Software - Colour Management

 

X-Rite, Incorporated, the world leader in colour management, measurement and communication technologies, today announced XRGA, a new metrology standard for the Graphic Arts industry. Designed to take advantage of advances in colour science and new international standards, XGRA provides a way to reduce measurement discrepancies between legacy instruments previously developed by X-Rite and GretagMacbeth. The new XRGA standard will improve inter-model agreement so that users can enjoy high-quality data exchange between sites that use different instrumentation, regardless of their legacy affiliation.

“The former X-Rite and the former GretagMacbeth each had, for historical reasons, different calibration standards for graphic arts instrumentation.  While it was important to ensure both standards were maintained to guarantee continuity for both companies’ customers, our goal with XGRA is to eliminate systematic discrepancies between instruments so that all measurements taken for the same colour sample should be the same, regardless of the system used,” explains Francis Lamy, X-Rite’s Chief Technology Officer.

X-Rite has conducted a detailed study designed to quantify the systematic differences between measurements obtained using instruments from both former companies, to ultimately arrive at the definition of a new corporate X-Rite standard for its graphic arts instrumentation.  Based on the results, the XRGA was developed and now achieves the following goals:

 

• Is applicable to all 0/45 and 45/0 instruments
• Incorporates improved methods for calibration
• Maintains traceability to the American National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
• Offers best implementation with respect to existing international ISO standards Improves inter-model agreement for existing instruments
• Preserves good agreement among former X-Rite instruments and former GretagMacbeth instruments
• Provides a single standard for all future graphic arts instruments to be delivered by X-Rite
• Improves data exchange

 

In addition to developing an improved single calibration processes internally for XRGA standard instruments, X-Rite has developed a set of proprietary matrix transforms to enable measurements taken by either a former X-Rite or a former GretagMacbeth instrument to be easily expressed in the new XRGA standard.

A number of X-Rite graphic arts products already conform to XRGA, notably ColorMunki Photo, ColorMunki Design and EasyTrax.  All future graphic arts instruments and software delivered by X-Rite will also conform to XRGA.  Because former X-Rite instruments are already very close to the new X-Rite standard, the switch to XRGA results in very small differences in measurement values, so many customers will not need to make any changes.  For customers who have experienced greater differences in measurement values between former X-Rite and former GretagMacbeth instruments, X-Rite will provide seamless means to move existing databases to the new XRGA standard.

Over the next several months, new orders of legacy GretagMacbeth and legacy X-Rite products, which are still available for sale, will begin to be manufactured to the new XRGA standard at the factory. Existing customers wishing to upgrade their current instruments can do by following the procedure for the instrument in question outlined at xrite.com/xrga/support.

Additional information and Frequently Asked Questions can be found at: www.xrite.com/xrga

 

GMG, developer and supplier of high-end color management and proofing solutions, now offers www.proofr.com, an innovative Internet platform enabling online proofing services through a worldwide network of remote proofing locations. Stringent quality standards ensure that every partner in the Proofr network produces identical, high-quality proofs.

The new Proofr service targets companies that need reliable proofs for approval by distant customers in the shortest possible time. Proofr.com replaces the time-consuming and expensive procedure of dispatching proofs by courier.

Photographers, advertising agencies, and prepress houses, for example, can use a Web portal to order a binding contract proof in perfect GMG quality and at low cost. To do so, they simply have to upload the corresponding data and select a Proofr Service Partner in the vicinity of the recipient. Payment is made directly using a secure online payment system. The selected Service Partner produces the proof in compliance with the GMG quality standards and sends it to the recipient. This reduces the transport time for hardcopy proofs from several days to just a few hours.

The aim of Proofr.com is to create a network of remote proofing locations with identical technology and comparable equipment that are capable of producing identical proofs anywhere in the world. The technological basis for achieving this is GMG's unique calibration technology, which harmonizes the printing characteristics of different printers worldwide. GMG's ProofStandards ensure that all printing conditions can be simulated perfectly on different printers using GMG ColorProof proofing software. A further prerequisite for guaranteeing consistent quality is the use of GMG proofing papers in combination with GMG ColorProof.

To join the network as a Proofr Service Partner, the service provider must use the GMG ColorProof Version 5.x and GMG ProofControl proofing solutions together with GMG ProofPaper semimatte 250. The proof printers open to consideration are the HP Designjet Z2100 and Z3200, the Epson Stylus Pro x800, x880, x900, or the Canon imagePROGRAF iPF 6350 and 8300. This makes it possible to guarantee GMG's familiar, high standard of color accuracy and repeatability around the world when it comes to digital contract proofs.

The partners in the Proofr network can optimally exploit the capacity of their existing proofing systems, improve the utilization factor, and generate more turnover – without incurring any extra expense, e.g. for Web services of their own.

As of now, companies wishing to join the Proofr network can apply to become a partner by contacting GMG at http://www.proofr.com/become-a-partner. Proofr is to be presented to the potential user groups at this year's photokina.

 

 

In order to simplify colour management for its reseller network and end customers, BARBIERI Electronic has appointed IGS UK as the distributor for its automatic spectrophotometers.

Concentrating on the Series 3 and Swing systems for digital imaging, the addition of these essential peripherals simplifies profiling, saves time and costs, and enables wide-format printer users to achieve consistently accurate results.

The BARBIERI Electronic Spectro LFP Series 3 and Spectro Swing make it easy and efficient to linearise and profile different types of display materials, including options for reflectives and clear films. In addition, savings are effected by enabling users to optimise colour management and reduce ink consumption whilst maintaining accurate, strong colours across all media.

The BARBIERI Spectro LFP Series 3 is specifically designed for today’s wide-format arena and enables users to create ICC profiles on most roll-fed and rigid media, including textiles and traditionally difficult surfaces, from ultra-thin materials up to a maximum substrate thickness of 20 mm. The unit can also be used as a densitometer to determine the relevant values for films and papers.

The cost-effective BARBIERI Spectro Swing has been developed as a measuring device for flexible materials and is suitable for papers, banner materials, canvases, back-lits and other products commonly used on roll-fed printers using any ink technology. It is available in three versions, either for transparent or reflective media or for both.

BARBIERI is also instrumental in bringing users greater efficiencies with colour management options that save on ink costs, and full details are available by downloading the explanatory white paper from www.igsuk.net. Using its proprietary grey component replacement (GCR), a special algorithm replaces unwanted colour saturation by replacing the cyan, magenta and yellow with black. The same principle is applied to replace greys comprising three colours yet, in both instances, there is no compromise with output quality.

For print service providers and display producers outputting onto clear and translucent substrates, such as Plexiglas and glass, BARBIERI Electronic has produced an additional white paper, also available from IGS UK’s web site. This covers how to measure and create the correct readings using transmission or reflective options, and the relevance of different lighting conditions when determining the right profile for the material.

Wolfgang Passler, International Sales and Marketing Manager at BARBIERI Electronic states: “We are proud to announce IGS UK as our master distributor for the UK. Its well-established dealer network, strengths regarding service and support as well as a strong commitment to supplying customers with the best solutions and service prove that this company is the right partner for us.”

Based in Brixen, northern Italy, Siegfried BARBIERI founded his electronic and optics’ company in 1983 as a manufacturer of densitometers for the photographic industry; it has remained a family business since its inception. In 2002 the BARBIERI Electronic entered into the sign and display market and focused on the wide-format, flat-bed and industrial printing sectors for which proprietary specialist devices have been developed.

IGS UK concentrates on sourcing, developing and bringing to market innovative products for the design and production of wide-format print, working with proven reseller channels throughout the UK, Europe and beyond. With the emphasis on greener practices and reducing waste, the BARBIERI Electronic spectrophotometers fit perfectly into the company’s remit for cost-saving and efficient solutions.

Download free 'no strings' BARBIERI White Papers from IGS UK:

• BARBIERI White Paper - How to Create Colour Profiles for Glass (PDF, 892Kb)
• BARBIERI White Paper - Cost Savings through Colour Management (PDF, 691Kb)

 

 

 

GMG, the world’s leading color management solutions provider, is pleased to announce that it will present solutions with HP for the commercial and wide-format printing segments at the HP stand AB150 in hall 12 at Ipex 2010.

“We feel confident that GMG and HP customers will be pleased with the high color accuracy and repeatability of consistent color results which can be achieved in digital printing with GMG’s highly innovative color management solutions,” says Paul Willems, CEO of GMG GmbH & Co. KG.

The solutions include ColorServer for color conversions and SmartProfiler for calibrating and profiling different output devices, such as HP Indigo digital presses or HP Scitex industrial large-format printers. GMG and HP are therefore expanding their long-standing relationship in the field of high-end contract proofing, where the GMG ColorProof proofing software has been supporting the HP Designjet Z-Series wide-format printers from the outset.

The combination of GMG SmartProfiler and GMG ColorSever helps users of HP digital presses and wide-format printers easily meet their customers’ increasing expectations for high color accuracy, repeatability and colors that match those of print media produced by conventional offset printing processes. The solutions also benefit companies that have several similar or identical output devices installed. In these cases, distributed color management on each front-end results in different color rendering on the individual printing systems. With centrally controlled color management using GMG SmartProfiler and GMG ColorServer, companies can greatly increase productivity, improve production reliability and achieve identical quality of printed output.

“GMG SmartProfiler and GMG ColorServer enable us to easily create color profiles and calibrations for different output devices and substrates,” says Gunther Fells, Head of the Digital Printing department at KL Druck, Germany. “The high-quality color conversions offered by GMG ColorServer optimally convert colors, including spot colors, into the color space of the required output devices. Since we have been using GMG color management technology with several of our HP Scitex printers, we have been able to achieve repeatable and identical print quality on every printing system and substrate in our portfolio, which otherwise is a very difficult and time consuming production process.”

Recently, GMG successfully passed the FograCert Validation Printing System certification for the HP Indigo press 5500 and the HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press using the GMG ColorServer color management solution for the coated substrates Digi Gold Matt and Digi Gold Gloss from Papyrus/Schneidersoehne. The certification was achieved at HP in Boeblingen, Germany. In addition, IDEAlliance SWOP® (Specifications for Web Offset Publications) and GRACoL® (General Requirements and Applications for Commercial Offset Lithography) certifications have been granted to GMG ColorServer for the HP Indigo press 5500/5000 and the HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press.

“We are delighted to further strengthen our collaboration with HP as the de-facto market leader in the digital printing market. But we are even more satisfied that HP customers can confidently take advantage of the well-known GMG color management technology, which will impact both companies’ technology leadership in this fast growing segment. Our common customers will certainly be very impressed by the high accuracy and repeatability of colors as well as by gaining more flexibility, with consistent print quality on different output devices, enabling users to select the printing process at the last minute”, says Paul Willems, CEO of GMG GmbH & Co. KG.

“Based on use cases between HP Scitex customers and GMG, we are pleased to report that testing was successful and customers can maximize the performance of their printing systems with the combination of these two solutions. GMG provides innovative technology for high-quality color management in mixed production environments covering a wide range of HP commercial and wide-format output devices,” adds Eli Israeli, Strategic Marketing, HP Scitex Division.

 

GMG, the world’s leading color management solutions provider, and Mimaki, a leading manufacturer of wide-format inkjet printers and cutting machines for the sign/graphics, textile/apparel and industrial markets are pleased to announce a worldwide strategic partnership providing highly innovative solutions for high value packaging applications.

The common solutions, comprising the inkjet printer range from Mimaki, GMG ColorServer 4.6.2 color management software for fully automatic color conversions and GMG SmartProfiler for printer calibration and profiling, allows to digitally produce consistent and accurate color results on virtually any material.

GMG ColorServer in combination with the Mimaki printers is a valuable solution for all kinds of businesses engaged in flexible packaging, compound board packages or tin printing, e.g. print houses, prepress companies, agencies and brand owners. The core applications of this solution are:

• color-accurate digital proofing on original substrates used for production – with white ink and varnish support,
• digital production of color-accurate packaging mock-ups/prototypes – often requested in the packaging design phase or for customer acceptance tests,
• short runs/personalization – replacing time consuming and expensive prints on the production press.

“We are very pleased that we could expand our existing partnership with Mimaki to a worldwide collaboration. Only a few months ago we started our mutual partnership with the solution GMG ColorServer/SmartProfiler and Mimaki inkjet printer UJF-605 UV. Meanwhile we can offer the GMG color management for all Mimaki inkjet printers, worldwide to the benefit of our customers.  That’s a tremendous success within a very short time frame”, says Paul Willems, CEO of GMG GmbH & Co. KG.

“We are excited that now GMG & Mimaki can jointly offer the best possible and most effective technological proofing solution for the packaging and label markets”, says Akira Ikeda, President of Mimaki Engineering Co., Ltd.

Enormous time and cost savings can be achieved by replacing press time and costs for printing plates and gravure cylinders by digital production. The Mimaki inkjet printers have been optimized for digital proofing in the offset, gravure and flexo packaging industry. In combination with GMG color management technology, perfect color match, optimum spot color reproduction, highest repeatability and optimum print quality up to a resolution of 1200dpi can be achieved on any substrate such as shrink or metallic foils, tin and compound boards. Nearly any printing stock can be used with the GMG-Mimaki solution.

The German-based packaging company Wipak, specialized in food and medical packaging use the GMG/Mimaki solution for digital proofing on original material for flexible packaging and the production of color-accurate mock-ups. “Producing contract proofs and color-accurate mock-ups on original stock is very important for us as it means a lot of time saving in the sign off process with the print buyer. Customers appreciate our service to see at a very early stage a simulation of the final print result on transparent film”, says Thomas Kinzer, production manager at Wipak.

The GMG/Mimaki solution can be seen at IPEX on the Mimaki stand hall 12, C120

GMG, the world's leading color management solutions provider, is pleased to announce that it will present solutions with HP for the commercial and wide-format printing segments at the HP stand AB150 in hall 12 at Ipex 2010.

"We feel confident that GMG and HP customers will be pleased with the high color accuracy and repeatability of consistent color results which can be achieved in digital printing with GMG's highly innovative color management solutions," says Paul Willems, CEO of GMG GmbH & Co. KG.

The solutions include ColorServer for color conversions and SmartProfiler for calibrating and profiling different output devices, such as HP Indigo digital presses or HP Scitex industrial large-format printers. GMG and HP are therefore expanding their long-standing relationship in the field of high-end contract proofing, where the GMG ColorProof proofing software has been supporting the HP Designjet Z-Series wide-format printers from the outset.

The combination of GMG SmartProfiler and GMG ColorSever helps users of HP digital presses and wide-format printers easily meet their customers' increasing expectations for high color accuracy, repeatability and colors that match those of print media produced by conventional offset printing processes. The solutions also benefit companies that have several similar or identical output devices installed. In these cases, distributed color management on each front-end results in different color rendering on the individual printing systems. With centrally controlled color management using GMG SmartProfiler and GMG ColorServer, companies can greatly increase productivity, improve production reliability and achieve identical quality of printed output.

"GMG SmartProfiler and GMG ColorServer enable us to easily create color profiles and calibrations for different output devices and substrates," says Gunther Fells, Head of the Digital Printing department at KL Druck, Germany. "The high-quality color conversions offered by GMG ColorServer optimally convert colors, including spot colors, into the color space of the required output devices. Since we have been using GMG color management technology with several of our HP Scitex printers, we have been able to achieve repeatable and identical print quality on every printing system and substrate in our portfolio, which otherwise is a very difficult and time consuming production process."

Recently, GMG successfully passed the FograCert Validation Printing System certification for the HP Indigo press 5500 and the HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press using the GMG ColorServer color management solution for the coated substrates Digi Gold Matt and Digi Gold Gloss from Papyrus/Schneidersoehne. The certification was achieved at HP in Boeblingen, Germany. In addition, IDEAlliance SWOP (Specifications for Web Offset Publications) and GRACoL (General Requirements and Applications for Commercial Offset Lithography) certifications have been granted to GMG ColorServer for the HP Indigo press 5500/5000 and the HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press.

"We are delighted to further strengthen our collaboration with HP as the de-facto market leader in the digital printing market. But we are even more satisfied that HP customers can confidently take advantage of the well-known GMG color management technology, which will impact both companies' technology leadership in this fast growing segment. Our common customers will certainly be very impressed by the high accuracy and repeatability of colors as well as by gaining more flexibility, with consistent print quality on different output devices, enabling users to select the printing process at the last minute", says Paul Willems, CEO of GMG GmbH & Co. KG.

"Based on use cases between HP Scitex customers and GMG, we are pleased to report that testing was successful and customers can maximize the performance of their printing systems with the combination of these two solutions. GMG provides innovative technology for high-quality color management in mixed production environments covering a wide range of HP commercial and wide-format output devices," adds Eli Israeli, Strategic Marketing, HP Scitex Division.