The following post was submitted by Color 2015 sponsor, X-Rite Pantone.

 Author: Mark Gundlach, Solutions Architect, X-Rite Pantone

 

In a print and packaging workflow, there are many places where color can go wrong. However, implementing good process control makes it possible to achieve predictable, repeatable color. Fine-tuning your print workflow is not as hard as you may think, and the increasing availability of affordable tools is making it easier than ever.

Today we’ll look at the top five places where printers and converters can achieve stability to save time and money, improve quality, and increase the possibility of repeat business. 

1.   Set up a proper color-managed workflow.

From specification through production to final inspection, your color must stay true. But when each device you use to capture and reproduce color uses slightly different RBG or CMYK formulas, it’s not always an easy task. Small errors along the way can lead to output that fails to meet the customer’s expectations with rejects and rework. The best way to ensure that each of your devices is sharing accurate color information is to use the proper hardware and software to set up a color-managed workflow.

First, you need to confirm that your devices are all capable of achieving repeatable, accurate color. For instance, if your press can’t produce consistent color from day to day, then there’s not much color management can do to help. Next, calibrate and optimize each device to achieve the best color reproduction possible. Achieving proper color on press is a combination of the substrates, proper inks, calibrated plates, and press settings that produce the right solid ink colors and tint/tone values. This is all part of the “fingerprinting” process.

You will need ICC profiles to produce proofs that match your press. You can also use ICC profiles for converting your files so the printed work better matches the original file. And in some cases you may want to make a custom ICC profile of the press, or calibrate the press to match a print standard like SWOP® or GRACoL®, then use the print standard profile for proofing or converting your files.


Above: Regularly calibrating and profiling your devices will ensure they continue to provide accurate and repeatable color.

2.   Specify your colors digitally.

Designers bring passion to the colors they specify, but it’s up to printers and converters to make those visions a reality. While paper-based Pantone®Guides are valuable for communicating and evaluating color, factors such as age, environmental conditions, and wear and tear make them susceptible to inaccuracies. They are guides, not standards.

Pantone PLUS libraries are included with most graphic applications. These libraries have the standard digital color values, which the books are printed to match. Pantone Color collections are always growing, and you will need to make sure that you have the latest libraries. PantoneLIVE makes accessing the latest digital colors much easier. It’s Cloud-based, so anyone–from brand owners to designers, prepress professionals, and printers–can access them from anywhere around the globe. 

Another important feature of PantoneLIVE is that it incorporates both Master and Dependent Standards to accurately specify and communicate color. They contain the spectral data for that color–its DNA. The Master Standard is based on the same Pantone PLUS libraries that are included in your design applications, but they are always up-to-date. The Dependent Standard represents how the different printing conditions, including inks, substrates, and press type, will impact the color. What you see is what you get. Always.

3.   Pay close attention to your inks.

It all starts with the ink. If the ink isn’t right, it’s impossible to get the right color on press. For spot or custom colors, be sure to provide your ink lab with the correct specifications and always verify its color accuracy when it’s received in the plant. The spectral values included in Pantone PLUS and PantoneLIVE digital standards will provide optimal color matching. Formulation based on spectral values can provide better color matches of inks under different printing and lighting conditions. This is very important for products that have parts printed on different substrates and will be viewed under multiple lighting conditions.

The ink lab must also use tools that calculate the ink recipes from the spectral data. One example is X-Rite’s InkFormulation Software, an advanced ink formulation tool that can even help your ink lab work off leftover inks more efficiently.


Above:  Measuring incoming ink to ensure it is within tolerance. 

Don’t forget to check your CMYK inks as well. While errors aren’t frequent with these commonly used inks, they can happen. Always check them when the come into the plant.

Historically, PANTONE Spot Ink Colors have been the best way to define brand colors, but when there are many spot colors in a job, or there are a lot of ink changes on press for each job, it can be costly and time-consuming for the printer. The new Extended Color Gamut (ECG) Guide from Pantone provides a way to determine how closely seven-color printing (CMYK+OGV) can achieve PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM® Colors. Not only does this approach reduce ink inventories, but it can also reduce or even eliminate the need to wash up between jobs, increasing press uptime. 

By incorporating PANTONE XG Base Inks–Orange, Green and Violet–with the traditional process colors, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (CMYK), in a 7-color printing process, you can achieve a much broader range of vibrant colors without the need for spot color inks. Some firms are dedicating one or more presses to ECG printing and gaining amazing efficiencies.

4.   Measure more than just density.

Measuring ink density has been the preferred method of checking on-press quality for years, but measuring just density just isn’t enough. Although a densitometer is very good at reading CMYK process colors by looking at the ink film that is being laid down, it doesn’t actually see color at all. That means your color can move out of tolerance and you won’t know until it’s too late.

Using a spectrophotometer like the X-Rite eXactTM can offer both density and spectral measurements in a single instrument. It can also identify ink failures due to contamination, which densitometers cannot. Companion software can inform press operators exactly what adjustments can be made on press to ensure appropriate density and to bring color back into tolerance, even before shifts are visible to the human eye.

Above: Density alone does not determine whether your color is within tolerance. Although you may be hitting your density target, that doesn’t tell you if the ink hues are off.

5.   Establish and follow Standard Operating Procedures.

Whether you have two press operators or an international multi-site operation, you need to establish standard operating procedures (SOPs) to ensure that everyone is doing the same thing the same way. 

The International Standards Organization has defined ISO 12647 as a set of Graphic Arts standards for printing. Different parts of the world interpret these standards into their own specifications. For example, the specifications for offset printing that conform to ISO 12647-2 for a number one grade, coated paper are GRACoL from IDEAlliance® in North America, and FOGRA39 in Europe. Flexographic Technical Association (FTA) follows ISO 12647-6, which describes color targets for flexographic printing. There are other ISO standards that describe proper viewing conditions (ISO 3664), requirements for measuring colors (ISO13655), specifications for CMYK process ink colors (ISO 2846), and so on.

Organizations such as IDEAlliance and the FTA publish guides that help your staff learn industry best practices. These guides and the ISO standards should all be used as the foundation for developing your SOPs. By aligning your practices with the standards, work can be confidently handed off through the supply chain and expectations can be met.

Want to know more?

We all know that color evaluation can be subjective and emotional. Luckily we have a lot of tools at our disposal to provide spectral data and fact-based analysis, and color science keeps getting better. By staying current with developments in the tools, techniques and technologies for measuring, monitoring and managing, and communicating color, you can maintain color accuracy across your workflow.

As a Gold Sponsor of Color 15, X-Rite Pantone is excited to be discussing the latest advancements in color standards and workflows to help everyone involved in a print and packaging workflow achieve color consistency. We’ll be exhibiting and presenting two sessions at the conference on color standards and ECG printing. Also, watch for our upcoming articles:  “Keeping up with Standards,” and “The EXTENDED GAMUT Advantage for Printers.”