REINING IN ACCURACY FOR COLOR MANAGEMENT

Effective color management may require thinking outside the lines.

by Terri McConnell, Prepress Editor

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. Remember that Seuss classic? Numbers, colors, and shapes are our first adjectives; the first ways in which we are taught to differentiate the objects of our world.

A perusal of the World Book reveals color to be a remarkable physical phenomenon. Light is made up of multiple colors. When a light wave is refracted, or bent, it separates into distinct color wavelengths. Light-sensing cells in the human eye are each tuned to react to different wavelengths between 400 to 700 nanometers. That range allows us to perceive a realm of somewhere near 7 million different colors.

Psychological research indicates that as our brains decode color messages from our eyes, our endocrine and pituitary glands are stimulated, thereby eliciting emotional responses. While the science of color perception is far from exact, it is widely accepted that we are subject to unconscious biases and preferences based on colors. It is also known that the effects are cultural or demographic. For example, white denotes purity in many western cultures, but it is the color of mourning in the East. My grandmother might shy away from a bright blue beverage, but my preteen son will gulp it down without a thought.

Marketers are well aware of the psychological importance of color in product design and package decoration. It's used to attract the shopper, differentiate line extensions, convey an ideal, or even to key the product to a social issue. No wonder then that accurately rendering color remains the last and largest frontier of our industry.

Control: A "must," not a "maybe"

With the advent of digital processes, the ability to reconcile the smaller gamut of any output device with the miraculous number of colors our eyes can see hinges on the science and set of technologies known as color management (CM). It's not an easy issue, primarily because it spans the printing process from the artist's desktop monitor to the pressroom floor. But our growing body of knowledge and the availability of practical CM tools is helping CM gain acceptance.

According to David Boxall, VP/sales and marketing for Global Graphics, the company that acquired Harlequin in 1999, and now sells CM tools under the GlobalColor brand, "In the print-for-pay market, which relies on ink jet printers, the [CM] adoption rate is already fairly high and increasing. In traditional high-end graphic arts and printing, especially segments that rely on CMYK workflows, the adoption rate is much slower except for interim proofing; but even there, the adoption of CM is rapidly gaining momentum. And companies across the board that haven't adopted CM know that they must within the next few years."

The growing acceptance of color management systems is bringing a fundamental printing issue into question. Will we continue the practice of "trying to match on press what the customer has bought with the proof," or will we modify the proofing stage to simulate what the press is capable of producing?

Explains Dan Johansen, Creo's marketing manager for proofing, "Historically the approach for color management has been … starting at the trade shop or prepress stage, and pushing as far back, but ultimately stopping at, the door of the press room. One of the approaches that we believe is more beneficial to the printer—now that we have the software and hardware to make it possible—is to introduce color controls in the pressroom and move forward."

Why the reversal? Because proofing devices, which use unique sets of imaging media, have a larger color gamut (the ability to produce more colors in the spectrum) than do printing presses. It is easier, and ultimately far less expensive, to make the proofing device simulate the press than vice versa. In essence, we're beginning to accept the fact that we need to work with the lowest common denominator. This shift in process theory will necessarily have impact on workflows, and carry implications for approval practices.

Comments Johansen, "While halftone proofs are critical for predicting a number of print conditions, they are not necessarily the best option for color matching. An accurate continuous tone device, because of its ability to contaminate colors, can do a number of things that are compelling towards matching the press. Just as an example, you can set it up with color profiles that can imitate a paper tint."

Harnessing the power of color

The most current thinking on color management suggests that printers fingerprint (record the characteristics of their presses in a color profile) and proliferate them as far downstream as possible. Says Johansen, "Perhaps the best thing a printer can do is make his press profiles available to design houses, where an artist can load it into Photoshop and see from the beginning what the end result is mostly likely to be."

Creo, as well as other printing equipment suppliers, has recognized the challenge presented by this concept. It has established the Consulting Services Group, largely made up of application specialists from the Chicago-based Opus group (formerly a part of London Litho), to provide in-depth color management counseling. After a consultant conducts an on-site evaluation, he will make very specific recommendations for integrating pressroom controls, and further review the returns on investment that can be realized with the changes.