Prepress

Heidelberg announces its “Colour Days” Open House

Thursday 26. September 2013 - "Colour is at a premium. Get it right and you produce profitable print. Get it wrong and you compromise you client's brand, you face a dispute over payment for that job and you lose a customer. Customers need to know the colour will be right and adapted to the substrate used and that it is reproducible time after time. There is a growing requirement for printers to be able to produce a print-out showing the colour deviation of a job on the run. It has never been easier for printers to achieve and retain great colour quality on the run and from run to run."

This is the view of Mark Hogan, marketing director of Heidelberg UK as he looks forward to welcoming packaging and commercial printers to the “Colour Days” autumn open house at the company’s National Showroom in Brentford.
It takes place on Tuesday 8 and Wednesday 9 October, running from 10am to 4pm with both a breakfast and lunch service.
The event marks the third anniversary of Heidelberg launching its ISO 12647-2 certification, a scheme to enable customers to meet and maintain the colour quality standard. Four early adopters, Hampton Printing, Kingsdown Printing, Stephens & George and Pbl Print, have already returned to renew their certification and 19 printers are now members of Heidelberg’s prestigious “Colour Club” for those who attain the standard.
Steve Fowler, colour specialist at Heidelberg, spear-heads the certification scheme. He says: “Heidelberg ISO 12647-2 certification provides irrefutable evidence of a printing company’s ability to meet the demands of the standard, putting them in pole position for high quality contracts.
“Heidelberg provides a practical and affordable Print Colour Management scheme in which we assess a company’s processes, calibrate equipment and objectively test colour quality results in Germany. We also provide a PCM Print Check package which provides the tools and expertise to verify, adapt and manage colour quality via Prinect Color Toolbox.
“Heidelberg’s comprehensive spectral measurement range (Inpress Control, Image Control, Axis Control and Easy Control) combined with Prinect workflow provide printers with fully closed loop colour. It means that consistently hitting colour is no longer an art. With this technology it has never been so easy to measure and monitor colour, taking printers one step closer to the panacea of “printing by numbers”.
Heidelberg will demonstrate the control of colour from prepress through to press using Prinect workflows and spectral measurement in a closed loop. The speed of getting to colour and the design of the press to assist the operator to achieve it will be reviewed and the ability to accurately measure and monitor colour performance using the latest version of Analyze Point, Heidelberg’s advanced production management package, will be seen. Visitors will get a real insight into the impact choice of substrate and consumables can have on results.
Heidelberg offers training courses on colour and also on maximising the information from Analyze Point and management decisions made as a result of the data generated.
Heidelberg is expecting a strong turnout for its Colour Days. For packaging printers it will provide a vital review of methods to help protect the look of the brand and ensure optimum shelf appeal and recognition. For commercial printers who are serious about being in the top quality league, “provable” colour management will become more and more important. The market demands and expects its suppliers to provide evidence that recognised standards are being used.
To book a place at the open house go to: http://www.uk.heidelberg.com