A Direct Digital Prepress Proof System

This paper describes a novel color prepress proofing system. The system consists of a high quality film recorder manufactured by MacDonald, Dettwiler, Ltd., Polaroid instant film and film processor, and a Polaroid color transformation that controls the red, green blue exposure at each pixel. The system reads a digital file for an image, such as those produced by page makeup systems. The system calculates the exposure for an instant film that will match ink on paper. Finally, the system exposes and processes the film so as to provide an instant print directly from the digital file. In addition to describing the system, the paper will include the results of a comparison of the prepress proofs with actual ink on paper to test the accuracy of the color rendition.