CrossXColor News

RHEINE, GERMANY — In January 2020, FOGRA Research Institute for Media Technologies organized and hosted its second annual comparison test conducted from April to October 2019 for state of the art multicolor solutions. Along with several other color management providers, ColorLogic GmbH tested their solutions using actual print samples and a controlled offset printing process. ColorLogic opted to participate in all seven categories and emerged with excellent results. The categories included Spot Color Overprint Prediction, PDF Integrity, 7 Color Characterization & Separation, Proofing, Color Prediction with Limited Input, Ink Replacement, and Color Prediction with Inking Variation.

The team at ColorLogic was thrilled with their performance in the test. “We spent a lot of effort in the past months, especially on optimizing and extending our multicolor technology in all our products,” states Thorsten Braun, ColorLogic’s Chief Technical Director. “This can be seen in our outstanding performance in the use case covering color prediction but also in the integration of industry standards for multicolors, such as the CxF/X-4 support.”

“I think it is also important to point out that we did the test with our end-user products. These weren’t lab results or a single fine-tuned file which we handed in. We used our products, ColorAnt, CoPrA, and ZePrA, to run these tests and our Applications Specialists performed them. This means that every ColorLogic user is capable of getting the same results,” adds Barbara Braun-Metz, ColorLogic’s CEO. Over the next few months, ColorLogic will start to provide short video clips on their YouTube channel to show how these tests were conducted.

ColorLogic has been able to retain the vector integrity when converting spot colors and flattening the PDF sample file. All other participants except one, had to rasterize the PDF file. Keeping the vectors is by far more complicated to achieve and allows for last minute editing and retaining of text. It is also worth to mention ColorLogic applications also created the smallest file size, which is crucial for efficient performance in production.

The main highlight was the new proofing feature in the soon-to-be-released ZePrA 8 Smart Color Server that supports the CxF/X-4 standard. It delivered outstanding results and was able to incorporate the FOGRA Multicolor media wedge. In addition, ColorLogic lead the forum using their color profiler, CoPrA 6, by providing the only solution in this test that was capable of iterating multicolor data.

Another important functionality of spectral overprinting technologies for multicolor and CMYK production is the updating of available characterization data due to changed inking (solid coloration). In the use cases about exchanging colors in a characterization data set, the Edit Primary tool in ColorAnt 6 delivered the best results. Just by using this tool, every user can produce the same results on the same level.
This second annual FOGRA Multicolor Forum not only provided a platform for testing and comparisons of various solutions, but it also showed in which areas multicolor technology has improved. While FOGRA stated at the conclusion of the first event in 2018, “multicolor technology has left its infancy,” they now came to the conclusion that ”multicolor technology has mastered adolescence”. The industry as a whole has to continue with their effort on optimizing. Most notably the communication of ECG measurements and characterization data, and in developing an objective metric for ECG separations.

“ColorLogic is grateful for the opportunity to test our technology at the FOGRA Multicolor Forum. This confirms years of hard work and effort in creating the best color management solution. Our strengths shined. It also helps us to further improve our solutions to meet the changing market’s demand, and to make our user experience the best it can be, all while contributing to progress of the industry’s technology,” states Barbara Braun-Metz.

For details and test results please refer to the FOGRA website.

About FOGRA: The objective of FOGRA Research Institute for Media Technologies is to promote print engineering and its future-oriented technologies in the fields of research and development, and to enable the printing industry to utilize the results of this activity.