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On Digital Color Standard

An interview with X-Rite experts: Małgorzata Lososová-Ungrádová, Sales Manager (Imaging and Media Eastern Europe), Chris Halford, Technical Director (Global Professional Color Services and, Rafiq Mulla, Solutions Architect (Pantone Digital Business Unit).

„Świat DRUKU”: What does the division you work for, Global Professional Color Services, do?

 

Rafiq Mulla: We provide several services. One is consultation to printers and ink companies for how they implement digital color workflow. We also provide more technical service to do with rationalizing, mapping to Pantone, legacy color libraries. So we help printing companies migrate their legacy work into new digital standards and into a digital workflow.

 

Chris Halford: And I guess the key focus for us is to help printing companies, printers, packaging companies, specifically move from some of their old systems to digital color – move forward to the XXI century.

 

ŚD: Why printing companies should use the digital standards?

 

RM: I think it is a key driver for the whole packaging industry. Globally there has been great drive from packaging customers to have consistent standard available everywhere. And one of the key ways to have a consistent standard is to use digital color. Otherwise people have to use physical samples which are never exactly the same – they have to be transported, posted. By using digital color standards we’re helping people to both have access to the same standard globally and to access those standards very quickly. There is another key point in this as well: having digital standards helps printers locally to always have the same target point – things are not drifting, not moving. And that helps enormously with these efficiencies.

 

“ŚD”: How PantonLive has been changing since it made its first steps on the market?

 

RM: PantonLive was first launched numerous years ago. It was very cutting edge product at the time – lots of new technologies, lots of new ideas. We’ve seen a tremendous interest which is continuing. We’ve started implementation with a lot of customers and companies. And we were able to develop over the years a lot of tools. The Global Professional Services organization is behind lots of extra tools that we need to make this implementation work. So we’re progressing quite rapidly.

 

CH: PantoneLive is for anyone who’s printing color – for big and smaller companies. Any company can benefit from the digital standards. For a smaller company it can be a simple issue of reducing make ready time.

 

RM: PantonLive standards are specific and tested for their printability. You know you can achieve it on this substrate with this kind of ink technology, because it’s a known, achievable target. We have a lot of smaller printing companies wanting to use it cause it takes away a lot of work. With this tool companies can go back to their customers saying: “This is actually the best color you can get, this is the closest match you can get on that substrate and in that ink technology. Pantone says that this is the best achievable color”. And that’s quite useful for smaller printers too.

 

Małgorzata Lososová-Ungrádová: We simply use Pantone authority. Pantone name help small printers to speak with their customers, saying: “This is what I can achieve, if you want more, it’s not possible to achieve today, because that’s what Pantone says”.

 

CH: To be more precise on that, the Pantone name means that it’s official. The best achievable color is a funny phrase to use, cause it’s not always the best, but it’s the very best that you can expect to be repeated. So you may be able one day to do better but the other day it may be impossible. Pantone standards they are reliably achievable colors. And what it really allows is a print communication with the customer and end customer to set expectations that are achievable. It’s all about setting and meeting expectations that reduces color claims. Whether you’re large or small company having that upfront expectations that can be proofed, that can be discussed beforehand, saves a lot through the whole work.

 

“ŚD”: What can you tell us about implementation of this solution in Poland?

 

MLU: Our customers are many Polish companies that in many cases are a part of big global, national converters who are working with us and implementing digital workflow. The level of implementation of digital workflow in Poland at big converters sites is very high cause they are very open to it and willing to change their mind. Because if you want to change the workflow, you simply have to open your mind and change the way you act with color. So on one hand we teach the converter, but on the other we teach the customer of the converter. We are working hard on that, we have conferences – as you know – and every time we speak about digital workflow, color communication and PantoneLive. So people know what it is. Another step for us is to implement the digital workflow not only with big converters but also with smaller companies.

 

RM: When I first came to Poland in 2008 to implement digital workflow with a large company the reaction was very, very interesting. The team in Poland thought that it would be incredibly complicated and difficult and that the print crew wouldn’t understand it. Two days later when we had actually gone through the production cycle and made some prints and measured them they were absolutely delighted and enthusiastic about it.

 

MLU: We have to tell that we work globally with ink suppliers. Sun Chemical is one of our partners in PantonLive project but we have very good relationships with all global and local ink companies. They can really understand what good and efficient communication about color means. We have also other global printing companies and brand owners that like and implement the digital workflow using all available instruments. The one big example can be Procter and Gamble.

 

ŚD: What is the future of packaging and printing industry in terms of color management?

 

CH: It is a very open question but I think that the answer for me is very clear: the future will be this digitalized workflow. Everybody will recognize that the Pantone fan deck, and the ink dry down, and Epson proof are references of color. Not standard itself – that they refer to a standard, a digital one. Until now still so many companies treat a fan deck as a standard. And it is not. It is a reference to the standard. Pantone digital is the future of Pantone as well.

 

ŚD: Thank you for the conversation.

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