Density Bars Only

[jason]

Anyone else got a pressman that only wants solid squares of CMYK in the color with NO, I repeat, NO screens of CMYK or gray balance squares??   

My guy just wants solid squares of CMYK repeated across the sheet, thats all.

Then when something doesn't match the proof, he says the plates are wrong!!

Surely I am not the only one in this boat.

[30YearsandCounting]

Yes, I have seen pressman who only want and look at solid density bars.  It's time for someone to take charge and say, we will give you solids but you are also going to get tints, 4/c tints and slur bars.  That way when you get called out to the press because there is a problem, at least you've got something to look at that will be useful.

[mwc]

Yes, I have seen pressman who only want and look at solid density bars.  It's time for someone to take charge and say, we will give you solids but you are also going to get tints, 4/c tints and slur bars.  That way when you get called out to the press because there is a problem, at least you've got something to look at that will be useful.

Jason, tell'em That's Dickin Refuckulas! Yeah, those bars are not just for press ops...used by our prepress ops and sales all the time to eval proofs...your press operator wants to run blind?....not an option...NOT!

[Vee]

Just because he doesn't know any better.... doesn't make him better.
There's reasons for the screens, slurs, etc.... he just doesn't want to be "bothered" by it.
Yikes....

[born2print]

Just slur and greybalance are critical, also nice to have 25, 50 and 75% too for gain measurements.
If your "pressman" isn't monitoring slur, gain or greybalance... that's prolly not good.

[jason]

The story is I have been working in Prepress for only 12 years. This pressman has been running a press for close to 20 years. So obviously I have no idea what I am talking about. I am just the dumb ass prepress guy.

I told them if the screens and gray balance squares are removed from the color bar, I take no responsibility for color matching.  If the color is wrong the pressman needs to tell me exactly what he wants done to fix it. I am offering no opinions. I'll just be a button pushing monkey.

When I started here nobody believed me that a 50% Black would print as 72% on the press. That is what I started with.

[G_Town]

Sounds like your pressman wears a loin cloth and carries around a big club.

Light a match next time he comes around (fire always scares cavemen).

[jason]

He does grunt alot.

[beermonster]

ok - i'm just the mac jockey ok - do not shoot!

where i am they only want solid colour bars too

i've tried to get all manner of stuff on there, but they just arent interested. Taking all the consequences into consideration I have to say that the quality of a huge majority of the stuff we print is really good. Its very rare a job is rejected due to print.

sometimes, sheet size allowing we might have solid bars the width of the sheet or small alternating bars - but for the life of me i cant get them using anything else. how they hope to get good colour balance is beyond me, but then again a good deal of the time we are matching old cartons printed by someone else 5 years ago that have sat in a window and faded.........well we're not but you get my drift

[mwc]

I guess it's up to each shops set of 'special' circumstances as to what is appropriate.
If you do a lot of 4/c process tints/photos...then I can't imagine not having colorbars with nothing more than a solid density patch.
If it's a lot of solid spot work...then I would concur that is won't matter much that your colorbars are basic....

[Joe]

We run our newspapers without color bars, solid or otherwise. There is no room. Every square inch of paper is utilized and it doesn't get trimmed. It comes straight off the press ready to ship.

[LoganBlade]

I have a 4c GTO I have the pressman running to density and I give them a 3 bars. we run standard 12.5 x 19 sheets and most work is 11 x 17 or smaller most cases.

on a 12.5 x 18 sheet i have
first 1 bar that is nuetral .25" hig by 18.5" long (50% Cyan 40% magent and 40% Yellow)
second bar is a Black and Cyan Bar .25" high by 18.5" long. (K-100%/K-50% -- C-100%/C-50%) alternating legth
third bar is a Magenta and yellow Bar .25" high by 18.5" long. (M-100%/M-50% -- Y-100%/Y-50%) alternating legth

Pressman complained at first but I make the plates as well as tell them what to print. Now they love it the nuetral bar shows when hot in the any of the 3 colors and gives the a nice goal after tehy set to numbers.

pressman need to have their hands held or slapped and taught a lesson. good luck to those with nucklehead pressman solids only is just plan silly


'

[Sparky]

I've been in prepress for 35 years and only been a pressman for 3 months but I can see the reasoning behind wanting only solid bars IF the press he's running is a digital offset press such as the Presstek 34DI slur spots can determine the blanket pressure being correct for each individual color and tints can also be used for determining a lot of factors on a conventional press. I see no need for anything other than solid bars when I run the 34DI as all the outside factors have pretty much been eliminated. As long as the pressman can say without a doubt, the blanket pressures are correct, the plates have not been stretched, and the paper (printing environment) is at it's operating limits as far as humidity and temperature, than give him what he wants.

My boss (reads company owner) has an aversion to me using color bars at all, says they aren't worth a damn and can't determine the outcome of the color, and I say to him, when the oil light comes on in your car how can you tell how many quarts you're down without a dipstick? And without color bars and you see a "Blue" that is off, how do you know if it needs more magenta or less cyan?

P.S. are any of you out there pressmen

[G_Town]

Hey! he said the "P" word!

[born2print]

I fear the bottom line may simply be that ignorance is bliss