Automating the Human Equation

For consumer product companies (CPCs) that increasingly are among the users of these systems, a key challenge is to maintain consistent brand color and quality across substrates and markets anywhere in the world, regardless of the printing process. Requirements like these demand that all of the graphical, structural, and technical specifications of the final package be nailed down and approved by all stakeholders before the package begins actual production. The development of digital platemaking, PDF-based digital workflows, soft proofing, and other Internet-based collaborative tools play an essential role in helping CPCs—as well as printers, trade shops, and converters—get and maintain control of these complex processes.