The New Year is quickly approaching – the traditional time to reflect on the past year and think about the future. What were our greatest successes in 2015? What could we have done better? What do we want to accomplish in 2016? We all try to make New Year’s resolutions and stick with them, but they often fall by the wayside. Here are five practical, achievable resolutions to consider for 2016 (and beyond).   1.   Practice what you preach. In the New Year, make a plan to really be the leader that people want to follow. If you say one thing and do another, it diminishes your credibility and makes your followers nervous about trusting your judgement. Whatever kind of leader you decide to embody, stay consistent in what you say and do.   2.   Invest in your staff’s careers. As a younger crowd enters the workforce, they look for a position that will better themselves as an individual and further their aspirations. Take advantage of this quality and foster their need for growth. Whether it is through career development programs or a mentoring program from senior staff members, look for ways to unleash their potential. By providing this opportunity to your staff, it shows you have a personal interest in the employee they’re trying to become.   3.   Open up to new ideas. As the old adage goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither were most great companies. Understand that each idea (no matter how small or unrealistic) expressed by your staff shows that they consider themselves part of your team and want the business to grow too. Try to be open to suggestions and if it isn’t the direction you’re headed, explain your position and build from there.   4.   Loosen the reins. This one goes hand-in-hand with resolution #3. Sometimes the best way to come up with new ideas of your own is to let go of the daily operational reins and let your trusted staff drive for a while. You may find that some people really come alive when granted increased responsibility and become ever more vested in the company and its success. Leaving you time to look around at the company with a little bit of distance and a fresh perspective. .   5.   Learn something new. While it can seem like there’s not enough time in a day to get everything done, learning something entirely new can have a tremendous positive impact. For example, recent MRI studies show that learning a new language can actually increase the size of your brain (if you’re going to DRUPA in 2016, consider learning some German!) Other studies show that learning...

The following post was submitted by Color 2015 sponsor, X-Rite Pantone.Author: Mark Gundlach, Solutions Architect, X-Rite Pantone PANTONE® Spot Colors have always been the best way to achieve brand colors, but they’re not always feasible or affordable. With the introduction of the EXTENDED GAMUT 7-color printing process, Pantone is giving printers and converters a way to determine how closely seven-color printing (CMYK+OGV) can achieve PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM® Colors.  Why Extended Gamut? By incorporating Orange, Green and Violet PANTONE XG Base Inks with the traditional Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (CMYK) process colors in a 7-color printing process, you can achieve a much broader range of vibrant colors than traditional four-color process without the need to mix custom inks or wash up between press runs. The EXTENDED GAMUT Guide provides 1,729 seven-color simulations of PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM Colors printed on coated stock. Each color is matched with an in-line aqueous coating, created with a maximum of three Base Ink combinations, and is optimized to be viewed under D50 lighting (5000°). How does it work? The PANTONE EXTENDED GAMUT Guide can be used as a visual reference to determine when you can accurately reproduce a solid PANTONE Color using CMYK + PANTONE XG Orange, Green, and Violet (OGV) Inks. Each color is named with its corresponding PANTONE Number and an XGC suffix.   Select the desired PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM Color from a current PLUS SERIES FORMULA or Color Bridge Guide. Using the same page number in the EXTENDED GAMUT Guide, locate the corresponding PANTONE Color. You will see the closest 7-color process match and its screen tint percentages. Compare both guides side-by-side. Since the colors bleed off page edges, it’s easy to visually evaluate color differences. If the PANTONE Extended Gamut color is not a visually acceptable match, the color should remain specified as a solid. When the PANTONE Extended Gamut color appears adequate, print using those inks. The benefits of 7-color printing Demands in the industry have made it even more difficult to print packaging using CMYK alone. Although it’s the most economical printing process, it provides a very limited gamut of color, and even in the best conditions can only hit about half of the PantonePLUS colors. There’s just no comparison in color vibrancy between CMYK and spot color inks.  To hit special colors, many printers choose to add spot color inks to their CMYK process. Spots provide the best quality, but they’re also expensive, increase makeready time, contribute to large ink inventories, and are cumbersome for short runs.  And what happens to the extra ink you don’t use?  Above: Extended Gamut printing provides a larger palette of colors for reproduction than you can get from CMYK alone. In this...

The following post was submitted by Color 2015 sponsor, X-Rite Pantone.Author: Mark Gundlach, Solutions Architect, X-Rite Pantone PANTONE® Spot Colors have always been the best way to achieve brand colors, but they’re not always feasible or affordable. With the introduction of the EXTENDED GAMUT 7-color printing process, Pantone is giving printers and converters a way to determine how closely seven-color printing (CMYK+OGV) can achieve PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM® Colors.  Why Extended Gamut? By incorporating Orange, Green and Violet PANTONE XG Base Inks with the traditional Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (CMYK) process colors in a 7-color printing process, you can achieve a much broader range of vibrant colors than traditional four-color process without the need to mix custom inks or wash up between press runs. The EXTENDED GAMUT Guide provides 1,729 seven-color simulations of PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM Colors printed on coated stock. Each color is matched with an in-line aqueous coating, created with a maximum of three Base Ink combinations, and is optimized to be viewed under D50 lighting (5000°). How does it work? The PANTONE EXTENDED GAMUT Guide can be used as a visual reference to determine when you can accurately reproduce a solid PANTONE Color using CMYK + PANTONE XG Orange, Green, and Violet (OGV) Inks. Each color is named with its corresponding PANTONE Number and an XGC suffix.   Select the desired PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM Color from a current PLUS SERIES FORMULA or Color Bridge Guide. Using the same page number in the EXTENDED GAMUT Guide, locate the corresponding PANTONE Color. You will see the closest 7-color process match and its screen tint percentages. Compare both guides side-by-side. Since the colors bleed off page edges, it’s easy to visually evaluate color differences. If the PANTONE Extended Gamut color is not a visually acceptable match, the color should remain specified as a solid. When the PANTONE Extended Gamut color appears adequate, print using those inks. The benefits of 7-color printing Demands in the industry have made it even more difficult to print packaging using CMYK alone. Although it’s the most economical printing process, it provides a very limited gamut of color, and even in the best conditions can only hit about half of the PantonePLUS colors. There’s just no comparison in color vibrancy between CMYK and spot color inks.  To hit special colors, many printers choose to add spot color inks to their CMYK process. Spots provide the best quality, but they’re also expensive, increase makeready time, contribute to large ink inventories, and are cumbersome for short runs.  And what happens to the extra ink you don’t use?  Above: Extended Gamut printing provides a larger palette of colors for reproduction than you can get from CMYK alone. In this...

The following post was submitted by Color 2015 sponsor, X-Rite Pantone.Author:  Ray Cheydleur, Printing and Imaging Product Portfolio Manager, X-Rite Pantone  Many industries rely on standards and technical specifications to bring an independent perspective to their production processes. In the world of print, some people think only manufacturers and software vendors need to understand color standards. This, of course, isn’t the case. Embracing standards and specifications can help printers set clear expectations, solve practical problems, and improve productivity by bringing a systematic perspective to their entire print workflow. What’s the difference between the Standards and Specifications? Industry Standards are maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and provide rules, guidelines, and characteristics for common and repeated activities to help printers achieve the best possible output. Specifications contain technical guidelines, often incorporating standards and provide detailed descriptions of the required criteria for a piece of work, such as print targets, aims, and ICC profiles. With the advent of hybrid printing—that is, printing components of the same job or for the same client with multiple printing technologies—it has become increasingly necessary to print to standards. Producing materials on a variety of offset, flexo, or digital devices; running prints using two different technologies or processes; or printing locally to save transportation costs—these can all result in an ambiguous exchange of print-related data which can result in inconsistent quality. Standards help bridge the gap so everyone is speaking the same language. I recently spoke at Color 15 about a few important standards that can help printers overcome the challenges of hybrid printing.  Controlled Lighting for OBAs ISO 13655 and ISO 3664 aren’t new, but they have had a significant impact on standards work this year. They help printers deal with the impact that optical brightening agents (OBAs) have on color. These are chemicals that are added to paper to make it look brighter and whiter. ISO 13655 specifies the kind of light to measure with, and ISO 3664 the color of light to view with, so they interact with OBAs in the same way—establishing agreement between visual checks and measured evaluations. Adopting these standards can require new measurement equipment, lamps, or viewing booths, plus the specifications and workflows that enable it, so it has taken some time for everyone to get behind them. However, if you print to specifications, have brightened stocks, or do something other than on-press proofing, following these standards is the only way to address the realities of today’s market and consistently deliver the color consistency your customers expect. To learn more about the impact of OBAs on the print and packaging industry, check out a whitepaper I co-wrote with Kevin O’Connor. Printing digitally across multiple technologies ISO/PAS 15339...

The following post was submitted by Color 2015 sponsor, X-Rite Pantone.Author:  Ray Cheydleur, Printing and Imaging Product Portfolio Manager, X-Rite Pantone  Many industries rely on standards and technical specifications to bring an independent perspective to their production processes. In the world of print, some people think only manufacturers and software vendors need to understand color standards. This, of course, isn’t the case. Embracing standards and specifications can help printers set clear expectations, solve practical problems, and improve productivity by bringing a systematic perspective to their entire print workflow. What’s the difference between the Standards and Specifications? Industry Standards are maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and provide rules, guidelines, and characteristics for common and repeated activities to help printers achieve the best possible output. Specifications contain technical guidelines, often incorporating standards and provide detailed descriptions of the required criteria for a piece of work, such as print targets, aims, and ICC profiles. With the advent of hybrid printing—that is, printing components of the same job or for the same client with multiple printing technologies—it has become increasingly necessary to print to standards. Producing materials on a variety of offset, flexo, or digital devices; running prints using two different technologies or processes; or printing locally to save transportation costs—these can all result in an ambiguous exchange of print-related data which can result in inconsistent quality. Standards help bridge the gap so everyone is speaking the same language. I recently spoke at Color 15 about a few important standards that can help printers overcome the challenges of hybrid printing.  Controlled Lighting for OBAs ISO 13655 and ISO 3664 aren’t new, but they have had a significant impact on standards work this year. They help printers deal with the impact that optical brightening agents (OBAs) have on color. These are chemicals that are added to paper to make it look brighter and whiter. ISO 13655 specifies the kind of light to measure with, and ISO 3664 the color of light to view with, so they interact with OBAs in the same way—establishing agreement between visual checks and measured evaluations. Adopting these standards can require new measurement equipment, lamps, or viewing booths, plus the specifications and workflows that enable it, so it has taken some time for everyone to get behind them. However, if you print to specifications, have brightened stocks, or do something other than on-press proofing, following these standards is the only way to address the realities of today’s market and consistently deliver the color consistency your customers expect. To learn more about the impact of OBAs on the print and packaging industry, check out a whitepaper I co-wrote with Kevin O’Connor. Printing digitally across multiple technologies ISO/PAS 15339...