pressSign's New Mobile App

In the past I've told you about pressSIGN and it's ability to tell in a very clever way if a job is within a determined color space. I've also told you about that with pressSign and a spectrophotometer you can scan a color bar and the software will tell you which ink keys need to go up and which ink keys need to go down. I've told you that pressSign provides very easy to understand job reports.
What I'm about to tell you makes this product ever more interesting. Imagine you are out of the office and would like to know how is your press room doing. How many jobs have been printed. How close have has your press been to your color standards on these jobs? Even chat with the press operator. This is all possible on the new version of pressSIGN-mobile for iOS. From your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or mobile web browser you can access information in real time from your pressroom.
Every production manager's dream, to be sitting by the pool sipping Mai Tais while he gets updates from work.
If you want to try it out for yourself, our friends at Bodoni have setup a live demo that you can access by clicking here.

pressSIGN Job Information

pressSIGN Job Measurements

pressSIGN Press Operator Chat

Live from the press room

Dear Reader,

I'm at a very large flexo printer in Mexico doing a Star Proof calibration. So far our result our results on the Epson WT7900 have been great. We are doing two calibrations, one on Epson Clear Proof Film, the other on Epson Metallic Proof Film. On the Epson Clear Proof we have over 97% of our Pantone® guide (1126 colors) matching. While on the Epson Metallic Proof Film we have over 90%.



The next step is to calibrate Star Proof to their presses. But before we get to that, we calibrated their press to G7. As I write this, we are are reading the values from the confirmation run. So far the numbers look great.

The idea behind G7 on a flexo press is to have a shared appearance with SWOP 3 and GRACoL. In other words, the idea is that what's printed on a G7 calibrated flexo press looks like things printed in other presses.

By the time I leave this customer, they will have their presses calibrated to G7, their proofer matching their presses and better Pantone® color accuracy on proofs than ever before.

Printing Labels across the Pond

This week I've been in our UK office. I've learning about the iSys Apex 1290 digital label printer. A machine designed to print photo quality images along with variable data on a variety of media products, which include tag stock up to 12 point in thickness, adhesive label stock and various synthetic medias.

The Apex 1290 digital label printer is driven by Express Label Print, a nifty software solution from Compose. Express Label Print or ELP, can handle a multitude of different stocks and optimizes label layouts to reduce media waste. You can print on pre cut media or also import your CF2 die cut files for the best possible layout.
You can add variable data to your print jobs on the Apex 1290 digital label printer with Compose Variprint.

Below is a video of the Apex 1290 digital label printer in action:

On this trip I've also visited customers to talk about press calibration and the advantage of having presses and proofers matching common specifications and standards. I've also taken the opportunity to learn from my European colleagues about their experience with ISO 12647-2.



Simon, Tom and me at BHF in Dartford responding to our customer's questions.

Tonight I'll have pint thinking not thinking about the flight back to California.

Contact me if you have any questions about the Apex 1290 or anything else that catches your eye on this blog.

Calibrating a Fast Press

This month I got to calibrate a very fast narrow web press. This press can print at 700' per minute. Getting the color right quickly is paramount. Failing to do so, implies an incredible amount of wasted paper. A clear issue was that the press was plugging values over 80%, specially on the black channel. To calibrate the press I used our Ink Optimizer product. Basically I created an ICC of the press by averaging measurements from several press sheets. This to allow for press variations.
The paper being used on press was type 1. The press' CMYK Lab values were within the GRACoL ICC profile and ISO tolerances. However, the RGB values were quite off. I configured our Ink Optimizer to have GRACoL was the input color space (profile). As for output, I used the ICC I created for the customer. This makes all jobs, processed by our ink optimizer and printed on the customer's press, to look like they were printed on a G7 calibrated sheet feed press.
The results were very impressive, no more plugged shadows. Colors were bright and crisp. We printed a sample job that uses well known images and they matched the GRACoL samples I had with me. The customer was very happy, so was I.
Have you though about calibrating your press? Give us a call and we'll help you get there.

G7 Press Calibration. It makes sense

I'd like to start this blog talking about press calibration. This was originally sent out as an e-mail to our mailing list recipients. If you'd like to be part of our mailing list, please click on the link located within the side bar.

Let's get to it: We recently got certified by IDEAlliance as G7 Experts. What this means is that we can visit, calibrate and certify our customers as G7 Master Printers on site.

The G in G7 stands for grayscale and the 7 for the seven colors it uses as reference: CMYK + RGB. RGB are the ink traps, and getting their color right is just as important as getting the right color on the CMYs.

There are many myths around G7. Many think that special inks are needed to be able to print within the GRACoL Specs. The fact is that inks are an ISO standard (ISO 2846-1) so it does not matter which litho ink you are using; if you are using quality ink, it's more than likely your ink is within the standard. What does matter is the amount of ink needed to produce the expected color: this is what will vary per ink manufacturer.

Is it G7 or GRACoL? It's easy to get confused with so many acronyms and classifications out there: GRACoL, GRACoL 2007 and G7. I'll try to make things simple: GRACoL is the specification of how a commercial offset lithography press should print. In other words, it's how the ideal press sheet from the great press in the sky would look like. GRACoL 2007 is the latest specification of GRACoL, while G7 is the grayscale definition and calibration method common to SWOP and GRACoL. In other words, G7 describes the grayscale and how to calibrate a press so its output resembles the one from the great press in the sky.

On a G7 calibrated press sheet, the CMY grays should be neutral. Basically, if you were to compare CMY values versus K values, you'll find that they visually match. This makes it very easy to confirm that the press sheet is printing correctly.

Typically, printers are under the impression that this certification is useful only if their customers are demanding it. But G7 makes more sense than what most printers think. What many have not realized yet is that printing to G7 standards is very simple. Plus, it makes most jobs easier to print. There's less make-ready time and most importantly, the proof finally matches the press sheet accurately.

Besides offering press calibration and G7 Certification services to our customers, Compose has a suite of tools to confirm that color is being reproduced correctly. Tools that will allow consistent and accurate color throughout the workflow. This suite of tools is called pressSIGN-Pro.

We have found that clients want the monitor to match the proof and the proof to match the press sheet. We can help with our pressSIGN-Pro-suite. It makes it easy to ensure that colors match throughout the workflow.

This is our first time sending a newsletter like this; I hope that you'll find this information useful and you'll think of us when you are ready to calibrate your press or presses. If you have any questions, feedback or suggestions, please drop me a line.