In today’s ever increasing market, developers and manufacturers of colour assessment technology must recognise the constant need for innovation.

As digitisation of all forms of information becomes the norm, ways of accurately assessing that information must be found. The workflow of media production has become almost wholly digitalised and this demands more effective and accurate colour control. For colour reproduction to be effective and maintain credibility within the printing industry, it must be able to prove itself as a repeatable process, displaying stability and predictability. The development of different colour management systems and a standard by which to communicate colour profile data play a vital part in this process.

In recent years the use of colour has increased significantly. Multi-channel and cross-media publishing as seen within print, television, film and the Internet for example, along with the distribution of information, advertising and marketing, all put ever increasing demands on colour fidelity. Competition is fierce and the importance of true colour rendering of an original is the ultimate goal.

Why is colour so important? We live our lives by colour and yet for most of us the complexity of this physical phenomenon goes unappreciated. Colour possesses physiological and psychological attributes that affect how we read colour and how we must assess it. Our vision provides our brain with information about the object we are seeing. The object has to be illuminated. The human brain processes and interprets this information and this enables us to perceive what we are seeing and to experience colour.

Colour is so much more than just a pretty rainbow. Colour is an interdisciplinary science. The investigation of colour involves not only the material sciences such as physics and chemistry but also the biological sciences such as physiology and psychology. When it comes to the application of colour, many disciplines will rely heavily on it. The investigation of colour is a complex business and any measures or methods used must be validated by means of visual assessment. In any media production, the end product will be judged by an observer. They are the consumer and what they perceive as quality will determine the success of a product. For the print industry, measured quality must always be validated against the consumer’s perceived quality.

Vital to obtaining spectral data or simply viewing colour is the use of standard lluminants and light sources. The Commission International de l’Eclairage (International Commission of Lighting) states that illuminants are defined in terms of relative spectral distribution and sources are what produce radiant power. The D series of standard illuminants introduced by the CIE in 1963 are intended to represent daylight at various correlated colour temperatures, with D65 being used whenever possible.

In the commercial world of reproduction processes, proofing is an important if not essential tool. This simulation of the proposed finished product is the last chance to get everything correct before the full production run. The need for speed and reduced costs mean that hard proof or printed copy can be superceded by the use of soft proofing – previewing of the image on a colour monitor. With so many aspects of the printing process now affected by digitalisation from camera and scanner to computer and print and press, colour control is extremely complex. Issues such as conversion of RGB to CMYK values become huge areas of investigation by themselves and in the last ten years or so bodies such as the International Colour Consortium (ICC) have been set up to specifically address problems associated with accurate colour reproduction since digitalisation.

For the manufacturers of colour assessment cabinets, this means meeting the exacting requirements of the digital world. It has been necessary to focus not only on the hard copy against numerical data but also on the hard copy against on-screen approval and soft proof. It is equally important to give the industry a product that is a pleasure to use. If a desktop publishing proof viewer has been carefully designed, it will be as appealing to the user as the technology it houses, with clever features to hold the hard copy in place and a high-spec monitor to maximise easy viewing of the soft proof. If this is the case then it will prove an indispensable tool for the print industry. When soft proofing, it is essential to understand that many factors will determine the eventual appearance of the printed product. The characteristics of the paper used and the quality of the ink are major influences. The roughness and absorption properties of the paper will affect the way in which the ink is distributed over the surface or to what extent it penetrates the structure and these in turn will control the quality and appearance of the print and colour. The gamut or range of colour available is often reduced in transference from screen to print. There may be colours seen on screen that are not reproducible with the available pigments of inks. In the desktop publishing industry, it is important to know your monitor’s colour characteristics. Setting this accurately enables you to more closely match on-screen colour with printed colour. Common monitor colour temperatures used in the graphic arts industry are 5000K (D50), 5500K (D55) and 6500K (D65).

For over 40 years, lighting conditions as specified by the ISO have been provided for various industries to whom colour assessment and matching are crucial. These have typically been in the form of cabinets or booths that shade the viewing area from ambient light and contain suitable lighting to meet the requirements as specified by the standard. For the comparison of original photographs and printed matter, textile samples and many other objects this method is satisfactory. With the increased use of computer monitors to view proofs and products, it has become necessary to address the problems created by the introduction of yet another light source. This is facilitated by the use of another cabinet or booth where the light intensity can be adjusted without affecting the colour temperature of the illuminant.

Colour Assessment Cabinets create the perfect alternative to natural daylight. With the use of nine phosphor and calculated to the CIE 51 standard, a cabinet can produce the best fluorescent D65 daylight simulator with the highest Colour Rendering Index (CRI) available to the colour viewing world. Developed for the visual assessment of colour in accordance with the British Standard 950 Part 1 directives and International Standards, such cabinets are suitable for all industries and applications where there is a need to maintain colour consistency and product quality. There are now available specially designed cabinets to complement the latest repro systems used by the printing industry and specifically for assessing print. These cabinets provide controlled D50 lighting conditions to view and assess reflective prints. They conform to ISO 3664 viewing conditions – graphic technology and photography, and to BS 950: Part 2 – viewing conditions for the graphic arts industry.

Manufacturers of specialist equipment for the printing industry are working hard to provide equipment that will consistently produce printed matter that falls well within specified tolerances. Talking to people within the industry ensures that a knowledge of what is needed is fully understood. Working closely with developers within a variety of areas of study and research provides the customer with the assurance that the most up-to-date technology is being employed. Any investment by printing businesses in such equipment will not only add value to their product but give them confidence in the knowledge that they are not falling behind as the digital revolution continues.