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Define what you mean by "prints consistently": is it across the sheet (uniformity), or between sheets in a print run? I'm guessing you mean the latter, but I'm asking just to make sure. In addition to what Alois wrote, if you aim for an in-house, custom test, you need to choose a measurement...

Disclosure: I'm a Landa employee. Benny Landa is not a chemist, and not a Dr. Sorry, I don't follow. Every halftone screening is considered a dithering process - even AM screening. What is "optimized" dither? Also, I wouldn't consider offset FM screening as "special" - it's simply a...

A good proofer with a wide enough gamut can simulate other printing presses. But in order to do that, it must know what exactly to simulate. i.e., it must know how the simulated device produces color. Therefore, you must have ICC profiles for both sides of the proof making - the proofer and the...

Sorry, I'm with Gordon here. I fail to understand how simply measuring faster and slightly more patches than what is usually done today, will suddenly Make Life Great. Measuring more patches is not always better - printing devices can be very noisy across the tone-reproduction curve, and to get...

What do you need improving? What do you think changing hardware will improve?

Color management is not easy. To me it feels some times like black magic, most of the times like an interesting torture method. It also requires special equipment, time and the understanding that you'll be wasting a lot of prints in the beginning until you reach a decent level of proficiency...

Why use SWOP? If you have a profile of the substrate already, just convert the image to that profile. If you don't have a profile of the substrate, then SWOP is meaningless unless the press conforms to that profile in the first place.

It all boils down to whether you are using a color managed workflow or not: is your screen calibrated and profiled? Did you create ICC profiles for the various substrates you use on your press? If not, then matching the prints to the screen is practically impossible. Only when you have ICC...

There are several types of proof, I'm guessing you're referring to a color proof. Heidelberg's Handbook of Print Media defines a color proof as a "color-reliable/color-true reproduction of the contents of the file intended for printing".

I don't believe AM "wastes" pixels and FM doesn't. For the same gray level (before linearization), a uniform area of AM and FM screening contains the same amount of pixels. e.g., in a block of 30% cyan, both AM and FM should contain 30% of "on" pixels. That's one of the basic requirements of a...

In my opinion and from my experience, the best book for beginners is "Real World Color Management", by Bruce Fraser, Chris Murphy and Fred Bunting. I think it is considered the "Bible" of color management. A bit outdated now, but the basics haven't really changed that much.

Unless it will save them money, no? From what I see all the time, that is the true driving force of change.

Gordon, I trust you've shown the managers all the benefits of this new system (especially the "cheaper" part!), and explained thoroughly why it is better than their current methods. What was their response? Why do they object to using it?

I don't know your case specifically, but generally with this kind of digital machine you get a fixed set of screenings that were tailored to it, and that's it. Like you said, you can't set your own screening parameters - the DFE simply ignores them. That's not a surprising behavior.

pauly92, I admire your dedication. I've been in the exact same place as you about 6 years ago, where I had to learn it all by trial and error, because the practical knowledge was virtually non-existant. Yes, from a business point of view it could be considered a waste of time and money, but it...

Open the PDF in Acrobat, open the Output Preview window (depending on your Acrobat version, in the new versions it's under Tools -> Print Production. Move the cursor over the PSD element and verify its color composition. If Acrobat shows you it's made of black only, you probably have a...

I did that once with a photo lab I wanted to print at. I got some weird stares from the staff when they saw the charts I asked them to print, but they didn't object to it. Sadly, my efforts were all for naught, because they didn't calibrate the photo printer at regular intervals, so I got...

Sorry, in my opinion, this is not going to work for you, and will cause you a lot of headache. You cannot make color corrections based on the appearance of an electronic proof on your monitor. You must see a physical print in order to do that, for several reasons: - Is your monitor calibrated...

Maybe ColorFlow has some bug related to the averaging in scan mode? Is that the mode where you measure entire strips of patches in one go? Can you measure in spot mode in all programs and compare the results? Try to measure the calibration tile itself instead of the paper. You should get a very...

What are the full CIELab values of the two measurements? Is there a color shift too, or just lightness? I don't believe OBA could provide 13 units of lightness - that's just too much. Lightness in CIELab is computed only from the Y component of CIEXYZ, and OBA generally tend to increase the Z...