Automatic GCR software

[kaiserwilhelm]

While at Graph Expo, I took notice of a few products that claimed that they would lower my ink usage by 20 percent or so. Basically, they perform some major algorithm to the pictures in my pdf. They then do a GCR where they take from the CMY and put to the black.

1. Is anybody using this software?
2. Does it really lower my ink usage?
3. I will have an easy sell to the boss if we truly can have a payback on our ink
usage within the next 12 months.

 

[Louis Dery]

Hi kaiserwilhelm,

It IS possible to save higher than 20% of ink, using GCR and Total ink coverage reduction.
We´ve release a software called PerfX Device Link Pro™, which allows to create ICC DeviceLink profiles with ink optimization (GCR, TIC reduction) with existing ICC profile (standard or custom).
Then, it is very simple: just use it (select) in your existing prepress workflow (most prepress workflow are now compatible with ICC DeviceLink profiles).

DeviceLink profiles allows to make CMYK to CMYK or RGB to CMYK color converstions, while preserving specific color attributes like Black only remains Black only but compensated for output dot gain. Many other attributes like preserve primary and secondary colors, can be set at the DeviceLink profile creation stage.

We have MANY customers using it and reported ink savings higher than what you expect (20%).
Be carefull about GCR: they are not all equal as far as quality!

You can also download a free tool called PerfX Image Inkâ„¢ which allows to compare (TIFF files) before and after ink optimization. You get the report of the amount of ink perchannel saved.

Hope this help!

Louis Dery
TGLC inc.
TGLC Color Management and Color Control Solutions: PerfX Softwares, Training, Implementation, Certification

 

[mattbeals]

Yes, many people use it. I know of a number of Alwan installations here in the US. It absolutely does lower your usage. Alwan will even calculate an ROI for you based on your ink costs and the number of files passed through Alwan. I don't know that you can get an ROI in 12 months since I don't do direct sales for it. If you're here in the US let me know where you are and I can direct you to a reseller (not a reseller to you).

 

[kaiserwilhelm]

Thanks to both.
Yes, it was Alwan that I had looked at.
I have a reseller that I am going to be getting in contact with soon.
My main concern is keeping the integrity of the APPE pdf. Alwan
claimed that they are Ghent certified. If so, that tilts the scales.
I am willing to look at any other products, but I am not going to screw up my APPE pdfs.

 

[gig0]

I understand how UCR/GCR profiles can save big bucks for the RR Donnelly's and Quebecor's of publishing, but is there a significant cost savings for those 5 to 10 million dollar medium sized commercial printers? How practical is it if 40%-50% of the workflow are bulletproof repeats? I can easily see the savings going right out the window due to downtime or reprinting a job thanks to the customer rejecting it because of inconsistencies from one run to the next. I'd imagine there would be different results depending on the stock used as well so there would need to be different paper profiles, correct? I'm just curious as to how much UCR/GCR has gotten better -or more confusing- since losing interest in it 10 years ago.

 

[mattbeals]

It is my understanding from Enfocus Crossroads presentations that Alwan licensed the Adobe PDF library. One note about the ROI calculator (working from memory), the ROI info is updated after every file so that you see a cumulative total. And of course Alwan uses a dynamic device link technology rather than a static device link. The Eco version has a "max black" feature that sounded quite interesting. Expensive stuff though, you'd have to balance the quantitative, enabling and qualitative ROI's to see how it best suits your needs.

 

[kaiserwilhelm]

The simple math I ran was that 100K in ink a year gave me more than enough for ROI.
The part I did not understand was this: The workflow I would envision would be a hot folder within
my Powerswitch. Then, I drop in my unripped PDF, do the GCR, and then rip.
However, it seems that I could go this other way as well: create an icc profile (out of Alwan)
and then hook it up to Trueflow to be ripped into the file.
It just seems to me that there must be quite a bit that I am missing. If I am correct on the 2nd scenario, would i not just buy an ICC profile (one time) vs buying a $17K or so product?
Any idea what I am over simplifying?

 

[jschrieber]

We're a newspaper so our needs will be a little different than most here, I think, as it appears to be mostly commercial shops, but the theory's the same ....

we've been an Asura by OneVision user for a few years now (up to over 70 channels on 2 separate VMWare virtual Win2k03 servers) and began using Asura's InkSave Plugin a few months ago.

Word from our production facility is the plugin paid for itself in less than 4 months! Of the ones I've looked at, it was by far the easiest to set up, too.

jack

 

[mattbeals]

Alwan is very straight forward to configure, but can also be very complex depending on what you are doing. It is entirely possible to integrate Alwan into a Prinergy workflow where Prinergy doesn't know the job has left Prinergy to go to Alwan and has returned. Of course since you're in a SWITCH workflow it's easy to do all that in front of Prinergy.

 

[GFlatt]

Automatic GCR software

Interesting Jack. We have Asura here as well, but haven't looking into their Ink Save plugin yet. Is it possible that I can contact you with more information on how you use it in your plant? We're a newspaper so maybe our needs are somewhat the same.

 

[comholt]

We are a dealer for Compose Systems, which has an OEM-ed version of the Alwan software called IS Optimizer. We have put IS Optimizer in at a number of locations, and it really works as advertised, and is easy enough to set up via Webex. The ECO version does seem to have some "secret-sauce" which is more advanced than just strong GCR, and approximately doubles the ink savings over the standard version (though this is very image-dependent). The software also doubles as a color server - meaning it can create optimized CMYK for specific output environments. We have a client who has used this software to get their Inca digital flatbed to match their press for the first time, and because it's using dynamic device links, there is no compromise of the black channel.

Feel free to ping me if you'd like to discuss in more detail or try out a demo version of the software. [email protected]

 

[RickShaf]

GCR Savings

GCR Savings

We (ProImage) also offer a ink savings tool called OnColor ECO that saves a substantial amount of CMY ink. One of our recent customers recieved ROI in 4 months. I can send you more information or you can download the press releases at Home Page.

Rick Shafranek

While at Graph Expo, I took notice of a few products that claimed that they would lower my ink usage by 20 percent or so. Basically, they perform some major algorithm to the pictures in my pdf. They then do a GCR where they take from the CMY and put to the black.

1. Is anybody using this software?
2. Does it really lower my ink usage?
3. I will have an easy sell to the boss if we truly can have a payback on our ink
usage within the next 12 months.

 

[dgarczynski]

Don't forget the quality improvment

Don't forget the quality improvment

We installed Alwan about a year ago. The ink savings was not a selling point for me, I wanted the improved color stability on press. We are a small to medium run, high quality commercial printer and I doubted we would getting the 25% - 35% they were barking about. Alwan gives a report of all the files optimized and normally we are at about 10% ink savings. This is effected by the amount of GCR applied.
I also want to add this is NOT bullet proof software (none ever are). We have had difficulties with complicated .pdf ran through it, so beware.

 

[juergenroesch]

what to look out for

what to look out for

There are actually seminars on these questions set in the upcoming PIA/GATF conference in Phoenix in december.

Depending on your source data your savings can be from 0% up to > 30%. Obviously if you print a poster with a yellow background and huge red lettering there is nothing that can be substituted by black. On the other hand if you get files with a very thin skeleton black then savings can be huge.

Other side effects are stabilization of the gray balance (which is in itself a reason if you get lots of files from untrusted sources) and standardization of the CMY vs K balance which avoids deviation of images from the expected result as seen on a proof in different directions.

Then ink savings are mainly on the more expensive CMY inks, while you'll just use a little bit more of K ink. Do the math: imagine your CMY ink costs drop by 10% each and your K cost increases by 15%. This is an extremely cautious calculation. Most sheetfed printers have on average more jobs prepared with poor separation settings than for example large web or gravure printers. So your per job ink reduction is typically higher than theirs - and most of them use such tools.

Having less ink on paper also means usually you can run your press at higher speed and have less drying issues.

Repeat jobs are much easier as often a job with a high GCR applied is much more forgiving to small density deviations than a normal one.

Downsides?
If the tool doesn't work well then you're f.... (bleep) or in deep s... (bleep). So carefully test. Some tools have to flatten a PDF to work (then usually trapping won't work any longer). Some will only apply the GCR to images which alters how they fit with artwork. And some are just generic ICC implementations without a device-link functionality (stay away from those!).

A good test usually includes a documents with blends and vignettes intersecting the whole CMYK color space. A poor separation will mess up standalone black and likely show all kind of ripples and bumps in those blends - instead of maintaining smooth shades. While it might not become immediately visible in a print, those can cause side effects and flat color appearances. Also a gray mist over your images is in such a case not uncommon.
None of that needs to be. So test your tools closely.

Have a look at GMG InkOptimizer. It's extremely fast as it uses its own color engine and because it retains the file consistency and blends it is widely used in the gravure and newspaper industry throughout Europe. Recently a sheetfed edition got launched which offers an affordable solution for yes: sheetfed printers (same functionality, but doesn't work with gravure, web or newspaper profiles).

You can upload a file to Home of Color : GMGColor to have it processed through InkOptimizer and then check the result by printing it side by side to your original file. You'll see that colors typically become cleaner, grays and neutrals more stable and often the sharpness impression improves as well. This is because like on a hand colored black and white photo, the drawing is moved mainly to the K-channel and CMY is only coloring in. So for 175lpi printing you should at least have 350dpi internal resolution (time to change your Distiller settings ...).

It's very powerful. ROI for a small printer with 10 employees total and a single 4c press running single shift is less than 1 year. A company running 3 presses in 2 shifts should expect 2-3 months. I've seen the calculation for a big printer where they estimated 30 days. Turned out to be 22! But took them 4 months to decide to make the investment. I guess someone in finance got fired for that delay ...

Now this is the ROI on ink savings alone. Only you can estimate what more stable gray balance and higher print speed on press and in most cases reduced make-ready time and waste are worth to your company.

If you think that is worth investigating, check the available tools carefully

Juergen

PS: I recommend you look at the sessions offered in Phoenix on this topic. More on Color Management Conference 2008 - Home

 

[MichelleKMGI]

Suggestion

Suggestion

Hello there,
First my disclaimer: I am just a plate and film girl and do not sell this product.

In my experience when talking with Commercial and Newspaper accounts that there can be a big difference in the actual savings for the different ink optimizers in the market. My suggestion would be to create your own ROI using hard data from testing 2-3 of them. Most all the companies/dealers that sell them will set up a profile for you and let you demo at no charge. The initial cost varies quite a bit between 5-25k. However when you calculate the savings out, though you may pay more for a product your additional savings will most likely be in the tens of thousands for the use of the product. I would suggest you include GMG's ink optimizer while you demo. I have heard nothing but raving reviews of their product.

Good Luck!
Michelle

 

[pbaud]

Gcr

Gcr

Ink savings is one thing and for some applications GCR can be appropriate. Be aware, however, that when GCR is taken to the extreme it can result in reproductions that look dark, flat and colorless even to the point of looking like colorized B/W photos.

 

[Hopkins Printing]

Similar to what pbaud stated, one of things to consider is finding that "sweet spot" for knowing how much GCR to apply. If you apply too much GCR, you may decrease your pressmen's ability to adjust color on press.

Cheers,
Jon Morgan
Hopkins Printing

 

[juergenroesch]

reply to pbaud and Jon Morgan

reply to pbaud and Jon Morgan

to pbaud's statement:
if things look dark, flat and colorless then it is a problem of the application or the profiles used. It is not a general restriction of the technology. In fact the opposite is often true that you can often print more vibrant colors because you do no longer need to worry that much about affecting the fragile gray balance in page content with a low level of GCR (i.e. a short skeleton black)

to Jon Morgan:
color problems should be fixed in prepress. Attempting color management on press is waste bins full of make-ready paper. And it's time consuming. Successful printers streamline their processes by capturing and tackling color problems in prepress, so the press operator only has to mount the plates and "press the print button".
Because the gray balance is much more pre-determined the press operator has usually less balancing to do and gets acceptable results with less than half the make-ready sheets of a normal run. Probably only 20% of the sheets of a run where you want him do the color management on press.

But: you should now determine what you print and make your proofs to that standard. For sheetfed in the US go for GRACoL 2006/2007 which is just a slightly different flavor to the FOGRA39 used in Europe. Both are ISO12647-7.

Actually - we did a few tests on international data exchange and once processed with a good GCR set to one standard, the same files can be printed on a CTP/press set to the other standard with barely a visible difference.

How is that for color management on press?

 

[jschrieber]

Hey Gary,

Good to see your name again .... been a while since we've touched base....

We have 3 Asura channels specific to InkSave, one for each page size (broadsheet, tab, etc) .... every complete page EPS output to plate passes through these so InkSave is applied to each appropriate element, whether a photo or ad.

I've attached a screensnap of the Asura InkCoverage option for EPS output .... (the same for PDF, if that's your workflow) .... as you can see it's really straightforward .... we started with a higher % of GCR buy have since dropped a bit below 50% because of press issues.

You can also see where we apply the ICC profile specific to our press (GATF had a couple reps here that created that profile, and it really needs to be done again).

The plugin is system wide, so it's available for ANY of your channels using EPS or PDF output. I'd be stunned if OneVision didn't give you the plugin and an evaluation license for a month or two to test it.

We had to change our graybar furniture at the bottom of each page by adding 8 black squares for pressment to read black intensity across the page .... using InkSave makes black more critical to quality photo reproduction than it had been.

However, once everything got adjusted photos are actually BETTER because of the increased black coverage than they were before we started using it.

Give me a shout if you have more questions.

jack

 

[pbaud]

reply to Juergen

reply to Juergen

I think you'd agree that the goal here would be to come up with a solution that saves ink etc but that neither degrades nor enhances the image.

The only other thing I wanted to mention is that due to the fact that so much of what is being reproduced is currently being done with a traditional "skeleton" black. Because of that, pressmen and the creatives that often OK the press runs have been able to really punch up the black text for maximum readability and impact. That ability is greatly diminished depending on the level of GCR applied.

I otherwise agree with the other posts regarding the potential to stabilize the press run from beginning to end. If the black varies a little bit the result is just a lighter or darker end result instead of color shifts that can take a green from nice and clean to avocado.