Color Management Tools and Techniques

Color management involves various profiles that are used to characterize the display of color in devices such as digital cameras, monitors, inkjet printers (wide format and standard), and proofers. Color is a complex matter in electronic and computing devices as there are different colorant systems (RGB and CMYK) and colorants. As a result, the color output from one device to another varies. So, color management techniques have emerged in an attempt to compare and match the color among different devices. 

Why is Color Management Required?

The Print industry uses a wide variety of formats, printer types, ink types, media, Raster Image Processors (RIPs), and settings. In such a scenario, Color management is required for various reasons: 

• Consistency: Marketers, graphic designers, and printers must be able to get the correct color every time, across different collateral and different reprints.
• Soft proof: The color output on a monitor need not be the same as what appears in the print output. Both printer and monitor profiles must be factored in the color management workflow.
• Hard proof: Proofs of the final output are generally provided to clients and printed on low cost inkjet printers. Whereas, the actual production printer may present a different color output.
• Calibrating digital photos with digital print: Photographers are often commissioned for marketing campaigns and their photos used in the print in large formats. If the color in the camera output does not match true colors, the large format prints may look bad.
• Use of multiple software: Digital camera outputs may be reprocessed using software tools. At the same time, these tools are used to create new images. Both these images should look consistent and have similar color profiles.

Color Management Procedures

Color management involves various procedures to calibrate a device and these are categorized as follows:

• Configuring devices to optimize the color
• Aligning devices to various color specification standards
• Profiling devices using software programs and color targets
• Color conversion to ensure colors match across devices

Commonly employed tools

Depending on the device whose color output is being analyzed, various devices are used: 

• Emissive colorimeter. A colorimeter is an inexpensive instrument which is required to profile monitors. It uses a system like an edge band filters to separate light out into red, green, and blue components. It then maps these to matching curves based on human vision. Emissive colorimeter is a type of colorimeter which analyzes the light emitted by monitors, as against that reflected from printed material.
• Emissive/reflective spectrophotometer. Since color is a subjective perception and can vary from one human being to another, measuring color objectively requires the use of sophisticated instruments that can measure both emitted and reflected color components from light. In this regard, the spectrophotometer is a better option than a colorimeter as it can read a vast range of wavelengths from 380 to 720 nm.
• Automated color measurements. Previously, manual instruments were used for measuring and calibrating color. But their limitation is that they can read just one color patch at a time which falls short when there are several hundred colors involved. Today, semi-automated instruments like x-scanners are preferred.
• Color profiling software. There are innumerable devices like scanners, printers, monitors, projectors and mobile phones that process color today which use different digital imaging techniques. Color profiling software makes it easy to achieve uniformity of color across devices.

With Digital Printing being applied for various uses like Interior Design, better Color Management tools and techniques make it easy for Marketers and Designers visualize the final output better.

Using Digital Print for Interior Design

One of the effects of the current recession is that it has put pressure on budgets for home or office renovations. Increasingly, designers are being asked to do more with less. This requires designers to think out-of-the-box and try innovative ideas.

If budgets are one reason for innovation, rapidly changing trends and styles in interior design is the other. Retail, commercial and residential property owners are seeking more flexible and adaptable interiors, more personalized and dynamic look for décor, more global and contemporary styles in design.

Each of these sectors has its own reasons for this new thinking.  

• For the commercial sector, the need to engage and motivate employees constantly is a challenge. At the same time, a strong desire to stand out from the competition requires that offices of these companies truly reflect their brand identities. Both these needs can be nicely combined in creative and innovative designs for the workplace which will inspire employees and impress customers.
• In the retail sector, intense competition in offerings and prices are driving brands to look elsewhere for differentiating themselves. The retail outlet space where customers spend significant time becomes the most convenient option for this. Brands are re-designing their outlets with new look and feel to create an awesome shopping experience.
• In the residential sector, new trends such as home entertainment and cross-cultural themes are driving designers to create homes that reflect the owner’s personality and identity.

So how does one find a simple, yet cost-effective way of combining all these needs? Digital printing for décor elements provides the answer.

The use of digital printing in décor is not entirely a new concept. In the 70s, carpets with images on them were printed using this technique. But the print resolution or quality of the image was low. In the last 40 years, there has been enormous progress in this area and today, digitally printed décor can equal or exceed the quality of imagery in printed collateral.

So what are the décor elements that are using digital print, today? From curtains to sofas, cushions to carpets, wall coverings to floor coverings, lampshades to artifacts, every element of décor can benefit from digital print. Tactile textiles, or fabrics that have a particular texture to touch, can be combined with the right imagery to create a great look and feel. This way, using digital print, interior designers can create a new working experience, shopping experience or living experience for offices, shops and homes respectively.

The benefits of using digital print are numerous: 

• Creative, yet cost-effective: Manufacturing new surfaces to have a new look and feel has been the traditional approach, and a costly one. In contrast, digital print can quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively create new designs and themes.
• The ease of using images: Till date, it was not easy to incorporate images in décor unless they conformed to an art form or artistic theme. But the current lot of designers is using realistic images, bright colors, and dramatic themes for a funky looking home or office. Hotels and resorts are using images of the outdoors in confined spaces to retain the resort like ambience.
• Wide range of materials: Digital inkjet printers can print on vinyl, metal, paper, plastic, wood, glass or fabric creating a mind-boggling range of possibilities in how to use digital print in décor.

The benefits of using digital print in décor are innumerable. To printer manufacturers and print service providers, this opens the doors to new business opportunities; while for consumers, this represents a new way of interpreting décor.

Wide Format Printing: The Game Changer

Wide-format printers are creating a silent revolution in the world of digital printing. These printers which generally have a print width between 17 feet to 100 feet has become the default mechanism to print banners, posters, hoarding creatives, booth graphics, environmental graphics and a whole lot of signage requirements.

Wide format printers use a continuous roll of printing material rather than individual sheets. This makes them capable of handling large format printing requirements in an economical manner. They also offer fool proof printing in the sense that they use hot-air dryers to dry the paint quickly and prevent the prints from sticking to each other, even as they come out of the printer. 

Wide Format Printers use a variety of technologies depending in the type of ink used in them. Broadly speaking, they are: Aqueous, Solvent, Dye sublimation, UV and Pen/plotter types. 

Why Wide Format Printing? 

Wide format printing is being hailed as one of the largest growth areas in the printing industry. But how did this happen? With advertising and digital marketing becoming more and more high-pitched and high-budget activities, companies started looking for more appealing, innovative, eye-catching and distinct ways of promoting themselves and their offerings. This obviously calls for wide format printing. For example, large banners, vehicle wraps, and point-of-purchase displays cannot be easily printed in the short run format and require wide format printing for ease-of-use and scalability. 

This led to higher adoption of wide format printing which reduced the initial price point over time. This in turn helped printers take up more and more services for their customers and evolve from being mere printing companies to full-fledged marketing services providers. 

Operational Benefits 

In addition to the business benefits, wide format printing offers various operational benefits to printing companies and their customers.

• A wide format printer makes use of the droplet technology system. This ensures that the dots per inch cannot be distinguished when the image is printed out, resulting in a sharp and well-defined image. This is true whether the printer is running at normal speed, high speed, or in enhanced mode. The quality stays consistent in all these modes.
• Wide format printers have the ability to distinguish between image and text in the printed matter clearly and print them without any error. Not all office printers can do this, which is why one can notice text and images overlapping with each other although that is not the original design.
• Wide format printers can print at very high speed without compromising on the quality. Which means: several large banners, vehicle wraps, posters, booth graphics and environmental graphics can be printed in no time. This gives marketing departments of companies the ability to plan for any new rollout at short notice and make changes at short notice thereby avoiding panic situations. This justifies investment in wide format printing which further helps improvise the technologies, creating a virtuous cycle.
• Wide format printing is compliant with various eco-friendly, environment-friendly, green and sustainability initiatives from the industry and governments worldwide. Wide-format inkjet printers make use of UV-curing inks, and technologies that provide an alternative to using high VOC inks. This makes it easy to recycle material printed using wide format printers, in a cost-effective manner. Further, UV-curing inks support printing at high speeds which adds to their utility value making hybrid wide-format inkjet systems the most popular choice as a printing mechanism.

Hillview Digital Printing has been one of the early adopters of wide format printing helping brands achieve a first mover advantage in the competitive marketplace of today.