According to a Pira report, RFID and printed electronics will have a big impact on the printing and publishing industries 
A little longer than 80 days perhaps, but UV-cure inkjet is circumnavigating the globe at its own accelerating pace. | Who to watch for colour management |
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| Written by Catherine Carter | |
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Achieving accurate and consistent colour printouts, especially for digital prints, can be one of the biggest problems faced by printers. The image is shown differently on monitors, scanners see it differently, and proofing and printing presses print it differently. As workflows get more complex and the range of technologies grows, colour management is increasingly important to enable printers to achieve unadulterated colour throughout the digital workflow. At the moment reproducing colour with 100 per cent accuracy is impossible, but big steps are being made in technology to achieve a perfect match. Increasingly partnerships are being formed to achieve that goal. Xerox – which Infosource says dominated 71 per cent of the UK’s production digital colour market in 2003, increasing its hold by 13 per cent year on year – has a long-standing collaboration with EFI. This includes Fiery servers optimised for the Xerox DocuColor 12 copier/ printer, DocuColor 3535 multifunction system, DocuColor 5252 digital press, DocuColor 6060 digital press, DocuColor 8000 digital press and the Xerox iGen3 Digital Production Press. The latest creation is the Xerox Phaser EX7750 colour laser printer for “high-calibre colour fidelity, image quality and performance for graphic arts professionals who need to quickly produce complex colour documents such as brochures, mailers and other documents”. The Phaser EX7750 is a bundled system that includes the EFI Fiery EX7750 Color Server and the Xerox Phaser 7750 colour printer (Figure 1). And Fiery ColorWise offers built-in intelligence for producing consistently precise colours from all applications, platforms and file formats while features for novice and experienced graphic artists make the Phaser EX7750 easy to use. Advanced functionality includes auto trapping for layering graphics and Spot-On colour technology for colour accuracy. Job Rombout, European Business Manager, Xerox Office Group Europe says: “Bundling the Fiery EX7750 server with the Phaser 7750 colour printer creates a ‘one-two punch’ that can handle even the most complex projects.” Xerox has also collaborated with Pantone to produce the first digital version of printed chips on the DocuColor 6060 machine. The digital chips allow printers and designers to view Pantone colours before they go to press. Colour management is one of the areas in which EFI is looking to add strength as it plans to grow its professional printing division by buying workflow software firms to reduce its reliance on its Fiery digital print server business. The firm is to target the professional print market using its direct sales team, which currently focuses on the MIS products and via some partners. It aims to cut OEM business compared to direct sales from 80/20 to 50/50. One product getting some attention is proofing solution Colorproof XF (Figure 2), which combines the proofing expertise behind Best technology and consists of several different components that can be joined together in different combinations to create a basic or extended configuration. Thorsten Breiding, Vice President and General Manager of EFI Proofing Solutions, says: “EFI Colorproof XF represents a new era of EFI proofing solutions. The value of the new EFI Colorproof XF is in the flexibility that it offers the customer.” For individual users, the Client Option solution provides the user interface and administrator panel to the server but customers can choose from a variety of add-ons. EFI Photo and EFI Production options as well as the EFI Ink Zone Option, an automated ink key presetting application, will follow. It has also launched the Fiery Graphics Arts Package, Premium Edition, a software suite of colour proofing and control tools and a key element of EFI’s next-generation system software, the new Fiery System 6. There is the EFI Color Profiler too – a turnkey application that enables the creation of ICC profiles with CMYK digital. It is an optional client-based kit that includes the EFI Spectrometer – a hand-held colour measurement device that measures colour information in patches or full strips of patches. GMG has developed a range of colour management tools based on the Global Graphics Jaws RIP and GMG’s own colour transformation engine. The engine handles colour transforms and GMG also has linearisation tools for calibrating devices to a common target. Its GMG ColorProof offers remote proofing to ensure identical proof results at different locations and requires a proofing workflow and proofing devices that guarantee accurate and consistent proofing results. And it can control a wide range of output devices. In some cases a profile can be perfect by measurement, but the human eye can still see a difference to the target. For these instances GMG offers tools to fine-tune a GMG profile. The visually adjusted GMG profile can be applied to all proofing devices – not only on identical proofing devices in different locations, but also between different output devices. This approach is obviously working as GMG achieved what it described as an extraordinary increase in sales in 2004 – 50 per cent more than the previous year – through continuous expansion of its sales activities in new regions. Creo is clearly happy with the software as it is offering its customers GMG Colorproof 04 for use with the Veris proofer. The Colorproof 04 includes GMG’s Colorengine, Profile Editor, Spotcolor Editor and RIP Server. And with Veris’s continuous inkjet proofing engine, DuPont is to launch a proofer using its own colour management, ink and media. DuPont and Creo are working on producing a Creo branded version of DuPont’s b2 proofer too. Creo also has the Profile Wizard suite of ICC-based tools where users can set up automated workflows and create their own profiles, as well as calculate linked profiles. Among the latest products unveiled by X-Rite is the X-RiteColor Master 7.0, Its added features include QA Metallix, developed to enhance the functionality of the software for special effects coatings, and Graphical Job Feature, for enhanced job function enabling measurement points to be set up on a bitmap for visual comparisons. There is also Default Tolerance to set default tolerances for each customer, Custom Tolerances for customised tolerances with a new formula that utilises CIE94 calculation technology and Color Stability Test to ensure instrument performance for a set of specified control standards. Then there is the Colour Elite System portable spectrophotometer said to enable the operator to scan in either direction, at a comfortable speed and Advanced Colour Ensembles, which allow hardware and software users to calibrate monitors, create accurate ICC profiles and prepare a digital file for print in an all-in-one package. At drupa, X-rite launched its DTP32 Series II automatic strip reading densitometer. Four times faster, it is designed to calibrate and ensure quality colour output for PostScript colour copiers, colour printers and colour proofing systems. Also unveiled was the Slingshot colour management system. Designed for on-demand and prepress professionals, the system reduces the time and difficulty associated with measuring ICC colour management test forms. X-Rite has its fair share of partnerships. These include creating the automated DTP45 spectrophotometer for Agfa’s Sherpa Color Proofing solutions, using the DTP94 as a technology base for Kodak Polychrome Graphics’ Matchprint Virtual Proofing System – LCD and Creo is now bundling the MonacoEZcolor management software with its iQsmart1 professional colour scanner. It worked with Integrated Color Corporation (ICC), maker of ColorEyes 2020, to launch ColorEyes Display, a colour profiling solution for digital photographers and printers; and while working with Akzo Nobel Decorative Coatings, X-rite introduced two portable handheld spectrophotometers, designed to measure any solid colour sample in a matter of seconds. GretagMacbeth offers Eye-One Proof – a colour management system that allows profiling of all RIP, printer, ink and media combinations. It provides the ability to profile all monitor types, CMYK printers in full test chart mode, RGB printers in i1Easy mode, scanners and digital projectors (Eye-One Beamer software). It includes Eye-One Pro spectrophotometer, Eye-One Match software, Eye-One Share software and a scanner profiling chart. The company has also unveiled the professional version Color iQC software – the first colour quality control software to fully integrate electronic colour communication. Included is an on-screen sample simulator that displays appearance attributes including texture. Its Color iMatch streamlines colour development by obtaining accurate colour and effective formulations, and managing workflow locally and within the supply chain. Colour management firm Alwan Color Expertise has launched CMYK Optimizer software, which can re-map CMYK-to-CMYK to improve print quality, consistency and cut costs. Printers can use the software to reduce ink weights and cut ink consumption. The degree of ink reduction can be chosen by specifying the deviation from the original colours in terms of a delta E value, allowing printers to choose whether to maintain absolute colour fidelity or cut costs. Screen UK offers LabFit, which generates and allows editing of ICC profiles for high-quality colour management, and P2QM, which provides full colour management integration for prepress and press. Running on the Mac LabFit’s Create and Edit modules provide the tools necessary to create ICC colour managed workflows. Create is an easy-to-use module operated in combination with a photo-spectrometer. In Edit the interactive user interface allows control of before/after viewing and brightness/contrast. P2QM claims to close the bridge between colour management control in both prepress and press environments and features include CIP3 and ICC quality control standards. The fast scanning of unique colour strips allows new levels of integrated quality control. The online measurement of printed sheets, generation and automatic updating of ICC profiles are available in the prepress workflow. It is an open and modular system that comprises LabFit tools, suitable for both Screen and non-Screen environments. Focoltone says colour consistency can be achieved on digital printers irrespective of machine, time, place or conditions using Focoltone ICCS 2.1 technology. It acts as an ICC profile verification tool that can measure and compensate for colour differences and adjust the ICC profile accordingly for the printer. A plug-in to Adobe Photoshop, the software calibrates high-end digital colour printers and copiers to produce colours that match CMYK process colour standards prescribed by the Focoltone Color System. The key to modern colour management is digital integration of the production resources at the prepress stage and in the printroom, according to Heidelberg. It says only with an end-to-end colour workflow can proof, plates and print be co-ordinated reliably and precisely. Its Prinect Colour Solutions, based on ICC standards, optimise ink presettings at the prepress stage so they can be adopted directly by the press. The advantages are end-to-end colour management with true-colour proofs, but also in press set-up such as changing from a standard ink to a more highly-pigmented ink. An integrated workflow allows the existing, stored press presettings to be used, resulting in a reduction in input right through to the sheet. It is also possible to select the standards manually. And as all the processes from plate production to printing are based on standardised production conditions, there is an immediate reaction to any changes. Next generationGreater choice and modular approaches to workflows mean digital colour management will have an increasingly important role to play to ensure reliable accuracy printed products. But it is those systems that can talk to a range of media operating on different platforms that will face greater opportunities. This is especially the case where printers are adding systems to their existing workflow. An increase in the number of partnerships and collaborations will also enable companies to further their research and development, safe in the knowledge that there are sales at the end of the process and expenses can be recouped. Case study – Zone GraphicsZone Graphics says GMG ColorProof has helped it achieve its closest-ever proofing consistency. The Kent trade repro firm says the software has enabled it to convert its analogue DuPont Cromalin-dominated proofing service to a digital inkjet proofing service with cost and time savings. Managing Director Jamie Marshall says: “We provide B3, B2 and B1 repro services for a very loyal customer base. The GMG ColorProof system drives both an Epson 9600 and a Epson 10000 digital printer, as well as providing calibration services, proofing papers and plates. These investments have boosted annual turnover by over 60 per cent. GMG ColorProof is easy to use, fast and fantastic at delivering exact and consistent colour proofs. It is important that our proofs are spot-on and our previous colour management RIP solution just didn’t come up to scratch.” In fact confidence in the quality generated by the software encouraged Zone to launch a limited edition print service, mainly offering print for photographers and artists. It can print just a one-off reproduction or a 20-run proof limited edition that would not necessarily be worth going to plate with and printing conventionally. And the throughput of digital proofs has increased threefold due to a quicker turnaround while the software can drive up to three output devices, giving the company the ability to run two Epson proofers at the same time. Now the company has expanded into different areas of the trade, like one-offs or multiple large format posters, without jeopardising its current client base. Case study – GretagMacBethGretagMacBeth’s colour management solutions have been picked by Caldera Graphics, the French specialist in high-speed and performance Mac OS X, Unix and Linux-based RIPs for large format printers, for integration and use with its new EZmedia software. EZmedia software is an ICC profiling software application for use with all its RIPs for large and grand format printers and it integrates OEM versions of the monitor, scanner and output modules from GretagMacbeth’s ProfileMaker 5 colour management software under Caldera’s user interface. EZmedia enables users to calibrate and profile Mac OS X, Unix and Linux-based monitors, scanners and wide-format printers in a user-friendly manner. Caldera is also marketing the GretagMacbeth Eye-One Pro and SpectroLino/SpectroScan colour measuring devices to its customers in optional hardware/software bundles. Joseph Mergui, President of Caldera Graphics, says: “With unparallel profile quality plus the full support of Linux in ProfileMaker, it is the perfect fit for our Mac OS X and Linux positioning and vision.” Mark Geeves, Vice President of Business Development at GretagMacbeth, adds: “Advancements in ink and paper technology for large and grand format printers, combined with advancements in making colour management easier to use, have opened up new opportunities for printing companies to become full service suppliers to their customers.” Case study – CMYK Optimizer“CMYK Optimizer is spot-on,” said Simon Berg, Group Operations Director of Colour Systems, which is the first UK firm to use the software on Jaguar, Rally XS and Reader's Digest. The two companies have been working together since the Colour Systems team were designing the Reader's Digest workflow. It was then that they recognised the need for a preflighting solution that would resolve colour mismatches and standardise the CMYK data of the working files. So Alwan developed and marketed the CMYK Optimizer, which harmonises colour separations and eliminates printability issues, resulting in a more streamlined workflow and significant savings on ink costs. And it runs on Apple's Xserve. At the time Jamie Rose said: “It's rock-solid, a real no-brainer. Once it's set up, you just drag and drop PDFs or images into the relevant hot folder, and it will action the optimisation. And as far as the end-users are concerned – the operators and production staff – they just log on to the Xserve and access everything from there.” David Brin added: “The Reader's Digest carries adverts from all sorts of sources, many of which are not produced to the correct specification. With the CMYK Optimizer running on Xserve, we are able to optimise these ads to print correctly from a central server that everyone can access.” Takeaways
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