the current print run;
— ensure that process variability is under control and within the tolerances specified in
the appropriate ISO/TC 130 standards. A printing quality management system is
recommended.
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ISO/TR 19300:2015(E)
Table 1 (continued)
Stakeholder Description, roles, responsibilities
Postpress A person or an organization that takes the final communication step which allows full
company/ exchange of the specification of the printing product receiving printing material to be
operator finished, assembled, bound, or converted.
Their role may include the following:
— communication to the prepress operator about technical details of the required
operations in order to ensure creation of the correct digital data or forms;
— carrying out the requested finishing, converting, assembly, and binding operations;
— delivery of the final product.
In addition, the operator
— has the responsibility either to follow ISO/TC 130 standards relating to any postpress
operation process or to comply with any other agreements between parties,
— has the responsibility to communicate to the printer and/or the prepress operator
and/or the print buyer about any defects in received or processed materials, and
— ensure that process variability is under control and within the tolerance specified by
appropriate ISO/TC 130 standards. A quality management system is recommended.
3.2 Use cases and product relationships
The boundaries between different printing processes are becoming very blurred because of new
technologies and innovations. However, Table 2 shows a possible example of categorization of print
products as seen from a print buyer’s side that links final product and process used to print.
Table 2 — Possible example of categorization of print products organized by use cases
Typical printing
Category Use case Sub case Example of product
a
process
Monthly magazine Gravure or offset
Offset
Magazines
Weekly magazine
Offset
Letterpress
Commercial
Picture/photo book Offset
Publishing
production printing
Monograph
Comic, paperback,
Offset
textbook, directory
Monthly/weekly
Magazine cover magazine Offset
(cover)
a
Digital technology is not stated because it could be used in every production shown in the table.
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ISO/TR 19300:2015(E)
Table 2 (continued)
Typical printing
Category Use case Sub case Example of product
a
process
Catalogue of
Catalogue Offset or Gravure
product or services
Flyer,
Offset or Gravure
pamphlet, leaflet
Commercial
Advertisement
Direct marketing Offset
Free magazine Offset
Others Manual Offset
Slip,
Business form Offset
Commercial
Carbon copy
production printing
Transaction for
Transaction Offset
cellphone
Business form
Notebook, envelope
and card
Offset
Stationery business card,
Letterpress
postcard
Magnetic stripe card, Offset
Card
IC card screen
Web offset
Newspaper Colour, B/W, tabloid Daily newspaper
(cold set)
Inkjet
Poster Poster
Offset
Indoor use
Inkjet
Banner, tapestry,
POP-up offset
textile
screen
Signage printing
Inkjet
Billboard Billboard
screen
Outdoor use
Wrapping decora- Inkjet
Wrapping decoration
tion, bus screen
Beverage carton,
Carton cardboard container, Offset
box
Packaging
Offset
(carton, label) Corrugated Corrugated box
flexo
Packaging
Label
Label Flexo
Sticker
Snack pouch, Gravure
Flexible packaging Flexible
retort pouch flexo
a
Digital technology is not stated because it could be used in every production shown in the table.
4 Base concepts
ISO standards for graphic arts and the related workflows described in this Clause imply some basic
concepts that have significantly evolved over the recent years. The intended audience for these concepts,
as described in the actual ISO standards, is mainly technical. The summary provided would be an index
of arguments and references.
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4.1 Viewing conditions
While colour measurements play an important role in the control of colour reproduction, they cannot
replace the human observer for final assessment of the quality of complex images. Paper and other
substrates contribute to the perceived colours and controlling these is equally critical.
ISO 3664:2009 contains all the necessary specifications and information about viewing conditions for
critical and practical comparison of printed samples such as reference illuminant, illuminance level,
colour rendering index, and other parameters that should be used by all stakeholders to assess the
lighting environment of working places.
An important update in ISO 3664:2009 includes a better specification of the light in the ultraviolet
(UV) and visible spectrum range to avoid distorting the appearance of samples in comparison with the
appearance under commonly used sources of illumination such as daylight. The UV content is important
where fluorescent samples are encountered, a phenomenon associated with many of the paper
substrates on which images are reproduced as well as with some of the dyes and pigments themselves.
The new measurement conditions described in 3.2 are defined with reference to this aim and specify
tolerances that provide consistency between visual judgment and colour measurement.
4.2 Colour measurements
To assess the quality of a coloured printed product and to control the process, all the standards refer to
colour aims and tolerances. It is not expected that measured colorimetric data will provide an absolute
correlation with visual colour appearance, although recent improvements in lighting equipment and
measurement instrument technology provide stakeholders with a good level of correlation if all the
standards are applied.
ISO 13655:2009 contains all the necessary specifications for spectral measurements and colorimetric
computation, and even if these are intended for use by instrument and systems suppliers, it is very
important that the base concepts are clear to all stakeholders so as to achieve conformity in the
equipment and methods used.
The four measurement conditions (M0, M1, M2, and M3) may provide different spectral values and
colorimetric interpretations (CIELAB) for the same sample depending on the degree to which they
fluoresce. It is very important that the stakeholders agree on which kind of condition is to be used to
exchange data, adding information about the backing that can be extrapolated from process standards.
Condition M0 refers to all spectrophotometers or densitometers compliant with old versions of
ISO 13655 or optimized with density measurements according to ISO 5-3. If there is a lack of information
about colour measurements, M0 should be assumed.
Condition M1 defines UV content more accurately and makes it possible to minimize variations in
measurement results between instruments due to fluorescence (arising from optical brighteners in the
substrate and/or fluorescence of the printing and/or proofing colorants). Condition M1 also improves
the consistency between measurement results and visual assessment in viewing booths that meets the
requirements of ISO 3664:2009.
Condition M2 was previously called “UV-cut” and is adopted when the fluorescence needs to be excluded
from the measurements. The effect is that there is poor consistency with visual assessment. However,
M2 is still used to make characterizations in some digital printing environments where proofing is not
commonly used.
Condition M3 refers to polarized densitometers which are used for process control, especially in sheet-
fed offset printing. Even if it is possible to manage spectral or colorimetric M3 data, there is no practical
application in any process standard.
4.3 Printing condition
A printing condition is defined by a set of primary process parameters that have a direct bearing on the
visual appearance of a printed product. For every printing process, specific parameters are defined that
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ISO/TR 19300:2015(E)
contribute to summarizing the printing condition as described in the appropriate part of ISO 12647.
These parameters include, for example, the colour and gloss of the paper substrate, the colour of the
process inks, the screening adopted, and the curves specifying the tonal value increase. A complete
explanation of the printing condition can be found in ISO 12647-1.
4.4 Characterization
When a printing condition is established through a process standard, it is then possible to measure a
colour characterization that describes the colour reproduction capability of the process, including the
colour of the substrate and the description of the colour gamut. Characterization data comprise a set of
tone values and associated colorimetric values that fully describe a given printing process. Where such a
set of colour characterization data are used as a reference in workflows, it is referred to as a characterized
reference printing condition (CRPC) as described in the ISO PAS 15339 (all parts) documents.
Depending on the chosen workflow, to ensure the consistency of colour reproduction from the design
stage to the print stage, it is very important for digital artwork that correct communication of the
characterization is ensured. A characterization may be referred to by a commonly used name maintained
by an association or organization (e.g. FOGRA39 or GRACoL_2006) and either the colorimetric files
exchanged as defined in ISO 12642 or ICC output profiles exchanged as defined in ISO 15076-1.
4.5 Grey reproduction and grey balance
Reproduction of neutral grey colours is an important topic in every CMYK printing process because it
affects the overall visual appearance of the printed product and facilitates process control. A neutral
grey colour composed of specific CMY tone values is one of the most difficult colours to reproduce in a
print
...
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