Not every test print is perfect. If that’s discovered after the press run, what do you do? Use that poorly printed data, or ask for another run?

It’s a rock and hard place for the prepress manager – take the risk, or spend £100s (or £1000s) on another test print. Some tools try to average or smooth the press data to improve the results before producing a profile, but the team at ColorLogic know that’s not enough. Color Ant’s data manipulation tools and fully spectral colour engine handle even the worst case scenarios, giving you a useable dataset for your profiles.

• Automatically corrects your data measurement files.
• Detailed reports, customised charts for specific processes
• 2D, 3D, Spider Web and Curve tools for a 360 view of the press.

OUR THREE FAVOURITE COLOR ANT TOOLS:

• Protecting highlight area behaviour for flexo and gravure print profiling. This tool ensures that data measured for profiling will accurately reflect the minimum dot and ‘bump curve’ behaviour of the highlight area while also averaging and smoothing the other areas of the colour chart – particularly useful when measuring and averaging multiple charts.
• Adding or removing colour channels to create ECG colour sets without having to press fingerprint. This feature lets you measure a standard colour set like CMYK, and then add channels from spectral colour measurements. The ColorAnt spectral colour engine will calculate the overprinting effect from the measured CMYK and predict how the extra channel will behave. It is so acurate, you can replace channels before making a ICC profile of your desired colour set.
• Correct TVI to ICC profile, G7® or ISO specifications, or manual values. Nightmare. The test prints are done, density was bang on, but when the charts measured it’s showing magenta dot gain was well out of spec. With this tool, you can select the TVI curve you want and update it. ColorAnt will calculate the revised spectral data and update the table so you can make the ICC. Saves time, money and face.

ICC profiles come in many flavours – RGB, CMY, CMYK, Multichannel, 3D, 4D and Dev-n – but not all systems are designed to make all profile types.

CoPrA makes creating, editing and deploying any of these profile types easy. it can create combination profiles from a measurement dataset – if you measure CMYK 4c chart it will also create 3c alternative profiles at the same time, which is a great feature for dgital printers who want to reduce click charges on photo work.

If you’re working with Extended Colour Gamut (ECG), the software will automatically make profiles for each potential colour set – CMYKOGV measurements can be used to produce CMYK/CMYKO/CMYKOG and so on without a new press fingerprint.

• Make Gray, RGB, CMY, CMYK and Multichannel ICC printer profiles.
• Generate Device-link ICC combinations of ALL colour spaces
• Reduce Ink consumption with ink saving device-link profiles.
• Update profiles by comparing a ‘mini-wedge’ to original ICC
• Automatic reports showing expected behaviour of profiles.
• Preview effect of profiles on included test images directly in the application.

PLUS, OUR THREE FAVOURITE TOOLS – LIFESAVERS

• Utilize first printing dot/min dot for ideal flexo profiles. Great for making sure the profile won’t introduce colour data into the separation below the first printed dot (or min dot). This reduces ‘fix-up’ retouching and the time lost in trying to correct CMYK separations when converting from input CMYK to ‘My Press’ profiles – particularly helpful in wide web flexo.
• Visually edit device-link profiles for more accurate results. Not 100% happy with the profile results? Open the CMYK or RGB editing image in Photoshop, make the changes you want – CoPrA will take over and update the profile for you. A great way to fine tune difficult areas like minimum dot on individual channels in flexo or to fine tune highlight curves and balance in the profile. Combined with processing layered PSD files, this reduces retouching in flexo packaging – and no need for expensive plug-ins.
• Extensive colour generation tools. There is nothing that can’t be adjusted in CoPrA – we love it. If you want to set a first/min dot, keep primary and secondary colours pure, use target ICC TAC/Black settings, or overwrite your own to strip out unnecessary colours – it’s all there. CoPrA includes gamut map presets for all forms of print which is ideal for customers who like to follow the suggestions, but these are easily customised for the ultra-experienced colour ninjas that want to do their own thing. It’s not a Swiss army knife – it’s a full snap-on toolkit.

Press Matcher is a colour server that uses CGS’s 4-D device-link colour engine. Ink saving is built-in, which means it pays for itself, quickly.

CMYK-to-CMYK colour transformations are more accurate than standard (3D) ICC profiles. Artefacts like rainbowing, coloured greys and incorrect conversion of skin tones get removed – but your printing processes still match (gamut allowing).

Ideal if you’re working to FOGRA/ISO specs, widely used by printers who are trying to match FOGRA39/ISOCoatedV2 proofs while printing on ultra-white OBA rich stocks. (read our Real Help Guide #1 for more on this). Simple reseparation of the PDF file adds yellow to the highlight to reduce make ready and get you printing correctly – fast, while the built-in GCR will reduce the amount of ink on the press and improve overall colour stability.

PDFs can be flattened, spot colours merged and digital printers recalibrated with the additional tools, or the software can be left to simply ‘do it’s thang’ as repeatability is what it does best.

We love PRESS MATCHER for its simplicity, and its ability to configure directly with COLOR TUNER (which makes it a one-stop shop for your proofing and colour management in offset, litho and digital). But if you’re in packaging or large format, then you’ll benefit from having the full ColorLogic suite.