Forum 2016 Offers New Tools for Prepress Workflows

New Tools for Your Prepress Workflows Forum 2016FORT WORTH, TX—Forum 2016 attendees may not have expected a presidential debate when they walked into the the Texas Ballroom at 3 p.m. Sunday, but that’s what they got in the New Tools for Your Prepress Workflows session. Moderated by Catherine Haynes, All Printing Resources and Brad Taylor, DuPont Packaging Graphics, three White House hopefuls took to podiums to state their cases for why they should become president of the United States:

  • Ray Cheydleur, printing and imaging portfolio manager at X-Rite
  • John Seymour, applied mathematician and color scientist at QuadTech
  • FTA Flexo Hall of Fame member Mark Samworth, color consultant at Esko

The bit was filled with flexography related jokes and digs and concluded with Samworth donning a Donald Trump esque wig and pledging to make America great again.

Following that introduction, Cheydleur spoke to the reasons why standardization is a good idea, noting it:

  • Creates accurate communication results in a better and less expensive production workflow
  • ISO Standardization show global agreement on a particular process, enabling adoption
  • Reduces proprietary interchange issues

Running through the history of file formats, Cheydleur illustrated the nature of solving problems with a standard, only to see things change in the industry, which would necessitate a new file format. According to Cheydleur, CxF3, the newest version of the CxF format, aims to meet modern needs by including features like being both human and machine readable, an open format and automation ready.

Pieces of information a CxF file can contain include:

  • Spectral data
  • L*a*b* values
  • Observer angle
  • Illuminant
  • Physical filters
  • Ink recipes or color information for another applications

Cheydleur explained in detail the parts of CxF ISO 17972 Series and wrapped up by plainly stating the advantages of CxF, which he said include reducing rework, simplifying the process, speeding up the entire digital workflow and being platform neutral.

Seymour followed, discussing color management of spot color halftones. SCHMOO, short for spot color halftone metric optimization organization, was spurred along because, he said, TVI is broken for many spot colors, Seymour said. He elaborated, noting there is ambiguity when defining, for a given spot color, what filter to use. He offered data to support this, including a 30 percent dot with 40 percent TVI and tone ramps that, as he plainly stated, “look lousy.” “It’s time to replace our 1936 Edsel,” Seymour concluded.

The goals of SCHMOO were to find a different formula, one that gives reasonable numbers, tone ramps and does not change much when swapping inks. Using the spot color tone value (SCTV) produced good looking tone ramps.

Not goals of SCHMOO, Seymour listed, were:

  • Not for CMYK
  • Not for overprints of halftones
  • Not for matching across print conditions
  • Not for color appearance matching

Seymour relayed a common scenario: A color made in the premedia department that doesn’t show up accurately on press; “What I want a 50 percent PMS 281 to look like,” versus “What my press prints for a 50 percent PMS 281.” “Who defines the color?” he asked. A test target provides a solution, but that would necessitate printing such a target for “every darn spot color.”

The final presenter was Samworth, who gave a deep dive into profiling beyond 4-color by discussing color profiles and curves. “The message behind expanded gamut (EG) is simple: It’s about reducing the need for spot colors,” he said. There are “lean” and “fat” profiling technologies, the former consisting a handful of colors, the latter filling multiple sheets. Filling a profile with too much junk, he said, can muddle quality data. EG utilizes both curves and color profile charts.

Samworth used the FLEXO November cover project as an example to illustrate the difference between 4- and 7-color profiling. He then went over the steps to creating a profile, polling the audience to see which among several pairs of color charts they preferred. Samworth also discussed relevant table points, relevant colors, section based profiles, ideal 7-color profile charts, descending black sample logic and Esko Descending Black (EDK). “It’s more than just the number of points!” he exclaimed.