Colour Management

By Paul Samuels, Technical Director, Zebra

When exploring colour management it’s important firstly to provide a definition of exactly what it is. Colour management is the ability to take subject matter in its most raw form, whether it’s intended for print or digital production, and then reproduce it in any way and maintain and manage colour consistency and quality throughout the process. Although it seems a simple proposition, perfection is never straight forward. The first rule of colour management is to never aim for absolutes - colour management is about tolerances and finding results that are acceptable within the parameters a given technology allows, and for which a company or individual has set.

In the past, colour management was exclusively for colour professionals. Each print house required bespoke profiles and colour management software was an expensive proposition and sometimes hard to understand. Over the last couple of years, however, standards have been introduced to ensure consistency, sparking the introduction of a supply and printing standard revolution.

The PPA (Periodical Publishing Association) developed the Pass4Press standard for delivery of files (PDF’s); Proof4Press, the standard for delivery of proofs and Pic4Press for digital photography. While these provide a benchmark for standardisation, the standards only cover one printing process and are only acknowledged in the UK. However, the UK is now heading in the same direction as Europe by adopting the ISO standards as recommended by the European Colour Initiative (ECI). The ECI has been instrumental in most of the standards currently employed throughout Europe - its website provides some good reference material and profiles are available for downloading.

Colour and colour management are one of the most heated and debated subjects in the printing industry. There are still a lot of different ideas on how colour management should be handled. There is ICC colour management, 4D colour management, GRACOL, FOGRA, along with many other standards and processes in existence. All have a slightly different stance or a different set of numbers and tolerances, which can cause confusion if you’re exploring colour management for the first time. The best way to embrace colour management in the first instance is to have a look at the Pass4Press and the ECI websites, where information and interesting articles are provided.

In terms of advice, it’s crucial to calibrate your monitors and invest in the best technology you can. When working with photographers, encourage them to work to specific standards. CMYK proofs are preferable, however, using RGB when retouching images given the larger gamut in RGB, makes retouching less obvious. It’s also important for printers to supply accurate specifications and agree proofing standards up front – it’s actually more important that the proofs match the printed result, rather than fit into a tight and unachievable proofing standard. By implementing an effective colour-managed environment you can achieve high quality applications and be confident that you are offering your customers best colour practice as part of the over all production process.