44 email: editor@printmonthly.co.uk January / February 2025 - Issue 352 maintain G7+ methodology in a printing environment. “G7+ Experts can also train others and help organisations achieve G7 Master Qualification, reinforcing a company’s reputation and competitiveness in the market. Leading brands look for printers who have achieved G7+ Expert Certification and G7 Master Qualification.” Taking part in the courses will ensure professionals keep up to date with new developments in the wider market, with Marin adding that investment in new and updated software is key to companies seeking to bolster overall colour management across the print production process. “Upgrading output devices, hardware, and software will give printers the most up-to-date colour management tools that help printers maintain accuracy across different jobs and media types,” Marin says, adding: “Older equipment can often produce inconsistent results, especially with different processes, inks, and substrates. “Current solutions will have more automation that will automatically adjust and correct colours, making it easier to get a consistent look across all printed materials, even when printed on different devices.” Proof is in the Pudding Tuning now to a company that has felt the full benefits of colour management. Venture Banners is a trade specialist, providing a range of wide-format print services to the trade sector. Director Scott Conway says being a trade-only wide-format printer means it is crucial Venture delivers consistent quality across everything it produces, and this includes colour management. “We manage all colour profiling in-house across all machinery and devices to ensure we provide consistent and accurate colours, every time,” Conway says, adding: “We can also colour match Pantones should a client request this. “Beyond the hardware itself, understanding different signage materials and the way they react to print is also a crucial factor as each substrate requires how to keep colours consistent and accurate across output devices and substrates. “These certifications help prove to clients that they will get high-quality, reliable results. It also reduces mistakes during printing and shows that your company meets industry standards,” Marin says. PRINTING United Alliance’s iLEARNING+ has a selection of industry-recognised courses for colour management. Marin says these serve as a starting point in learning how to properly implement colour management in print production workflow, which can be of great value to print businesses. “The Colour Management Professional course list has doubled in the past year, expanding to cover additional print segments including flexo, wide-format, direct-to-garment, while also being updated for the latest in prepress and creative workflows, supporting all members of print production from conceptualisation to production,” he says. Moving on from this, Marin says the next logical step is to earn a G7+ Expert Certification, which demonstrates a professional’s ability to implement and ▲ Tom Peire, chief executive of Four Pees, says up-to-date colour management systems offer users a competitive advantage competitive advantage,” Peire explains, continuing: “Features such as colour standardisation, design monitor calibration, colour analysis, preparation, and adaptation to a specific printing process, and ink savings, can help to ensure you get the same print quality and colour on every surface and every printer in line with a customer’s requirements. “Due to the increasing implementation of web-to-print and the ongoing development of platform-based systems enhancing workflow automation, almost anyone can set up an online storefront and start selling printed products online. “In addition, due to a decline in the number of skilled workers brought on by an ageing workforce, the number of print service providers without technical knowledge or understanding of colour management is growing. As a result, this crucial stage of production is becoming even more important.” With this, Peire adds that the risks of using outdated software can include incompatibility with other software and systems, inaccuracies, and inconsistencies with print qualities, resulting in time-consuming and costly reprints. This is why, as with any software or hardware, he says failure to keep your technology up to date can mean costly mistakes and inefficiencies, as well as damage to your reputation if print qualities are not up to standard. “In addition to cost savings, with a good quality colour management system, printers can improve their sustainability by reducing their ink consumption through features such as automatic grey component replacement (GCR) and automatic under colour removal (UCR).” Certified Quality Demonstrating to your customers that you can offer quality colour management could help you win more work in the long term. Joe Marin, senior vice president for member services at PRINTING United Alliance, is a strong advocate of this, saying that getting certified in colour management shows you and your company know COLOUR MANAGEMENT Good quality, up-to-date colour management systems ensure cost efficiency, quality consistency, and a competitive advantage Four Pees is the company behind Atomyx, a new cloudbased print production management platform that launched in 2024 Factoid
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