Mark McKee (right), general manager of Manchester-based JFM Plates, and Paul Bromley, technical sales manager at GMG Color
JFM Plates has invested in three GMG products – FlexoProof, ColorServer and OpenColor – to offer clients better press to proof consistency.
Mark McKee, general manager, JFM, ‘In order to keep abreast of ever-changing customer requirements we invest in our best-in-class Esko production workflow and automation software – hence our recent investment in GMG, which integrates seamlessly with this technology.’
‘We realised that we needed to re-evaluate our proofing offering as our workflow continued to become more automated, and more repeatable. Our previous proofing solution required considerable user intervention which, as customer needs grew and lead times fell, wasn’t a scalable process. At the same time, we noticed that we were receiving more and more requests to match output to proofs produced on Epson devices. We knew if we had the ability to both read-in and create MX4 profiles then the colour matching process would be almost seamless.’
GMG proposed a solution based on FlexoProof and ColorServer, together with the InkOptimizer and ProofControl applications, designed to offer JFM faster, more accurate colour-space conversions (reducing retouching times), the ability to ingest customers’ existing MX4 profiles, as well as having the capability to build bespoke MX4 profiles from supplied proofs.
OpenColor has given JFM the ability to build MXN profiles from minimal data taken from the printed material. It has the ability to predict the overprints of any CMYK or CMYK and spot colour interaction, whilst also understanding how substrates, print sequence, dot gain, and finishing effects visually change the final result. MXN profiles can be taken from as little as 12 patches, as opposed to the previous 1,500+ patches used within MX4 technology, allowing JFM to build accurate proofing profiles without always having to fingerprint the printing press.
Key to the success of FlexoProof is its unique 4-D colour transformation engine that ensures the highest possible quality and production reliability.
GMG ColorServer automates the colour normalisation of PDF files, providing highly-accurate CMYK to CMYK, RGB to CMYK and spot colour to CMYK conversions while preserving the integrity of the black channel. The result is a simplified colour management model that delivers consistent print results across any print process and substrate.
