Color Management in Large Format and Flatbed Printing
Customers expect their advertising to have the same colors no matter whether they are on a banner covering a whole building, in a light box at the bus station, wrapped on a car, printed on a window or on the packaging of their products. If colors do not match, customers will complain and refuse to pay for printer's hard work.
The digital Large Format and Flatbed Printing is one of the most fast growing markets as continuously new printers, inks and media appear on the marketplace. The creativity of advertisers thanks to these new technologies is almost unlimited and always new applications arise. 'Corporate identity' and 'color-true' also in large format printing are not any more buzzwords and nowadays they play a fundamental role in the whole visual communication. This can be guaranteed with color management and therefore 'Color Management' is one of the keys to success.
Customers expect their advertising to have the same colors no matter whether they are on a banner covering a whole building, in a light box at the bus station, wrapped on a car, printed on a window or on the packaging of their products. If colors do not match, customers will complain and refuse to pay for printer's hard work.
Everyone who is involved in the large format printing recognizes every media has different characteristics which influence color appearance; printers change after ink replacement, maintenance service or print heads replacements. Also temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure are factors which to a certain degree influence the color appearance. Ways to capture an image (photo camera, scanner etc.), used software for image correction, and used equipment to visualize the image are also crucial issues.
Especially in large format and flatbed printing there are factors which definitively are not negligible: RIP software, ink, and media. The RIP influences the colors as it is responsible for the linearization of the printer, the way dots are printed (stochastic, contone…), the amount of overprinting etc. The ink as there exist so many different types of them (UV, dye, different types of solvent, latex etc.) and all of them have different color appearance. The media is the most crucial component as almost every day appear new ones on the market and all of them have different characteristics. I. e. the white point of the media influences the color appearance as an image printed on cardboard will not be the same as on paper, glass or textile. Besides of the white point also the trapping is important. If a media absorbs a lot the ink, the colors will change in comparison to not absorbing media. This has an influence especially on the saturation. Also the surface or structure of the media must be considered. And finally the printer itself influences the color appearance and stability in the medium / long run. Especially after print head replacements or service interventions printers tend to shift and show different colors.
Besides the technical related factors also the operator working on the printer influences the colors. Most times colors inside the images will be edited in order to match the original as good as possible.
All the above mentioned factors cannot be looked at separately but have to be handled as a whole.
Customers expect their advertising to have the same colors no matter whether they are on a banner covering a whole building, in a light box at the bus station, wrapped on a car, printed on a window or on the packaging of their products. If colors do not match, customers will complain and refuse to pay for printer's hard work.
Everyone who is involved in the large format printing recognizes every media has different characteristics which influence color appearance; printers change after ink replacement, maintenance service or print heads replacements. Also temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure are factors which to a certain degree influence the color appearance. Ways to capture an image (photo camera, scanner etc.), used software for image correction, and used equipment to visualize the image are also crucial issues.
Especially in large format and flatbed printing there are factors which definitively are not negligible: RIP software, ink, and media. The RIP influences the colors as it is responsible for the linearization of the printer, the way dots are printed (stochastic, contone…), the amount of overprinting etc. The ink as there exist so many different types of them (UV, dye, different types of solvent, latex etc.) and all of them have different color appearance. The media is the most crucial component as almost every day appear new ones on the market and all of them have different characteristics. I. e. the white point of the media influences the color appearance as an image printed on cardboard will not be the same as on paper, glass or textile. Besides of the white point also the trapping is important. If a media absorbs a lot the ink, the colors will change in comparison to not absorbing media. This has an influence especially on the saturation. Also the surface or structure of the media must be considered. And finally the printer itself influences the color appearance and stability in the medium / long run. Especially after print head replacements or service interventions printers tend to shift and show different colors.
Besides the technical related factors also the operator working on the printer influences the colors. Most times colors inside the images will be edited in order to match the original as good as possible.
All the above mentioned factors cannot be looked at separately but have to be handled as a whole.
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