Ink Formulation
Best-of-Breed Enterprise System for Accurate Formulation
Colibri® ColorMatch is the most sophisticated ink formulation platform available. It delivers accurate color matching for a variety of printing substrates.

Most colors can be matched on the first proof with a well-prepared ink calibration. Leftover inks can be worked into new ink formulas.Use Colibri on a single station or deploy on server for use across the enterprise. Our customers find the product easy to use with a logical layout and say that they are impressed with the accuracy of the results.

reducedqualityink_formulation

Formulation Accuracy

Here are results from color matching tests conducted by a customer using Colibri ColorMatch. Ink recipes predicted for 10 target colors were mixed and produced by drawdowns on Leneta card. The color of each drawdown was compared with the corresponding target color by measuring on spectrophotometer. The ΔE values in the chart below show the difference between drawdown and target color. The average ΔE is 0.94 for the 10 colors.
The results show the accuracy and predictive capability of Colibri’s multi-flux optical model. Both the calibration sets and test sets were made on Leneta cards. This represents the best results that can be expected under ideal conditions.

 

color_matching_accuracy_first_sub

 

A second set of colors were tested on a paper with higher ink absorbency. Colibri translates ink calibration data from low-absorbency Leneta cards to higher absorbency papers. The need to create separate ink calibration sets on different materials is eliminated. The results below represent the results from this exercise. The average ΔE is 1.7 for the 7 colors.

There is some loss of accuracy in translating data from non-absorbent to absorbent substrates. But 80% of the colors are typically acceptable at first proof. These results are more typical of what is encountered in practice.

 

color_matching_accuracy_second_sub1

Correction Accuracy

In cases where the first drawdown proof does not produce an acceptable match, a color correction can be made using Colibri to predict an adjusted ink recipe.
For this test, first predictions were purposely made to have a high ΔE by NOT applying the absorbency compensation to the calibration data. This lets us see the performance of color correction more clearly.
The hashed area in the bar chart shows the improvement from first proof to the corrected second proof. Correction improves the color on average by 2.2 ΔE. About two-thirds of the deviation can be removed on average by a single correction.

 

color_correction_improvement1

Request a Quote!

Getting Started

  1. Download installer from web. It includes Microsoft SQL server and runs on 32-bit or 64-bit versions of Windows XP, 7, 8, and 10
  2. Activate license from start screen. License file is sent by email within 24 hours. Every license is tied to a single computer.
  3. Review product guide with step-by-step screenshots and setup online training session.