G7 Certification

[timle]

Hello,
If a print shop does not use the Gracol paper spec. and solid ink is not to Gracol gamus aim point, would it be able to get G7 grayscale certification?
and is it worth it

thanks

 

[michaelejahn]

G7 is a method / process - that you qualify "for"...
- as in, you are certified that you follow the method, or you are trained and achieve a certification that you are a 'master' of that method.

G7 Overview | IDEAlliance

GRACoL is a Print specification - or better said - some guidelines on how to simulate GRACoL...

DEER Printing Guidelines 2011 Poster-DOWNLOAD | IDEAlliance

Is what worth it - Certification ? As in, will your customers know what G7 is, or that you can print to GRACoL ?

Typically, a customer would come in an request that you do that ( perhhaps even demand to meet your G7 master or see your cert ) - BEFORE they award you print jobs. In that case, of course it is worth it. It is a great process, will help you print better and understand process control.

Hope that helps.

 

[mglouis]

Timle,

Getting a G7 Master Printer qualification is a marketing decision. Being able to print within G7 Grayscale tolerances is a good idea for most printers because it makes their printing condition(s) compatible with typical cmyk files coming from typical applications such as Adobe Creative Suite. What G7 offers is a shared appearance across multiple processes. Although you might only have one printing process you probably want your prints to look relatively normal when compared to how they might look had they printed on the cover of Time magazine.

"G7 Grayscale" is designed to accommodate any paper color (within reason) and any ink color (within reason). IDEAllianceâ„¢ suggests that printers aim for Gracol, SWOP or ISO12647-2 solid and overprint aimpoints when possible. "G7 Targeted" requires you to match Gracol , Swop or any G7-derived print specifications. If the paper is the only thing getting in the way then there is a method of tweaking the aimpoints, called substrate relative, where your proofing reference is skewed in the direction of your paper color. You could make your press work and your proofs "G7 Targeted Relative" and still use standard print specifications as a basis for reference color, which is easier and less expensive than designing your own proofing reference. If your inks are out in left field (e.g. your magenta is actually red) then you are a better candidate for "G7 Grayscale" although it may be possible to match a standard print specification with the use of ICC profiles. Many printers would say that G7 has challenged them to become better printers. It does not guarantee a color match between press and proof but it aligns the two so the likelihood of a match is increased.

You will want to find a G7 Expert to get you on the fast track or else you can invest in yourself or a co-worker to become a G7 Professional. Even if you have an in-house G7 Professional you would still need to engage a G7 Expert to achieve Master Printer qualification.

-Matt Louis

 

[mglouis]

Timle,

I just realized this is on the digital printing forum and I thought I was on offset. Typically with digital the process is simplified to matching Gracol or Swop with ICC profiles and a substrate purchased just for proving your processes are capable of matching reference values. This is called "G7 Colorspace". Your magenta might not be the correct color but perhaps Swop/Gracol magenta could be simulated using some combination of CMYK on your digital press.

You could certainly aim for "G7 grayscale" and your prints would match Swop/Gracol quite well in neutral colors but your saturated colors, especially reds, greens and blues, might be too "native", thus too dissimilar to what clients are looking for. It's hard to imagine running a digital shop on G7 alone without potentially running into hue complaints in corporate logos, etc., than wouldn't happen otherwise if ICC profiles were part of the process.

Matt Louis

 

[JoeColor]

With how you are phrasing your question (G7 Grayscale)... yes it is possible to achieve grayscale with your paper/ink combination through the G7 process. Remember G7 is not GRACoL, it's a methodology to achieve grayscale. It's been my experience in the field that all printing processes can achieve gray balance through the G7 methodology. Now do 2 prints from 2 different processes look alike...well that mostly depends on the paper's white point. Independent from each other, they look "neutral", but when placed side-by-side the paper's "whiteness" cast can become obvious.

 

[timle]

Thank you for every body's input. So I assumed if our paper is off the Gracol spec. we can go ahead and use Gracol Solid color aim values. if we could not get there, it's ok as long as we can get the grayscale corrected and we should be able to be certified as "G7 Grayscale"
Then we can create our own ICC profiles for our press and convert to this color space for any print jobs. Is this the right approach?

 

[mglouis]

Sure. If your press profile is good then you should have a very good press to proof match and you will also enjoy the shared appearance (in terms of contrast) common amongst all G7 devices. To gain Master Printer qualification you will need to join IDEAlliance and hire a G7 Expert.
Most folks avoid custom offset press profiling unless they cannot get an acceptable press to proof match using "G7 Targeted Relative". If you do press profiling you want to align your presswork with your reference print specification as closely as possible in order to give the color management system as little to do as possible.

- Matt Louis