Unified Color management work flow

[slehning]

We are a mid size printer that has an offset division, digital division and large Format.

We have two 40" Man Roland and one Hiedleburg half size offset presses.
We have an Indigo 3000 and 5500 Indigo press and are looking to expand upon our color printing digital arsenal with a different manufacturer.

With all this we also have a Large Format division utilizing a variety of color output printing units as well.
With the large format devices we want the capability to open up the color gamut for vibrant banners etc; but may have a need on occasion to match what we do on offset to our G7 standardization.

We are using Prinergy for a front end to drive files to our proofing, (Epson 7900 + Oris color tuner Web 1.2 ), palting, and the Indigos. I believe we are using an Onyx RIP for large foramt.


Here is the miracle question of the day. Is there a Unified work flow solution to color manage these devices without braking the bank. Not looking for the Cadillac, but a good reliable runner to get us where we want to be.

There is definitely more emphasis on the digital presses matching with consistency than the focus of the Large format, but I thought I would throw that in the mix as well.
Thanks in Advance for the help.

Steve

 

[maas]

Afternoon

I had a contract management position at a printing company that operated HP, Indigo, flatbed printers as well as offset and screen printing presses and deployed a GMG colour server to do exactly what you are looking for i.e. to get a consistent result from all your printing equipment, i will contact their GM to see if you can get in touch with him and discuss the process, pitfalls etc.

regards
Maas

 

[WharfRat]

I was under the impression that Oris Color Tuner could do all of that.
Is that not so?
Our cheezes are looking at Oris - I could use some information
you have regarding your Oris setup.
You have found Oris will not color Manage all your output devices?

MSD

 

[TerryWyse]

Is there a Unified work flow solution to color manage these devices without braking the bank. Not looking for the Cadillac, but a good reliable runner to get us where we want to be.

It so happens I'm working on a project for customer that does exactly what you're asking to do...a common or "central" color server to handle virtually all color management tasks for various devices including offset, digital press and wide format/inkjet printing.

There's a few solutions out there, GMG Color Server and Alwan CMYK Optimizer to name two. Since you already have Oris, you should see what options are available for expanding that system to support some of your other devices.

Despite the fact that you don't want the "Cadillac", these solutions can be very pricey....put it this way, there's no inexpensive solution out that I could recommend to any of my customers with a straight face. "Unified Color Management" is a bit like the Quest for the Holy Grail....when you find it, it's going to cost you.

Terry

 

[Correct Color]

Here is the miracle question of the day. Is there a Unified work flow solution to color manage these devices without braking the bank. Not looking for the Cadillac, but a good reliable runner to get us where we want to be.

To offer a contrarian point of view from Terry, I'd say that it is possible to get where you want to be without breaking the bank.

It's true there are a few "color server" options out there, and it's also true that they get pretty expensive, pretty fast. And some people use them and some people love them.

However, it's also true that you can get to consistent color without them with a good, solid, well-defined and well-characterized workflow. It's just a question of figuring out what's most important to you, and creating and then characterizing and implementing a workflow that accomplishes your goals.


Mike Adams
Correct Color

 

[Bondi_dan]

Unified Color management work flow

We have two 40" Man Roland and one Hiedleburg half size offset presses.
We have an Indigo 3000 and 5500 Indigo press and are looking to expand upon our color printing digital arsenal with a different manufacturer. <snip> we also have a Large Format division utilizing a variety of color output printing units as well. <snip> our proofing, (Epson 7900 + Oris color tuner Web 1.2 )

As a percentage of your investment in Presses, Indigos, large format etc - a ColorServer would be less that 1% of what you have already spent?

Breaking the bank? - in the full picture of what you are doing it is hardly a great expense to get the colour correct.

Regards,

Dan

 

[Wolfie66]

I agree with Dan in that the investment in a "Caddilac" color management solution is a relatively small investment in comparison the the cost of your printing equipment and the operational costs associated with those. I manage a large in plant that also does in-sourcing as a commercial printer. We have sheetfed, Xerox iGen4 and wide format. We previously had GMG for proofing and replaced that with ORIS color tuner web and ORIS pressmatcher pro web for digital printing. The results for us have been phenomenal. We used to have a process in which our internal clients would choose either offset or digital based on their quality requirements. They now understand that they don't need to make that choice because output looks the same regardless of what we print it on. By pulling those short runs off of the sheetfed presses and producing them digitally, we have acheived ROI with color management in less than a year and have increased our overall capacity so we're growing the commercial side of the business quite dramatically.

 

[David Milisock]

I agree with Dan in that the investment in a "Caddilac" color management solution is a relatively small investment in comparison the the cost of your printing equipment and the operational costs associated with those. I manage a large in plant that also does in-sourcing as a commercial printer. We have sheetfed, Xerox iGen4 and wide format. We previously had GMG for proofing and replaced that with ORIS color tuner web and ORIS pressmatcher pro web for digital printing. The results for us have been phenomenal. We used to have a process in which our internal clients would choose either offset or digital based on their quality requirements. They now understand that they don't need to make that choice because output looks the same regardless of what we print it on. By pulling those short runs off of the sheetfed presses and producing them digitally, we have acheived ROI with color management in less than a year and have increased our overall capacity so we're growing the commercial side of the business quite dramatically.

> They now understand that they don't need to make that choice because output looks the same regardless of what we print it on.

I would love to SEE THAT! I've never seen the same file print IDENTICALLY in terms of color from 2 different technologies let alone different media and I've been in printing 38 years. If you can really do this e-mail me and I'll send a file and if it works I'll see about send my color broking your way. I'm East coats U.S..

 

[graficworx]

If your happy with your prynergy workflow, why not upgrade the Oris to a full version to run you wide format, digital, and I'm assuming CTP. The version of Oris you currently have is no doubt the stripped down version only for that Epson. That way if you need "correct" color matching, send the job through the Oris to it's final output. If it's just a down and dirty job, you can skip the Oris and go straight to the output device.