GMG launches OpenColor for packaging industry

At drupa 2012, GMG unveils OpenColor, its new proofing software for the packaging market (booth B25, Hall4).

With the advanced development of GMG color management, Dr Hanno Hoffstadt’s research group has responded to the need to create predictable proofs of offset, flexo and gravure prints. GMG OpenColor allows for color-accurate reproductions of print processes that use spot colors and multicolor separations with more than the traditional four process colors (CMYK).

Until now, says the company, the overprinting behavior and color interplay between CMYK and spot colors could only be reproduced by combining a CMYK profile with spot color libraries. This method required considerable effort to depict all possible combinations of spots and process colors ‘as accurately as possible’. The drawback of this method was the inaccurate simulation of spot color overprints.

With the increasing use of multicolor printing, the simulation of spot color overprints currently poses one of the biggest challenges for packaging printers. GMG OpenColor is claimed to be the first profiling tool on the market that provides this vital capability. Offering accurate prediction of overprints, GMG OpenColor creates high-quality multicolor profiles simulating the printing behavior of diverse printing technologies, media types and screenings.

GMG software products such as ColorProof can access GMG OpenColor via a direct connection and request a multicolor profile, which is then dynamically calculated by OpenColor on the basis of spectral data. GMG OpenColor does most of the work automatically, so that time-consuming manual tweaking and editing are now a thing of the past.

GMG OpenColor comes in different versions tailored to fit different printing technologies and customer requirements.

Ian Scott, managing director at GMG, commented: ‘Offering print predictability of the combination of process and spot colors – that was previously considered impossible – we can now provide the market with the long sought-after solution: GMG OpenColor.’

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