I have written before about the Printing across borders initiative and late last week made a post to the mail list which I feel generated a very good response. My post shown below was in response to a post questioning the GRACoL MasterPrinter‚Ñ¢ program:
It stands to reason that that a printer with tight control over TVI would in fact also be a “better” MasterPrinterT. With conventional 4/color process printing (both offset and flexo) large variation in dot size will cause large shifts in color.
Also, in some testing (unrelated to G7T method) we have found very large delta E shifts in grey balance do not necessarily translate to large or any shift in saturated colors at the outer reaches of the gamut. So, if part of ones work is reproduction of saturated corporate colors G7 process control techniques alone may not be sufficient.
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Joseph J. Pasky made the following comments in response to the first paragraph above:
Yes, that is exactly correct…a point that Felix Brunner has been trying to make for more than 30 years. Even small shifts in midtone gray balance are FAR more noticeable that very large changes in SID. He is the one who ‘invented’ controlling a press with midtone, not only SIDs. From my understanding, he’s even got patents on several aspects of this. (GRACoL didn’t come up with this ‘last week’ in a marketing focus group.) Brunner established the order of importance: 1. gray balance, 2. tone reproduction, 3. color. But, he also looks at every aspect of the reproduction curve, from highlights to solids.
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Others made some very valid comments also but I decided to pick the one that told me I was “exactly correct.” Seriously, the group has generated some good discussions about printing to standards and using new methodologies. I would suggest visiting the web-site and subscribing to the email list.