Mark on Mark
According to Mazur, Samworth’s frequent collaborator on projects and presentations, Samworth has had a tremendous impact on flexography. “In 1995, Mark introduced flexo to color management and digital proofing. Today we all take it for granted and use it all the time. Then, no one heard of color management. Nobody thought digital technology could work for flexo,” he says. “Mark’s understanding of technology led to developments like stochastic screening, which has allowed us to generate screens that work extremely well in flexo. He demonstrated for us exactly how screens done by software engineers, or computer, can create proper patterns and proper grids that look smooth and consistent in flexo.”
He notes Samworth’s influence on shaping the industry. “His contributions are huge! Mark Samworth has helped push flexo forward beyond ‘this side up’ and now he has us doing high-quality flexo work with better graphics and high-quality photopolymer that has moved us away from rubber,” he says. “Mark simply never stops working. Years ago, while installing a digital scanner, I recall him jogging through the room at 7 a.m., stopping and turning on the proofer, kicking off a proof and jogging right out. I’ve seen a similar scene play out many times over. There is no downtime with Mark Samworth.”
Samworth’s enthusiasm is seemingly boundless, Mazur adds. “He lives every day to the fullest, while always pressing himself and his fellow flexographers to do a better job. His argument, voiced to me early in my career, was ‘Our job is to make sure nothing but the absolute best comes out of this lab. Sometimes a customer doesn’t know what he or she wants.’ His commitment to quality is always the highest there is.”
Mazur recalls how his first-ever contact with Samworth, a simple phone call about how to use office software, led to Samworth developing a three-day internal seminar on print reproduction for flexography. “It was probably the best three days I spent in flexo,” Mazur says. “We ran scanners, proofers, orchestrated color corrections—the works.”
Turning his thoughts to the present, Mazur adds, “Mark’s patent on plate cell patterning was a great patent. It’s used a lot. People don’t yet appreciate how good the current expanded color gamut products that he has developed are.”
Samworth’s other major accomplishments include work with FTA’s Flexographic Image Reproduction Specifications & Tolerances (FIRST) Committee to develop standards and early test targets for color management. Mazur sums up Samworth’s career to date as a force for change in the industry. “Mark helped drive color management into the flexo market—ICC profiles, etc. He helped pioneer all of that technology.”
The Patents & Processes of Mark Samworth
| 1 | Patent 5,260,806 | Process for Controlling Tone Reproduction | Nov. 9, 1993 |
| 2 | Patent 5,297,058 | Method for Creating Multicolored Halftone Reproductions from Continuous Tone Monochrome Originals | March 22, 1994 |
| 3 | Patent 5,892,588 | Digital Halftoning Combining Dot Size Modulation Screen with Dot Frequency Modulation Screen within a Single Image | April 6, 1999 |
| 4 | Patent 5,953,498 | Nonliner Calibration of Output Devices | Sept. 14, 1999 |
| 5 | Patent 6,118,935 | Digital Halftoning Combining Multiple Screens within a Single Image | Sept. 12, 2000 |
| 6 | Patent 6,213,018 | Flexographic Printing Plate Having Improved Solids Rendition | April 10, 2001 |
| 7 | Patent 6,310,698 | Process for Calibrating Electronic Imaging Devices | Oct. 30, 2001 |
| 8 | Patent 6,445,465 | Digital Halftoning Combining Dot Size Modulation Screen with Dot Frequency Modulation Screen Within a Single Image | Sept. 3, 2002 |
| 9 | Patent 6,492,095 | Screened Film Intermediate for Use with Flexographic Printing Plate Having Improved Solids Rendition | Dec. 10, 2002 |
| 10 | Patent 6,731,405 | Printing Plates Containing Ink Cells in Both Solid And Halftone Areas | May 4, 2004 |