Have we finally conquered color consistency?

Brands spend millions on their logos, color schemes and packaging designs. Maintaining a consistent brand is strategic and critical for all of them. If a brand’s colors are inconsistent across different packaging or customer touch points, it may suggest a lack of quality and can cause confusion and less brand loyalty.

Until recently, color consistency has remained challenging to implement. The sheer variety of printing processes, inks and substrates have created a significant challenge for brand owners and converters to achieve color consistency. Some substrates, such as paperboard and corrugated cardboard, are more absorbent, which can affect how the color of the substrate itself interacts with the ink and affects the color. Substrate isn’t the only consideration – there are various printing processes and all use different types of inks. 

This is becoming a real priority for brand owners. Until recently, there was only a little culture of color management within companies, but now it is growing and becoming strategic. And it is not enough anymore to have colors that appear to match with the naked eye. The industry has developed advanced instruments that can measure the precise Pantone color. There is nowhere to hide for converters on this issue, and it is our job as a supplier of equipment and services to find solutions through innovations.

ECG and beyond 
Bobst recognized the urgency of the challenge years ago and put several initiatives in place. We founded the Revo project, an ambitious flexo industry initiative involving multiple partners, which aims to ‘digitally’ standardize and automate the flexo process from pre-press to print delivery. Color consistency is a major element of this. 

The Revo 7-color Extended Color Gamut (ECG) printing, developed by the Revo Technology Team of leading industry suppliers, is now a well-established turnkey ‘DigiFlexo’ process that flows from pre-press through to production output. There are also other Bobst partnerships aiming to achieve optimal ECG printing, including smartECG, which is focused on flexible packaging. 

ECG printing uses three additional ink colors – orange, green and violet (OGV) – on top of the conventional colors of cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK), enabling a match with 90 percent plus of the Pantone book, compared with around 60 percent previously. This means there is no need to keep huge inventories of spot colors – the majority of color positions can be generated without having to use spot colors. But spot colors can still be added if required. 

The digitalization of color matching has made color conformity with the job master request possible. With the new DigiColor system, brand owners can validate the colors through a digital version of the final product. It means that brand owners can have reassurance around the color matching of their packaging worldwide, irrespective of geography or operator ability.

If a converter uses a Revo package, they can start with ECG and be successful from day one. Because Revo packages contain in-line color measurement and standardization of all print elements including plate, anilox, inks, pre-press, substrates and inspection, this provides the consistency. We also provide support to converters so that adoption can be as smooth as possible.

Introducing DigiColor
Now Bobst introduces DigiColor, the first closed-loop color control system in the flexo industry. Color is measured in-line and adjusted on each print unit to match – in a few meters – the target color values. Each of the seven ECG inks is split into a darker and a lighter ink, which are mixed in-line to match the targeted Delta E. DigiColor can make subtle adjustments as needed while printing. For example, if the substrate absorbs a greater quantity of ink than expected, and the Delta E Target is not matched, the system will automatically adjust to utilize more dark ink, ensuring perfect tone accuracy and Delta E color matching. The flexibility in color management that was traditionally exclusive to digital printing and, partly, in offset, is now available to flexo printers. 

DigiColor completes the Bobst path to full digitalization of the flexo process. Print pressure, register and now color are managed by digital automation (sensors, servo motors, artificial intelligence) making digital and digital flexo widely compatible and closer in performances, also on short runs. 

For the first time it is possible to transform the final printed product from DigiFlexo back to a digital file to be able to compare it with the original digital native file. The printer extracts digital values from printed job, producing a ‘digital twin’ of the original file. This means that for the first time, brand owners can review a digital twin and validate the colors from the original digital file – no more guessing – just facts. This effectively ‘closes the loop’ starting with a digital file, utilizing digital automation to complete the job, and validating the output with another digital file.

This is a major evolution and I believe it will revolutionize color consistency management in the print and packaging industries.