Controlling color presents a rainbow of challenges: throughout the prepress process, on-press, across the enterprise and around the world. Making printed color reliable and predictable for everyone who has to approve it, print it, and turn it into packaging is a focus of software programmers, instrument suppliers and ink companies.

Despite advances in color-management software, monitor proofing and Internet-based file sharing, problems with "global color management are not resolved yet," says John White, president of Minneapolis-based Retail Package Design, Inc. (www.retailpd.com), "but we're working diligently on it." White's shop has numerous packaging clients who need color consistency worldwide. He spoke to Converting at the recent China Pack conference in Chicago.

For the issue of color consistency, whether the package is printed in Charleston or China, a variety of color-standards systems are available. But beware, White warns, "Chinese printers often don't even know what PMS is." Designers, printers and converters working on the same packaging, no matter where they're located, need to "pick a color-standards system and just go with it."

Easier said than done. However, at the well-attended IPEX 2006 show just completed (April 4–11, Birmingham, UK), a host of familiar exhibitor names found new ways to draw a crowd, with calibration tools, prepress software, on-press color monitoring, and other methods for controlling color. As this international show made clear, color crosses borders—and color-management tools had better do the same .

Kodak, under whose umbrella (www.graphics.kodak.com) now reside the prepress and workflow products of wholly-owned subsidiary Creo, introduced several innovations at IPEX. Among them was its Veris digital proofer. "The next-generation Veris proofer represents the new standard in contract color proofing," said Brad Palmer, Kodak's general manager for proofing and color. "The new features further enhance proof production and productivity, producing extremely accurate, affordable proofs that meet color standards worldwide, including full FOGRA, SICOGIF and PPA compliance."

Kodak's VERIS digital proofers feature an inline spectrophotometer, which according to the company enables automated color calibration to maximize color precision, save costs and prevent errors in both production and remote proofing applications. The inline spectrophotometer feature utilizes X-Rite's (www.xrite.com) spectrophotometer technology.

To consistently set customer expectations that proofs will accurately predict the final print, the Veris digital proofer also supports two Certified Processes from Kodak, the established Certified Process for Proofing and the new Certified Process for Color Confirmation. Certified Processes secure customer confidence by checking that the right steps are done in the right order with the right data.

The new Certified Process for Color Confirmation checks that the proof was generated according to in-house or industry color standards, helping press operators and print buyers communicate and confirm color expectations before going to press. It also confirms that the correct profile, ink and media were used. This, according to Kodak, is a much more accurate process than checking the color bar alone. The inline spectrophotometer fully automates the Certified Process for Color Confirmation, making it simple to deliver proofs with extremely high levels of accuracy.

GretagMacbeth (www.gretagmacbeth.com), having announced a strategic partnership with Pantone (www.pantone.com), introduced or displayed several color-management tools for a wide variety of users. Among them is a family of products for managing color onscreen that will be marketed by Pantone on a global basis. The family of products, which includes huey, Eye-One Display LT and Eye-One Display 2, are designed to be easier and less expensive for beginners to use, according to both companies. They also provide a migration path for users as their needs grow. Each focuses on calibrating color computers so that monitors, either within one studio or in a collaborative production environment, provide consistent onscreen color viewing throughout the production workflow.

Specifically for flexographers, GretagMacBeth has introduced vipFLEX, marketed as a complete solution for flexo-plate production quality assurance. A second, DensiEye 750, expends the capabilities of the supplier's previous DensiEye 700 with added features for advanced printing quality control. The third solution is the vipPAQ v2 inline multicolor density-measuring system, which according to the company now provides direct import of measured reference data from SpectroEye or other CxF data, validating print back to proof.

Color-management also needs to be part of a larger prepress/workflow management software tool. Also during IPEX 2006, Esko (www.esko.com) announced WebCenter 6.0, designed for web-based communication between all players in the packaging supply chain. It is an important component of the Scope integrated packaging software suite, enabling the entire packaging supply chain to work in a straightforward collaborative process. WebCenter 6.0 features a redesigned, and easier to operate, user interface; a dedicated window to view, mark up and approve jobs; discussion threads; searches based on approval status; and automatic project creation from Scope's BackStage workflow server.

"In the packaging supply chain, it is important to supply the 'glue' between all parties —making it easy for everyone to collaborate and share files easily," comments Jan De Roeck, Esko's marketing director for packaging software. "WebCenter is far more than an asset manager. It is a communication platform that brings together all supply chain partners to discuss jobs, provide approvals, deliver 3D views of products and their packaging, and even create new jobs automatically. WebCenter is the users' window to the integrated Scope software."

WebCenter can be used by folding-carton, corrugated and label converters, prepress tradeshops, and consumer product companies. Users browse or search catalogs of projects using a standard web browser. This helps collaborators view and resolve different versions of a document; communicate across the entire packaging supply chain; provide approvals from structural and graphic files to other files like Word, Excel, JPEG images, or even palletization files; provide an advanced search engine for locating files; and allow global communication and collaboration 24/7 with the ability to "speak" multiple languages, according to the company.

A new WebCenter viewer has been created for the inspection, markup and approval of both CAD and graphic files. Details can be measured with accuracy, approvals can be made, and versions can be compared in one screen. A measurement tool snaps to points for accurate measurement of widths, lengths, distances and angles, while a densitometer accurately measures each ink and total ink coverage.

When more than one version is available, the Compare tool highlights the differences. The notes tool tracks who said what, and when. A 'reply' can allow the user to respond to a question or comment and all related notes are kept together in a single window.

The "Gee-whiz" color-management factor extends down to handheld tools as well. X-Rite's PlateScope, about the size of an office stapler, can accurately measure even difficult low-contrast, chemistry-free and processless plates. It also maintains accuracy in extreme highlights and shadows, the areas of prime concern in the printing process. Auto-contrast video targeting allows users to easily identify the areas they want to measure, even in darker environments, with its patent-pending spectral illumination array.

The instrument supports all current screening technologies, including AM, FM, XM and hybrid screen types. Easy-to-navigate, icon-driven color menu provides ease of use, and full process control automation means there's no risk of error due to inaccurate manual measurements.

Until there is a worldwide color standard, printers will need to keep several different sets of rules and standards in mind. But the ability to apply the same criteria to packaging all over the world, from material to material and from plant to plant, is bound to improve with these tools.

For more info on IPEX 2006, including a list of exhibitors, see www.ipex.org