In some examples, photographic mapping of an object takes place during transport at a fixed position by means of a line camera in a sequence of recording periods. An exposure device is exposed for an exposure time that is dependent on the duration of the on-time of the line camera. Each strip-shaped portion of the object to be photographically mapped is exposed, within a recording period, asynchronously for the duration of a first exposure time to white light and for the duration of a second exposure time either to ultraviolet light or to IR light. Each strip-shaped portion of the print image to be photographically mapped is alternately exposed by the exposure device, within the recording period photographically mapping the portion, to white light and either to UV light or to IR light during the duration of the on-time of the line camera.

An inspection apparatus performs dropout color processing on a first inspection area set for an image generated by reading a print product and then performs first recognition processing on the first inspection area, and further performs second recognition processing on a second inspection area set for the image and then performs an inspection of whether sufficient margin areas are allocated on the second inspection area, without performing dropout color processing.

A processor identifies print defect locations where printing defects occur and a assigns different sensitivity values to different zones of a job image being prepared for printing by a printing engine. The processor changes the orientation of the job image to a revised orientation, relative to print media, to avoid locating one or more high-sensitivity zones of the job image in the print defect locations. The high-sensitivity zones are ones of the zones having a sensitivity value above a threshold sensitivity value. The printing engine prints the job image on the print media at the revised orientation.

An inspection apparatus capable of preventing lowering of position matching accuracy. Control points are positioned in a lattice form on a scanned image of a print product, for performing position matching between the scanned image and a reference image registered in advance. An approximate line of a column and an approximate line of a row intersecting the approximate line of the column are calculated based on two or more control points positioned in the same column and the same row as one control point. One control point determined to be corrected is corrected based on the respective approximate lines of the column and the row. The print product is inspected by comparing a position-matched scanned image generated based on the control points including position-corrected control points and position-updated control points, and the reference image.

A printing control device includes a determination section, a first printing control section, a movement controller, and a second printing control section. When the determination section determines that an elapsed time in which no board is convey exceeds an allowable time, the first printing control section causes the printer to execute the printing process for a first time on a first board which is conveyed in since the determination is made. The movement controller separates the mask and the board from each other after the first printing control section executes the printing process for the first time and brings the mask and the board into abutment with each other again after the separation. The second printing control section causes the printer to execute the printing process for a second time on the board after the movement controller brings the mask and the board into abutment with each other again.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing printed material on which active energy ray-curable ink is printed, the method being capable of improving print density without impairing gradation expressivity.

The present invention is a method for producing printed material, the method including, in order: a transfer process of transferring ink to a transfer target surface of a substrate; and an impression process of bringing each of impression cylinders into contact with the transfer target surface to which the ink has been transferred, and at least one of the impression cylinders has a patterned impression part.

A method of automatically diagnosing media handling defects on sheets, the method including receiving a first image of a first sheet, determining that the first image includes a detected media handling defect, determining that the detected media handling defect matches one or more known media handling defects in a database, and displaying a rectifying action.

Some examples include checking the quality of printed products that are consecutively produced by multiple printing presses to have at least three printed patterns spaced apart from one another. The printed patterns are printed using different printing processes, such as a steel engraving process, an offset printing process, and a screen printing process that may be used for printing the three printed patterns of each printed product. A screen printing press is used for the screen printing process, with multiple steel plates being alternately used in the same production operation for the steel engraving process in an intaglio printing press. For at least two of the steel plates involved in carrying out the steel engraving process, a processing unit may selectively ascertain the deviation of the respective value of the relevant distances associated with the printed patterns, which may be instantaneously ascertained from a defined scale.

In some examples, a print control strip includes at least one control patch configured as an element for color management. The element for color management may be configured to measure a color density and/or at least one spectral value and/or an area of coverage of individual printed printing colors. The print control strip further includes at least one control patch configured as a printing mark. The printing mark is configured for aligning a substrate in a transport direction and/or in a transverse direction. Additionally, the print control strip includes at least one control patch configured as a plate recognition patch. The plate recognition patch is configured to assign at least one printing color used to a printing plate and/or to an application mechanism and/or is configured for such assignment.

Systems and methods are provided for seeding print defects and inspecting print jobs. One embodiment is a system that includes a print server. The print server includes an interface that receives a test print job, a memory that stores the test print job, and a print controller that determines a number of copies of the test print job to print, subdivides each sheetside image of the test print job into a number of distinct zones corresponding to the number of copies, assigns each of the zones to a different copy of the test print job, and for each copy of the test print job, and seeds a print defect into each sheetside image of the copy within a zone assigned to the copy.