Prepress

Mondadori, Lenglet printers and DALIM SOFTWARE make Télé Star the first French magazine to use softproofing in gravure printing

Monday 19. June 2017 - Initiated by William Lenglet, President of the LENGLET Printing Group, and Dominique Aymard, Director of Industrial Operations at MONDADORI France, Lenglet and Mondadori announce that they have introduced the first softproofing solution involved in the creation of a print magazine in France: the weekly Télé Star. As a result of a three-way partnership with DALIM SOFTWARE, this project, begun at the end of 2016, is now operational.

Sylvain Boularand, Prepress Manager at Mondadori France, states: “Mondadori France has been printing Lenglet Imprimeurs’ Télé Star helio notebook since the beginning of January 2017. It previously involved a weekly exchange of proofs by courier from Montrouge (Hauts-de-Seine) to Cambrai (North). We wanted to discontinue paper proofs and use on-line monitor authorizations through the use of softproofing—built around solutions and common applications shared between Lenglet and us. The choice of softproofing meets technical, organizational, economic and environmental challenges for Mondadori.”

Jean-Philippe Mas, project manager of Editorial Informatics at Mondadori France, explains: “Regarding the technical aspect, DALIM ES software is a reference application on the market for monitor-based validation. Now that ES is deployed for flatplan management on 46 titles at Mondadori, we are entering a second softproofing phase. With DALIM SOFTWARE it is now a three-way project that triggers this change process. Thanks to precise replication tools, DALIM DIALOGUE Engine, integrated within DALIM ES, brings, simulation of the final printed newspaper not on paper, but on the screen. Along with DALIM ES 5, the arrival of DALIM LATITUDE brings more functionality between DALIM SOFTWARE’s web applications and our operating system and enhances the user experience for softproofing.

“With Lenglet printers, we have agreed not only on the software piece, but also on common hardware. We acquired Eizo ColorEdge CG 277 monitors and Just Normlicht proofStation 20 SP booths, which can integrate with a calibrated screen. This allows us to compare the printed samples, placed under normalized neutral light, next to their corresponding softproofs on the monitor. In practice, we define a common characterization profile: brightness, black point, white point, RGB. A spectrophotometer connected to the monitor makes it possible to regularly check the accurate reproduction of the characterized parameters and, if necessary, to return to the initial settings. Same screens, same luminous environment, same figures, same control system—this ensures an identical rendering between both Mondadori and Lenglet printers.”

François-Xavier Luchart, Lenglet Site Director for rotogravure, confirms: “The collaboration between Lenglet printers and Mondadori France was driven by innovation and progress. We have addressed the matter in an innovative working way, by production information-sharing. Softproofing was immediately considered in a virtual way. At Lenglet printers, softproofing began in 2006, but customers were not ready. When we received this request from Mondadori, we greeted it with enthusiasm! To benefit from the most optimal situation, we chose to apply parallel hardware choices (monitor, light box) and calibration procedures. By doing this, we are guaranteed of total consistency. “

Sylvain Boularand continues: “As far as the organizational aspect is concerned, before we had to print proofs, prepare flats for the courier and wait for them to be sent to the printer. The printer sorted them out and sent them to the gravure press responsible for printing the Télé Star. Next came questions of storage, archiving and removing content after a certain time limit. This extensive workflow is now replaced by simply validating the pages on screen in a dedicated environment at Lenglet printers, controlled by DALIM ES. ES also adds the benefit of confidentiality of content, in the case of sensitive information, thanks to its extensive access rights settings.”

“On the economic side,” explains Mas, “we eliminate courier delivery costs between Mondadori France and Lenglet printers (nearly 200 km), as well as consumables related to paper proofs (support, inks, maintenance, software). Paper proofs have become unnecessary and will be unavailable to the editorial staff. The environmental aspect is undeniable: by eliminating the weekly courier, we inevitably consume less carbon dioxide. Moreover, the creation of screen proofs in the ES ecosystem costs far less energy to produce than the system required to obtain a paper proof.”

François-Xavier Luchart, for Lenglet printers, concurs: “DALIM SOFTWARE, an expert in the integration between printer and publisher, was crucial in our collaboration and in maintaining a synchronized workflow. We have very good experience—and have a very good technical and personal relationship—with DALIM SOFTWARE. With our partners Mondadori and DALIM SOFTWARE, we intend, through the implementation of new shared procedures, to proceed even further with our softproofing system.”

For Mondadori, Sylvain Boularand concludes: “Mondadori is the first publisher in France to develop a standardized and shared procedure for softproofing in a magazine. Additional research and general implementation of procedures would enable other publishers to seize this opportunity. This would make it possible to evolve the current, rather ineffective, ISO 12646 standard relating to ‘displays for carrying out color proofs’. We hope that the combined experience of Mondadori, Lenglet printers and DALIM SOFTWARE contribute to this approach.”

“We are pleased to support Mondadori and Lenglet printers in this innovative approach for a French press magazine,” says Isabelle Billerey-Rayel, Business Development Director of DALIM SOFTWARE GmbH. “The DALIM ES solution has been Fogra-certified since 2009. It guarantees the high quality standards we set for all our applications. The softproofing of DALIM ES has been deployed for the production of high-quality catalog and art books. With Mondadori, the publishing world in France has reached a new milestone.”