Expert Color Management Adds Value To Multi-Process Print Campaigns

Today, printed materials are produced on a variety of output devices, including sheetfed presses, digital presses, and wide-format digital inkjet devices as commercial printers extend their business models to offer marketing services, short-run color, and same-day service.

Among commercial printers, new technology adoption has evolved rapidly. The primary challenge for most is to have the best, most cost-effective technology in place to meet the requirements of any print media campaign a customer requests. As if that isn't enough, printers also must ensure that all components of the campaign—from the mailer to the brochure to the grand-format signage—are impeccably color-matched. Progressive printers view this as an opportunity.

At Graph Expo for example, Heidelberg presented a solution consisting of a Speedmaster SM 52 Anicolor press, Speedmaster SM 74, VUTEk GS 3200 grand-format inkjet printer, and Ricoh Pro C901 Graphic Arts Edition digital press united by Heidelberg’s world-class integrated color management and Prinect workflow across all three platforms.

Most commercial printers today operate conventional offset and toner-based digital color equipment. Many are branching into grand-format inkjet to leverage the technology's high-margin opportunities, aiming for higher levels of competitiveness and profitability. By putting the right tools for the job into his hands, this "trifecta of technology" positions the commercial printer for success, no matter the substrate, color, or run length requirements of a specified campaign.

The most economical way to do this often requires all three technologies, enabling that commercial printer—like a well-equipped golfer—to choose the most effective "club" to get the job done. For example, while the cover of a brochure may be printed on an offset press with UV coating, the inside pages may be printed on a digital press, the signage on grand-format inkjet device.

But there's more to the story, because color variance is unavoidable in campaigns printed on multiple devices. Where the rubber meets the road—as well as the source of significant added value—is the degree of color management expertise the printer can demonstrate in ensuring that color is consistent from device to device.

Early on, printers strove to make their offset presses print the same. Later, they labored to make early inkjet proofs look like the press sheet. More recently, their goal was to make digital press output look like offset printing. Now, the color of the logo on a 24-foot banner must look the same as the corporate logo color on all the other printed material produced for a specified campaign. A clear advantage belongs to the commercial printer who can demonstrate efficient, cost-effective, multi-process color management. Under the right circumstances, the same color-managed workflow that supports a printer's offset department can give all of the components in a print marketing campaign the same look, feel, and color-consistency.

How can the commercial printer accomplish this? Two technologies vastly simplify the process. The first is a common digital workflow integrated via JDF to an offset press, as well as to cut-sheet digital and grand-format inkjet devices: a single workflow that reduces errors, eliminates redundancies, and affords the printer the most cost-effective way to produce the job.

The second element is a color-managed workflow based on ICC profiling, an easy-to-use "super technology" that yields measureable savings in money and labor while delivering a higher-quality product. ICC color management supports a wide variety of workflows used for different purposes. Different ICC profiles and different rendering intents can achieve a variety of color reproduction goals.

ICC profiling becomes even more important as print jobs morph into media campaigns. The campaign most likely will make use of several different substrates that wreak havoc on color consistency and could even include an electronic component. This is where ICC profiling steps up to the plate and offers a measurable, scientific approach to a notably unscientific subject: how human beings perceive color.