X-Rite, Incorporated, the world leader in color management, measurement and communication technologies, today announced that its recently announced PrintCheck and PressOptimizer solutions are now available exclusively through X-Rite’s worldwide network of sales partners.
Developed jointly with GMG, a developer and supplier of high-end color management and proofing solutions, the new line of X-Rite-branded automated print quality control and standardization solutions allow print buyers and pressroom operators to follow a job from contract to delivery, and ensure quality consistency and ISO standards compliance using the process control methodology of their choice (G7, PSO, Japan Color, etc.). The new solutions will be sold exclusively through X-Rite and its worldwide network of sales partners.
X-Rite’s new PrintCheck and PressOptimizer solutions offer printers of all sizes an affordable and easy to implement path to standardization. The new solutions feature a very intuitive and simple to navigate wizard-driven interface, making it easy for users to streamline their workflow, reduce waste, decrease make-ready time and eliminate production errors, thereby increasing their profits. These solutions support all of X-Rite’s prepress and printing instruments, and are available in four affordable, easy-to-use software packages:
PrintCheck Reader: targeted at print customers and print buyers, this is a free downloadable software that lets users easily import print quality data for further verification of the printing quality by enabling a streamlined communication throughout the printing supply chain. In addition to the ability to remotely “watch over” their print jobs, print buyers can also supply their key accounts with PrintCheck Reader software, for improved, open and seamless customer relations from contract to print.
PrintCheck Review: targeted at professional print buyers (brand owners, advertising agencies, publishing houses, packaging designers) who want to be able to check the quality of prints themselves, PrintCheck Review is designed to be used in combination with an i1Pro spectrophotometer. PrintCheck Review supports the international standards ISO 12647-2 and 12647-3 (G7, SWOP, PSO), Japan Color as well as individual in-house tolerance metrics.
PrintCheck: Designed to meet the quality-control needs of small to mid-size offset printing houses, PrintCheck is optimized to work with X-Rite’s handheld spectrophotometers including 528, 530, SpectroEye and the EasyTrax and IntelliTrax scanning solutions. PrintCheck lets the printer know whether the press is operating within a defined standard. Based on one single measuring procedure, the software supplies all the relevant information concerning any given print job including printing density and print contrast, tone value increase and spread, primary and secondary colors, gray balance, ink acceptance, and paper. PrintCheck also allows printers to compare various jobs, and run trends on job histories and press performance.
PressOptimizer: Ideal for mid size to large offset printing houses, PressOptimizer offers a very easy-to-use solution for effective process control and press standardization. PressOptimizer supports the ISO 12647-2, 12647-3 (G7, SWOP, PSO) and Japan Color international standards, as well as user-defined in-house tolerance metrics. Optimized to work with X-Rite’s EasyTrax and IntelliTrax automated scanning systems, PressOptimizer can significantly increase print quality, even on older presses; it allows users to achieve the same colors on different presses, and lets them produce repeat jobs rapidly while cutting costs (by reducing paper waste and energy consumption). Thanks to a wizard-driven interface to guide them through the entire standardization and process control process, printers can easily determine the optimum printing density, analyze the gray balance, measure tone value increase and spread, check primary and secondary colors, generate CtP correction curves, control ink acceptance, determine the optimum print contrast, and measure control wedges for daily quality assurance with the PrintCheck portfolio.
“Whether you choose to print to international ISO Standards using industry specifications for process control like G7 or PSO, or if you’re printing to your own set of tolerances – PrintCheck and PressOptimizer can help simplify your workflow with intuitive, uncomplicated, and affordable software that’s modular – so you can choose only what you need,” commented Felix Schmollgruber, Product Manager for X-Rite Solutions.
Another significant benefit for printers is the seamless integration with X-Rite Auto Scanning Solutions EasyTrax and IntelliTrax. Using these together with PrintCheck or PressOptimizer will give the pressman at-a-glance performance tracking and troubleshooting of the job on press, and with PressOptimizer, integrated ability to make key press calibrations quickly.
PrintCheck Review, PrintCheck and PressOptimizer will be offered as standalone software packages for existing owners of X-Rite instruments who wish to add the ability to track their print jobs, improve their reporting, and simplify their ability to print to ISO standards. All three software packages will also be offered as bundles with X-Rite award-winning i1 Solutions, color handheld densitometers and spectrophotometers, and auto scanning spectrophotometers. For more information on pricing, please contact your local X-Rite representative.