Hue & Cry for CONTROL over COLOR

For all the talk about the future viability of graphic arts firms hinging on competitive differentiation and the ability to provide media-agile color solutions to meet divergent customer needs, aspirations toward end-to-end color management remain elusive.

Peder Nelson, a graphic arts consultant with Chromaticity Inc., Grand Rapids, Mich., compares the situation to physical fitness: "You know you're supposed to exercise, and you can see that you probably should, but you're likely to put it off until next month."

Since color management first became a regular panel topic at Seybold Seminars events in the early 1990s, software and hardware solutions have never been cheaper or easier to use. Suddenly, the typical customer can figure out what to do, or at least how to get started with the proper initial guidance. Still, adoption is underwhelming, to say the least.

Nelson is a former systems integrator who began testing color management systems several years ago and has acted as a consultant on the topic to roughly 250 printers and design shops nationwide. The consultant defines color management as a technology that predicts how color is either captured or output within a color reproduction workflow.

"If we can predict how a device will output color, then we can either optimize it or manipulate it," he explains. "As an example, we will profile a printing press and optimize how it reproduces color. Then we will profile proofing devices or monitors in order to manipulate them to reproduce color similar to the printing press."

Whether the basic aim is to get an acceptable scan or an exact press match or color proof, color management quickens the process, translating into hard dollars in labor and material savings and faster turnaround of proofs.

In the past, proponents have been criticized for overselling the abilities of color management, lending users the impression that once their devices were profiled all their color woes would be history. But Nelson says that only in the past year have products in this arena really begun to do all that their advertisements have claimed.

There now exists a real emphasis on compatibility and resolving workflow issues. Drivers here have been the ICC-enabling of Adobe Photoshop as well as the introduction of RIPs that can have profiles put right into them, testifies Nelson, who says that he has tested and installed for printers products such as GretagMacbeth ProfileMaker, Itec ColorBlind, Kodak ColorFlow, MonacoColor, and Praxisoft CompassProfile, to name but a few.

"Color management is not some boilerplate thing, and that's the hardest part about it—it's going to be different for everybody," says Nelson. "There are a million different variables that users need to take into consideration, like different networks, PC and Mac environments, and different front-ends. The products don't lend themselves into being sold as a package. Everyone should be after more of a customized set-up.

"I might recommend to a printer a Gretag profiling solution, which has a user interface easy enough for almost anybody to understand, but then suggest Praxisoft software for implementing profiles in the workflow, then propose the use of X-Rite instruments."

Beeline Color Center and DMB Imaging, Inc., a mid-size wide-format commercial printer based in Des Moines, Iowa, purchased a complete suite of color management tools four years ago, including products from GretagMacbeth and Praxisoft.

According to Beeline Color vice president Steve Strooh, his firm quickly found that its first steps toward understanding and using its new tools were ineffective and faltering, so it contracted Chromaticity to assist with implementation, workflow integration, and training in ICC color management procedures and practices.

"It's not practically possible to account for all the cost savings resulting from our newly implemented color management workflow," reports Strooh. "But for the first time, the vast majority of our initial prints were color-accurate and consistent even when using different batches of media and inks. We also realized improved similarity between CMYK and RGB output devices. This streamlined production retooling saved us time and materials, but most importantly our customers recognized our commitment to 'getting it right.'

"We were able to improve our color quality while reducing turnaround time. In convincing our largest customer to join us in a color-managed workflow, for example, they have eliminated hours' worth of manual file manipulation per job."

"I've been trying to push ICC color management at my company for quite some time, but after some less-than-successful dabbling early on, I've not been able to convince our prepress manager that we ought to dabble again," admits Thom Brainard, director of technology for Baesman Printing, a mid-size commercial printer located in Hilliard, Ohio.

"And why should he be convinced?" Brainard continues. "He's got a Kodak Approval that our press operators love. He's been able to manually correct our Iris proofs to the Approval to a pretty darn close match using the eyeball method. He's been able to get decent CMYK scans off his drum scanner. And all our proofing and imaging devices are linearized and calibrated so that the color doesn't drift."

But Brainard contends that ICC color management provides even greater consistency and a more scientific approach to getting all of the various color devices to match.

"There is some debate as to whether or not ICC profiling would give us an even tighter match to press than what we can do visually; while our monitors are manually tweaked, they could be better," assesses Brainard, who continues to question whether color management is worth the "steep learning curve" or expenses associated with training and maintenance.

He says, "My argument is that the more devices we have, the more we need color management. Probably my strongest argument for adoption of color management is that I think our industry in general should try to infuse more 'science' into what has long been an art or craft."

At Columbia, S.C.-based Crowson Stone Printing Company, the decision to take a second shot at implementing ICC color management came with the purchase last month of a Hewlett-Packard 5000 ink-jet proofer. Says company management at the 50-employee general commercial printing firm, it was a year-and-a-half earlier when the computer-to-plate (CTP) printer's first integration of color management "failed miserably."

"At that time, with our limited color management knowledge and training, we struggled trying to create usable ICC profiles for our Iris proofing device utilizing Gretag's Spectroscan with a third-party profiling software product," recalls Crowson Stone prepress systems manager David Schmidt. "Instead, we found we were able to manage our Iris proofers just through linearization, then the application of a tone calibration curve. But with the HP proofer and its interface to Heidelberg Delta technology, the only way to color manage was through profiles, so it forced our hand."

With just a day of on-site assistance from Heidelberg to train Crowson Stone personnel on the company's installation of Heidelberg's Printopen software for proof profiles, a proof that was a close press match was quickly obtained, attests Schmidt.

"We still are in an early evaluation period and are testing different substrates," Schmidt continues, "but we are very encouraged and have some initial results of profiling to uncoated sheets that are quite remarkable."

Schmidt says he is now working to convey to his fellow employees the implications of process control in the pressroom to consistently and repeatedly hit Crowson Stone's new color benchmarks.

"It's a little bit of an inversion of the traditional proofing model where the proof is what drove the pressroom," he explains. "Now the pressroom creates the standard by which the proofs are made; we in prepress then produce proofs to match that ability to print. That was another awakening for us. Process control in the pressroom has become even more significant than it had been in the past."

Iain Trevor Pike—worldwide product manager for X-Rite, Inc., and a world-renowned lecturer on color management issues in the graphic arts industry—confirms that the biggest obstacle in color management's adoption in the pressroom is the requirement of a special test run or printed target.

Simply put, he says, it is seen as a costly, odious task.

X-Rite introduced at Drupa 2000 its Spectrofiler 2 product, which relies on a miniaturized color management test image used to create an ICC profile, as a new approach to minimizing the effort involved in creating color management profiles. Essentially, explains Pike, the test image is reduced to the size of an ordinary color bar, making every job on press a potential place to gather color management information.

Komori is one of the early adopters of X-Rite Spectrofiler technology and, in its particular case, color can be managed to achieve demonstrated print-to-proof matching in 30 press sheets, says Pike.

"The idea is that you have a typical color bar along the top upper edge of the sheet, and then underneath you'd have a second color bar with one or two tiers that would be the color management test image you use to create your ICC profile," Pike explains.

He adds, "The intent is that you use the top bar for process control; if you find that your process is in control, you may opt to scan the second bar with automated technology to characterize it. You may even measure multiple times to gain an average of how the press runs. After you've got that measurement information, you average it and send it to software to create an ICC profile. That's not been done before."

When it comes to mixing and matching profiling software solutions, interoperability has never been better, say consultants, who often will recommend to a client a potpourri of suppliers. Still, many printers and service bureaus like the idea of making one vendor responsible.

Scholin Brothers Printing, a 100-employee general commercial sheetfed printer located in St. Louis, Mo., tested three different major ICC profiling packages—CreoScitex ProfileWizard Suite, GretagMacbeth ProfileMaker, and Monaco Systems EZ Color—before deciding the ProfileMaker package best suited their needs.

Scholin Brothers director of technology and education Todd Wellman, who also is a consultant to small to medium-size printers and design agencies in the St. Louis region looking to adopt color management, stresses that it's not the package that makes or breaks color management's success in a shop—it's the management of the package in the workflow.

"The biggest thing to stress in color management is management," says Wellman, who also advises clients on the development of an internal auditing system for end-to-end continuous color management. "The same printers who beg, 'Give me something that works out of the box and doesn't need a lot of maintenance' are the ones who own expensive equipment that can't run or hold color consistently without direct and consistent operator intervention.

"What vendors won't tell you," he continues, "and what printers don't want to hear is that an ICC profile is only going to work great if there are no changes in any of the variables, such as paper, ink, or blankets. Once any of those change even slightly, the profile starts to lose a little bit of its integrity.

"Whenever you create a profile, it's a pretty good match to that target, that day, with that proofer, or whatever the particular device may be. It doesn't necessarily reflect what's going to happen across the entire gamut of color when you start to work with four-color scans or the printing press. That's where color editing or tweaking needs to go in. Most profiling, I've found, needed a minimum of three tweaks to really become acceptable. Usually 12 to 15 tweaks is needed to make color reproducible throughout."

Making process control more palatable for pressrooms working in digital environments is the aim of GretagMacbeth's new iCPrint integrated sheet scanning, color evaluation, and control system, launched at Drupa 2000 and now in field-testing stages.

"This software allows a user to set up a job, determine the number of zones, and read colors bars," explains Gretag product manager Kathy Hofknecht. "Not only does it indicate if the color is on track, it makes recommendations to get a better match. One of the areas where it really shines is in reducing time for makeready. With printers dealing with shorter press runs, makeready time becomes more critical. iCPrint helps keep the press adjusted, and makes adjustments before it gets out of line."

Tim Poole, vice president of operations for Dome Printing, a $20 million, 90-employee family-run commercial printer located in Sacramento, is convinced that color management, in conjunction with being 100% CTP, has become his firm's "signature."

Poole has assigned a staff technician knowledgeable in color management to devote at least half of his workday to managing color controls. Dome has two CreoScitex Trendsetter Spectrum proofers employing Imation Digital Matchprint media, and uses Heidelberg's LinoColor software.

"While companies like Agfa, CreoScitex, and Heidelberg sell equipment and can guide printers and give them tools, it's not their responsibility to show them how to calibrate and manage color," reasons Poole, who sees color management as opening Pandora's Box by bringing to light "some really serious problems with very good printers."

He believes the long learning curve associated with integrating a successful color management program into a printer's workflow is what makes firms continue to shy away from adoption.

"Every printing facility has different conditions, requirements, and parameters, and it gets complicated," Poole explains. "Even if someone had our identical equipment, we couldn't 'cookie-cutter' in what we have. The age of the equipment makes a difference, as do ink formulas, plates—everything. For example, if we use positive-working Fuji plates and someone else uses negative Kodak plates, they react differently, so the calibration and controls naturally will be different. Calibration is set up slightly differently for the same piece of equipment, even direct from the factory."

In his seven years assisting commercial printers with color management installations, Louis Dery, director of research and development for TGLC, Inc., a color management consultancy in Quebec City, Quebec, says he finds printers who attempt color management measures from scratch—buying tools off the shelf without paying for training—wind up in one of two categories.

"They either give up and basically say color management doesn't work, or they realize they need someone to come in and help them," states Dery, whose firm now lists approximately 250 clients currently using color management successfully in their color production workflows. "What we've found up to now is that creating a viable color management environment within a workflow often requires external people or specialists to really make it happen. There are just too many things that in the end can make it fail."

If printers believe that color management is too much trouble to bother with, imagine what corporate graphics departments and ad agencies that buy print are thinking.

"Printers can implement color management all they want on their own island, but if none of their customers are using it, it's very limited," reasons Chromaticity, Inc.'s Peder Nelson. "Color management is about a whole process."

Luckily, new advances in hardware and software are changing attitudes on both ends, and creatives are seeing real benefits in time savings as well as in costs associated with re-dos. The reward: the color between their monitors and internal proofs match the final printed product, not to mention prints match what is seen on a monitor.

"As creatives become involved in digital photography, and especially more digital proofing and cross-media publishing, they'll have to deal with many more color issues than ever before," says GretagMacbeth's Cathy Hofknecht. "This new interest in color only helps prepress house and printers that've invested in color management, because now the designers are using it at the front-end of the process. The better the quality and the more complete the color description is coming in, the better quality that's going to be coming out the end of the press."

Gretag began shipping last month its new iQueue color management workflow tool enabling users at any stage in the design, prepress, or production stage to eliminate the repetitive manual labor required to individually apply ICC profiles to images and files. iQueue, named for individual workflow queues, makes it possible to have a printer spooler or hot folder as queue input, and a printer or folder as queue output as well.

Simple workflow automation can be set up for frequent tasks such as converting general-purpose RGB files into those suitable for printing by different systems; making CMYK-to-CMYK transformations; transformation of RGB, L*a*b, or CMYK data for proofing simulation either to a PostScript printer or into a RIP; and other functions such as scanner and digital camera RGB conversions to L*a*b or output to CMYK.

"Not only does iQueue meet a vital need to color manage PostScript and PDF workflows, its ease of use and competitive price makes it highly attractive to organizations that can't justify expensive and complex workflow tools," says Hofknecht. "Its user interface is really designed to simplify the process of applying profiles."

This month, Monaco Systems, Inc. will launch Version 2.0 of its MonacoEZcolor product, which is aimed at offering the two-year-old color management profiling solution to a broader range of professionals in the creative community, even those without ICC-compliant applications.

The new version comes with Monaco ColorWorks workflow utility and includes a separate branch for editing output profiles where users have individual control over color balance (in highlights, midtones, and shadows), saturation, and contrast. According to the company, patent-pending expansion tables make scanner-based profiling of pigment-based inks and dye-sublimation printers possible, while interfaces with MonacoSensor monitor colorimeter allows users to calibrate their monitors with MonacoEZcolor without the use of a colorimeter.

Demystifying the process of calibrating color for monitors and printers to give creative professionals control over their color is the impetus behind ColorVision's Monitor Spyder, a monitor calibration device. The company also recently introduced its Profiler Pro software package, a printer-profiling Photoshop plug-in aimed at graphics professionals and designed for use with spectrophotometers, including ColorSavvy ColorMouse, Gretag SpectroLino, SpectroStar SpectroCam, and X-Rite Digital Swatchbook.

For more sophisticated profile editing, ColorVision's DoctorPro allows editing of output profiles using virtually all of Photoshop's editing tools. ColorVision's RGB suite 1 bundle includes Monitor Spyder with PhotoCal, which uses information provided by the calibrator to produce a custom ICC profile, and Profiler RGB, a Photoshop plug-in that creates printer profiles.

The effort to enhance communication of color information and support between printer and customer parties to support extended color management systems is behind X-Rite's new ColorMail technology, unveiled at Drupa 2000 and expected to be on the market later this year.

"As the ColorMail name implies, letters [single-color files] and packages [grouped multiple colors] are shared via e-mail so they can be added to normal communication between print buyers, designers, prepress operations, and printing companies," says X-Rite's Iain Trevor Pike. "As a result, print collaboration and print brokering e-commerce solutions can readily make use of ColorMail to communicate color specifications and vendor compliance information."

ColorMail contains several elements, including color name, customer/project information, spectral data, color difference requirements (tolerance for acceptability), and optional color recipe data (for ink formulation, for instance).