Barbieri Color Blog

Back to Barbieri ONDorin Pitigoi is Color and Standardization expert and active in the graphic technology industry for over 25 years. He participates in many international committees, working groups and standards.How can accurate spectral measurement data help to improve print quality? If we think, we mostly talk about color, but in a very direct sense, color belongs to the eyes that sees the color of the object rather than the object itself.  And we can describe spectral data as good collection of information, that allows us to understand the properties of any object. In graphic technology we employ various methods to print and reproduce the graphic content in such a way that we achieve another goal, which is basically printing the expected.How can we print the expected? To print the expected we need a meaningful way to understand how these spectral data can help the print operator to better control its process, in terms of the printing system. And then in the end, to do what ...

Back to Barbieri ONTop performance with polarization filterDan Reid is a color communication expert and president of RPImaging. His main area of expertise is teaching printing companies about color and associated technologies.  The challenge to obtain outstanding color results may differ from material to material, and some material, like reflective or shiny, might need a different approach when measuring.Dan Reid:Today, I'm going to talk to you about a little secret method I've been using for my clients to achieve better visual color matches and improve spot color measurement conditions. I'm speaking about M3 measurement conditions or known as polarization measurements. Simply, it's just sunglasses for your color measurement device. I have clients that typically print and use laminates or have extremely glossy materials like vinyl or metal. And almost all of them suffer from having shadows that have no definition.   And this is because light is reflecting around bouncing ...

Back to Barbieri ONColor Excellence in digital backlit printingSince many years Andre Schwarz solves customer’s most critical color problems in digital printing. One of the challenges is to print true colors for backlit applications. Andre, how do you help to achieve color excellence?André Schwarz:We are in 2021 and from my experience there are still many customers out there not knowing how bad they are actually printing and what is possible with their equipment. In Backlit printing it is still quite common to just use a frontlit profile and print double-strike. So just „abuse“ a single strike profile and double the amount of ink you lay down on the material. In the final application, so with a back light, the results are „usable“ and as the currant situation in the market proofs even salable. I still come to shops, sometimes even very big shops, printing for big brands working like this. But this workaround is far away from what is possible. And I don’t even want to talk about ...

Back to Barbieri ONTop performance in digital textile printingWhen it comes to digital textile printing for the fashion industry, Joe Tschudi has seen it all. He consults many printing companies worldwide in setting up the perfect print workflow. A major factor is the repeatability and reproduction of the correct colors on textile. Joe, can you explain to us what matters to establish a top performance textile workflow?Joe Tschudi:When brands or print service providers hire me to profile their equipment I always ask how they would rate their own process stability. And of course their answer is always: very good! But when we do production cycle tests it’s often the very first time that they are confronted with real numbers. Why is that so important?It manages color expectations.You can’t do a DeltaE of 1 if your process delivers a 3.Well, maybe you can do a 1 between today and tomorrow but what about reproducing the same colors a week, a month or a year later? Successfully ...