What are the 9 major changes and 3 major trends that color management has experienced?

For printing practitioners, color management has always been an unavoidable topic. Because the essence of printing is the reproduction of the original, and color reproduction is a factor that must be considered. Since the invention of laser phototypesetting technology at the end of the 20th century, after decades of development, color management has also flourished with the advancement of printing technology.

In order to enable printing practitioners to perceive the longitude and latitude context of color management from a macro perspective, clarify the application scenarios of color management, and explore the development trend of color management, the author tries to elaborate on the relevant topics of color management from the dimensions of background overview, application status, technology development process, and future development trend.

Overview of color management backgrounds

Broadly speaking, all methods of color control and management belong to color management. Before the arrival of digital measurement tools, we did not have many methods, basically relying on manual experience to control and manage color, and at the same time, the requirements of printing buyers were not high, and the right to speak was relatively weak.

In 1993, the establishment of the International Color Alliance ICC laid a milestone in the development of color management, and international standards related to printing were released one after another, and well-known printing associations such as Fogra in Germany and Idealliance in the United States set clear standards for color. With the tide of economic globalization and China's accession to the WTO in 2001, China's printing industry began to flourish, and international orders came one after another.

For international printing buyers and brands, how to achieve the same printing color of printing in many places around the world is a problem that must be solved. As a printing company at the end of the printing supply chain, it is natural to keep up with this requirement. As a result, color management began to be valued, digital proofing, screen soft proofing, scanning scoring system, G7&PSO color standard certification gradually promoted, the purpose of which is to standardize printing, eliminate the previous printing according to experience, and turn to printing according to data and standards.

With the further development of the industry, competition is intensifying, raw materials and labor costs are rising, how to reduce costs and increase efficiency has become an urgent problem for printing enterprises. One of the typical issues is how to use color management to improve production efficiency and reduce production costs, which is an internal factor. The concept of fully implementing standardization in printing production to make color management more efficient and longer lasting has been recognized and practiced by more and more printing companies.

Color management application status

At present, in the printing industry, a small number of printing companies already have a relatively complete color management system, and the management has invested hundreds of thousands of yuan or even millions of yuan to build a color management system, including related hardware, software and personnel training. Digital proofing system, scanning scoring system, color standardization certification has become standard, most enterprises have full-time departments or teams in color management, and even built their own color management center or technology research and development center, production also has corresponding processes to monitor, basically can achieve sustainable printing according to standards, their customers are also concentrated in international big brands and domestic high-end brands, this category is represented by typical large and medium-sized well-known printing enterprises.

More enterprises have passively launched color management projects at some point in order to obtain high value-added orders or meet the requirements of some customers. Such enterprises will basically configure simple hardware and software, or carry out color certification, but the enterprise often lacks professional color management personnel, unwilling to invest too high a cost to build a color management system or train employees, there is no complete standardization system in production, production is in a state of knowing what it is and not knowing why. Color management belongs to the existence of what needs to be done, no need not to do it, it is not easy to maintain standardized printing normally, this category is generally represented by small and medium-sized printing enterprises.

In addition, some enterprises have a low level of overall color management cognition, most of the employees lack relevant professional knowledge, not unavoidable, enterprises are unwilling to invest any cost, color management is dispensable, and may not even have basic color measurement instruments. Production is in a state of printing according to experience or relying on customer signature to see the color confirmation, the printing quality is naturally uneven, and it is difficult to achieve stable output, and it is difficult to unify the color of different batches or even each batch.

The scale of different printing enterprises has different starting points, different order requirements, and different management concepts. Of course, there are also some large printing companies that are actually difficult to match under the fame, although they have built a color management system, but Lian Po is old, most of them are outdated, and the colors are still chaotic; Some small and beautiful printing companies attach great importance to color management, and are even willing to spend a lot of effort to build a standardized system and train their own employees, and their printing quality is not inferior to that of large manufacturers.

The development process of color management technology

Throughout the decades of technological development of color management, although it has undergone different stages of sublimation, it can basically be summarized into the following aspects.

01 From subjective to objective

From relying on manual experience adjustment and senior master control, to relying on color measurement tools such as X-Rite and TECHKON and color management software such as PressSIGN to monitor color, color evaluation has changed from excellent, medium, and poor to ∆E color difference, TVI network expansion, ∆ Ch gray balance difference and even overall percentage scoring.

02 From fragmentation to integration

From the beginning of buying a piece of hardware and a set of software piecemeal, to now adopting an overall solution, printing companies to do color management, will look for suppliers to provide overall solutions to achieve the goal of color standardization, software, hardware, training, technology implementation and so on. Some software in the industry, such as ChromaCheck, PACKZ, etc., have taken a closer look at designing from the printing process and no longer focusing on just one of them.

03 From two-dimensional to multi-dimensional

Digital printing initially often only focused on the basic two-dimensional indicators of density and color shade, but now it is like a three-dimensional Lab value is already the standard configuration of the industry, the color difference requirements are everywhere, and the gray balance is also indispensable, so the transformation of printing ribbons is also colorful, including field, overprinting, dots, gray balance, etc. Based on the complexity of light sources, the phenomenon of isochromatic spectral failure has occurred repeatedly, and more complex, more comprehensive and scientific spectral data has been paid attention to by everyone, so many companies have begun to try to use spectral data such as CxF-4 to define spot colors and even carry out four-color color management.

04 From four colors to multiple colors

The base color of printing is CMYK, which can theoretically reproduce all colors and then gradually come down to printing according to ISO 12647. With the need to bring new experiences to consumers, the continuous surpassing of color needs, and the continuous challenge of traditional four colors, the concept of wide color gamut came into being. In recent years, relevant software and standards have undergone new developments, such as the release of multi-color color management software such as CGS ORIS X Gamut, and the release of Fogra 55's CMYKOGV seven-color color specification in 2021, which have greatly promoted the development of a wide color gamut.

05 From offset printing to diversification

The most mature area of color management application is offset printing. However, in recent years, digital printing has gradually become popular, including toner laser imaging machines, such as FUJIFILM, HP Indigo and other equipment, inkjet digital printers, such as EPSON, Canon proofing machines or many brands of large-format UV inkjet printers and other equipment, as well as flexo printing, etc., the color is difficult to unify, and there is no corresponding industry standard, only benchmarking offset printing standards. However, with the development of diversified printing and the evolution of industry technical standards, CRPC7 for the field of digital printing came into being, and PSD for certification in the field of digital printing also began to be promoted. In 2021, the release of ISO 12647-9 fills the gap in the printing iron industry standard, and Fogra 60 also provides a reference for the timely implementation of metal printing color standards.

06 From big factories to the people

Color management is no longer an empty theory lying in a book, nor is it a form or a totem that cannot withstand the cold in high places. From the coast to the mainland, from large factories to the private sector, especially small and medium-sized printing enterprises, they have begun to pay attention to color management and refresh their digital cognition, and have begun to install printing connection systems, use instruments to measure and control colors, correct screen soft proofing and publishing linearity, carry out G7/GMI color certification, and introduce scanning scoring systems, etc., so that the previously visible and intangible color management has become a vivid and vivid daily practice.

07 From the factory to the international

In the initial stage of color management, international standards and norms are not very popular, everyone pursues the consistency of digital proofing and actual printing, each company is doing its own color test, constructing its own color standard, and regarding it as a secret weapon, there are color barriers between factories, which brings a lot of constraints and troubles to printing buyers. The emergence of international color standards has solved this problem, and the well-known Fogra 39/47, GRACoL 2006, etc. have gradually become the unified standards of the industry, and printing companies can catch up with these standards to get the favor of printing buyers. With the widespread use of optical brighteners in the paper industry, the international standards were updated in 2013, and new versions of color specifications such as Fogra 51/52 and GRACoL 2013 were introduced. The standard has gradually transitioned from the factory standard to the international unified standard, and whether the color of the printing enterprise can effectively meet the international standard has become a new touchstone for printing buyers to test suppliers.

08 From unlicensed to licensed

The shift from a seller's market to a buyer's market has led to more and more printing companies trying to enhance their corporate image and gain a competitive advantage by obtaining a series of ISO standard certifications, so color standardization certification has become popular. Among them, Fogra, Ugra, and Idealliance are highly respected, and PSO, G7 experts have become the industry's sweet spots, which are synonymous with professionalism, and printing companies compete to advertise themselves through these professional certifications. Companies such as PressSIGN and MellowColor have also taken advantage of the situation to launch their own certifications, but they are limited to brand influence and have only become niche products. China's own C9 certification has set clear standards for printing standardization, which has gradually been recognized by domestic publishers and brands, and the future is promising.

09 From local to network

The printing industry has developed to a certain extent, and centralization is an inevitable trend. Such as Yutong, Hongxing, Junsi, Meiyingsen, etc. have opened their own branches across the country and even overseas, and how to achieve the same color of each branch has become a new requirement. The same challenges are also encountered for brands in managing multiple printing suppliers, which places new demands on color management. So the color management software has also changed from local to cloud, such as PressSIGN GPM, CGS, ColorPath, etc. have launched a cloud network version, the software has a unified server side, each branch installs the client and uploads its own measurement data to the cloud, by the manager to monitor it uniformly, which is also a new development trend.

The future trend of color management

01 Digitization

Color management is based on color measurement data, which is the core theory of modern color management. From the popularization of color measurement instruments, the spread of data-based scoring systems, and the customer's preference for data reports, we can see the development of the trend of dataization, I believe that this trend will continue to extend in the future, through more advanced and intelligent data collection and perception methods, so that all factors of the entire printing process are more and more digitized, forming big data in the true sense, after all, everything that can be data-driven will eventually be data-driven.

02 Intelligence

The intelligence of color management is based on data, and there are already some color monitoring settings built into the digital printing machine, when color abnormalities are detected, the equipment will automatically calibrate the color, so as to ensure that the output colors are standard and can meet the standard, so as to avoid the dependence on the ability of the operator to a large extent. At the same time, the color management process can also be automated, with the help of automated program design calls and online measurement equipment, the equipment automatically completes its own color calibration without relying on manual operation. The forward-looking G7 AI Master certification of the American Idealliance is to cope with this demand scenario, and digital printing machines such as HP Indigo 100K and 15K have obtained this certification. It is expected that the combination of artificial intelligence and printing will sink further in the future, combined with the status of equipment, order demand, media changes, material conversion to automatically select and adapt standards, and carry out real-time non-manual intervention color management.

03 Personalization

Personalization is to please customers and consumers, and to develop emerging market needs on the basis of standardization. With the popularization of standards and market segmentation, colors that meet ISO standards have become commonplace, and can no longer attract the attention of consumers, and the wide color gamut represented by CMYKOGV brings a new experience to buyers. For special light sources, or color management of special inks such as rose red ink, fluorescent ink, fragrance ink, and temperature change ink, it is expected to be further developed. At the same time, the wide application of special media such as gold and silver cards, film, and laser paper will greatly broaden the research field of color management. In addition, the application of personalized spot colors such as gold, silver, and white will also be a beautiful landscape in future color management.

Color management is never in the present perfect tense, but in the present tense, and it is necessary to keep pace with the times and innovate in order to maintain its vitality forever. Expect and call on more printing practitioners to be able to gain insight into the law of color management, perceive the trend changes in the development of the industry, and actively embrace this change in practical work, and walk at the forefront of the trend, so as to maintain the sustainable development of the enterprise and help the transformation and upgrading of the printing industry.