"Weve been closed loop on press for five years, its time for the industry to close the loop for the entire process," said GMI president Erik Tobiason.
The firm has added tone curve correction, ICC profiling and remote colour accurate press passing features to its ColorQuick product.
Its Multi-bar feature has added two new colour bars that allow the calculation of tone value increase (TVI), or dot gain, and the creation of an ICC profile. Using the data from these bars with the new Data Export feature allows information to be passed back to pre-press and the print buyer. Using data export with TVI allows RIP compensation to be applied to ensure that plates and the press produce dot gain from the supplied digital data that matches agreed standards such as ISO 12647.
"TVI of the press being to a standard is very important," said John Charnock, group technical director at St Ives, which uses GMI on many of its web presses. "GMI has listened to us and the standards bodies about enabling TVI."
For simplifying RIP calibration GMI has provided a JDF link into Harmony, the tone curve compensation tool in Creos Prineregy workflow, but the data can also be exported in other formats for different workflows
A control strip with elements of the IT8 colour chart allows printers to create an ICC profile of any job.
We can profile any job during the run while producing good copy for customers," said Tobiason.
The firm has signed an agreement with soft and remote proofing firm Integrated Colour Solutions (ICS). Under the deal GMI will promote the use of ICSs Remote Director monitor-based proofing system. Using Remote Director and ColorQuick it will be possible for print buyers to remotely view a colour accurate image of a pres sheet.
"Thats no more air fares and hotel bills," said ICS vice president of sales and marketing John Sweeney.
A major publisher is currently trialling the system in the US, with further details to be announced at the end of May.
GMI UK and northern Europe sales managerDavid Naisby said the firms process control technology had the potential to push the PPAs drive for standardisation right to the press itself.
