GMG and Sun Chemical Announce Partnership

BIRMINGHAM, U.K.—GMG announced a partnership with Sun Chemical to integrate spot color definitions into the GMG contone and halftone proofing solutions GMG ColorProof, FlexoProof and DotProof. The arrangement provides a means for GMG solutions to connect via the Internet to the Sun Chemical SmartColour Engine, a centralized, spot-color database comprising over 250,000 identities. This is intended to result in more accurate spot color results on proofs, supporting the potential to drive the adoption of digital spot color definitions, in lieu of ink swatches or physical samples. GMG is in the process of developing several new integrated solutions, with further details to be announced later this year.

While the global packaging market continues to grow, brand owners and their supply chains are seeking more efficient approaches to communicating real, accurate, spot-color information within the value chain. Contract proofs are the preferred method to convey process-color information, but often the spot-color results refer to an attached chip or drawdown. With the newly announced partnership, there is a significant opportunity to rely upon a fully-digital spot-color workflow. As the product life cycle of consumer goods, for example, has become much shorter in recent years, new products are being developed and brought to market at a rapid rate. This in turn results in great time pressures for those involved in packaging design. Digitizing spot color management will noticeably shorten the approval procedure with brand owners and the response times of suppliers.

Speaking on the announcement of the partnership, Paul Willems, CEO of GMG GmbH & Co. KG, said: “The already powerful GMG proofing solutions are now even more appealing for packaging service providers, including prepress and designers. With a large and growing base of established packaging users, the partnership is a means for GMG to better support current prepress customers, and an opportunity to also serve an increased number of packaging design companies.”