The Interaction Between Color Standards and Production Tolerances: A Mismatch of Metrics
Dr. Mark Bohan and Dawn Nye, Konica Minolta Business Solutions
Color management is used throughout the industry for achieving predictable and consistent color. It has evolved over the years to become a standard process that can be used by many across the industry for different production processes, not simply a few consultants. The process controls introduced show that the accuracy of these profiles stands the test of time through production. In many cases a color reference condition is chosen as the default color space, such as CRPC 6 GRACol 2013. The press profiles are developed using many different software solutions and in the case of the profile above, in North America, the TC 1617 target will be used to generate the profile. When checking conformance against G7 colorspace the whole of the target will be measured, often using a high speed scanning spectrophotometer. This has a predefined set of metrics and tolerances. The goal of monitoring during production is to indicate if there has been a deviation from this target condition. However, in production different instruments may be used, as are different targets and the tolerances are then selected according to the target configuration. In these cases the same metrics are not being used and as such there can be a disconnect between the two sets of measurements, often passing in one case and failing in the other. The user is then unsure whether there prints are passing the standard. The differences between the multiple targets and tolerances are discussed in the paper and the differences between the results obtained from these targets is quantified. The paper goes on to recommend the use of specific metrics for targets when targeting a particular colorspace.