Patent ID: 7724922

Claim:
A method of inspecting a print image that is sequentially being processed in a printing prepress system by a plurality of sequential prepress processing steps, comprising: (a) preparing, carried out by a processor, a first RIP data by executing RIP processing on a first print image data according to first RIP processing conditions, the first RIP processing conditions including a resolution, a number of tone levels, a color system, a tone reproduction, and a compression method for the first RIP data; (b) preparing, carried out by the processor, a second RIP data by executing RIP processing, in accordance with second RIP processing conditions that differ from the first RIP processing conditions, on a second print image data obtained by carrying out another prepress processing to the first print image data, the another prepress processing step being one of the sequential prepress processing steps excluding correction after client's proofreading, the second RIP processing conditions including a resolution, a number of tone levels, a color system, a tone reproduction, and a compression method for the second RIP data; (c) preparing, carried out by the processor, a first plate-image-inspection RIP data in accordance with standard RIP processing conditions by converting the first RIP data, using a first profile representing relationship between the standard RIP processing conditions and the first RIP processing conditions; (d) preparing, carried out by the processor, a second plate-image-inspection RIP data in accordance with the standard RIP processing conditions by converting the second RIP data, using a second profile representing relationship between the standard RIP processing conditions and the second RIP processing conditions; and (e) comparing, carried out by the processor, the first and second plate-image-inspection RIP data to detect differences between the first and second print image data.