Hybrid Software Group PLC Annual Report 2022 122 123 Hybrid Software Group PLC Annual Report 2022 Hybrid Software Group Company strategic report Governance Financial statements Other information Glossary continued... Industry 4.0 A term for fully automated production, where equipment performing different processes are interconnected and share information. Inkjet printing Application of coloured or functional fluids to a substrate by jetting as drops. JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Company’; a committee (ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29) and the format that they defined for storing images in a very compact way using (mainly) compression. There are now variants such as JPEG 2000 and JPEG-XR that use rather different and incompatible techniques. Litho Offset lithography – conventional printing press technology using plates treated to make some areas hydrophilic and others hydrophobic (attracting and rejecting water) to control where ink will adhere to them. ‘Offset’ here means that the ink is transferred from the plate to a blanket before then being applied to the media being printed on. Mass customisation Mass produced products where every item is unique. Examples include personalized labels, tee-shirts, phone cases and the like. OEM OEM, or original equipment manufacturer, is an organisation that makes devices from component parts bought from other organisations. Piezoelectric Electricity resulting from pressure and latent heat. Piezo printheads are all based on the principle that a particular type of crystal expands or contracts when an electric current is passed though it and switched off again. This expansion/contraction is used as the basis of a pump in the ink chamber. PDF Portable Document Format, a universal file format that is maintained by the International Standards Organisation. In printing it can contain all the information required to produce an item that matches exactly what the graphic designer intended in terms of fonts, colour specifications etc. PostScript Page description language (PDL) created in the mid 1980s by Adobe Systems; the first general PDL to be widely adopted for both office and production printing, replacing proprietary languages from each vendor. Still used for office printing, but largely replaced by PDF for production printing. Pre-press A department or series of software processes that prepare files for printing. Printhead driver solutions Our software and proprietary driver electronics send data to printheads inside inkjet devices to control the printing process. Printheads Printheads are a component of an inkjet press and generally contain multiple nozzles for jetting ink or other fluids onto substrates. Proofer Device used to make colour-managed prints configured to match the appearance of the same job on a production printing press for use in approval workflows. Increasingly replaced by “soft proofing”, using a calibrated computer display for approval rather than creating printed copy. Rasterisation The process of transforming a page description language ( see PostScript), comprising text, vector graphics, images and other complex constructs, into a rectangular grid of pixels that is suitable for delivering to an inkjet head, plate setter or other imaging device. Often equated to ‘rendering’. RIP/ RIPping A Raster Image Processor converts graphic designs into raster data (image pixels) for onward processing by the printing device. Screening Screening (sometimes called halftone screening) converts graphical designs from raster data (such as that delivered by a RIP) into a slightly different format. The process compensates for the fact that most printing technology cannot represent more than a very small number of different tints of each ink. Screening places very small and carefully structured collections of areas of ink in such a way that the human eye is fooled into seeing additional tints from the intended viewing distance. Glossary continued... Screen printing In screen printing ink is applied to a surface through a stencil held on a mesh attached to a frame. Smart factory Smart factories are designed to autonomously run the entire production process and this will include the print subsystems. Trapping A process to avoid unpleasant visible effects when the colour separations being printed are not perfectly aligned with each other (in register). It typically works by enlarging some objects slightly, and contracting others. Variable data processing or VDP Printing items where every instance varies at least slightly from the others, often with some graphics in common as well. Examples range from adding serial numbers to labels, through direct mail and variations designed to ensure that packaging has more shelf appeal. Waveform The way in which the voltage applied to an inkjet head is varied over time in order to deliver well-formed ink drops of the desired size and at the desired speed. Wide format Printing on devices with a width that’s usually more than 50cm, usually using inkjet and often related in some way to marketing or photo finishing, including banners, stickers, soft signage and sportswear.
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