colour management
The main value of effective colour management lies in a consistent colour appearance, no matter which substrate or printing process is used. The prediction of colours before going on press helps brand owners and customers in the decision-making process regarding design and appearance. Moreover, an effective colour management and a consistent colour communication decreases the amount of approving cycles between customer and prepress, which leads finally to reduced set up times at press and saves money.
The variety of substrates, printing process and conditions involves a wide field of possibilities to make mistakes in colour management. Choosing the wrong printing standard to convert the files can lead to a wrong result in colour at press or exclude the influence of the paper tint or OBAs may result in a colour appearance the customer didn’t expect. The main risk in getting colour management wrong is delivering the wrong colour expectations to the customer and handling complaints afterwards.
Driving innovation
Trends such as faster changing designs, seasonal adaptations and personalisation support the rise of digital print. Beneath all the benefits of digital printing, there are a few challenges as well. Since you cannot change the colour behaviour of a digital press while printing, your data needs to be 100 per cent correct from the beginning and if a global brand owner counts on hybrid print production, i.e. combining analogue and digital, you have to ensure the same colour appearance whether a design is printed in one or another. Moreover, we see market demand to print more jobs with more variations in less time. To manage these expectations you need a reliable colour management system that allows dynamic and individual profiling, especially in packaging printing.
Cutting edge
There are a few areas of technology that are a focus of continuing innovation. For us on of these is profiling for proof and conversion. Using the same data to convert the files and prepare the proofs based on the same data saves time and money. Convert your files, proof them for a check, maybe adjust them and go to print without bad surprises.
