Founder EcoInk (Ink Saving) Technology

1. Founder EcoInk (Ink Saving) Technology Feb. 2011

2. Contents • Why develop Ink Saving technology? • Conventional Ink Saving methods • The weakness of conventional Ink Saving • Founder EcoInk technology • Advantages • Ink Saving effect • Operation and Principle • Benefits

3. Why develop Ink Saving technology? • Printing Houses are facing the challenges of increasing costs together with requirements for better quality and greater production efficiency. • In addition to the aggravated economic situation, companies are faced with the need to lower energy consumption and reduce pollutants. • The goal is to reduce ink use and assure good printing quality at the same time. • Conventional separations are done at the image adjustment stage of prepress. There is no opportunity to adjust the image after it has been converted to CMYK. • For above reason, most of files may not be adjusted the color before entering the workflow for future press conditions.

4. Conventional Ink Saving method • Accomplished while color separating the image: process with Photoshop or scan and color separate an image with a scanner • How to accomplish: • Use UCR (Under Color Removal) • With UCR, black ink is used to replace CMY ink in neutral areas only • Mostly aimed at neutral areas or near neutral areas • Use GCR (Gray Component Replacement) • With GCR, black ink is used to replace CMY ink in colored areas as well as in neutral areas • Saturation is reduced

5. Conventional Ink Saving method CMY K Convert to CMYK with different Black Generation settings in Photoshop The original image is RGB.

6. The weakness of Conventional Ink Saving • Only supports RGB to CMYK, does not support CMYK to CMYK, accomplished when processing and color separating the image; • The press environment cannot be changed. • Once the specified press environment is changed significantly, for example from sheet-fed to web newsprint, there will be a big deviation in the print quality. • The ink saving effect is not efficient, only CT images can be processed, not vector graphics. • Inflexible, can only process the image, cannot process the finished surface.

7. Founder EcoInk technology --Advantages • Easy to change the ink saving parameters, suitable for different press environments. • Achieve the same printing quality with less ink, save 8%-30% of the ink amount (depending on the page content and ink saving parameters). • Supports RGB to CMYK and CMYK to CMYK.

8. Founder EcoInk technology -- Advantages • Use GCR to replace CMY ink with the black ink. • Automatically convert images, characters, vector and spot colors to a correct and printable CMYK color, and reduce the amount of ink used through GCR. • Spot colors can be converted to CMYK and reduce the amount of ink used through GCR. • Pure black and pure CMYK can be set to not convert.

9. Founder EcoInk technology --Ink Saving effect (1) Before Ink Saving CMY K After Ink Saving K CMY Original image Ink histograms

10. Founder EcoInk technology --Ink Saving effect (2) CMY K Before Ink Saving CMY K After Ink Saving Original sample

11. Founder EcoInk technology --Ink Amount Comparison Original sample Average ink amount for total page before (left) and after (right) ink saving.

12. Founder EcoInk technology -- Operation and Principle • An option of Founder ElecRoc, connects seamlessly with ElecRoc. • Setup Ink Saving parameters in the ElecRoc management tool. • If PDF file does not include an input profile, you can specify an input profile. • Load Ink Saving parameters in the EcoInk processor, the ink saving parameters are applied to the job during the remapping process.

13. Founder EcoInk technology -- Operation and Principle

14. Founder EcoInk technology -- Operation and Principle

15. Founder EcoInk technology -- Operation and Principle Comparison of different Ink Saving parameters • Built in color management module developed by Founder converts color accurately by loading open industry standard or the customer's ICC profile. • Setup different ink saving parameters according to different press requirements and degree of ink saving. • Respectively controls RGB and CMYK formats. • Respectively controls images, graphics and spot colors. CMY K CMY K

16. Founder EcoInk technology -- Operation and Principle • Controls the ink amount to reduce costs with easy adjustments • Processing can be automatic or controlled by the customer. • Easy slider-based control to adjust ink amount. • Control the total ink coverage rate. • Flexible: Setup the ink saving parameters according to the actual application, production techniques and quality requirements. • Safety: Restrict the operation to prevent accidental modification of the ink saving setting.

17. Founder EcoInk technology -- Operation and Principle • When apply Ink saving for jobs, we recommend use popular frequency, not use very high frequency (300LPI or above) and FM screening. • If apply Ink saving for job which uses EagleFM screening, CMY ink will be replaced by Black ink through GCR, the dot of CMY may be lost, the quality is not good. Additional, EagleFM can save between 8%-10% of the total ink used, so we recommend not use EagleFMand Ink saving together. • For very high frequency, the dot is small and the ink is thin, so the total ink is saved comparing using popular frequency. It’s unnecessary to use ink saving for very high frequency job.

18. Founder EcoInk technology -- Benefits • Reduced costs • Save between 8%-30% of ink used (depending on the page content and ink saving parameters) • Calculate ink costs: • Black ink amount X Black ink price + • Magenta ink amount X Magenta ink price + • Yellow ink amount X Yellow ink price + • Cyan ink amount X Cyan ink price = total ink cost • How the ink is saved? • Use black ink to replace a part of color ink • Color ink price/Black ink price >2

19. Founder EcoInk technology -- Benefits • Run automatically without operator intervention. • Suitable for different presses, papers and inks by easily changing the ICC profile. • Less total ink amount, ink dries in less time, page stays cleaner. • Achieve ink/water balance with less dampening fluid.

20. THANK YOU http://www.founder.com.cn gasupport@founder.com