Color/Quality Control - Hardware

Gray Balance and G7® are two terms that are hardly new to the printing industry. Gray balancing your process is a concept we have accepted for decades as a logical step towards process control and color management, and yet still today it is not widely practiced. In essence, gray balance on press is simply calibrating the printing process similar to what we did for scanners and analog film photography in days past.

Printing on metalized or “mirror-like” substrates is becoming increasingly popular. This article looks at instruments that are best suited to meet the unique requirements of measuring color on metalized substrates.

A large printable surface area combined with a wide range of sizes, shapes, and decorating options make beverage cans the ideal packaging format to create brand presence on the shelf and in consumers’ hands. While creatively enticing, however, the proliferation of options for can decoration give rise to a tremendous number of opportunities for unwanted variation and distortion in the printing process, where consistent, repeatable color measurement is the key to color quality control.

While ink usage represents only a small fraction of the overall cost of a print job, it can have a significant impact on pressroom efficiency and the quality of the finished product.

Of all the mission-critical elements involved in package production, one of the most critical remains color process control. Prepress professionals, print service providers, designers, and others involved in print production have historically struggled to control and manage color. In the packaging realm, the struggle to achieve consistent color has been elevated to a business imperative as the role of packaging shifts from that of a receptacle for the product inside to a key element in selling the product. Keep it calibrated “Color process control needs to be a priority for professionals in any organization who take quality seriously,” says Arjen van der Meulen, director

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. and FOSTER CITY, Calif.—Chromaticity, Inc., a leader in distribution and deployment of color management and inkjet technologies, and EFI, a world leader in color digital print servers, superwide format printers, and print management solutions, announced that standards organization IDEAlliance has awarded SWOP and GRACoL certifications to EFI Validation 250 Premium Satin ink jet proofing media for the graphic arts and design markets. Chromaticity is the authorized distributor of EFI Validation proofing media in North America. Validation 250 Premium Satin from EFI is a 250 gram/square meter premium grade proofing media designed for use with Epson UltraChrome K3 and similar ink sets.

In the world of packaging, CMYK is an appetizer, whetting but no longer satisfying end-users’ growing appetite for color. It stands to reason: color is arguably the most identifiable and valuable of all the assets associated with a given brand. And not just any color, but intense, vibrant color that differentiates a company from its competition, creates an irresistible emotional connection with the consumer; color that is the key component of high-impact graphics designed to grab a consumer’s attention and hold it long enough to trigger a purchase decision. With its limited gamut and ability to simulate only about 60 percent of standard

GENT, BELGIUM—Esko announced the introduction of a targeted range of value-added consulting services geared to deliver expert advice for increased customer value and increased ROI. Esko’s consulting services will draw on its extensive resources in process management and optimization, leading-edge hardware and software solutions, and professional services and training. Esko’s consulting services will be offered to provide solutions to the challenges facing today’s packaging industry. “We know that a company’s success is dependent upon finding ways to work smarter, quicker, and better, and Esko is ready to assist,” says Jef Stoffels, Esko director of corporate marketing. “Esko’s consulting services enable us to share our expertise

The roles of quality control (QC) equipment and systems in the pressroom and in the prepress area are related, but distinct. By the same token, color management and color process control are related, but are separate concepts. While color management means managing your devices such that you output color accurately and consistently, quality control or color process control ensures that the color will be consistent across processes and substrates. QC clearly represents a very specific challenge in packaging, given the variety of different substrates and disciplines commonly applied to a given brand. Nevertheless, color process control has had a tough row to hoe for