What uncoated 'standard' to aim for

[roger]

Hi everyone,

What color spaces are people using/aiming for when they're building their plating + proofing curves for uncoated sheetfed printing?

Thanks,
Roger

 

[zcto7]

I very popular one seems to be Gracol G7. You can even find tons of free information on their site about how to go about achieving the standard.

Link.....IDEAlliance

 

[Mike Strickler]

Uncoated Sheetfed

Uncoated Sheetfed

Building curves is more or less distinct from color spaces. As for the latter, a good profile for conversion of files as well as a proofing reference would be Fogra29. Download it from fogra.de. As for plate curves, first run the press to uncoated solid densities and and adjust curves to hit the uncoated specs for quarter, half, and three-quarter tones. Check the 3-color grays--25 19 19, 50 40 40, and 75 66 66; they should be the same color as the 25, 50, and 75K but just a tad darker--the 50 40 40 should match a 53% K. Adjust C, M, and Y curves to tweak until neutral. The G7 method can be used to fine tune this for better gray balance and print tonality. This is a crude and incomplete summary and not intended as a complete tutorial or qualified onsite assistance. Check with your nearest G7 Expert consultant.

P.S. GRACoL is NOT the specification for uncoated but rather for high-quality coated sheetfed.

Best regards,

Mike Strickler
MSP Graphic Services
707.664.1628

 

[tmiller_iluvprinting]

There is an Uncoated data set available from IDEAlliance. The data set is still in beta testing, but the data looks promising.
Best regards,
Todd

 

[roger]

Thanks Mike. Fogra29 was what I was looking for. FYI, at that link I find that Fogra29 has been replaced by Fogra44 + Forga47 (Fogra Forschungsgesellschaft Druck e.V.) later, Roger

 

[roger]

Hi Todd,

Where can I get the Idealliance's beta Uncoated data set?

thanks,
Roger

 

[tmiller_iluvprinting]

Hi Roger,
Send an email off to Joe Fazzi at [email protected] and he should be able to send you the beta data.
We did a G7 calibration 3 years ago for uncoated paper and our data compared pretty well to the IDEAlliance beta data.

Best regards,
Todd

 

[TerryWyse]

The G7 Method and the IDEAlliance beta uncoated dataset is a good place to start. I've been working with and using this dataset for a few months but I find it's major shortcoming is the paper L*a*b* it assumes (the dataset is based on Fogra 29 I believe) which is around b*-2, similar to GRACoL. Most of the "uncoated offset" papers I run into in pressrooms are quite a bit bluer and are loaded with optical brighteners. Most papers I see are around a*+1/b*-8 or thereabouts. I'd like to see a new "G7" uncoated dataset that better represents these typical uncoated offset papers.

Regards,
Terry Wyse