PRINTING United Alliance, the most comprehensive member-based printing and graphic arts association in North America, today announces the release of G7+™, the next evolution in color calibration. G7+ is an expanded specification that augments classic G7® with new logic, algorithms, and features, but with a similar overall appearance. G7+ training and certification will be available in-person as well as on the Alliance’s iLEARNING+ platform. Learn more about G7+ here: www.printing.org/g7plus.
Expanding the power of G7
The classic G7 specification (CGATS/IDEALLIANCE TR015-2022) and certifications will continue to be supported by PRINTING United Alliance, utilizing the process users are familiar with today. G7+ is designed to work equally well with all printing technologies and offers increased value and effectiveness for a wider range of markets and applications. While preserving the value of existing G7 workflows, G7+ maintains the features, benefits, and general appearance of G7, but with more accurate gray balance, improved tonality, and better performance in unusual printing conditions.
“With G7+, PRINTING United Alliance is excited to continue our mission in supporting leading printers and print buyers around the world,” says Jordan Gorski, executive director, Idealliance. “G7 raised the bar in the world of print and color output, replacing legacy density and TVI control methods with simpler but more powerful metrics that defined color photography for over 150 years. G7+ extends those benefits to even more print technologies, media, colorants, and output conditions, and offers print buyers and printers even greater optimization of color on packaging, publications, signage and wide format graphics, while maintaining close alignment with existing G7 workflows.”
For those who have relied on G7 to achieve optimal and consistent color output, a key comfort point is that GRACoL®-based files and workflows look virtually identical on both G7 and G7+ calibrated devices and should not need changing. Also, the new G7+ Alliance programs will continue to support both G7 and G7+ specifications, so users and vendors can transition to full G7+ when applicable.
Gorski concludes, “Much as the Alliance has grown and evolved to provide the industry with a community to gather and collaborate, the G7+ enhancement now helps provide members of our industry with a new ‘choice’ when dealing with more print conditions other than normal offset, regardless of where and how you print.”
Some of the benefits of G7+ include:
- Improved gray balance and tonality across a wider range of print systems, including textile, web-offset, newsprint, and inkjet, while maintaining the visual appearance of GRACoL®.
- Smoother saturated colors and more accurate ICC profiles in high-density printing.
- Unlimited SCCA (Substrate-Corrected Colorimetric Aims) modification to strongly colored substrates.
- Even more pleasing “shared neutral appearance” when color management is impractical.
More information about G7+ is available on the PRINTING United Alliance website, or you can email g7plus@printing.org.
Join the Alliance
If you would like to learn more about becoming an Alliance member and take advantage industry-leading programs such as G7+, visit the membership page, or call 888-385-3588 to speak with our membership team for more information.
About PRINTING United Alliance
PRINTING United Alliance is the most comprehensive member-based printing and graphic arts association in the United States, comprised of the industry’s vast communities. The Alliance serves industry professionals across market segments with preeminent education, training, workshops, events, research, government and legislative representation, safety, and environmental sustainability guidance, as well as resources from our leading media brands – Printing Impressions, Packaging Impressions, Wide-format Impressions, In-plant Impressions, Apparelist, and Print+Promo Marketing. Now a division of PRINTING United Alliance, Idealliance is a global leader in standards training and certification for printing and graphic arts operations across the entire industry supply chain.
PRINTING United Alliance also produces the PRINTING United Expo, the most influential days in printing. The expansive display of technology and supplies, education, programming, and services are showcased to the industry at large, and represents all market segments in one easily accessed place.