X-Rite and Kingstar partner for color management in China

X-Rite, a supplier of color management, measurement and communication technologies, has partnered with Kingstar, a Chinese developer of automated ink control consoles, to offer closed loop color management to small to mid-size printers in China. As a result of the partnership, Kingstar has optimized its KICS remote ink control system to work with EasyTrax, X-Rite’s semi-automated press-side color scanning software.

Iris Mangelschots, X-Rite’s senior vice president of sales and marketing, said: ‘While printing remains a true blend of art and science, the automation of color process control in the printing workflow has become an indispensable step to remaining competitive by achieving reliable quality results with each print run. However, until recently printers across China have typically been relying on manual operation to control the ink keys on their presses. Thanks to our partnership with Kingstar, we are now bringing affordable and easy to implement process color control to printers of all sizes.’

After placing a test sheet on the EasyTrax console, users simply press the measure button to read the color bar. The EasyTrax then sends the data to the Kingstar KICS ink control system, to adjust the ink keys on the press accordingly. 

‘The integration of EasyTrax with Kingstar’s KICS system introduces new levels of automation and increased efficiency for traditional presses, thereby offering Chinese press manufacturers a clear competitive advantage. By offering automation and color management, Chinese printing press manufacturers can help their customers implement a more disciplined process control methodology that will bring them higher productivity, higher accuracy, and faster set up time, leading to overall better profitability,’ said Kingstar’s general manager Chong Bo Xu. 

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