The first packages were developed in the UK by small, innovative colour specialists, such as Bodoni Systems and Mellow Colour. When X-Rite, the biggest colour specialist firm in the business, announced at Ipex that it was launching products to serve this category, it was a strong indicator that these tools had gone from a niche for the colour cognoscenti, to a tool that should be in every printer’s toolbox.

X-Rite’s offering is in fact based on GMG’s PrintControl and RapidCheck tools, which that firm now no longer offers, unless it is part of a bigger bundle with other GMG products or in markets where X-Rite doesn’t have a suitable measuring instrument – such as large-format where the wide-aperture Barbieri Spectro LFP may be preferred.

Suite success
PrintCheck is really a suite of four products aimed at different sectors of the market. It’s made up of PrintCheck Reader, PrintCheck Review, PrintCheck and PressOptimizer. Reader and Review are aimed at print buyers while PrintCheck and PressOptimizer are aimed at printers.

Reader can be downloaded for free from X-Rite’s website. It is basic and of limited use as it only works with scan value file (SVF) formats created by X-Rite’s measuring instruments. Its intended application is for buyers to use it to check the readings of a job provided by their printer. "For clients not used to looking at data, it gives confidence," says X-Rite director of marketing Jennifer Elliott. "Although it may prove tough to get printers to provide the information."

She adds that may change as brand owners demand more evidence that work is produced to tolerance.

The next step up is Review, which needs to be used in conjunction with X-Rite’s i1 Basic spectrophotometer and is aimed at print buyers who want to physically measure press sheets and proofs to ensure compliance.

PrintCheck itself is a pressroom tool and, in keeping with X-Rite’s philosophy that for pressroom use you need more robust instruments than the i1, it only works with one of the firm’s pressroom instruments. Supported devices include the SpectroEye and 528 and 530 handheld devices along with the firm’s on-console scanning spectrophotometers the EasyTrax and IntelliTrax.

Third-party measuring instruments aren’t supported, even top-end on-console or on-press systems such as Heidelberg’s Axis Control and Impress Control, which the firm explains is because these tools don’t create the SVF format that the software needs to use.

For printers who want to go further than just checking whether their output complies with the specification, X-Rite offers the final member of the family: PressOptimizer. In addition to the measuring and trend analysis tools of PrintCheck, PressOptimizer adds extra tools to help to print to standards, including the ability to create, edit and update RIP curves to make sure tone value increase is on target, test charts to ensure your presses are set up optimally, paper measurement and online troubleshooting and help.

It’s ease of use which the firm claims is its biggest plus point over rival products.

"These are the only tools in this class that are wizard-driven and integrated with X-Rite measuring instruments," says Elliott. "While there may be rival products at a similar price, they are much more complicated. The days of the press man as craftsman are coming to an end. That means the minder may not know about trapping and dotgain. But now they don’t have to."

As well as being a tool for printers and buyers, X-Rite also believes there are benefits in suppliers using the software too. According to Elliott one example would be paper suppliers, who can provide a specification for all of their papers to help printers select the right curves and datasets to print to for a given stock, as well as checking its white point.

While troubleshooting in pre-press, press and with materials supply is a fantastic tool for printers, the big deal for everyone, regardless of where they are in the supply chain and which version of the software they’ve bought is the reports created from a set of measurements.

Elliott says: "The reports are one of the most compelling aspects. They’re not overcrowded and can be branded."

As the software is based on a database it’s possible to compare jobs previously produced. This can either be to ensure a precise match for reprints, or can be used for trend reporting and analysis to check press performance over time.

The use of the database really comes to the fore when used with the EasyTrax and IntelliTrax scanning spectrophotometers, where all readings are recorded, making it simple to keep track of all jobs. For use with handheld devices it requires a bit more discipline, but Elliott says the firm expects most users to measure every job for best practice.

The focus on ease of use means that as much data as possible is preloaded into the software, so all the user has to do is to select how they are working and off they go.

Essential control
Of course, if you’re trying to work out how a press is reproducing colour you need a control strip. The software supports the Fogra media wedge and Idea Alliance G7 wedge out of the box, and it’s also possible to work with custom colourbars. By default the software is set to check against ISO 12647-2, and users can choose whether they want to use Fogra PSO or G7 characterisation data.

This degree of default data, says Elliott, "means the press man never has to get too involved. All the aspects that are complex and difficult to implement are locked down."

Despite that standard simplicity she adds that it is possible for users to load their own specifications, for example if running to higher weights or using wider-gamut inks. Or, if you’re producing work for particularly demanding applications it’s possible to specify tighter delta E values.

PressOptimizer is a litho-only tool, at least for the foreseeable future. "We find it surprising just how little process control there seems to be in gravure and flexo," she says. "It really is like the Wild West in those press rooms."

PrintCheck Review could be used to measure whether digital output passes or fails the standard, but it wouldn’t provide any of the tools to troubleshoot the process.

Recent debates on PrintWeek’s online forums show that there is a lot of interest in producing work to the ISO 12647-2 specification. There is also a lot of discussion about the relative merits of different schemes to certify or accredit a printer’s methods for adhering to the standard. Whatever route taken towards showing you can hit the standard tools such as these help you to get there.