WHY DO OPTICAL BRIGHTENERS IN PAPER MATTER? In the world of print, optical brightening agents in paper have often been referred to as a ‘game changer’ because of their inherent impact on achieving an acceptable color match. Although G7® has proven to be a valuable method for calibrating printing devices, as well as specifying color, one of the limitations of G7, as well as other calibration methods, has been the problem of paper color. The…
The purchase of a handheld densitometer is a capital expenditure that requires due diligence and a proven path to ROI for most commercial and packaging printers today. Before making the final purchase decision, be sure to ask the following 8 questions: Is the densitometer equipped with functionality to scan color bars? The ability to scan color bars with a handheld densitometer should be a top consideration when evaluating your purchase decision. This feature is essential…
Ensuring consistent and accurate color in a multi-press multi-facility environment presents a host of challenges that many printers struggle to deal with on a daily basis. Most of these challenges fall into the following four categories: Inability to Share Data If there is not a cohesive system and process in place to share customer specified color tolerances and values, it is virtually impossible to achieve accurate and consistent color across multiple presses and facilities. Without…
Does the scanning speed of the spectrodensitometer affect the accuracy of its measurements? A highly inaccurate supposition of some handheld scanning spectrodensitometers for the print industry today is the notion that if you vary the speed with which you manually move the instrument than the accuracy of the measurements will be compromised. In reality, handheld scanning spectrodensitometers offer the exact same accuracy as the high-end automated scanning systems and are often times the perfect solution…
In deciding on the appropriate color measurement instrumentation, it is essential that you understand the operational characteristics, functional comparisons, and intricacies of both the densitometer and the spectrophotometer. This is best communicated in the in-depth instrument descriptions below. Densitometers Density is a measure of the absorbance of an ink at specific wavelengths of light. As an example, yellow ink has a maximum absorbance in the blue region, so its density is calculated using a filter…
1. Is your ink really the right color? How can you tell? Determine whether the color of the ink you are receiving from your supplier falls within an acceptable distance from the customer specified colors and tolerances; before the end of the press run. Follow these 3 simple steps: Have the ink supplier provide an ink draw-down on the actual press material you are going to print on along with the customer specified color values…
