Offset Printing

Two in one – DZA certifies offset and digital printing

Monday 06. July 2020 - The Druckerei zu Altenburg GmbH (DZA) is one of the oldest existing printing houses in Germany with a period of service of over 425 years. Founded in 1594 as Fürstlich Sächsischer Officin by Duke Friedrich Wilhelm zu Sachsen at Hartenfels Castle in Torgau, the company has been located in Altenburg since 1604.

Thanks to good connections to Friedrich A. Brockhaus in Leipzig, the company was also one of the producers of the “Brockhaus”. Older people will remember this extensive reference work before Wikipedia, Google and Co. killed these print products. Over the decades and centuries, the company remained at the pulse of technical developments, such as the changeover from lead type to DTP and the replacement of letterpress by offset printing in the last century. DZA is internationally renowned for the production of high-quality books and brochures – with a demanding clientele that includes many art publishers. And this in turn sometimes places special demands on all departments of the fully integrated company. Often the client is told: “Hm, difficult”, followed by: “Let us think for a moment …” and finally: “Solved!

In 2006 the first certification according to the Process Standard Offset Printing (PSO) took place. This year the printing company successfully completed the 4th re-certification.
The big anniversary celebration last year was followed by investments in machinery. After weighing up all factors, an additional digital printing machine from Fuji was installed in autumn last year. This machine, which works with the inkjet process, produces 4-colour printed sheets of the format 750 x 530 mm in perfecting printing. What could be more obvious than to put this printing system through its paces as well. An equivalent of the ProcessStandard Offset for digital printing has been available for several years. This guideline is based on another part of ISO 12647. Part 2 deals with the conditions and target values for offset printing, while Part 8 lays down the requirements for digital printing.
In addition to the evaluation of tonal value reproduction, other tests are also carried out when assessing digital printing machines which are not used for evaluation according to PSO. These include, for example, measuring the L*a*b* values of the tertiary tones, assessing the homogeneity of the printed test forms with different ink compositions and the bleeding of the inks used.
All target values and tolerances were met and adhered to and the conditions of the guideline were therefore passed with flying colours.
Re-certification according to PSO was also carried out without complications. The processes introduced at the Altenburg printing plant have once again proved their worth. A special feature of the certification according to the PSO of Druckerei zu Altenburg is that the “normal” AM screen and the FM screen are used here, which is required by many customers. This frequency-modulated screen is very much appreciated by art publishers because it enables them to achieve particularly good color reproduction and brilliance.
In addition to regular print quality certifications, the company also actively pursues compliance with the guidelines for the use of FSC and PEFC papers.