ICC Color Management Importance – There are two groups of printers in the large format printer market

-Those that take control of color

-Those who’s color controls them

More than 90% do not have the tools needed to control color.  They use “closed in processes”  to dial in color using an iterative approach.

Those that do, over half have never been successful in implementing color management and their systems are unused.  Why?  It is not simple to do and it requires knowledge, discipline, and training to succeed.  American Sign Studio uses only calibrated devices, monitors, proofs, and the HP 365 latex printer, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3RkVkHBPBU .  We use Xrite i1 PhotoPro 2 with a spectrophotometer for print profiling and Pantone Color Manager Software.  We can match a specific brand color using the Pantone Matching System which has both physical guides and digital reference to help both designers and printers.

Proper implementation of color managed workflow is an example of process control

A multitude of variables that need to be accounted for

Ink/media chemistry

Printer (resolutions, heat, dpi)

Software (both design and production)

Environment variables (temperature, humidity, elevation, calibrations, and device performance)

Proper implementation of color management can offer many benefits

-more predictable output

-more accurate color output

-more neutral color output for black and white photography

-accurate soft proofing

-a large color potential on many different medias

-better Pantone and other spot color matches

We find that multiple pieces for the same customer may run across multiple substrates.  Because these substrates have very different colors, by using color management we can usually make them all match by making one of the substrates be the target and having the other substrate use a matching ground tint. Print quality is a differentiator – while older printers generate much larger dots, our printer outputs smaller and variable dots improving the quality of the print.