GRAND RAPIDS, MI—X-Rite Inc., a global leader in color science and technology, and its subsidiary Pantone LLC, announced the latest version of ColorCert Suite 2.7. The ColorCert Suite of software products provides real time color and print quality process control and reporting to help packaging printers and converters better manage the complexities of CMYK, expanded gamut and spot color workflows, regardless of the printing process, substrate or industry standard. For brand owners, ColorCert provides an overview of supply chain performance to ensure accurate and consistent color across regional or global partners. New in ColorCert 2.7 are a number of connectivity features that make the communication of color specifications and performance metrics easier and more streamlined than ever.
“Today’s packaging workflows are complex, often involving multiple brand owners, design agencies, premedia, plating and ink companies, all providing input into the production workflow,” said Adrián Fernández, VP, PantoneLIVE, X-Rite Pantone. “This can make managing accurate color and print consistency a challenge. ColorCert simplifies color communication across all internal and external stakeholders. From prepress and the inkroom to production process control, it helps organizations manage precise color and print specifications, uniting traditional silos of information into one common workflow.”
ColorCert Suite Modules
The ColorCert Suite consists of three modules specifically designed to help various members of the packaging workflow manage specifications and monitor quality control from the artwork to premedia, to the inkroom to the pressroom. The modules include:
- ColorCert Desktop Tools: Enables the accurate creation of color specifications and process controls at multiple points throughout the packaging workflow
- ColorCert ScoreCard Server: Combines reporting and statistical process control to provide brands, packaging converters and premedia professionals with an easy to use dashboard for the monitoring of print quality by supplier, plant, machine, customer, work type, and more
- ColorCert Repository Server: A secure, online asset management solution for storing, managing and deploying packaging color assets so that the most up to date assets are always being used and the packaging workflow is optimized
New in ColorCert 2.7
ColorCert Suite 2.7 includes new benefits that make print and packaging operations more efficient. These include:
- Improved flexibility in the measurement and scoring for substrates by making substrate standards optional for spot color workflows and allowing users the ability to measure but not score substrates. This increased level of customization allows print and packaging operations of all types and sizes to benefit from ColorCert
- Improved guidance in helping operators better adjust ink density or strength to reach target colors faster through the new BestMatch feature
- New metrics such as ink strength, white ink opacity, whiteness, have been added to support CMYK, extended gamut, and/or spot color packaging workflows
- New connectivity to X-Rite InkFormulation Software for better communication between the pressroom and the inkroom. Press measurements can be sent directly to InkFormulation Software for fast, efficient reformulation when required. This and other improvements to ColorCert InkRoom Tools allow for fast, easy quality assurance during formulation and dispensing workflows. Communication with X-Rite IntelliTrax2 automated color measurement solution, X-Rite Color iQC quality assurance software and BST eltromat IPQ Spectral inline color measurement device has been improved to streamline color workflow even further
“Since we implemented X-Rite ColorCert, it has helped us to achieve a higher level of color control,” said Luis Rivas, graphics manager at StarPak Ltd. in the U.S. “We are able to address our customers’ requirements for consistency and color accuracy. Our color department likes the ColorCert Suite, as it guides the color technician to the correct color match in less time than before. We rely on the ColorCert Suite, and it is essential to our day to day operations.”
Educational Webinars
X-Rite Pantone will host two educational webinars discussing how improved color control and reporting solutions can help the packaging industry enhance operational efficiencies and quality, reduce errors and rework while speeding time to market:
Webinar: Color Reporting and Control: Meet the New ColorCert 2.7
Date: Oct. 6 at 10 a.m. ET
Webinar: Print by the Numbers! Reducing Complexity in the Color Control Process
Date: Oct. 13 at 10 a.m. ET