Understanding Color Management
in Digital Printing
Look here – my face really can’t be that red!
What is Color Management?
Color management is the process of controlling the way colors are represented across different devices, ensuring that the final printed output matches the original design or image.
Color is an important stake in the area of image quality and therefore of upmost importance in professional digital printing.
Images printed on most different media, on different printers, with different inks, viewed under different light conditions – all must look the same. This is the main purpose of color management in digital printing. It is particularly helpful for managing different media or different printing tecnologies and if applied in the right way it guaranties outstanding results.
But more than this, color management will also help you reduce costs in day-to-day printing business; in particular ink, operators’ and printers’ time and media.
Barbieri helps you to become a top performer through highest image color quality!
Color Management in the Past
- Color matching relied heavily on the operator’s experience.
- Inconsistent results across devices.
- Time-consuming trial-and-error processes.
Conclusion:
Its the operator who decides the color
Consequence:
Rarely the color coincides to the expectation of the customer
The Modern Approach to Color Management
Key Features:
- Soft proofing on calibrated monitors
- Creation and handling of ICC profiles
- Seamless integration into digital printing workflows
- Competency in handling files and colors.
- Accurate soft proofs and binding color outputs.
- Uniform results across different devices and color profiles (Pantone, RGB, CMYK).
Ensuring Accurate Color Reproduction with ICC Profiles in Digital Printing
One of the main tools for color management is the International Color Consortium (ICC) profile, which is a standardized file format that describes how a device or a medium reproduces colors. ICC profiles can be embedded in images or documents to specify how they should be displayed or printed. They can also be assigned to devices or media to define their color characteristics. For example, an ICC profile can describe how a monitor displays colors, how a printer prints colors, or how a paper reflects colors.
By using ICC profiles, professional digital printers can ensure that the colors they see on their monitors are the same colors they get on their prints. They can also adjust the colors of their images or documents to match the specific characteristics of their printers and paper. This way, they can avoid unwanted color shifts or variations that may occur due to different color spaces or gamuts.
Color Calibration Workflow
in Digital Printing
At the heart of this process is the spectrophotometer, a powerful tool used for Linearization and Profiling. It facilitates the precise characterization of the printer/media configuration, optimizing output according to specific parameters.
One of the critical capabilities of digital color management is the ability to conduct Verification against Standards. This process, achieved by measuring a control strip with a spectrophotometer, guarantees that colors remain authentic to the original and comply with industry norms, setting a high benchmark for print quality.
Furthermore, digital color management allows for regular Validation, ensuring consistent color across multiple print runs. This process minimizes any variations that could potentially compromise the integrity of a project, maintaining color accuracy over time and across different printing substrates.
Why Choose BARBIERI?
Accurate color management starts with precise measurement data.
At Barbieri, we understand that high-quality color measurement is the foundation for managing colors consistently across different media and technologies. Without reliable data, it’s impossible to achieve color consistency and reproduce accurate results in digital printing. Our advanced instruments ensure that every color is measured with the highest precision, providing the data needed to properly manage colors across printers and substrates.
With Barbieri, you can trust that your colors will match from screen to print, regardless of the medium or device.
Find here the list of software partners supporting our instruments:
