GMG, the leading developer and
supplier of high-end color management software solutions, will be showing a
complete complement of color management and proofing systems for label printing
at booth 6511. Being held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center,
Rosemont, IL from September 9-11, Labelexpo Americas is the continent's largest
event for the label, product decoration, web printing and converting industry.
“While matching brand colors has
always been of paramount importance, the ongoing trend of printing labels on
digital presses - as well as traditional offset, flexo and gravure presses—has
made color management even more critical. It is now a matter of ensuring that
color from any print process matches that of any other process. It is also
critical, as the print supply chain extends itself, that color always matches no
matter who is working on a file, by accessing an image file from a master color
space. GMG is looking forward to demonstrating our expertise in just about any
facet of color management—from proofing to workflow,” comments Joseph Varone,
GMG Americas vice president of sales. “Specifically, we look forward to showing
our expertise in creating predictive proofing for spot colors and overprints
with our award-winning GMG OpenColor, and building complete, late-binding RGB
workflows with GMG ColorMaster.”
GMG OpenColor: Precisely predict the color appearance of printed inks
A major highlight at the GMG
booth is GMG OpenColor, the 2013 recipient of a Flexographic Technical
Association Technical Innovation Award and an InterTech Technology Award. A
continuing trend in label printing is the increasing complexity of jobs and the
use of multi-color printing. Many labels require different combinations of
inks, substrates, screening, and other variables. One of the most difficult
challenges facing a converter is accurately and reliably communicating color to
the supply chain. Until now, to accurately communicate a mix of colors, every
combination would require a specific test chart showing the different
combinations—a costly process that involves color fingerprint charts, the
making of plates, and lengthy testing.
GMG OpenColor is a proofing technology that precisely predicts the color
appearance of printed inks, particularly spot colors and ‘overprints’—inks
printed on top of each other. This allows the previously unattainable ability
to assure a proof will accurately simulate a printed result. GMG OpenColor
resolves this complex problem and provides highly accurate color profiles, with
less information.
The spectral color engine of GMG
OpenColor 1.1 is now capable of creating up to 15 channels profiles without
fingerprinting the press. The software automatically averages data, especially
helpful when importing data collected at different press run times. As a
result, any possible deviation is included in the final profile calculation.
Flexo prepress companies, particularly, will profit from the new color
intensity and dot gain adjustments. Users can define a target dot gain from a
specific printing process or adjust dot gain measurements to compensate for
possible faulty printing conditions, which can occur during reference print
runs or color standard productions. GMG OpenColor also has a connection to
spectral color information from Colibri (matchmycolor) and PantoneLIVE
(X-Rite). GMG OpenColor allows those who adopt Expanded Color Gamut Printing to
create 5-, 6- or 7-color profiles from just a few patches or with the help of
multicolor test charts.
GMG ColorMaster 2.1: Keep images in an RGB space until you need them
RGB data storage and workflows
have become increasingly popular, particularly with the use of a wider variety
of media and print processes. GMG ColorMaster is attractive for companies—such
as ad agencies, repro shops, prepress businesses and print buyers—that want to
keep their data in the RGB color space as long as possible. It also helps those
who process print globally—such as brand owners or global converters—who need
to consider different standards. GMG ColorMaster helps provide a color-accurate
late-binding RGB-workflow, meaning that images are not converted from their RGB
space until needed.
By viewing images in the GMG
ColorMaster color space, content originators—typically photographers—can make
image adjustments early before storing files into the database. Unlike other
RGB workflows, GMG ColorMaster offers viewing on a virtual CMYK color space,
which guarantees WYSIWYG for print—either previewed on a monitor, or a GMG
ColorMaster hard proof. Once the image has been retouched within the GMG
ColorMaster color space, the ‘master’ RGB file can be output to any industry
standard with confidence of its color accuracy. It offers a high degree of
automation, and prepress departments can experience up to 50% timesavings. GMG
ColorMaster 2.1 offers a process-neutral workflow and extremely flexible format
for image data storage. It supplies predefined settings and optimized profiles
for most popular target color spaces and a color space that covers all common
printing gamuts—including the ability to accurately convert CMYK files to RGB.
Using GMG ColorMaster assures once-only color correction, regardless of the
ultimate output standard and direct output to any media standard, without
further file alterations. With GMG ColorMaster, printers can experience shorter
print makeready times, and consistent print quality.
A complete resource of color management of proofing solutions
Many other GMG products will be
available for demonstration at Labelexpo. They include:
GMG ColorProof 5.5: With the most
recent version of the popular proofing software, users will not only find much
quicker startup and job creating times, but some helpful user interface
improvements – particularly within the new Manual Job Manager. Customers
working with packaging will benefit from the enhanced handling of white ink and
transparent areas when proofing on foil, along with enhanced integration with
GMG OpenColor. GMG DotProof users will find a much sharper dot. GMG ColorProof
now alerts the administrator when attention is needed—for example, to load
paper, calibrate a printer, or fix a job error. Full 64-bit support allows for
the use of more RAM, significantly boosting the processing power. For
packaging, GMG ColorProof 5.5 also offers optimized white printing and improved
quality control of spot colors for label companies. A remote proofing edition is also available
for supply chain partners to review hardcopies of proofs in their offices.
GMG ColorServer 4.9: A recently
updated version of the popular color management software, GMG ColorServer
provides superior, easy-to-use color management, delivering consistent and
repeatable color results to all output processes—print as well as online
digital displays. New for GMG ColorServer 4.9 is support for the PDF/VT-1
variable-data printing (VDP) file format. Part of the challenge of
variable-data printing is the often extremely fast file processing requirements
to ensure just-in-time delivery to the latest generation of high-speed digital
printing presses. GMG has addressed this issue from two directions. First, the
current 32-bit version of the application has been greatly optimized. Second,
for even faster performance, GMG is releasing a 64-bit native version, which
offers almost unlimited file processing capabilities. GMG ColorServer 4.9 also
offers an extremely accurate CMYK to RGB lossless conversion process that
enlarges the color space back to the file’s original RGB values. This allows
for color space normalization within an RGB-based image database, only
performing the device/process specific CMYK conversion at the final output
stage. The Paper Adaption Tool in GMG ColorServer lets print service providers
recalculate a file’s color data against a particular support material, even if
the particular proof simulates a different final stock.
GMG CoZone, a modular production
environment based in the cloud, is an indispensable control center for every
online production workflow. Content 100% safe; there is no more email
forwarding. Users can create configurable download access, with easy to manage
permission options. GMG CoZone integrates the cloud and project collaboration
with high-quality color management toolsets. The GMG CoZone Collaborate module
allows project participants to manage, review, proof and approve graphic arts
content. The latest version of GMG CoZone offers unique and intuitive mark-up
tools for online proofing. The GMG CoZone pricing model is ‘Pay per job’, which
means that licensing for unlimited number of users is available without causing
any additional costs.
“GMG is being adopted by many
label printers and brand owners who require matching colors on any substrate,”
adds Varone. We look forward to advising printers how to achieve accurate,
repeatable color for labels, no matter the workflow or print process,”
