Where is the proof?
Whether it is vehicle wraps, digital displays, or newspapers, print-service providers (PSPs) must ensure brand colours always match.
The final challenge is to make sure the proofer can also match the brand colour—irrespective of the inks and substrates being used. This can be done with the help of a centralized colour management system, where the same process as the one with the production inkjet printers is used for the proofing device. This ensures an accurate multicolour proofing solution with a wide gamut proofer.
Device link profiles offer controls that result in greater accuracy and ensure printers will match visually to one another, even when considering different variables, like ultraviolet (UV) or solvent inks, or different substrates. With the profile control and gamut compression technology, it is possible to deliver a colour match between wide-format digital devices and other press technologies. The only other challenge is to make the process easier for the user, rather than relying on a number of tedious tests on different substrates to accurately represent what the final output might look like.
Today, users are very close to being able to use technologies reserved for other print processes and to adapt them to inkjet colour. In the future, one can even expect to see software that connects to a digital printing device and proofer and, from one simple measurement, create profiles that show how a job will look on a digital press, no matter what the ink
or substrate.
Tips to ensure accuracy and consistency
No matter what colour management system one may use, there are a few tips to ensure brand colours are accurate and consistent.
- Good software will capture and use the spectral data of brand colours. Some users often overlook this and only use lightness, red/green, yellow/blue (L*a*b) colour space. L*a*b values define the colour under controlled definitions, but do not specify how the object will appear under different conditions. Spectral data provides output information under different light sources or materials. Whether or not one operates a colour management system that will take advantage of spectral data, one must always store this information in case they ever update their system.
- Users should make a note of the device and mode of data used to measure a brand colour, as different systems may not measure colours in the same manner. This information can help later when one needs to match the measurement device with other equipment that measures similarly.
- With the abundance of optical brighteners in different substrates, it is important to note if measurements are taken within M1 or M2 optical brightness, or if one eliminates the information about optical brightness.
Conclusion
By extending the colour gamut and adding more inks on a digital press, brand colours become easier to reproduce. A centralized colour management system allows these colours to be reproduced on any press type, simply by conducting a device link profile. One can expect this profile-generating process to become easier in the near future. Then, not only will brand owners be happier, but so will print providers.
Birgit Plautz, manager of technical services for GMG Americas, a German-based company providing colour management solutions, represents GMG at industry events and organizations throughout the Americas. Before moving to the U.S., she spent five years in technical development at GMG headquarters. Plautz began her career as a media designer in a global acting prepress house, focusing on packaging and catalogue creations. Her research and development experience for Heidelberg Printing Machines along with a master’s degree in printing technologies from Stuttgart Media University rounded out her education and provided a strong springboard into digital colour management.
