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476 総説

Open Source Free Software for Prepress Work of Printing Industries - A Study

Chinmay Bhattacharya* *Indian Statistical Institute, Printing and Publication Unit, Kolkata, India

Abstract The study aims to find out the results of art paper products using recycled paper with strain engineering and adhesives PVOpen source free software exists for different work, and some of them may useful for prepress work of printing industries. Objective of this paper is to investigate the usefulness of four open source free software for prepress work of printing industries in India. For this study four free software chosen, which are Scribus（Version 1.4.5）， Inkscape（Version 0.91）， GIMP（GNU Image Manipulation Programme - Version - 2.8.18） and Krita（Version - 2.9.11） as substitutes of four proprietary software those are not free and generally used for prepress work of printing industries in India. Scribus used as the substitute of Adobe PageMaker and Adobe InDesign, Inkscape used as the substitute of CorelDraw, GIMP and Krita used as the substitute of Adobe Photoshop. For this study author has followed different steps, first one was study the opinions, article about the mentioned free software published in Internet, second step was, done some jobs using the free and proprietary software and generated PDF and JPG output by three operators, third was got the operators and author＇s opinions cum observations and fourth was done the printing by conventional offset lithography and digital printing process and last was asses the print quality by ten general observers. Results showed that free software may be used for printing industries with some limitations. Keywords: Open source free software, Proprietary software Prepress, Scribus, Inkscape, GIMP, Krita, Printing industries.

Introduction is a free and open source raster graphics editor used for image retouching and editing, free-form drawing, resizing, Free Open Source Software（FOSS）, also called just cropping, photo-montages, converting between different Open Source or Free Software, is licensed to be free to image formats. Krita is free and open source software for use, modify, and distribute. There are many open source digital painting. software exist for different work, and some of them may There are some other free and open source software useful for prepress work of commercial printing. available for prepress work of printing industries but Scribus is a programme for professi onal page layout, those are not considered for this study. for creating PDF files and can be used for print output. There are various versions of Scribus, Inkscap e, It is free and distributed under the GNU GPL license. GIMP and Krita available for Linux, Windows and Mac. Inkscape is a free and open source vector graphics editor, However, till today in the commercial area of it can be used to create or edit vector graphics such as printing industries like books, newspapers, magazine, illustrations, diagrams, line arts, charts, logos and complex leaflets etc., proprietary software clearly dominates over paintings. GIMP（GNU Image Manipulation Programme） open source free software, but the small and medium

［46］ 日本印刷学会誌 Open Source Free Software for Prepress Work of Printing Industries - A Study 477 printing industries may introduce the free and open Ubuntu operating system results may varies. source software for their prepress work. Adobe stopped the production PageMaker software after 2004, however in India many print organizations Literatures Study used PageMaker＇s latest version for text composing, for this reason PageMaker software chosen for this study. Before stating, author studied the opinions, article For this study available open source free software used, about the open source free software for DTP or prepress but after this study these software may be developing or work of printing industries published in Internet. There upgraded, those version didn＇t consider. are different opinions in different articles and also This study depends on subjective print quality mentioned different open source free software for DTP assessment however sometimes objective assessment is and prepress work. Many opinions are positive and some necessary for print quality measure. opinions are negative about the usefulness of open source free software for prepress work. Majority of author Methodology support scribus as the substitute of Adobe InDesign, some authors support GIMP as the substitute of Adobe This is an experiment based practical study and Photoshop however they also mentioned the problems of trying to search the usefulness of some open source free Colour Management in GIMP and few of them advised software in printing industries. to use Krita as the substitute of Adobe Photoshop. Some For this study four free software chosen, which authors said about Inkscape as the substitute of Adobe are Scribus（Version 1.4.5）， Inkscape（Version 0.91）， Illustrator and CorelDraw. GIMP（GNU Image Manipulation Programme - Version - Considering all the opinions author have chosen four 2.8.18） and Krita（Version - 2.9.11） as substitutes of four open source free software, which are Scribus, Inkscape, proprietary software those are not free and generally GIMP and Krita as the substitute of three proprietary used for prepress work of printing industries in India. software which are Adobe PageMaker, Adobe InDesign Scribus used as the substitute of Adobe PageMaker and Adobe Photoshop. 6.5 and Adobe InDesign CS 5, Inkscape used as the substitute of CorelDraw 12, GIMP and Krita used as the Objective of this Study substitute of Adobe Photoshop CS 4. All the software used under Windows operating system. Objective of this study is to investigate the Also three operators chosen, operator‘A’ who had usefulness of three open source free software which can experience in Adobe PageMaker and Adobe InDesign, be used as the substitutes of three proprietary software operator‘B’ had experience in using CorelDraw and which are not free and generally used for prepress work operator‘C’ had experience in Adobe Photoshop. of commercial printing in India. This study also tried to Before starting the printing job oriented experiment, find out if these proprietary tools can be replaced by free total seven days training about basics of open source alternatives. free software and the software which are used for this job oriented study given to the operators A, B and C. Limitation of the Study After that six printing job oriented experiment done. Job descriptions, software us ed, details Procedure, opinions of This study has given more emphasis on practical operators, observations by author, observation by general approaches than theory. Also this study depends on observers and remarks given in Tables 1 to 6. short run printing jobs, as well as on conventional offset Details of printed jobs using Adobe PageMaker and printing process and digital printing. Scribus given in Table 1 and 2, details of printed jobs For this study free software used in Windows using CorelDRAW and Inkscape given in Table 3, details operating system but the said software using in Linux - of printed jobs using Adobe Photoshop and GIMP given

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in Table 4 details of printed jobs using Adobe Photoshop assessment of print quality of printed job described in and Krita given in Table 6 and details of printed jobs Table 4, 6 and 8 given in g.1, 2 and 3 and Table 5, 7 using Adobe InDesign and Scribus given in Table 8. and 9. Also the results obtained from the subjective/visual

Table 1 Details of Printed Jobs using Adobe PageMaker and Scribus Operator A Job Description 16 Pages A5 size booklet - Single colour Software used Adobe PageMaker and Scribus Details Procedure Same text matter with same fonts composed using both the software separately. Exported PDF and generated 16 pages Mirror image tracing printout with the help of a PS printer from both PDF file and made 2 conventional PS plate. Imposed 16 pages in a plate and printed by conventional offset lithography printing process using black ink. Opinions of Operator Text insertion, leading, etc in Scribus is difficult than Adobe PageMaker. Observations by author Text insertion, leading, etc. in Scribus is difficult than Adobe PageMaker. However visual inspection showed that there were no differences in print quality of offset printing output from both the software. Remarks Small booklet may be done using Scribus.

Table 2 Details of Printed Jobs using Adobe PageMaker and Scribus Operator A Job Description A4 size Table with text matter for a ledger -single colour. Software used Adobe PageMaker and Scribus Details Procedure Table created in Adobe PageMaker with the help of Adobe Table and also in Scribus, Exported PDF and generated 8 pages Mirror image tracing printout with the help of a PS printer from both PDF file and made 2 conventional PS plate. Imposed 8 pages in a plate and printed by conventional offset lithography printing process using black ink. Opinions of Operator Table creation in Scribus is very lengthy process and takes much time. Observations by author Table creation（basically row and column adjustment） in Scribus is more difficult, so it was done manually by inserting line. However visual inspection of print quality had no differences. Remarks Table creations in Scribus are very lengthy process and take much time.

Table 3 Details of Printed Jobs using CorelDRAW and Inkscape Operator A Job Description A4 size Letterhead with logo - single colour Software used CorelDRAW and Inkscape Details Procedure One logo designed（height - 0.75 inch and width - 0.40 inch）， text composed in both the software （24 pt. Rockwell Extra bold）． Used 100% black, For CorelDraw; Fill Tool → Fill Colour Dialog → Grayscale → Black, R-0; G-0; B-0 and L-0. For Inkscape, Menu → Object → Fill and Stroke → RGBA, R-0; G-0; B-0; A-255 equivalent to C-0; M-0; Y-0; K-100; A-100. Save as PDF, then printed on white paper by a non-postscript digital copier（Sharp ARM 205） and a PS Printer（HP Laser Jet 5200 PS）， also 8 pages mirror image tracing printout taken from the PS printer（4 pages from each PDF file） and made conventional PS plate from the tracing for Offset printing and printed by magenta ink. Opinions of Operator 100% Black creation in Inkscape is difficult. Observations by author Printed output from Digital Copier- Both the logo and text enlarged in the print from Inkscape PDF file than CorelDRAW PDF file. However Printed output from PS Printer showed no differences by visual inspection. Also visual inspection of Printed output by conventional Offset lithography showed no differences. Remarks Single colour job with text, logos and line drawings may be created by Inkscape instead of CorelDRAW.

［48］ 日本印刷学会誌 Open Source Free Software for Prepress Work of Printing Industries - A Study 479

Table 4 Details of Printed Jobs using Adobe Photoshop and GIMP Operator C Job Description 12” ⊗ 18” size template of 5 four colour images Software used Adobe Photoshop and GIMP Details Procedure Two High resolution images from the internet downloaded and saved as JPEG image in a folder and open with Adobe Photoshop and GIMP. One image scanned in Adobe Photoshop and as well as in GIMP, also two images imported from the photograph taken by digital camera in both the software. In both the software open a new document which size was 12” ⊗ 18” and placed all the images in proper position, so the number of images in each document were 5. Colour mode was RGB（Adobe RGB - 1998），（for GIMP, Edit → Preferences → Colour Management → RGB Profile → Select Colour Profile from Disk → Colour → Adobe RGB 1998.icc → Open, and Mode of Operation Print Simulation）， Resolution was 300 ppi, 8 bit for both the software. After that Save as JPEG file from Adobe Photoshop and Export to JPEG file from GIMP and sent both the files for printing on coated paper by Digital printer which had own colour management system. Opinions of Operator Operator said that due to lack of practice he faced some problems for operating GIMP, but he also said that after some practices he could work with GIMP. Observations by author Some colour shifting observed in Printed document from GIMP particularly in shadow areas, but not much more. Observation by general Two printed outputs of five images showed to 10 general observers separately to judge the quality observers using a 5 point scale（Unsatisfactory to Excellent）． Mean results showed in Figure 1. When one template of five images showed to the observers, only one image showed, others were covered. Secondly, two printed outputs of five images showed to another 25 general observers for comparison（no differences, major differences and minor differences）． At that time two same images from both templates shown, others were covered. Result showed in Table 5 Remarks Good quality four colour jobs for Digital printing may be done using GIMP.

Fig.1 Mean result of visual assessment of 5 images printed by Adobe Photoshop and GIMP

Table 5 Comparison of the Printed Jobs using Adobe Photoshop and GIMP - Results obtained from the 25 general observers Observations Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4 Image 5 No differences 72% 76% 64% 84% 68% Minor differences 28% 24% 36% 16% 32% Major differences 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%

Fig.2 Mean result of visual assessment of cover design printed by Adobe Photoshop and Krita

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Table 6 Details of Printed Jobs using Adobe Photoshop and Krita Operator C Job Description A4 size book cover Software used Adobe Photoshop and Krita Details Procedure Designed two same cover using two software, for the cover design used only Gradient tools with same CMYK values and text used of same fonts. Colour Mode was CMYK, and Resolution was 300 ppi, 8 bit for both the software. After that Save as JPEG file from Adobe Photoshop and Export to JPEG file from Krita and sent both the files for printing by Digital printer which had own colour management system. Opinions of Operator Working in Krita is more complicated than Adobe Photoshop. Observations by author Some minor colour shifting noticed in the printed output from Krita, however print quality was very good Observation by Two printed outputs showed to 10 general observers separately to judge the quality using a 5 general observers point scale（Unsatisfactory to Excellent）. Mean results showed in Figure 2. Secondly, two printed outputs of five images showed to another 25 general observers for comparison（no differences, major differences and minor differences）. Result showed in Table 7 Remarks Krita may be used for good quality design jobs for printed output.

Table 7 Comparison of the Printed Jobs using Adobe Photoshop and Krita - Results obtained from the 25 general observers Observations Printed Documents No differences 63% Minor differences 37% Major differences 0%

Table 8 Details of Printed Jobs using Adobe InDesign and Scribus Operators A, B & C Job Description 12” ⊗ 18” size template Software used Adobe InDesign and Scribus Details Procedure Two high resolution images from the internet downloaded and saved as JPEG image in a folder. One image scanned in Adobe Photoshop and as well as in GIMP and saved as JPEG image in the same folder. All the images open with Adobe Photoshop as well as with GIMP. In both software Colour Mode was RGB（Adobe RGB - 1998）， Resolution was 300 ppi, 8 bit for both the software. All the images converted to JPEG file and saved. After that In Adobe InDesign opened and imported three JPEG images which were saved from Adobe Photoshop, also opened Scribus and imported the JPEG images which were saved from GIMP. File size of Adobe InDesign and Scribus was 12” ⊗ 18” Some same text matters composed in both the software using same fonts. Exported this two file as PDF（PDF 1.4） and sent for digital printing. Opinions of Operator Text insertion, leading, etc in Scribus is difficult, faced some problems for operating GIMP due to lack of practices. Observations by author No major differences noticed by visual inspection Observation by 10 general observers Two printed outputs showed to 10 general observers se parately to judge the quality using a 5 point scale（Unsatisfactory to Excellent）． Mean results showed in Figure 3. Secondly, two printed outputs showed to another 25 general observers for comparison（no differences, major differences and minor differences）． Result showed in Table 9 Remarks Scribus may be used as substitute of Adobe InDesign for small and medium quality jobs

Fig.3 Mean result of visual assessment of template printed by Adobe InDesign and Scribus

［50］ 日本印刷学会誌 Open Source Free Software for Prepress Work of Printing Industries - A Study 481

Table 9 Comparison of the printed templates using Adobe InDesign and Scribus - Results obtained from the 25 general observers Observations Printed Documents No differences 71% Minor differences 29% Major differences 0%

Conclusions software which were used for this study demand further development and hope this work will be done. However After considering all the results obtained from this at present good quality prepress work for printing study it may be said that the open source free software industries may be done using these software by taking are not as much as professional like proprietary software some extra efforts and it should be economically helpful for prepress work of printing industries. Vector and for small and medium printing business. bitmap editing are the strong and trouble-free areas using Inkscape and GIMP however colour management References system of these software are some critical. The import 1） Scribus - Open Source Desktop Publishing, www.scribus. net/ and text-handling functionality in Scribus leaves some 2） Inkscape: Draw Freely, www.inkscape.org things to be desired. Scribus cannot handle large volumes 3） GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program, www.gimp. of text, this is a problem with certain projects, both in the org/ layout and PDF creation steps. After all the open source

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