Color/Quality Control - Software

The Printing Plant is a privately-held narrow-web flexographic printer in Cincinnati that has been in operation since 1979. The company has grown considerably over the years, adding experienced staff and state-of-the-art equipment. Yet as with most every part of printing these days, there is always room for improvement. Especially with color.

Gray Balance and G7® are two terms that are hardly new to the printing industry. Gray balancing your process is a concept we have accepted for decades as a logical step towards process control and color management, and yet still today it is not widely practiced. In essence, gray balance on press is simply calibrating the printing process similar to what we did for scanners and analog film photography in days past.

The goal of an effective proofing system is to ensure predictable, repeatable results throughout a print run by achieving the closest possible match between the proof and the printing press using color management and screening techniques. An effective proofing system will be able to accurately reproduce trap and overprint characteristics, together with the fine lines and text that are critical in package and label design. Inks or dyes, media, RIPs, and color management tools all will play important supporting roles.

The sheer variety of flexographic printing techniques has been an undeniable boon to the field of packaging and labeling. It has also been something of a double-edged sword in resisting the establishment of standard criteria and practical process controls associated with color-managed systems. To remedy this state of affairs, the Flexographic Technical Association (FTA) 12 years ago sought to impose order on potential chaos by developing a set of Flexographic Image Reproduction Specifications and Tolerances—better known as FIRST.

Color management (CM) commonly refers to the methods employed to ensure quality reproduction of four-color process printing. From the perspective of the printer, converter, or trade shop, color management is all about reproducing color on a printing press to match a target.

Of all the assets associated with a given brand, color is arguably the most identifiable. And not just any color, but rather the intense, vibrant color that differentiates a company from its competition and is a key component of high-impact graphics designed to grab the consumer's attention and hold it long enough to trigger a purchase decision.

WOOD DALE, Ill.—RUCO Inks of Eppstein, Germany announced the opening of RUCO USA in Wood Dale, Ill. RUCO USA carries the full line of RUCO UV inks. With this new plant comes an expansion of the full UV product line including the 080-UV dry offset ink, a low-migration, ITX-FREE ink suited for printing speeds of 600 pieces per minute, specifically for the decoration of food packaging cups.

TUEBINGEN, Germany—GMG, a developer and supplier of high-end color management and proofing solutions, announced that it has established a subsidiary in Japan. GMG Japan, headed by Kazutami Ando, is responsible for organizing the distribution of GMG’s software solutions, logistics, and technical support.

The role of color process control plays in enhancing reproduction quality and productivity in package printing cannot be overstated. Without appropriate process control, costly rework, waste, and unnecessary delays in production can result, potentially undermining the salability of the product. However, as the old adage says: you can't control what you can't measure.

Among the key influencers driving the implementation of monitor-based soft proofing and online collaboration, reduced costs and shorter time to market are twin forces to be reckoned with. Decreasing the number of hard copy proofs that are produced and shared among multiple stakeholders in different locations simultaneously yields savings in the form of shipping costs, faster customer signoffs, and potentially significant reductions in chemistry, materials, power, and other elements of the hardcopy proofing process