GMG Ink Optimizer Issues

[jim.spurr]

We have ink optimizer installed but is becoming a bit of a running joke as its now called ink intensifier as its making tints change colour. Was under the impression this type of software removes the ink from the CMY and brings the colour back as best it can with K but to be honest some of our jobs have had the ink usage increased on some ares of the pdf page.

Anyone else got this or other problems?

Thanks in advance

 

[gordo]

At what point in your production workflow are you determining that the ink optimization is not meeting expectations. Also, how are you determining that it isn't.

Gordo

 

[jim.spurr]

Its not meeting expectations as tints are a different colour which sooner or later will be spotted by the customer. Its a quality aspect that's the issue not the cost saving as we have customers where colour is really critical. Its making a lot of operators cautious about using it.

Jim

 

[gordo]

Its not meeting expectations as tints are a different colour which sooner or later will be spotted by the customer. Its a quality aspect that's the issue not the cost saving as we have customers where colour is really critical. Its making a lot of operators cautious about using it.

Jim

I guess where I was going was whether there may be other factors affecting the color rather than the GMG software. E.g. press setup, OBAs, etc.

gordo

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Its not meeting expectations as tints are a different colour which sooner or later will be spotted by the customer. Its a quality aspect that's the issue not the cost saving as we have customers where colour is really critical. Its making a lot of operators cautious about using it.

Jim

Is this noticeable at proofing (not likely) or after press (more likely)?

Are issues with vectors, rasters or both?

I am presuming that when you first set this up you compared your previous workflow to the ink optimised workflow? Are you printing to an industry standard or a house standard? What process control is there at press? How repeatable are the printing conditions, from sheet to sheet to job to job etc?

I presume that 1 and 2 colour mixes are OK. Are the issues with lighter colours or darker colours? Neutrals, saturated colours etc?

Can you post a before and after PDF (even a dummy job for test purposes)? I am sure that members here can run their own ink optimisation software to compare the results with what you are getting.


Stephen Marsh

 

[prepressdork]

Jim, although I am not familar with GMG, I use Alwan's CMYK Optimizer and it has a feature for preserving primary colors. I was having an issue with light tints and enabling this feature helped. Perhaps GMG has a similar feature? I've attached a screen capture of the Alwan feature:

 

[meddington]

I demo'd early versions of GMG's InkOptimizer and can confirm that there was more going on than GCR-like optimization. The intent of the software at that stage was to "improve" color, as well as apply "GCR" (for lack of a better term), hence the intent was not primarily to match the original color of the separation. I pointed out that this was not a good idea for a late binding workflow, and they took my comments, but I don't know that they made any changes as I never followed up after the demo. This was a good five or more years ago.

 

[maguns]

We have been using the Color Server with Ink Optimizer for more than a year and have not seen problems like the ones you describe. We use the Ink Optimizer with G1 profiles for Sheet fed and heatset web offset. We use Turbo G profiles for our newsprint plants. What we do have seen is that we cannot use Turbo G profiles for ISO Coated. Then the limit is pushed away from good quality. In some rare cases we have seen some small increase of CMY but that have always been in neutral tints and shadings. As said in earlier posts you need to verify if you have the problems before you print your PDFs If it's in you PDFs you should have a look at your settings so they are fine. What input/output profile are you using? Are you using their standard (MX) profiles?
Bests
Magnus

 

[Magnus]

Im with Stephen on this one, please post som before/after PDF's with embedded profiles so we can have a look at it.
It's most likely nothing wrong with the software, it sounds more like a setup problem or press calibration problem.

 

[Ferran]

We have been using GMG ColorServer & InkOptimizer since 2008 and we have never experienced such a thing. Have you contacted with gmg support? -Now it came to my mind something it is worth to look at...Do you know about the GMG Ink Saving Report Tool? With this tool you can compare the data for each original PDF file versus the optimized PDF. An easy way to see the difference on CMY and K (Ink Coverage Reduction).

 

[jim.spurr]

We have now had someone in from GMG and are looking at a workflow to try and remove the problem. Potential issue could be resolved shortly but watch this space whilst we force feed potential problem files at it.

Will be convinced when we get a months work out of it without any colour changes/issues.

Cheers prepress people!

 

[bdenitto]

On a side question - has anyone used ink optimazation on "Didgimarcs" embedded into the PDF? Does it render the "link" unusable?

 

[bdenitto]

On a side question - has anyone used ink optimization on "Didgimarcs" embedded into the PDF? Does it render the "link" unusable?