At end June in Nagano Japan, Mimaki released its enhanced Profile Master II (MPMII) colour management software for advanced ICC profiling and printer equalisation across several Mimaki JV Series printers in the same shop. An enhanced calibration function offers printers improved accuracy and consistency.

MPM II takes care of the slight colour variations when print heads age or are replaced. It calibrates JV printers in such a way that these differences are detected and adjusted, so that every print looks the same - even after print head changes. In addition MPM II’s equalization feature creates a consistent and highly accurate colour environment for all identical printers, allowing printers to quickly respond to bulk orders by clustering. The equalization feature allows the use of several output devices simultaneously as it calibrates all printers to the same colour values thereby enhancing performance, productivity and accuracy at the same time.

Last autumn, Mimaki released a new version of Raster Link Pro III that include the new feature for smooth 16-bit rendering. While rapid gradations of tone values tended to show tone jumps in the past, these are now eliminated, with the 16-bit rendering’s smooth gradations. Raster Link Pro III also automatically converts users’ existing 8-bit profiles into new 16-bit profiles, suitable for both 8-bit and 16 bit rendering. Despite the additional RIP processing required for 16-bit rendering overall RIP throughput is maintained or even improved.

Mimaki\'s White Layer Print functionality has also been enhanced. Prints on transparent materials are output simultaneously with white either underneath or over the image to create very vivid results. Additionally the white layer can be applied to graduated tints on transparent materials.

“We are proud that we can offer our customers an encompassing workflow and mature colour management tools for streamlining and enhancing their productivity and performance while using our JV-series of large and grand format printers”, says Mr. Yutaka Miyasaka, General Manager of the Mimaki RIP department. “In using Mimaki\'s high quality printers our customers have already decided for top of the class equipment to execute their jobs. We are now happy that we can support them with similarly state-of-the-art software products for today\'s demanding market.”