Responding to longstanding publisher needs to know exactly how color will print, Coral Graphic Services, a leading component printer of covers and jackets, and Inland Press, a Menomenee Falls, Wis.—based printer that specializes in four-color trade and coffee-table books, have just introduced new colorproofing technology. The main new colorproofing tools, from Kodak and ICS, aim to better match the colors a publisher sees in a proof with the colors that appear on the printed jacket.
Coral Graphic is unveiling three new colorproofing tools that can be used separately or together. Used in combination the tools will save time, deliver better quality and ensure that what you see is what you'll get, said Mitchel Weiss, senior v-p of sales for Coral Graphic.
The first is a new Kodak Polychrome Graphics technology, the MatchPrint Virtual Proofing System. With specially calibrated color monitors set up at the printer and in a publisher's office, both parties can look simultaneously at the same cover proof, circle areas for corrections and even write notes. The MatchPrint Virtual Proofing System was awarded SWOP (Specifications for Web Offset Publications) certification, which confirms the system's ability to deliver accurate RGB monitor viewing of CMYK color reproduction to reliably predict final printed color on a web offset press. Coral Graphic beta-tested the technology with Kodak for the last three months; it now has a 12-month exclusive window to offer MatchPrint to its customers in the U.S. book components world.
The second tool is an Epson 760 inkjet proofer, with new software that calibrates its color to the Epson 1060 printer at Coral Graphic, to its Kodak Approval proving press and to its presses. The resulting color proof on this equipment gives a preview that Weiss calls "so good that many might accept it as a contract proof. We're calling it the Coral Flash Proof." Customers can order a Coral Flash Proof or, if they do significant volume, have the Epson 760s installed in their offices. Two Epsons 760s have just been installed at HarperCollins.
The third tool is the Kodak Recipe Proof, the newest high-end contract proof, designed to show what special effects like foil, metallics, special colors and spot colors will look like on paper.
The Remote Director
Inland Press has been participating for the last year in a beta test for ICS's Remote Director, another display-based contract proofing system and the first SWOP-certified soft-proofing system.
With Remote Director, Inland installs monitors in a publisher's facility, tied to its own prepress facility. The screens cost about $2,500 each; either the customer pays directly or the printer builds the cost into the printing contract. Remote Director controls the color displayed to all viewers of a job so that all parties involved are virtually on the same page. The customer can give feedback instantly through notes and mark-up tools, and can even sign off on the proof using a mouse. "This way you can make instant adjustments and save a lot of time," said president James Lacy. "Ultimately, tools like these will eliminate the hard-copy proof."
An adjunct of this software is a virtual press-check option— with a scanner, screen and a booth at press-side, a customer offsite can view what the press proof looks like while it's being adjusted.
