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Colour Management, proofing and ISO 12647-2 standardisation at Ipex

July 19, 2010 | By Paul Lindstrom

While you might think that colour management should be a mature and stable technology by now, 17 years after the creation of the International Color Consortium (ICC), Paul Lindstrom’s Ipex update shows that there is lot of activity and progress in the field.

The Quato ProofView 700 monitor has about twice the brightness of other LCD monitors, 700 cd/m2. This means it can be placed side by side, or even inside, a viewing booth, and create the same appearance on the softproofs, as for the hardcopy proofs or final prints viewed in the booth

X-Rite unveiled the successor of ProfileMaker by previewing iOne Profiler. This explains why there haven’t been any upgrades to ProfileMaker in the last three years -– X-Rite has pooled much of its R&D software resources into this new solution. Using a new colour engine called i1Prism, the profiles render images with higher details in both highlights and deep shadows. The samples we saw looked promising.

Unlike with the ProfileMaker suite, all functions can be found in one single software program, with a completely new user interface. X-Rite themselves say that they have brought the best from the three existing profiling solutions – the control software for ColorMunki, Monaco Profiler and ProfileMaker. X-Rite stated that as well as being capable of creating ICC-based profiles, iOneProfiler is able to create the new types of colour profiles for Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Complementing this new profiling package is also the colour library Pantone Link. More tangible products are a suite of colour guides for the classic Pantone Matching System (not the relatively new Goe System), but arranged in a different way than the old Colour Guides. This new series is called Pantone Plus and is arranged in a “chromatic arrangement of colours,” together with metallics and a broader range of neons.

Alwan demonstrated the Print Standardizer, once again proving that it understands ISO-based colour management and process control in depth. The printer can check that both calibration and production are fully compliant according to, for example, the ISO 12647-2 printing standard, whether using the Fogra methodology or the US GRACoL way to do things. Complex tasks are made simple thanks to a clear and user-friendly interface. If the user wants to optimise the printing results, increase printability and perhaps save ink, the CMYK Optimizer can be set to work in tandem with Print Optimizer.

CGS used the term Hybrid Proofing to describe their latest portfolio of products in the Oris series. The Oris Certified Suite contains solutions for both softproofing, hardcopy proofing and press optimisation. And all in respect of acknowledged standards, hence ‘Certified’ in the name. Hybrid Proofing means both monitor based softproofing and hardcopy proofs.

The new Oris Approve is an ‘interactive web-based collaborative approval tool.’ The Oris Press Matcher has been expanded with a web interface so that all output devices can be both quality managed and colour managed in a centralised way. This includes both conventional offset presses and digital productions presses, as well as large format devices.

CGS had developed part of the Taskero Quality Management system that Fujifilm launched at drupa two years ago. CGS will now market and sell this under its own name. Part of the solution is Oris Ink Saver which besides saving ink, toner and solvents also reduces paper waste.

Epson have had a great success with the Epson Stylus Pro WT7900, where the letter W stands for White ink. This is very useful, particularly with packaging proofing workflows. For flexo proofing Epson cooperates with, among others, GMG to offer screen dot accurate proofs.

Four Pees, which acts as an umbrella for several software solutions, presented the DFlux workflow solution. While the modules in DFlux can be bought separately from the vendors Axaio, Callas, Elpical and Enfocus, the idea with DFlux is to offer the integration and installation training for those modules so the user quickly gets into production. DFlux offers automated PDF generation, preflight and colour management. And image enhancement in an early stage if you include the Elpical Claro image analysis and optimisation software.

GMG presented the online proofing service called Proofr (yes, that’s not a spelling mistake). The idea is to link together those GMG customers worldwide who can produce certified proofs on behalf of clients. In this way, for example, an Ad Agency doesn’t need to courier proofs across the world but simply looks for the nearest local GMG approved ‘proof provider,’ to have the proofs made locally. The service hasn’t started yet, but a website is set up and will go live shortly. Quite a clever idea we must admit!

Other news from GMG is new or renewed partnerships, for example with X-Rite, who will brand the GMG Print Control software as the X-Rite PressOptimizer. Another strategic partnership is the one with Sun Chemicals, to build a colour database for ink behaviour on many different substrates. This could be very useful, especially for packaging printers who struggle daily to reproduce correct spot colours on all kind of substrates.

Sun Chemical already cooperates with Esko on this, and with the close cooperation GMG has with X-Rite, we can expect some crossover effects, which will add positively, we hope, to the quality of such an ink/colour database. The database will use the X-Rite colour data format CxF, recently suggested to be included in the ISO standards, but goes beyond what CxF can carry at the moment. The colour database uses what is called the Sun SmartColour Engine, already containing over 250,000 so called ‘identities.’

From Gti (Graphic Technology Inc) we learned that a high Colour Rendering Index in the lamps in a viewing booth doesn’t necessarily mean an excellent colour presentation. It’s apparently possible to ‘cheat’ when manufacturing fluorescent tubes (no names mentioned) to push the CRI value up, and still have a quite poor or spiky spectral curve for the generated light. Better to have a reasonably high CRI index (the ISO 3664 standard states that it shall at least be above 90, where a value of 100 would be a perfect match to natural daylight) and a good overall spectral distribution. This is, of course, what Gti choose in their viewing cabinets.

Kodak has further developed the Insite Creative Workflow with the Smart review System. This allows colour managed monitor softproofing as well as session control including logging the activities, events and annotations. Matchprint Virtual is still a core part of this, and approved proofs can automatically be handed over downstream to the prepress department.

ColorFlow Quality Management is an obvious companion to this, and can be bought as a stand-alone application or integrated to the Prinergy RIP System. Besides keeping track of all vital colour-related settings, ColorFlow can perform ink optimisation and spot colour replacement.

Mellow Colour now operates worldwide and helps printers print according to defined standards, both through consulting, but also by installing the PrintSpec software suite. Step-by-step, both proofers and presses are calibrated and optimised to the printing standard of choice.

Mellow Colour is UK-based, and for the local market they have quickly added a feature to PrintSpec that guides the user to check conformance to the recently published BPIF (British Printers International Federation) ISO 12647-2 certification scheme. This is not only about colour management, because the BPIF certification scheme does not only concern itself with ISO 12647-2 related matters. It also involves some core ISO 9001 quality management aspects, looking at the whole print production process, including viewing conditions, document assessment (preflight according to PDF/X), soft- and hardcopy proofing, platemaking and, of course, printing, including controlling the variation over the whole print run. And add to that control over error handling and (worst case) customer complaints. So if a printer thinks they are ready to be certified according to this extended ISO 12647-2 standard, Mellow Colour with PrintSpec can assess if there is a gap between the present work practices and print quality, and what is specified in the ISO standard.

Mimaki cooperates with GMG on proofing solutions, and demonstrated how the Mimaki UJF 706 UV-printer can be used for mock-up production in, for example, packaging proofing workflows. Roland also cooperates with GMG, and demonstrated how the Roland VersaUV LEC-330 large format printer can print on virtually any substrate, be it aluminium, fabric, foil, leather, paper or plastic. The printer can even simulate crocodile skin (we are sure the crocodiles will appreciate that hugely).

Quato caused a splash on the monitor market by presenting a proofing monitor with 700 cd/m2 brightness. This is about twice the brightness of other products on the market, and means that for the first time in history you can successfully place a monitor inside the viewing booth and compare hardcopy proof or final prints with the digital document! The monitor is called ProofView 700, and will be sold at about €3000.

It contains a Hitachi S-IPS panel normally meant for industrial use, such as digital X-ray image evaluation, and high intensity CCFL fluoresent tubes for back-lit illumination. The ProofView passes the Udact monitor certification test tool (yes, we have tested a pre-launch model, and will come back with a full review). This means it’s compliant with the ISO 12646 standard for monitor based softproofing in accordance with hardcopy proofing for ISO 12647-compliant printing.

Verivide is a manufacturer of colour assessment cabinets (verivide is Latin and can roughly be translated as ‘see in truth’), and among the new products is the Fenestra proofing cabinet. It has an angled illumination which gives consistent light over the whole proof or print, eliminating light banding. It can mimic specular reflection – gloss papers appear as matte. It has a suction deck to hold the proof which also helps keep the surface flat and reduces the risk of stray reflections, and there are no sharp corners inside the booth, which also helps to reduce the possibility of reflections.

The booth and the D50 lamps together are, of course, an ISO 3664-compliant viewing system. The latest version of ISO 3664 standard suggests that the booth should be able to switch the light intensity between the ideal 2000 lux to a reduced level to match that of a standard LCD monitor, at around 600 lux (however, as you have read earlier about the new monitor from Quato, with that technology you actually don’t need to reduce the brightness in the viewing booth).

The viewing booth from Verivide was developed in cooperation with the scientists at the London College of Communications, especially Phil Green, PhD in colour science and technical secretary for the ICC. He’s also an expert in the technical committee for ISO standards for graphic arts production – all in all it bodes well for the quality of the Verivide products.

This is just a glimpse of all the colour management related news that could be seen at Ipex – unfortunately we probably have missed some – but this was in fact one the more interesting areas at the show indicating that many improvements in this field are becoming accessible to printers and print buyers.