GMG, the leading developer and supplier of high-end color management software solutions, unveils a brand-new version of the renowned proofing solution GMG ColorProof along with the full range of GMG color management solutions at the Graph Expo 14 in Chicago, IL, from September 28 to October 1st. Together with the co-located show CPP EXPO, the Graph Expo exhibits latest trends and innovations of digital, inkjet, offset, flexo, gravure and hybrid technologies, products and services.
“GMG keeps unwavering commitment to its customer-centric philosophy of creating what the people need. At such a diverse show as Graph Expo, we can offer just about any print provider a helpful solution, whether it’s our trademark GMG ColorProof, packaging solutions that are enhanced with GMG OpenColor, or solutions that benefit the entire supply chain, such as GMG ColorMaster, which keeps an image in a master color space until it is needed, and GMG CoZone, a production system based in the cloud,” comments Joseph Varone, GMG Americas vice president of sales. “From commercial to packaging printing, GMG has a complete color management solution for everyone and keeps the promise of quality and functionality.”
GMG ColorProof 5.6: Dedicated to supporting new technologies and standards
Graph Expo marks the global launch of GMG ColorProof 5.6, the latest release of the company’s popular, award-winning proofing software. A lot of research and testing went into this version to help customers who print with optically brightened media to achieve color consistency. Print facilities with existing systems in place can use a new interface to easily plug GMG ColorProof 5.6 into their workflow. Many new, significant features have been added, including:
- GMG solution for optical brightened media: Up until recently measuring devices and the light in viewing booths have had no standards concerning how they measured or illumined print media, which contain optical brightening agents (OBAs) to increase the “whiteness”. With the new ISO norm 12647-2:2013 several changes have been made to address the color matching problems caused by OBA enhanced media. Welcoming and reflecting these changes, this version provides new proof standards, full support of the new measuring conditions M0/M1/M2, and a new OBA enhanced proof paper to achieve highest quality and a good proof-to-print match.
- Smart Hotfolder and Job Ticket Hotfolder: GMG has created new hotfolder types with an XML interface that allow to use one hotfolder for multiple printing standards and provide an easy connection to external workflow systems.
- Centralized Color Management: Customers with multiple locations or remote sites have to organize and distribute their color profiles. Usually, there is one main site, where a production or color manager creates all color critical assets and is responsible for their usage on all locations. To reduce the manual effort, GMG designed a file distribution system which can connect to multiple instances and download new and changed color management files automatically, or on-demand, from a source location to one or more target locations.
- Individual working space: The customer decides which resources are displayed in the software. Instead of working through extensive lists of color management items, a clearly arranged view now helps to immediately spot what one is looking for.
- Parallel RIPping: To accelerate the RIPping process, PDF files can be RIPped in parallel. While the GMG ColorProof 5.6 license includes one RIP, users can purchase additional RIPs according to the hardware configuration: depending on the amount of cores, printers, etc. This reduces the delay between RIPping and printing jobs, resulting in faster speeds and greater production.
- Automatic re-assigning of jobs for continuous productivity: A new option has been integrated to automatically move pending jobs to another compatible printer in case the current printer cannot print (for example, because it has run out of ink or paper).
Many other GMG products will be available for demonstration at Graph Expo, including:
GMG CoZone: Cloud-based proofing, collaboration and approval
GMG CoZone, a modular production environment based in the cloud, is an indispensable control center for every online production workflow, whether you are approving a movie file, website, image or PDF. GMG CoZone has all the tools to make the process of markup and approval easy and seamless from creative right through to production. All stakeholders can annotate and approve content quickly and securely, no more emailing large attachments or trying to explain version changes over email. Content is 100% safe and no additional investment in infrastructure and support required. GMG CoZone integrates the cloud and project collaboration with high-quality color management tools, covering all stages of the prepress workflow, from developing and approval to color management and proofing.
GMG ColorMaster 2.1: Keeping images in an RGB space until you need them
RGB data storage and workflows have become increasingly popular, particularly with the use of a wider variety of media and printing processes. GMG ColorMaster is attractive for ad agencies, repro shops, prepress businesses and print buyers that want to keep their data in the RGB color space as long as possible. It also helps those who process print globally—such as brand owners or global converters—who need to consider different industry standards. GMG ColorMaster helps to provide a color-accurate late-binding RGB-workflow, meaning that images are not converted from their RGB space until needed.
By viewing images in the GMG ColorMaster color space, content originators—typically photographers—can make image adjustments early before storing files into the database. Once the image has been retouched within the GMG ColorMaster color space, the ‘master’ RGB file can be output to any industry standard with confidence of its color accuracy. GMG ColorMaster 2.1 offers a process-neutral workflow and extremely flexible format for image data storage.
GMG OpenColor: Multi-color proofing for the packaging market
A major highlight at every GMG booth for the past year continues to be GMG OpenColor, the 2013 recipient of a Flexographic Technical Association Technical Innovation Award and an InterTech™ Technology Award. With the increasing use of multi-color printing and different combinations of inks, substrates, screening, and other variables, packaging printing has become a costly process that involves a lot of color fingerprints and profile tweaking. GMG OpenColor answers this challenge by providing a proofing technology that precisely predicts the color appearance of printed inks, particularly ‘overprints’—inks printed on top of each other without requiring extensive fingerprinting. How does it work? Find out at the GMG booth and witness math bordering on magic!
GMG ColorServer 4.9: Automatic color conversions for all printing processes
GMG ColorServer provides superior, easy-to-use color management, delivering consistent and repeatable color results to all output processes—print as well as online digital displays. ColorServer 4.9 provides an ongoing stream of improvements and new features to further stabilize the PDF-to-PDF processing and leverage productivity, for example by supporting PDF/VT-1 variable data printing (VDP). Part of the challenge of variable data printing is the often extremely fast file processing requirements to ensure just-in-time delivery to the latest generation of high-speed digital printing presses. The current 32-bit version of GMG ColorServer has been greatly optimized. For even faster performance, GMG is releasing a 64-bit native version, which offers almost unlimited file processing capabilities. GMG ColorServer 4.9 also offers a new CMYK-to-RGB lossless conversion process that enlarges the color space back to the file’s original RGB values. This allows for color space normalization within an RGB-based image database, only performing the device/process specific CMYK conversion at the final output stage.
“Graph Expo has always been a successful show for GMG, because our solutions satisfy the broad range of print providers—and content originators, no matter what printing technology,” concludes Varone. “For example, with our new version of GMG ColorProof along with GMG ColorMaster and GMG CoZone, we have the means to assure that the entire print chain manages color accurately, from start to finish.”
