Calibration of a single printing device is not always the easiest task, so it’s perhaps no surprise that matching multiple printers to each other is a significant challenge. With the rise of digital printing, our commercial printing customers frequently ask: “What is the best way to profile multiple devices of the same model?” The good…
Print Management Case Study: How One Customer Achieves Global Color Control
A couple of years ago I was working with a well-established company in Pennsylvania that specializes in “museum quality” art and photography books. They were considering several titles for their first Asia production attempt, but the company was concerned the quality that their reputation was built upon would not be upheld by the new…
Customer Q & A: Which Wedge Is Best?
Recently, a color process control manager at a large print production facility wanted to know if there is a more comprehensive chart available for daily digital color evaluations than an 12647-7 proofing wedge. He pointed out the IT8.7-4 has too many patches, and the P2P51 has too many gray finder patches. Reiterating a thought we’ve…
Color Management: How to Get in the Driver’s Seat
Long-time printing industry professionals know how difficult it is to achieve and maintain great color. Today, customers constantly demand higher quality and more consistency from their print suppliers, which makes color management a critical piece of any successful print business. Fortunately, a few easy steps will take you from feeling out of control to putting…
Set Your Files Up For Success
Print facilities say their biggest challenges to printing great color come in customer files. No matter how well a printer manages color in-house, the settings used on inbound files will always affect the quality and color of the final output. So how should print files be set up? Most importantly: If you have a specific…
Color Management 101: Color Spaces
Color Basics Color is dynamic. We all see it a little differently because color is the physical response of the eye to light + the mental interpretation of those responses. This makes printing color accurately a bit tricky until one has a basic understanding of color space. First, all color starts with light. The…
Color Management 101: Printer Consistency
Let’s be honest, no printing device is truly consistent. Print variance is inevitable. While minor variation over the course of weeks is normal, what you should be concerned with is either a sudden change outside the normal variation or a slow degradation over time. Some variation is mechanical in nature, like a print head getting…
Color Management 101: Process Control
When was the last time you spent hours selecting colors on your screen for a project to then send it to print and have your colors come out looking totally different? Color management is the key to keeping your color consistent. Companies who invest in managing their color workflows will quickly reap the benefits of…
What is a RIP and should you be printing with one?
A computer and printer speak different languages. The computer language needs to be translated to the printer language so the final print matches what is on the computer screen. If you were to travel to China without knowing Chinese you would need a translator to communicate with the locals. If your artwork does not have…
(Quick Tip Video) Installing ICC profiles on a Mac and Windows
If printing and color are important to you, ICC profiles will make all the difference in getting the results you desire! Here is a quick video and instructions of how to install ICC profiles on both Mac and Windows platforms. Click here to go to windows instructions Mac Instructions 1) Download the ICC Profile you…
