Morgan Impresores Improves Color on Press with the Help of a Complete Portfolio of GMG Color Management Solutions

Morgan used to rely on the ability of the prepress operator to modify CMYK files, and Alegria knew that they needed a solution that would allow them to take advantage of a modern viewing station. The RGB workflow also needed these same tools. “We were looking for software that provided a good amount of automation, which we felt would minimize errors because of limited human intervention,” remembers Alegria. “We wanted to utilize our operators for other, more relevant or specific tasks that our workflow system can’t do.”

Morgan talked with a number color management companies, but none of them convinced him that they could address Morgan’s needs. According to Alegria, the other systems were quite aggressive, but they had no levels of optimization. Then, Alegria saw a GMG ColorServer and InkOptimizer color management system running at another print facility. After some rigorous testing on press with very stringent goals, the company decided to install a complete GMG color management system, including GMG ColorProof, GMG ColorServer, GMG SmartProfiler and GMG InkOptimizer.

“The implementation went well. We learned that while installing a color management system is a demanding task, it’s not impossible. It just takes a while to make the most of it,” explains Alegria. “We needed to improve and standardize our press procedures and consumables, and train our crew — not only in the prepress department, but press as well. Our integrator, Saul Arana, was very helpful planning our project. Without him, it might have put the project at risk. He helped us analyze specific topics that could arise during the installation.”

Morgan has been using the system for about ten months. The system ensures that it offers all the color information each person in production needs to deliver accurate color. Proofs from GMG ColorProof are much more accurate, tied to a specific printing condition on press – transferring a raw file for every condition — with the right file from GMG ColorServer. Thus, Morgan no longer has to print many proofs to get an OK from the customer. This has streamlined the workflow considerably and delivered faster makereadies. Morgan is about to install a third-party workflow, which can easily connect to ColorServer, ColorProof and InkOptimizer.

“With GMG ColorProof, our proof quality has been improved 100%, because now we have a stable, reliable and certified proof. However, much of the credit really goes to GMG ColorServer, which is able to deliver accurate, consistent normalized files. Now, I feel like I’m protected by the proof, not only with the customer, but with the press crew,” comments Alegria. “In fact, it’s very encouraging that the press crew is very motivated by the results we are getting. They are much more upbeat about color management.”

With GMG ColorServer, Morgan’s color information delivers better quality control for the pre-inking department. “We love it,” enthuses Alegria. “After GMG file transformation, our CIP3 and CIP4 data is more accurate to pre-inking and automatic spectrodensitometer readings. Now they print by the numbers, because they are assured the numbers will be read correctly.”

“We also save ink with GMG InkOptimizer. We are no longer taking down jobs on press and wasting time. We get the press to create accurate color, faster,” explains Algeria. “Resolving makeready time was the primary issue. The next step, for us, is to measure our ink savings.”

“We had a retail customer that changed its print run from 150,000 to 300,000 catalogs for the Christmas season. The job overwhelmed our capacity, so decided to use our semi commercial Roland Uniset web press to print a lightweight coated (LWC) offset print job the way the customer was accustomed to,” recalls Alegria. “We performed all of the color management procedures on GMG ColorServer to transform the file for the sheetfed press, and prepared all the pages according to the integrator’s advice. We tested some of the pages at the beginning of the print job and the press crew printed only by the numbers — without looking at any proof. The results were very good, taking account that we never had printed LWC well on that press. With those results, we decided to complete the catalog print run — and the customer was very happy with the results.”