Re: G7
Peter,
We have been running G7 for about 6 months. We have tried different versions of colorbars and what we have now is probably what we will stick with. I have the KCMY solids of course, a 50% K to measure for density, and a 50%CMY to measure for density, and a CMY patch to check gray balance. We are doing this with a Tobias scanning densitometer, setting it up to read the 50%CMY and 50%K patches as K density to control the lightness/darkness of the gray and the 50%CMY to control gray balance.
We tested and found what densities gave us the right solid Labs, read the P2P scales and created curves from that. Now we use those same curves for every paper, adjust densities to achieve gray balance, correct darkness and check our Lab solids, if all are in tolerance, its worked. We mostly run on coated and matte coated or silk and have found that we can use the same curves for those and stay within the tolerances with just density changes.
I really like the idea of being able to do that. So far 2-3 different ink companies, 2-3 different kinds of paper (don't think we've ran any uncoated color work though) all with same profile and curves and still hit within the G7 tolerances.
We were using custom press profile before and would have had to have different profiles for the different papers I think because the dot gains were so different on some papers. Only thing I've done different is take the G7 profile in Profilemaker and use MaxGCR. This seems to work fine for us, less color ink used, less color shifts on press, and only seems logical to me, if trying to achieve gray balance is the most important goal in G7 to avoid color casts, that if I'm mostly or only using black ink in neutral\gray areas, I will achieve and maintain gray balance easier? I always want to learn more and\or better ways so if someone knows why I shouldn't do this, please tell me.
Terry