EFI vs. GMG vs. CGS...is there a clear winner?

[schenkadere]

Curious about everyone's preference and why.

I currently have EFI Colorproof XF v. 3.1.8...I'm on the fence and wondering if there is a better solution for creating contract proofs on an Epson 9900 for the packaging industry.

Thanks.

 

[TerryWyse]

EFI vs. GMG vs. CGS...is there a clear winner?

yes.

 

[stargate]

I am with Terry on this one. You mentioned all german rips.

 

[schenkadere]

yes.

Am I missing something? Can you elaborate?

 

[Ian Mackenzie]

Caveat: my company was the original GMG distributor for North America (2003-2006)and is an EFI distributor for North America (2006-2009). I also worked for EFI.

Interesting question.
It's very similar to asking about comparing "Mercedes, BMW and Audi". There are also several subtleties here beyond the technical features of the software. I am not smart enough or well-versed enough about the technical merits of all 3 of these RIPs.

what I do know is that they ALL work just fine and they are ALL professional products made by good companies. The IPA "proofing shoot-outs" of 2006,2007 and 2008 substantiated that. Here are my random observations:

1. CGS and GMG are small, nimble compnaies that truly take excellent care of their customers and resellers. EFI relies upon OEM partners and distributors to do their biddings.
2. CGS and GMG are much more dedicated to the proofing market. They sponsor the IPA shows, they advertise, they are active with customers, publishers and agencies. CGS and GMG have much more robust product portfolios for proofing. (Ink savings products, color servers, remote proofing, etc.) EFI has a far superior offering for the wide format and grand format spaces.
3. EFI has "OEM DNA".....heck, while you are reading this look up and look to the right. See the Epson/EFI banner ads...? Bestcolor was purchased by EFI in 2003 and, at the time, had THE dominant market share. That share has been eroded significantly over the past 3-4 years by CGS and GMG as EFI has lost its focus in proofing in favor of the actual growth markets of wide and grand format inkjet. EFI once sold Bestcolor to Creo, KPG, Dupont and Heidelberg. Today, they have OEM deals with Esko and Epson. I see this sector growing for them.
4. I believe also that each of these 3 companies does have an are of expertise when it comes to proofing. GMG excels at packaging. (Even though EFI has recently cut a monster deal with one of the largest global packaging companies.) CGS dominates publishing. But EFI is a very easy to use RIP that is an "all purpose" RIP that can be a little more flexible. EFI has the only TRUE client/server architecture. EFI and GMG use the Adobe PDF Print Engine in their latest versions. CGS uses a ghost script clone but they will be forced to move to Adobe PDF very soon. That will be painful for them as it was for GMG.
5. CGS and GMG have paper strategies that they push hard. EFI licenses their name on Tecco paper in Europe and we once had EFI's name on our Validation media but we removed it earlier this year. But CGS and GMG are just putting their names on the mill's paper just like Epson does and just like we do.Tecco is one of the largest converters in Europe and they work with all of the RIP companies. German paper is "silly expensive" as Germany is one of the lost expensive places in the world to manufacture product. CGS and GMG import finished rolls into the US and are subject to higher import duties that make their premium papers between $1,20 and $1.45 per sq. ft. MSRP.....that is simply ludicrous.
6. EFI software is buggier that GMG. I do not know about CGS.
7. Originally, CGS was a reverse engineered version of GMG.....I believe.

So, no, there is no clear winner. GMG and CGS are great products. But, Epson is many things but stupid they are not. Why did they choose EFI?


What I do know is that all these RIPs work great with Chromaticity Validation Media....;-).

 

[schenkadere]

My main gripe with EFI is the spot color overprinting. For straight CMYK printing, I couldn't be happier. But...I work in packaging and spot colors are nearly always incorporated. Which software handles spot color overprints best? I've done extensive trial and error testing with EFI and can't find an acceptable setting...the overprint controls are very limiting as well.

 

[Mike Strickler]

EFI vs. GMG vs. CGS

EFI vs. GMG vs. CGS

My main gripe with EFI is the spot color overprinting. For straight CMYK printing, I couldn't be happier. But...I work in packaging and spot colors are nearly always incorporated. Which software handles spot color overprints best? I've done extensive trial and error testing with EFI and can't find an acceptable setting...the overprint controls are very limiting as well.

I was recently privileged (I guess) to be on the panel at the most IPA proofing "shootout" in Chicago. The focus this year was on multicolor/spot color proofing for packaging. It was a "blind tasting," so even if I knew which RIPs were used for each sample (and it was easy to figure this out on many of them) I wouldn't say. However, as a group they weren't spectacular, and not just on overprints; some had trouble with solids, and it wasn't a gamut issue. If you went by price and acclaim you might be surprised--some highly touted RIPs were poor--so try to get a free demo of every RIP you're considering, including v. 4.0 of EFI XF, which is quite a different animal from 3.1. You might like the Dynamic Wedge, which automatically includes spots and any predominant colors in the control wedge and verification. It also has a pretty darn good on-the-fly Lab optimization, so when a proof fails on one of those nasty overprints, it can instantly correct that and reprint. It's highly effective, and so far as I know unique to this RIP. Perhaps this was one factor in Tetra Pak's decision to go with XF. Also consider usability. Forget about all the political factors Ian is talking about (with all respect, of course!); all that matters is what you can best use and afford. Tech support is there in abundance for all these products (Ian's own company does a great job in this area) so long as you pay for it.

Be clear about this: Ian, Terry, and I do sell RIPs. We are all knowledgeable but partial to certain products. None of us will sell anything we don't believe in, but still do your own testing--on current versions of these products, with your own files. Contact any of us and we'll be happy to provide further information and assistance.

Best regards,

Mike Strickler
MSP Graphic Services
707.664.1628

 

[Mike Strickler]

Whoops

Whoops

"I was recently privileged (I guess) to be on the panel at the most IPA proofing "shootout" in Chicago."

I meant the most RECENT IPA Proofing shootout--sorry

Another point might be made here. You say that spot overprints aren't proofing well. This is a far trickier issue than it may appear. First, as you may know, spot color matching in proofs is accomplished without ICC color management. CMYK matching can be so good because the profiles are built on a large sample of actual printed and measured solids, tints, and overprints--sometimes thousands of them--and interpolation for just about any possible combination can be pretty accurate. Spot color proofing, on the other hand, is based mainly on the colors' solid L*a*b* values and assumed dot gain, with further assumptions on overprint behavior based on screen angles and a bit of mathematical modeling. Here you just don't have the wealth of empirical data to predict overprint behavior that you have with ICC color management of process color. I'm amazed it works at all, frankly.

Second, since there are no standard target values for spot overprints unlike either spot solids or process colors, it's hard to say whether a proofed color is "accurate" in the same sense. You can say the same of your press, by the way. To the extent that a proofing RIP allows one to tweak overprints--generally just globally for each color--one might be able to improve the match to press output. I should add that even when there is a provision to "optimize" to a wedge that includes these overprints, as in EFI XF v. 4, the relevance of this is contingent upon how well the RIP has modeled/predicted the overprint appearance, and this is still a much less precise sytem than matching process color with ICC color management; switching RIPs may not help much.

 

[schenkadere]

I have to say....I have posed this question many times to many people in many places. This is the most logical, concise answer I have received. Thank you!

I'm curious though. Do you think that proofing with the screening options would create a more accurate overprint? I recently received a proof to match that was created with Oris and it was screened. I have not purchased that option with EFI because, quite frankly, I don't see the point to it. I found that the overprints were better rendered, but then again, the proof also had some other short comings. Just curious of your opinion.

Honestly...I don't want to change RIPs...I like EFI and have spent so much time with it. I'm very comfortable. I may upgrade to 4, but have been avoiding it because I can't really take advantage of many of the newer offerings and don't want to redo my printer profiling work. Kind of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" way of thinking. But, maybe there would be some benefit.

This being said, what makes GMG supposedly superior for packaging?

 

[meddington]

Perhaps one benefit of GMG is, as I stated in another thread, the tinted spots can be dialed in and iterated in addition to the 100% solid. So if you know what Lab value a 35% spot tint yields, you can target that, as well as the solids. This can have a benefit when matching spots to be half-toned as there can be a hue difference when spot inks are screened. We've also had very good results in spot color overprints with GMG as well, but again, without actual press data, your really shooting in the dark. Very difficult to know how accurate your simulation is without data from a specific print process. Some of our more color critical clients have had press trials up front to alleviate the guess work. There is also the SmartColour system from Sun Chemical that can be a real value in determining the actual results of spot colors on a specific printing process and substrate...possibly with overprint modeling as well.

You also might find this methodology (spectral based modeling) interesting...not necessarily useful, but interesting.

http://cias.rit.edu/~gravure/tt/pdf/pc/TT8_Predicting Spot-Color Overprints.pdf

 

[schenkadere]

It doesn't seem that GMG has a demo download...only an upload for pdfs and they send you proofs.

Spectral data, theory and science aside...bottom line is my eye and the only true result is that press, that ink, that operator and that sheet on that given day. I'm forgiving to proofing systems...Approval and FinalProof had their shortcomings and limitations as well. I just dumped my Approval. I just want a reasonable job of overprints. I think the EFI spot color renderings are great, and the 4C matches are amazing with the 9900 and Validation media. I just want a bit more control on the spot overprints and I'll be a super happy camper. I'll get there sooner or later. I'm a relentless experimenter.

 

[Mike Strickler]

EFI v. GMG v. CGS

EFI v. GMG v. CGS

Perhaps one benefit of GMG is, as I stated in another thread, the tinted spots can be dialed in and iterated in addition to the 100% solid. So if you know what Lab value a 35% spot tint yields, you can target that, as well as the solids. This can have a benefit when matching spots to be half-toned as there can be a hue difference when spot inks are screened. We've also had very good results in spot color overprints with GMG as well, but again, without actual press data, your really shooting in the dark. Very difficult to know how accurate your simulation is without data from a specific print process. Some of our more color critical clients have had press trials up front to alleviate the guess work. There is also the SmartColour system from Sun Chemical that can be a real value in determining the actual results of spot colors on a specific printing process and substrate...possibly with overprint modeling as well.

You also might find this methodology (spectral based modeling) interesting...not necessarily useful, but interesting.

http://cias.rit.edu/~gravure/tt/pdf/pc/TT8_Predicting Spot-Color Overprints.pdf

You can edit the tints in EFI's spot color editor to your heart's content--total gradation control, with measurements taken directly from a connected spectro. But the overprint problem is serious. Yes, screening is a huge factor, so one must pay attention to the screen angles in the color editor. Yet it's all modeling and guesswork in the end.

Mike, thanks for mentioning Sun's Smartcolor libraries. I was thinking of this but didn't want to get into it here. These DO have some overprint data, as well as tints--not sure to what extent proofing RIPs can use this--any info you might share? Danny Rich, of Sun's R&D division told us that this product hasn't gotten much traction--a shame.

Schenkadere: With regard to 1-bit TIFF dot proofing, yes, it works pretty well--far better than we have a right to expect--but the color is slightly less accurate than the normal stochastically screen inkjet proofs. The main reason is that the inkjet colorants are not the same as press inks, so a pure cyan dot, for example, will not match, and the only means available to correct the hue is to spray tiny amounts of magenta or yellow on top of and within the boundaries of that dot "stencil." That's pretty tough; you have lost the ability to use all that white space surrounding that "dot" to add correcting colors. It's also slow, as you must print at high printer resolution to get an adequately sharp dot. But if customers insist, at least you can make them happy this way.

As for v. 4.0 (now 4.01), it's a great update, with plenty you can use. As a 3.1 user you can buy it for $599. It's essentially a brand new installation, so you'll want to budget for that, but compared with starting all over with another RIP it's a very good value.

 

[schenkadere]

Mike, I tend to agree with you. I don't really want to start all over. I'm comfortable with EFI. I'll probably purchase the upgrade this week and give that a whirl.

Thanks for all the info guys!

 

[HeinerM]

Caveat: my company was the original GMG distributor for North America (2003-2006)and is an EFI distributor for North America (2006-2009). I also worked for EFI.

Interesting question.
It's very similar to asking about comparing "Mercedes, BMW and Audi". There are also several subtleties here beyond the technical features of the software. I am not smart enough or well-versed enough about the technical merits of all 3 of these RIPs.

what I do know is that they ALL work just fine and they are ALL professional products made by good companies. The IPA "proofing shoot-outs" of 2006,2007 and 2008 substantiated that. Here are my random observations:

1. CGS and GMG are small, nimble compnaies that truly take excellent care of their customers and resellers. EFI relies upon OEM partners and distributors to do their biddings.
2. CGS and GMG are much more dedicated to the proofing market. They sponsor the IPA shows, they advertise, they are active with customers, publishers and agencies. CGS and GMG have much more robust product portfolios for proofing. (Ink savings products, color servers, remote proofing, etc.) EFI has a far superior offering for the wide format and grand format spaces.
3. EFI has "OEM DNA".....heck, while you are reading this look up and look to the right. See the Epson/EFI banner ads...? Bestcolor was purchased by EFI in 2003 and, at the time, had THE dominant market share. That share has been eroded significantly over the past 3-4 years by CGS and GMG as EFI has lost its focus in proofing in favor of the actual growth markets of wide and grand format inkjet. EFI once sold Bestcolor to Creo, KPG, Dupont and Heidelberg. Today, they have OEM deals with Esko and Epson. I see this sector growing for them.
4. I believe also that each of these 3 companies does have an are of expertise when it comes to proofing. GMG excels at packaging. (Even though EFI has recently cut a monster deal with one of the largest global packaging companies.) CGS dominates publishing. But EFI is a very easy to use RIP that is an "all purpose" RIP that can be a little more flexible. EFI has the only TRUE client/server architecture. EFI and GMG use the Adobe PDF Print Engine in their latest versions. CGS uses a ghost script clone but they will be forced to move to Adobe PDF very soon. That will be painful for them as it was for GMG.
5. CGS and GMG have paper strategies that they push hard. EFI licenses their name on Tecco paper in Europe and we once had EFI's name on our Validation media but we removed it earlier this year. But CGS and GMG are just putting their names on the mill's paper just like Epson does and just like we do.Tecco is one of the largest converters in Europe and they work with all of the RIP companies. German paper is "silly expensive" as Germany is one of the lost expensive places in the world to manufacture product. CGS and GMG import finished rolls into the US and are subject to higher import duties that make their premium papers between $1,20 and $1.45 per sq. ft. MSRP.....that is simply ludicrous.
6. EFI software is buggier that GMG. I do not know about CGS.
7. Originally, CGS was a reverse engineered version of GMG.....I believe.

So, no, there is no clear winner. GMG and CGS are great products. But, Epson is many things but stupid they are not. Why did they choose EFI?


What I do know is that all these RIPs work great with Chromaticity Validation Media....;-).

Hi Ian,

whilst a lot of the things you have mentioned are correct, some important points need to be corrected.

2. CGS is not only concentrating on the proofing market, but very heavily on the digital printing and wide format market as well. These applications have not been so color critical in the past, but are increasingly getting there. The key issue is color accurancy and consistency. The market has very much honored CGS's involvement; The ORIS PRess Matcher was winner of the recent prestigious PIA InterTech Technology Award, and is a global partner of many digital press manufacturers like Xerox, HP, MGI and others.
3. If you look at the distribution pyramid, having a large market share in terms of numbers, does not necessarily mean you have the best products (pardon the pun!)
4. I can't see that GMG or CGS are particularly dominant in certain areas like packaging. It has more to do with different geographic markets. Since someone mentioned it here, the recent versions of the ORIS Color Tuner allows you to create your own custom spot color database (apart from PAntone, HKS etc. which are part of the application) but not only solids, you can dial in any percentage (or multiple values), using an iterative process. There are also the indispensable tools for packaging available, like the possibility to accurately set spot color overprints and transparency levels, halftone option, miss-register simulation etc.

With the ORIS Color Tuner // Web CGS has the perfect browser-based client/server architecture, which allows access to the workflow via LAN or web, using a standard browser. As the only Hybrid Proofing solution, it even includes soft proofing and proof certification in one workflow. No CGS, is not using, and has never used, a ghost script clone, but is one of the few companies which have developed their own rip. Actually, it has gone rather unnoticed, but CGS has indeed incorporated the Adobe Print Engine, and it was not painful at all. Still the CGS rip is part of the application, as it offers a number of advantages.
5. I can only say this for CGS, but it is certainly not the case of just putting a sticker on a roll of paper, and there you are. The ORIS line of nanoporous (as opposed to microporous) Pearl papers are exclusively produced with very tight specifications for CGS, and you cannot get them anywhere else. Without going too much into detail, these substrates have various advantages, like being completely optical brightener free, larger color space etc. etc.
7. CGS was a reverse-engineered version of GMG??? Ian, having been a GMG distributor, you should know better. That is one of the funniest myths I heard lately.

Now is there a clear winner? Since I am also selling not rips but color management solutions, you should run some tests and find out for yourself, but nowadays you should not only look at lab values, but how such a solution can be at the heart of your color requirements, color managing all devices and transformations centrally, in other words, soft and hardcopy proofing, analog and digital printing, large format output and much more. And you should see how such a system can be used by an average person, and not only your color guru, if you still have one in your company.

Best, Heiner

 

[Ian Mackenzie]

Heiner,

It’s been awhile…..since our Agfa days, right? DRUPA 1990?

You deliver an excellent commercial for CGS.
No one is doubting CGS' capabilities.
No one is questioning the quality of your paper. (Although I could have lots of fun doing it as we know a thing or two about paper, mills, "nano" coatings, exclusive grades, OBAs and German converters....;-) Let’s be careful not to mix marketing spin and opinions with technical facts.

The OBA debate is very amusing to watch and listen to. The best printing compnaies in the world have relied upon their Approvals and FinalProofs for years and they have more OBAs than anything else. Press stock alwys has OBAs. GMG, Epson, Kodak, HP and others all have OBAs. Funny how CGS does not control the global market with your paper....;-)

We are attempting to answer a question that has been asked. As my company is no longer focusing on RIPs since our recent merger, I can add a perspective that I hope will aid those who seek information.

Any company who believes that their product is "the clear winner" is drinking their own kool-aid just a little too heavily. I believe I was fairly complimentary of CGS and GMG for my company has deep respect for CGS's products, people and approach to the marketplace. However, it is NOT a product that is suitable for every application. We appaud CGS' recent foray into digital printing especially into EFI's back yard at Xerox. That was beautiful. But.....wide format and CGS.....?.....not in North America. Maybe in EMEA. Exporting color-managed PDFs is nice, but - as you know - unless you are driving Vuteks, Rolands, Mutohs, Mimakis, HPs directly, you are only providing a "50% solution".

I admire the way you focus your commercial on your strengths, as you should. But your input remains solely targeted to your company's capabilities and not to the market as a whole.
Let’s move past marketing messages and talking points as there are many other factors.

No, there is not a clear winner (between German RIP makers) just as marketing, advertising, incentives and personal consumer choices help divide Audi, BMW and MB’s US and global market share. Some like BMW’s body styling, others like Audi’s Quattro feature while some enjoy the cushy ride of a Mercedes.

If there were truly one compnay that had the "best product", then the other two would have already been driven out of the marketplace.

Same holds true for inkjet RIPs.

 

[Werby]

The OBA debate is very amusing to watch and listen to. The best printing compnaies in the world have relied upon their Approvals and FinalProofs for years and they have more OBAs than anything else. Press stock alwys has OBAs. GMG, Epson, Kodak, HP and others all have OBAs.

Ian

I wish I found OBAs as amusing as yourself. They present a significant challenge to color management and proofing and I have yet to see a solution from any RIP manufacturer that truly addresses the problem. The best solution I've heard is that you should try to have the same amount and kind of OBAs in your proofing stock that you have in your press stock. This works if you can laminate your Approval or Finalproof onto the press stock, but is not very useful for inkjets, so I'd rather have none.

It's odd that you would say that Approvals and FinalProofs "have more OBAs than anything else" because it all depends on what stock you laminate onto. 5 years ago our standard substrate was Kodak Commercial Matchprint base, and it has virtually no OBAs. There are a number of press stocks we use today which don't have significant OBAs either, but of course most press stocks do have quite a bit, as well as most inkjet papers.

Regarding Inkjet proofing, I"ll take OBA-free proofing paper anytime. You say that GMG has OBAs, but their main proofing stock (semimatte 250) is OBA free and we use a lot of it. I've used the ORIS OBA-free stock and it works well too. Do you honestly think that a hyper-brightened "proofing stock" is going to give you a good visual match to a low-OBA press stock like Sterling?

-Todd Shirley

 

[meddington]

. The best solution I've heard is that you should try to have the same amount and kind of OBAs in your proofing stock that you have in your press stock. This works if you can laminate your Approval or Finalproof onto the press stock, but is not very useful for inkjets, so I'd rather have none.

Its possible to use the actual press stock in the inkjet device when coated for such. Welcome To Printing And Proofing Technologies

No real solution can come from any proofing Rip at the moment, as there's no accounting for the amount of OBs in the press/proof stock or the amount of uv in the viewing light source. Any one solution (OBA Module from Xrite for example) addresses only one viewing condition, and who here can guarantee identical viewing conditions throughout the life of a proof?

That said, I still prefer a moderate amount of OBAs in proofing stock, as OBA free press stock is a rarity, though I would avoid "hyper-brightened" stock as well.

 

[Ian Mackenzie]

Todd -

OK, poor choice of words. I find the debate amusing, not the production issues.

There is a HUGE difference between proofing stock that is "hyper brightened" and proofing stock that has trace amounts of OBAs - just as most press stock has. This debate (on OBAs) has yielded no winner. That is why CGS and GMG do not have a 100% market share. If you are pleased with your GMG paper, then "good on you". It's great paper. We launched it in the US originally.

There have been some studies about this topic. The results can be summarized and distilled as:

• Optical Brighteners do not have a significant affect (less than 1.0 De) on measurement data when present in small amounts (less than 1.5 Db* UV to non-UV) in inkjet proofing media.
• Optical brighteners have no affect in any manner on metamerism in an inkjet proof.
• Inkjet proofs are no more metameric than printed materials.
• Non-optically brightened inkjet media does not appear to add any benefit over media with appropriate amounts of Optical brighteners.
• In some cases a total absence of optical brighteners may even result in proofs that do not correlate as close visually to optically brightened press sheets.

Most of our data comes directly from the mills that make the paper for these private labels. As you know, RIP and printer companies buy paper from converters who in turn buy it from mills.

Cheers,
Ian

 

[schenkadere]

Its possible to use the actual press stock in the inkjet device when coated for such. Welcome To Printing And Proofing Technologies

No real solution can come from any proofing Rip at the moment, as there's no accounting for the amount of OBs in the press/proof stock or the amount of uv in the viewing light source. Any one solution (OBA Module from Xrite for example) addresses only one viewing condition, and who here can guarantee identical viewing conditions throughout the life of a proof?

That said, I still prefer a moderate amount of OBAs in proofing stock, as OBA free press stock is a rarity, though I would avoid "hyper-brightened" stock as well.

I've used 2 PTP TWP, The Whole Proof) products and the results after switching to Validation 190 were night and day. Same printer, same RIP, MUCH better results...dark point, shadow detail, no visual correction necessary. It may work for some, but I wasn't thrilled. I have a new, unopened roll of 10pt Carolina PTP if anyone is interested.

 

[HeinerM]

Todd -

OK, poor choice of words. I find the debate amusing, not the production issues.

There is a HUGE difference between proofing stock that is "hyper brightened" and proofing stock that has trace amounts of OBAs - just as most press stock has. This debate (on OBAs) has yielded no winner. That is why CGS and GMG do not have a 100% market share. If you are pleased with your GMG paper, then "good on you". It's great paper. We launched it in the US originally.

There have been some studies about this topic. The results can be summarized and distilled as:

• Optical Brighteners do not have a significant affect (less than 1.0 De) on measurement data when present in small amounts (less than 1.5 Db* UV to non-UV) in inkjet proofing media.
• Optical brighteners have no affect in any manner on metamerism in an inkjet proof.
• Inkjet proofs are no more metameric than printed materials.
• Non-optically brightened inkjet media does not appear to add any benefit over media with appropriate amounts of Optical brighteners.
• In some cases a total absence of optical brighteners may even result in proofs that do not correlate as close visually to optically brightened press sheets.

Most of our data comes directly from the mills that make the paper for these private labels. As you know, RIP and printer companies buy paper from converters who in turn buy it from mills.

Cheers,
Ian

Hi Ian,
after your reply I considered to let the matter rest, but hey, you sparked an interesting discussion. It has spun off to OBAs and proofing papers, and I will come back to this topic in a moment.

The initial question was ...is there a clear winner? Let me rephrase the question. Is there a bad proofing solution on the market? The answer today clearly is no, although it would have been quite different 5 - 8 years ago, remember all these proofing shoot outs? You mentioned that the best printing companies have relied on Approval and FinalProof. Luckily, Europe never went down that road. If I am not mistaken, there was only one or two FinalProofs in Germany, and Approval is only being used in packaging for obvious reasons. The color accuracy of an Epson with a decent Rip beats these systems by far. You said these systems had lots of OBAs, and of course, as has been said already, it depends on the stock, you laminate on. Now, why am I saying proofing papers should be free of OBAs, as some people say, hey I have it in my press stock too, so it should be the same. The reason is, it never behaves the same, and most users, at least in commercial printing, will not put their spectrophotometer on printed stock any more. Why should they? To do what? Fingerprint a press? We finally have printing standards in the market and people have come to grabs with them. In Europe, the universal language is ISOcoated V2, and this is what most of the proofs relate to. So as long as I have set up my proofing system to be able to print the different color spaces and paper categories, and all Rip vendors supply these profiles for their systems, there is no reason to create your own profiles, but you need to recalibrate your system every once in a while, and there you measure on the proofing paper, and OBAs will get in the way and throw off your measurements. The other factor is that inkjet proofs on paper containing OBAs will rapidly degrade, and this is very well an absolute no no, for instance in catalog production which may last a few weeks. This is also the reason Fogra will only certify papers with no or very little OBAs, as others will fail the aging test.

"Inkjet proofs are no more metameric than printed materials"? I totally disagree with you. Move an inkjet proof out of the light box, and you will very often see a dramatic shift, which always amazes me. Granted, this has not only to do with the substrate olone, but also with the inks as opposed to printing inks. If you proofs do not correlate visually, you are not using correct lighting conditions, or your proofs are wrong. OBAs in the proofing paper will not make it better. If you are watching proofs under room lights or so, don't bother buying an expensive proofing solution. That is like driving a Ferrari with bicycle wheels.

One final word. Why do GMG and CGS not have 100 % of the market, in terms of software or paper? Well, that is the nature of the market. Otherwise we would all be using Macs by know, wouldn't we ;-) And thank goodness for competition. If you do not have any, your likely to have done something wrong.

Cheers,

Heiner