Evaluation of quality management in the printing industry

Abstract: A printing firm has a large number of costumers, it is therefore important that documents are delivered in the right way, fulfilling all requirements. Unneccacery stops and quality problems are consequeses otherwise. The requirements are for example that right fonts should be included and that images should have the right resolution. Errors in the files are however very common and few programs can justify them. For costumers the varying amount of colour and conversions between different colour spaces cause effects like colour shifts and smearing. For the printers varying amount of colour and shifting colour spaces cause technical problems, for instance slower printing speed, wrong colours, smearing and in the end dissatisfied costumers and large extra costs. Binuscan has developed PDF Server, a program that solve some of the problems mentioned above. With PDF Server Binuscan is focusing on ink savings and conversions to the press profile. Less ink is of course an economical question, but ink saving has also other advantages; problems like smearing and mirroring decrease if less ink is used. Match press is also important for a printer that wants to reduce its costs. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate and evaluate PDF Server on Binuscan’s behalf. It was done in cooperation with a couple of printing firms. Both tests and interviews were used as methods. The tests showed that it is possible to decrease the consumption of ink and at the same time keep the colour reproduction as good as before. The interviews was also indicating that the printing quality were improved, problems like smearing, mirroring and colour cast decreased. Reproduction of press settings, the decrease of the time to press start, shorter drying times and less cleaning of press and rollers were also advantages of PDF Server. The program is however not yet perfect, some functions needs to be overhauled, the interface could be more user-friendly and complete manual needs to be developed.