GMG, a developer of high-end color management and proofing products, has announced that GMG OpenColor is the recipient of the InterTech Technology Awards, sponsored by Printing Industries of America. GMG OpenColor – which also received a 2013 Flexographic Technical Association Technical Innovation Award – is a proofing technology that precisely predicts the color appearance of printed inks, particularly ‘overprints’ (inks printed on top of each other). This allows the previously unattainable ability to let a proof accurately simulate a printed result.

Since 1978, the InterTech Technology Awards have honored the development of technologies predicted to have a major impact on the graphic arts and related industries. Every entry is reviewed by an independent panel of judges made up of distinguished decision makers within the industry. All of the judges must have demonstrated significant experience in the evaluation and/or commissioning of new products or technologies and be a recognized contributor to the industry. More than 80% of technologies that receive an award experience continued commercial success in the marketplace.

A continuing trend in package printing is the increasing complexity of jobs and the use of multi-color printing while reducing time to market. Many jobs require different combinations of inks, substrates, screening, and other variables. One of the most difficult challenges facing a converter is accurately and reliably communicating color between all parties of the supply chain, from the brand manager to the printer. To understand colors by mixing them, every combination would require a specific test chart with the different combinations. It is costly to go to press with color fingerprint charts, making plates, and spending time testing rather than earning money on a job. GMG OpenColor resolves this complex packaging problem and provides better results, with less information. With OpenColor, users do not have to print combinations of overprints. They can print the single color patches – e.g. color control strips – and combine the color and substrate properties in the software. Measurements are centrally saved and categorized according to print variables. This lets operators build an archive of measurements and to combine existing measurements to new profiles, whenever a new combination of inks must be profiled. Version 1.0.2, released this week, has exceptional overprint prediction, supports white ink printing with Epson WT printers and works efficiently with ColorProof for ink order configuration in ColorProof jobs.

“The judges were very impressed with the utilization of single color patches to obtain full color management, significantly shortening time and space. Utilizing this technology with overprints really allows better color management of packaging, which is one of the growth areas in the print industry,” says Mark Bohan, vice president, Technology and Research, Printing Industries of America. “Clearly GMG has conducted a lot of research to bring this product to market, and it shows by GMG OpenColor’s capabilities. Color management is a challenge once you get into brand color. The judges were equally impressed by feedback from printers showing much faster they were able to accomplish color matching and profiling than was previously available.”

“OpenColor has cut our color management and proofing time in half. Printers are not incurring the expense of makeready and press time for running miles of substrate during subsequent press profiles,” says Marek Strzynski, director of graphics, R&D, at CSW Inc. “We are also seeing cost savings in the reduction of the consumables needed to print and reprint multiple overprint iterations on our proofing devices. Nor is our proofer tied up with these iterations and keeping other jobs waiting in the queue. It is likely that Open Color has saved us from investing in another printer.”

“The results obtained with GMG OpenColor meet our high expectations. In particular, there has been a major improvement in the simulation of the overprinting of spot colors, in combination with each other or with CMYK process colors. Profile creation requires far less time and effort, saving us time and money,” comments Michael Jehl, repro manager, Huhtamaki Ronsberg.

“GMG is thrilled with the news that GMG OpenColor will be presented an InterTech Technology Award. We wanted to help customers increase production efficiencies, and improve color accuracy and predictability in the supply chain. Our team spent five years of scientific research and analysis on the spectral behavior of ink and media. The developers of GMG OpenColor’s patent-pending technology included a color scientist holding a PhD in optical physics,” says Victor Asseiceiro, director, Business Unit Packaging at GMG. “A number of prepress houses and converters worldwide have installed GMG OpenColor and, in the process, have reduced lengthy makereadies and time to market and saved the cost of creating too many press fingerprints. They have also found that GMG OpenColor verifies color expectations throughout the supply chain.”