Introduction

In Automation Engine 14.1.1, a new option is added to the ticket that allows a user to specify the screen angle direction.
See this article for more information: 

• Page:
  KB173965421: Imaging Engine - Clockwise or counterclockwise screen angle direction option on IE

Imaging Engine tickets created in an earlier version of Automation Engine (earlier than 14.1.1) do not have this option to use screen angles in clockwise (CW) or counterclockwise (CCW) direction. In earlier version of Automation Engine screen angles displayed in the user interface were shown in a CW or CCW way according the old device setting, but changing this device setting did not change the screen angle in the output.

As a result, in previous versions of Automation Engine, it was possible that the screen angle in the output file did not match the screen angle requested from the file or ticket.

By introducing this new option the screen angle in the output will now match the requested screen angle in the direction specified by the user.

This document explains how old tickets (meaning tickets that were created in a Automation Engine version prior to 14.1.1) that did not specify the screen angle direction are handled in Automation Engine 14.1.1

Re-using 'Image to Screened Separation'-tickets created in earlier versions of Automation Engine 14.1.1

If old Image to Screened Separation tickets are reused in the new version, screen angles in screened output will be kept the same. With 'reused' we mean that such tickets are launched without having been opened or changed in the new Automation Engine version.

As explained in the introduction, this means that when reusing old tickets, screen angles in the output file might not always match the intended screen angles. Support for these tickets will therefore fade out, they will no longer be supported in future versions.

How to re-use a ticket without modifying

In Automation Engine Pilot, a user can use an existing Image to Screened Separations ticket on jobs without modifying that ticket.

This can be done by:

• Launch with option.
  Right-click on a job to open the contextual menu > click Launch with and pick a saved 'Image to Screened Separations' ticket (not the default one as this is updated when updating Automation Engine).
  
  
  After you select the ticket, the ticket will be executed without user interaction.
• 'Imaging to Screened Separations' ticket inside a Automation Engine Workflow
  When a saved 'Image to Screened Separations' ticket is used in a workflow and the ticket is not opened, the ticket will not be modified when launching the workflow.

• Relaunch option.
  Right-click an already executed 'Image to Screened Separations' task to open the contextual menu and click Relaunch.

  

  The task will be re-launched without user interaction.

Expected screened output from reused Imaging Engine 14.1.0 tickets

As mentioned, screen angles in output files did not always match requested screen angles in Imaging Engine 14.1.0 tickets.

Below you can see the requested screen angles versus the screen angles in output in Imaging Engine 14.1.0.

Behavior when editing tickets created for earlier versions of Imaging Engine 14.1.1

What happens when old tickets are opened in Automation Engine 14.1.1

Internal behavior when previous version tickets are opened in Automation Engine 14.1.1

As mentioned, in old tickets, the screen angle direction was not specified and some screens only supported clockwise screen angles. To preserve the output from these tickets as much as possible, when the old ticket is opened in Automation Engine 14.1.1, all screen angles will be converted to clockwise values and the screen angle direction is set to clockwise.

GUI behavior when old tickets are opened in Automation Engine 14.1.1

When an old ticket is opened in Automation Engine 14.1.1, the following confirmation message will be displayed:

Clicking Show Details will show your more information:

When you click OK, the ticket will be opened with focus set to the Separations tab. This way, a user has an immediate overview of the screen angles used for each separation. In the Separations tab, you can also change the new screen angle direction option by clicking Advanced Screening Settings.

For more detailed information about the new screen angle direction option and its effect on output files, see the following article:

• Page:
  KB173965421: Imaging Engine - Clockwise or counterclockwise screen angle direction option on IE

Differences in screen angles displayed in Separations tab

Screen angle values different in Automation Engine 14.1.1

In Automation Engine 14.1.0 or earlier, the screen angles specified in PDF files or given by the user from exceptions could be displayed in clockwise or counterclockwise rotation direction.
This was set in the Imaging Engine Configure panel.

In Automation Engine 14.1.1, the original screen angle values are displayed as found in the PDF file or specified in exceptions by the user.

Differences for screen angle based exceptions

When opening old tickets in Automation Engine 14.1.1, separations that use screen angles from exceptions will have different screen angle values displayed than before.
If the screen angle direction option is set to CW (default), the output of screen angles from exceptions is identical than before.
If the screen angle direction option is set to CCW, the output of screen angles from exceptions will be different than before.

In Automation Engine 14.1.0 or earlier, screen angle based exceptions were internally stored as CCW screen angle values.

In Automation Engine 14.1.1, screen angle based exceptions are saved as entered by the user, without screen angle direction conversion.

When opening old tickets in Automation Engine 14.1.1, Automation Engine will set the screen direction option to CW and will convert the screen angle exception values to CW. This way, the screen angles in the output used from exceptions will be identical to the output from the old ticket. However, the screen angle values from exceptions displayed in the Separations tab will be different.

Differences for default screen angles

When opening old tickets in Automation Engine 14.1.1, separations that use default screen angles can have different screen angles in output.

For Automation Engine 14.1.0 or earlier, the default separation screen angles were fixed to

• C = 15° CCW
• M = 75° CCW
• Y = 0 ° CCW
• K = 45° CCW
• Other separations = 45° CCW

These default screen angles are used for separations that have no screen angle set from PDF file nor from exceptions. For Automation Engine 14.1.1, the same default screen angle values are used but now without specific screen angle direction. Dependent on how the user has set the screen angle direction option, default screen angles will be used CW or CCW.

When opening old tickets in Automation Engine 14.1.1 the default screen angles can be different, so the output for separations that use default screen angles can be different.

Example cases of expected differences when changing old tickets in Automation Engine 14.1.1

Case 1: All screen angles defined in the PDF file

In this case, an old ticket is opened with the Use From File option set to All, Angle only or Angle and ruling.

In the Separations tab of the opened ticket, all screen angles are grayed out indicating that screen angles are set from the (normalized) PDF file. The screen angle values displayed in the separations table are exactly as set in the PDF file, no longer converted to CW or CCW values like in Automation Engine 14.1.0.

If the screen angle direction is kept to CW (default), screen angles in the PDF file will be used in CW direction. This is the same behavior as in previous versions, so output from the changed ticket will be the same as before.

If the screen angle direction is changed to CCW , screen angles in the PDF file will be used in CCW direction. Output from the changed ticket will be different than before.

Case 2: Screen angles set by exceptions, Imaging Engine 14.1.0 configured Clockwise rotation direction

In this case, the old ticket contains exceptions, and the screen angles in the exceptions were entered as clockwise values (Imaging Engine configured for 'clockwise rotation direction').

Clicking Define Exceptions... in the Separations tab will open the Define Exceptions frame listing the same screen angle values as originally entered from previous version.

If the screen angle direction is kept to CW (default), screen angles in the output will be the same as before.

In the example given below, screen angle exceptions are used in Automation Engine 14.1.0 ticket for C,M,Y,K.

The screen angle symbol  , indicating that screen angles were set and displayed in clockwise rotation direction.

When opening this ticket in Automation Engine 14.1.1, after clicking OK on the Screen Angle Direction warning dialog, the Define Exceptions panel will show the following table:

The screen angles in the output separations will be the same, even though the ticket has been updated with the new Screen Angle Direction key.

Case 3: Screen angles set by exceptions, Imaging Engine 14.1.0 configured CCW

In this case the old ticket contains exceptions and the screen angles in the exceptions were entered as counterclockwise values (Imaging Engine configured for 'counterclockwise rotation direction').

Clicking Define Exceptions... in the Separations tab will now list different screen angle values as originally entered in previous version. This is because the screen angle direction is set to CW by default, and the angles in the old ticket are converted to CW values.
E.g.: a screen angle exception of 15° CCW will be converted to 345° CW (15° CCW = (360 - 15)°CW = 345°CW).

If the screen angle direction is kept to CW (default), the screen angle exceptions will have been converted to CW values, but the output will not be different than before.

If the screen angle direction is changed to CCW, the screen angles from exceptions in the output will have been flipped resulting in different output.

In the example given below, screen angle exceptions are used in Automation Engine 14.1.0 ticket for C,M,Y,K.

The screen angle symbol  , indicating that screen angles were set and displayed in counterclockwise rotation direction.

When opening this ticket in Automation Engine 14.1.1, the Define Exceptions panel will show the following table:

The screen angles in the output separations will be the same, even though the ticket has been updated with the new Screen Angle Direction setting, only if Screen Angle Direction is kept to CW:

When changing the Screen Angle Direction to CCW, the screen angles in the output separations will be different:

Case 4: Screen angles set by separation defaults, Imaging Engine 14.1.0 configured CW

The old ticket was created with an Imaging Engine device configured for clockwise rotation direction. The screening option Use From File was set to None or Ruling only so that the screen angles fall back on the separation defaults.

In Imaging Engine 14.1.0 the separation defaults were defined as:

• Cyan: 15° CCW
• Magenta: 75° CCW
• Yellow: 0° CCW
• Black: 45° CCW
• Other separations: 45° CCW.

When Imaging Engine was configured CW, these separation defaults needed to be shown as feedback in the separations overview. They were converted to CW versions, taking into account the modulo of the screen. Meaning for a Modulo 90 screen you would see the following angle feedback in the user interface:

• Cyan: 75° CW
• Magenta: 15° CW
• Yellow: 0° CW
• Black: 45° CW
• Other separations: 45° CW.

In Imaging Engine 14.1.1 the separation defaults are always:

• Cyan: 15°
• Magenta: 75°
• Yellow: 0°
• Black: 45°
• Other separations: 45°

The Screen angle direction option in the ticket specifies how these separation defaults will be interpreted.

When opening old tickets that used screen angles from separation defaults, the output can be different in Imaging Engine 14.1.1 !!!

The table below shows the default screen angles  for CMYK in Imaging Engine 14.1.0 configured as 'CW' rotation direction.

• The red numbers indicate the difference to be expected when using default screen angles in the new version.
• 'Output' indicates the angle of the screen chain in the output (see chain direction of mod 90 screens etc.,).
• 'Output CW' indicates what the angle of the screen chain will be in the output when screen angle direction is set to CW or CCW.

For modulo 90 screens, the screen angles will be different, both the output and the feedback in the panel.

For modulo 180 screens, the screen angles will NOT be different in the output although the feedback in the panel is different.

Case 5: Screen angles set by separation defaults, Imaging Engine 14.1.0 configured CCW

The old ticket was created with an Imaging Engine device configured for counterclockwise rotation direction. The screening option, Use From File was set to None or Ruling only so that the screen angles fall back on the separation defaults.

In Imaging Engine 14.1.0 the separation defaults were defined as:

• Cyan: 15° CCW
• Magenta: 75° CCW
• Yellow: 0° CCW
• Black: 45° CCW
• Other separations: 45° CCW.

In Imaging Engine 14.1.1, the separation defaults are always:

• Cyan: 15°
• Magenta: 75°
• Yellow: 0°
• Black: 45°
• Other separations: 45° 

The Screen angle direction option in the ticket specifies how these separation defaults will be interpreted.

When opening old tickets that used screen angles from separation defaults, the output can be different in Imaging Engine 14.1.1 !!!

The table below shows the screen angle separation defaults for CMYK in Imaging Engine 14.1.0 configure as 'CCW' rotation direction.

• The red numbers indicate the difference to be expected when using default screen angles in the new version.
• 'Output' indicates the angle of the screen chain in the output (see chain direction of mod 90 screens etc.,).
• 'Output CW' or 'Output CCW' indicates what the angle of the screen chain will be in the output when screen angle direction is set to CW or CCW.

For modulo 90 screens, the screen angles in the output will be different for both CW and CCW screen angle direction option

For modulo 180 screens, the screen angles in the output will be different when screen angle direction option is set to CW

For modulo 180 screens, the screen angles in the output will be the same if screen angle direction option is set to CCW