Re: Color Bars on Inkjet Proofs
Re: Color Bars on Inkjet Proofs
- Subject: Re: Color Bars on Inkjet Proofs
- From: Roger Breton <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 03 Nov 2007 11:46:54 -0400
> ... We supply contract proofs from
> Epson 4800s, driven by EFI rips and set up to emulate average sheet and web
> conditions and have no problems getting reasonable matches to our proofs.
> Some of our major print vendors have no need for color bars while others
> insist on them. Any thoughts?
A proof without 'some' colorbar is like a morning without sun or ice cream
without the cherry or a monitor without calibration or...you get the
picture. It's one thing to pass proofs around for color but I alwas felt it
is the duty of whomever produces the proof to accompany it with some sort of
visual reference.
How are color bars ever consumed or used up in practice varies as widely as
there are people looking at proofs in this industry! Some swear by them and
many plain ignore them, often out of 'ignorance' -- sorry for the pun. Take
the latest ISO-12747 color bar (I'm quoting the number from memory?). If
everyone in the industry started using this color bar in proofing, well,
printing would be a better place to be in, all of a sudden. Because that
would give us some common basis of comparison. I'm not downgrading the FOGRA
MedienWedge, here, by the way, just because I mention ISO-12747. The
MedienWedge, too, has acquired the status of an 'industry standard' over the
recent years. So, in my view, be it the MedienWedge or the latest ISO-12747,
co-developped with IDEAlliance and ISO, I'm told, some kind of control strip
should accompany each proof. I feel very strongly about that. Not doing it
amounts to short-changing industry participants down the stream.
Last but not least, in my opinion, some mention on the control strip should
say something about the 'intent' of the bar. We have to acknowledge that
some proofing may strive to achieve exacting colorimetry on the proof, like
ISO-12647-x or SWOP2006_Cx or GRACoL_x. In those instances, the measurement
of the control strip will tell the initiated user what is the degree of
conformance of the proof to the standard or specification in question. But
some proofing systems may only strive for a degree of repeatability.
Meaning, the bar is placed for no particular reason other than to serve as
some (visual or quantitative) reference that proofing is consistent and to
detect wild or spurious fluctuations like a clogged injket head that,
otherwise, may very well go undetected. That's a very different aproach to
proofing, in my view. Here, there is no commitment, per se, no overt
adherance to some specifications. That's why I argue that, in an 'ideal'
world, there should be some mention of the intent of the control strip
accompanying the strip itself. Something like " this proof is within 1.2
DeltaE of FOGRA39L or GRACoL7 or SWOP2006C3.
Roger Breton
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