In the third Knowledge Sharing Workshop, Mr Afsal Kottal and Das Damodharan, from Percept Printing Solutions shared the knowledge about Colour Management and Process Control in Offset printing.
“Two years ago, since we began our journey with Colour Management and Process Control, I have experienced better and consistent product output,” says MMS President, Tushar Dhote while welcoming the eager audience gathered at the MMS’ Training Centre in Mumbai on October 14. He quickly introduced the two speakers of the day – Business Director of Percept Printing Solutions, Afsal Kottal and the Technical Expert and the Field Services Officer Das Damodharan.
Taking a very focused and practical approach, Mr Kottal began the knowledge sharing process by encouraging the members of the audience to share their experience with colour, process control, and prepress and press management. Fred Poonawala of Comart, the veteran in the industry and also an experienced customer of GMG shared his experience. He said, “we have been using GMG colour systems for quite some time now. It has improved over the course of time, and it has helped us deliver consistent output through our presses and on multiple papers.” He further added, “We can simultaneously print two jobs on two different machines with constant and colour-matched output on two papers – for cover and inside pages.”
Several members of the audience – business owners and operators – echoed the similar experience sharing. They shared the experience of better product output, efficient operations, greater customer satisfaction, and some direct savings with ink optimisation and process control technologies. A large part of the audience, however, were struggling and experimenting with colour management and process control with their offset presses.
Assurance from an expert
Mr Kottal assured all the members of the audience that, with some easy yet decisive steps they all can implement sound and efficient colour management and press control technologies for better and consistent output. He said, “the high-quality products are the only differentiator for any print business owner in the contemporary competitive world. In fact, high and consistent quality is the top priority besides innovation and speed of delivery for the discerning clients.” He stressed upon the fact that data from a wide range of suppliers is used in offset printing, and not all of it complies with the offset standards. Manual adaptation of data to the respective printing conditions calls for expertise on the part of the staff and costs a lot of time and money. In the world of declining run lengths and a greater degree of individualisation, the print operations must be agile and quick to stay competitive.
A reliable solution
“Colour management has improved and come a long way. The process, today, seamlessly handles creative, prepress and printing process through a consistent and controlled workflow,” assured Mr Kottal. Explaining the GMG offerings, he said, “GMG’s software solutions keep you in control of colour, without much hassle. The preflight is automated to the stage that it can add bleed to some files.” He further added, “all the GMG products – single or modular – support the common international standards, and they let you define in-house standards.”
Mr Kottal, along with Mr Damodharan, then explained the features and details of the four GMG-color product offerings – the ColurServer, ColorProof, InkOptimizer and PrintControl. The ColorServer is at the core of a colour management workflow and production reliability. “You don’t have to worry much. The ColorServer fully automatically matches RGB, CMYK and mixed-data to a consistent colour standard by separation, representation or colour conversion,” said Mr Damodharan. He added, “automation ensures that all data is optimally prepared and delivers identical colour appearance on the press and papers.” The DeviceLink approach devised by GMG avoids classical drawbacks of ICC technology, such as the representation of the black channel.
The ColorProof, in combination with proofing media, ensures the best possible quality when producing proof. The tool can be used to verify the proof, and document that it complies with the relevant standard (ISO, FOGRA, ECI, etc.) or in-house standard. This proof can become a valid contract proof.
The InkOptimizer replaces CMY colour components by black while preserving the colour impressions. The improved colour composition offers smooth gradient, stabilised greys and significant improvement in printing properties. The tool also ensures ink savings. The PrintControl completes and ties together the standardisation and process control. The software tool is intuitive to operate and provides total control over the entire printing process employing a detailed, numeric and graphic evaluation of a single control strip. The PrintControl tweaks the characteristics for plate setting to achieve the prescribed targets for a press that does not comply with the defined standard.
A strong footprint
While concluding the workshop, Mr Kottal shared that they serve about 150 clients across India, including the big names such as Dainik Bhaskar and Lokmat.
Worldwide, GMG has about 14,000 installations. He also added that only in the textile market of Surat in Gujarat, about 19 photographers and 15 presses use GMG-colour solutions.
Before the two and a half hour interactive and truly knowledge sharing workshop session closed, Mr Kottal had a strong and straightforward message for the audience, “you can charge a premium only if you strive to deliver the best. If you are not delivering your best possible quality and colour, you are being ‘mechanical’, and not achieving your full potential.”