Idealliance, through the work of the Print Properties Committee (PPC), has released the new PrintWide profile to further support global print alignment across all print technologies and workflows. PrintWide is an extremely large-gamut CMYK dataset designed to encompass the gamut of virtually all inks or colorants in all known color printing systems.
The PrintWide dataset’s gamut includes the effect of typical “extended-gamut” inks such as OGV (Orange, Green and Violet) or RGB (Red Green and Blue) often used in inkjet, flexo, or offset printing.
The new PrintWide color profile has two primary functions: As a universal translation space AND a saturation booster for high fidelity printing while still preserving G7 alignment.
As a CMYK “translation space,” PrintWide can convert highly saturated originals (usually RGB) without losing color fidelity. When the final printing method is not known, converting first into PrintWide optimizes the important gamut compression function for wide gamut printers and preserves virtually all the original’s color information. By comparison, converting into a smaller profile irrevocably destroys some very saturated color detail and accuracy.
PrintWide as a universal translation space also allows wide-gamut CMYK images to be edited or assembled in design & prepress programs that typically cannot handle, or accurately display, images in more than four channels.
PrintWide, as a “saturation booster” profile, when assigned to a CMYK file intended for a medium-gamut printing process like offset, takes advantage of the higher color saturation and contrast available on wider-gamut systems while maintaining a pleasing reproduction. This can be useful when a client asks for “more color” or “more punch” and does not need perfect color accuracy.
As part of a G7 based workflow, if the PrintWide.icc profile is assigned to an image that was originally converted to a G7 profile like GRACoL®, when that image is then converted to an actual wide-gamut printer’s space:
- Perfect G7 tonality and gray balance will be maintained.
- Pure whites and blacks will be stretched to the maximum contrast available on that printer without losing detail or altering overall lightness.
- Saturated colors will be boosted without shifting their hues.
- Critical memory colors—especially flesh tones—will be protected from over-saturation.
The PrintWide Profile & Release Guide available on the Idealliance Web site includes an Introduction and Workflow Guide, Read Me, and the PrintWide ICC profile.
PrintWide and many of the leading industry initiatives provided by Idealliance are in part developed and contributed by Idealliance members of the Print Properties Committee. Idealliance would like to thank specifically the following contributors:
- Ron Ellis, Chair of the Print Properties Committee, Ron Ellis Consulting, LLC
- Don Hutcheson, Hutch Color, LLC;
- Thorsten Braun, CrossXColor, Inc.;
- Marc Levine, GMG; and
The entire Print Properties Committee.
—Press Release
