Last week, ColorMetrix CEO Jim Raffel attended the PODi AppForum conference in Las Vegas for the first time. What follows are some of his observations, thoughts and comments about the conference.

I did a bit of live reporting from the conference via my Twitter account. Following are two tweets I sent during Ken Schmidt’s keynote address. Schmidt is the communications strategist for Harley-Davidson Motor Company, and I’m still thinking about these two quotes.

Schmidt’s Tuesday morning keynote was fantastic, and one of the best I’ve seen in a very long time. He has a great deal of passion for what they’ve done at Harley-Davidson to make sure their motorcycles are not viewed as a commodity. As he pointed out, you can buy a bike that looks virtually the same for about 1/3 the price. For those of us that live and work in the printing industry, this is a problem to which we can relate. How do you differentiate? Is what Harley does really different or have they created a culture around their company and product?

I attended two breakout sessions and both were well-planned and well-executed. My friend John Foley spent an hour defining a marketing services firm. It’s a transition many printing companies are trying to make right now and Foley has a vested interest in that transformation. Both his companies support marketing services firms, but he wants to make sure that printing firms know what’s involved before they invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in software.

I attended AppForum to investigate being a sponsor next year. I was impressed by the caliber of attendees and vendors. While I witnessed vendors talking up their products, there was no hard-core selling going on. The keynote and breakout session speakers all had top-notch credentials and did not sell from the podium. The event felt like a free and open exchange of ideas to help each other be more successful. It’s an event that ColorMetrix will consider adding to our sponsorship list in 2013.

What’s a conference without networking? I had the pleasure of meeting Theo Pettaras from Australia. His company DigitalPress is producing many interesting printed pieces and books. It was a pleasure to spend an extended period of time with Pettaras and reviewing the samples he had brought along. They give me further hope that innovation and creativity will make certain print doesn’t die in my lifetime.

This next image is of a promotional piece created by DigitalPress to display the importance of typography. I’ve always been a fan of Helvetica, so to see a piece in this day and age that has been hand kerned is refreshing.

I’ll close with Pettaras’ thought that none of the “coolest” print samples he had along are what make them money. These are the pieces that set his company apart in the marketplace. By creating a few amazing pieces each year, he holds a place in the mind of the Sydney design community that would be difficult to duplicate.

This month, a study predicted the death of newspapers within five years. Whether or not I agree, there is no arguing that the newspaper industry has been in trouble for some time. Of course, there are many factors to blame for the downfall of newspapers: the introduction of the Internet, the reduction in advertising dollars, etc.

However, I believe that when you are faced with an economic problem within your industry, the very worst thing you could do is let the quality of your product slip. Color quality has somehow become less important in the print media industry. It wasn’t always so.

Tales from a forgotten pressroom

Once upon a time, there was a newspaper whose executives cared about color reproduction. They invested in a multi-million dollar printing press, tested it for color quality on newsprint and hired the best color quality workers in the industry to run it.

In the pressroom, the manager’s day started late in the afternoon. In a soundproof room within view of the mammoth press, he held a quick meeting with his staff. They reviewed last night’s run by critiquing that day’s newspaper. He read aloud the emails he had received that morning from both the publisher and editor regarding that day’s print quality. He would order minor tweaks to the inks in the next run, but overall he was happy with the result.

By early evening, the first finished pages of the next day’s paper would be delivered digitally to the pressroom by graphic designers in the newsroom. Beforehand, those designers had meticulously chosen photos that not only fit the context of the stories but also met the color quality guidelines of the pressroom. Similarly, their self-created illustrations and infographics were comprised only of colors from the approved palette provided by the color quality expert who visited twice a year.

After performing some ritualistic checks on the press, inks, paper and overall environment in the pressroom, these early pages would be burned to plates and used as a test run for the next day’s edition. Each page was templated with a color bar featuring small squares of the CMYK values and a process gray. After the test run, the pressroom manager and several of his staff members would check the page and its bar for color quality and registration.

Once the test run was deemed successful, the press would start running the real edition; stopping only for plate changes, paper additions and, if necessary, further testing. The process normally would end between midnight and 2 a.m. and start again the very next afternoon.

The fairy tale has ended

From my 17 years in the newsroom and the pressroom, I assure you that the tale I just spun used to be true. I can also assure you that it’s happening less often around the world today.

The color bar below was taken from a published newspaper sample I saved from 2004. Notice how the yellow and black squares are shifted in relation to the rest of the bar. In a press check, this would indicate that the yellow and black inks would be out of register from the cyan and magenta.

It’s almost frightening to me that this edition was published without any action to correct the registration. It’s even more frightening that this occurred seven years ago. I believe things are even worse today. When I saw this I wondered, why have a color quality bar at all if you’re going to ignore it?

Who rewrote the story?

What did you think when you saw the image I included at the beginning of this post? It’s pretty horrible, right? Sadly, it’s an almost 100 percent accurate representation of an image in a newspaper from 2004. This is a sample I kept in an air-tight container. I took a photo of it with my phone and did not alter it with any photo editing software. This is a good example of the color quality nightmare within the newspaper industry.

Through my experience and from my former colleagues, I have watched the color quality fairy tales turn into horror stories. Below are three examples as to why I think this has happened.

1. A multi-million dollar printing press, which was once part of the ideal fairy tale, was outfitted with the cheapest ink and cheapest paper from the cheapest suppliers. The result was, of course, a rather distinct decrease in color quality. This is like putting regular unleaded in your brand new Porsche.What kind of performance can you realistically expect?
2. A massive reduction in staffing in both newsrooms and pressrooms have put quality control on the back burner. Press checks aren’t performed as often and aren’t nearly as important as they used to be. The man power just isn’t there anymore. According to Erica Smith of PaperCuts, in 2008 and 2009 alone, the newspaper industry nationwide lost nearly 30,000 jobs. Industry job loss lessened in 2010, but last year saw a 30 percent surge over the 2010 number.
3. It’s all about the money. The correct way to handle an out-of-registration print job would be to throw away the current run, realign the press and start again. However, this method creates a waste of paper and ink; not to mention the cost of running the press for longer periods of time. Color quality was sacrificed to save money.

Pick quality over quantity

Somewhere along the line, someone chose quantity over quality. The standard of printing has been lowered to save money and, by looking at the continual decrease in advertising revenue and number of jobs, it hasn’t helped the industry one bit.

Despite the economic decline, the masses still want a quality product. Maybe if the newspaper industry re-focused on quality, advertisers and subscribers would return.

This was originally posted on JimRaffel.com on Jan. 9, 2007. It has been revised for this blog. You can view the original here.

At the close of 2006, ColorMetrix CEO Jim Raffel presented three proofing New Year’s resolutions, which he promised to expand upon in 2007. Resolution #1 stated that printers should “increase productivity by decreasing time wasted to re-print bad proofs.” It sounds simple; and it can be.

First, printers must start measuring the color bar they output on every proof with process control software, such as ColorMetrix’s ProofPass. Implementation of color verification solutions allows for analysis of the historical data using a built-in trending module or exported data into an application such as Microsoft Excel.

By doing this over a period of time (we suggest a month), printers will be able to determine the normal variation of their proofing process. Not every proofing system has the same normal variation; nor do any two similar proofing systems have identical variation. Once the normal variation is known, reasonable and achievable tolerance levels for the proofing system can be built.

If the tolerance levels from the previous step of this process are not what is wanted, don’t be discouraged. We still have meaningful historical data which will allow us to make process improvements. Using this information allows us to dig into the database. For instance, we would be able to see that an inkjet proofing paper from a vendor has a delta E variation beyond what a printer is willing to accept over a month’s time. The key is that process changes will be made based upon objective fact and not subjective opinions.

The process changes made will continue to improve the ongoing process, which will result in fewer and fewer defective proofs. Each defective proof no longer being made has a cost savings associated with it. When you add up all these little cost savings, you can quickly calculate the return on investment of your hard copy, color proofing process control software solution. In our experience, the entire cost of the ProofPass system is recovered in less than one month in many cases.

In late November and early December of 2011, our resident marketing and project management guru Shelby Sapusek and I participated in what we termed “Measure Party 2.0.” When we include Measure Party 1.0 and 3.0, a total of seven people from four different companies have participated in measuring almost 500 color swatches with a half dozen different instruments in four different locations. This has been no small undertaking; but “why” we all did it is what matters.

Scientific Method

There might be a problem with the traditional scientific method. We have computers and fuzzy math these days. There is a great deal of technology to overcome anomalies in collected data. Data can be collected and analyzed faster than ever. Our own research and development creation, currently named “normalizer,” can crunch all 500 of those measurements we made six different ways in way less than a minute.

Perhaps the tried and true scientific method slows progress down. Don’t get me wrong. We carefully measured all our samples under similar and controlled conditions. Notice I did not say identical and perfect conditions. There is a reason for that.

We make color work when no one else can or wants to

For almost two decades now, we show up with nothing but our wits and our out-of-the-box software to help folks make color do things it’s not quite supposed to do. Over the years, that means we’ve built ancillary tools (like custom spreadsheets) to support our efforts. It was one of our special spreadsheets that ultimately unveiled what could prove to be a watershed moment in the color measurement world.

So here’s the deal: Do you want the measurements from two spectrophotometers made by two different manufacturers to match? Well, that’s nearly impossible for a lot of really good reasons dictated by the physics of light and thus color science. However, we’ve built something called “normalizer” that can get you pretty darn close.

We’ve spent enough time in the field with customers to know that “pretty darn close” is more often than not good enough in the color world. Compared to many other industries and manufacturing processes, color reproduction of print has relatively wide tolerances in most cases.

R&D isn’t always about following the rules

Since the world of color measurement is not perfect and results are seldom linear in nature, we choose to do our research and development in less than traditional ways. We go out in the field and talk with users about what they are seeing, what works and what does not. We get a feel for how good “good enough” is. Then, we build the software tools to get folks from where they are in the color measurement game to where they need to be.

We are a technology company. We do R&D; and we make things more then sell them. Our goal is to build software tools that allow our end users to create data warehouses full of standardized color measurement data. To that end, we built on existing published research to create a system that will normalize the spectral measurements of one instrument to that of another.

The proof is in the pudding

After almost 18 months of development, we are putting the algorithm through the paces. It’s standing up well to almost everything we’ve managed to throw at it. Is what we’ve done earth shattering or groundbreaking? Honestly, it isn’t because we built on existing research. Others have done this in different ways. What’s unique is we are commercializing our solution. It probably won’t be as a product we ship, but as embedded technology you’ll see in other folks’ products.

One of our goals this year is to let the voices of those in the print industry be heard. We have plans to do this in a number of ways. We’re calling it Exclusive Engagement. We were fortunate on Jan. 4 to get into an impromptu conversation with Michael Josefowicz (pictured) on Twitter. Like most Twitter talks, others jumped into the discussion, which was great. However, we’re going to focus on Michael’s responses and the interaction he had with Jim Raffel and Shelby Sapusek of ColorMetrix. The conversation lasted about an hour. Some tweets were combined and edited for grammar/language.

Michael Josefowicz bio

Profession: Retired printer with lots of time for blabla.

Interests: Printing and education. Also, he’s a pretty big deal on Twitter.

Twitter handle: @toughloveforx

Blog: http://clickableprint.blogspot.com

Claim to fame: Ability to volley in Twitter Tennis

 

Twitter Tennis with Michael Josefowicz (Jan. 4, 2012)

Michael Josefowicz (MJ), Shelby Sapusek (SS) and Jim Raffel (JR)

____________

The first volley…

MJ: Color control is not about pleasing customers. It’s about making good margins. … A predictable, manageable revenue stream. No drama.

SS: So recognize our niche and build upon what we know we can do.

MJ: No new ideas, just better implementations. Future is here, just not evenly distributed. Look at your customer list. Focus on who loves you. Get more like that. Not rocket science. And you better be just the right amount of good for your niche. Talk about custom manufacturing.

____________

On process control and automation…

MJ: The dirty little secret is that if your process is not totally under control, you … will be spinning wheels.

SS: Ah yes. Processes. (Jim) Raffel and I have been looking at plans and processes including automation pretty hard for this year.

MJ: Automation is good if you can afford it. But a precise craftsman-like approach is often good enough.

JR: Dislike.

MJ: Ok. But I hate paving cow paths … And thinking automation will save you.

JR: Yes, but automation and process control are where precision and accuracy come from.

MJ: Automation is good if you can afford it. But a precise, craftsman-like approach is often good (enough). I say automation embedded in a sloppy work flow doesn’t pay. Just worser (sic), faster. Lots of drama.

SS: Ok, if you don’t like the word “automation,” how about delegation? We have to trust others to accomplish tasks.

MJ: Don’t get me wrong. I love automation. But like any powerful tool, (it) can cause huge damage if misapplied.

SS: I’m not saying every process can be automated. But recognize ones that can (be) to free up resources for others that can’t.

MJ: I’m saying that every process that can be automated will eventually be automated. I don’t think we disagree. So then (the) printer has to do the hard work of process control, instead of blabla about marketing, etc.

SS: And if the printer has that process control down, can they then blabla about marketing?

MJ: If and only if. That’s the problem. First things first. Ideas, (in my opinion), are worth about 2 cents. Precise craftspeople are where margins come from.

____________

On giving it away for free…

MJ: Everyone expects proofs for free, but are willing to pay for samples. But that’s tricky.

SS: Now that I think about it: Here’s a sample of what we can do. Here’s a proof of what we did for you. Different, yes?

MJ: Not a sample of what we can do for you. Here’s a sample of what your job will look like. Different thing.

SS: Ah. And that’s the tricky part.

MJ: Yep. Unless your sample really is what the job is gonna be, you are in the soup. Yikes!

SS: But I don’t wanna be in the soup! It’s all … soupy!

MJ: Margins don’t come from soup. They come from baking cakes. Precise, under total control.

SS: Baking? Now you’re talking my language! I bake up a storm! You should try my cookies. But I get it: Precision counts.

MJ: Yep. Baking needs precise process control. Ain’t like making soup. Printers who make soup sometimes stumble upon a winner or big hit. But who wants the drama? Puh-leeze.

SS: That may be true but I don’t want to be hit or miss. Also, not a drama queen.

____________

On restaurants as business models…

MJ: The best process(es) are the most easily automated. It’s like the new kind of cooking.

SS: You still need one chef though. And a bunch of line cooks supporting him/her. (Just gave away my college job.)

MJ: Yep. A professional kitchen is a perfect model for almost any business or school in my never so humbler opinion.

SS: So that’s why my dad always encouraged my restaurant jobs! *slaps head*

MJ: See you should always listen to your dad and mom. It took me years to figure that out.

SS: Restaurants do everything like other businesses but in a faster-paced environment. Have to be efficient or fail.

____________

A one-line gem on the printing industry…

MJ: Sinking demand for the old infrastructure. Huge demand for emerging infrastructure. It’s the business model changing that is the real trigger.

____________

Another one-liner on processes and flexibility…

MJ: My take is the critical thing about a plan is to be able to turn on a dime.

____________

On social media…

MJ: It’s about using the web to assemble the tribe. Then sell them stuff and experiences and money.

____________

And finally, one of the participant’s favorite lines…

MJ: I figure any woman who made it through the print business can make it anywhere.

This was first published on JimRaffel.com on Nov. 3, 2005. It has been re-purposed for ColorMetrix.

Client: “What should my color bar look like?”

Us: “What is the meaning of life?”

Honestly, the second question might be easier to answer than the first.

The answer to the color bar question can be both simple and complex at the same time. The client who originally asked this question works for a company with a very large consumer products concern. Therefore, they are the ultimate consumer of the print (in other words, they pay for it). Others in the supply chain are pushing for a fairly large color bar to be included on each package. While in principle we agree with measuring as much as you can, we have also assisted customers with almost no space for a color bar and found a way to measure enough to be meaningful.

The interesting trend we have seen in consumer product printing (read: packaging) is toward more informative color bars. Managing libraries of dozens, hundred, or even thousands of spot colors can be almost impossible. However, if one moves toward some form of 6 or 7 color process printing, some pretty amazing economies of scale begin to occur.

The trick is that if you are producing a critical spot color with a build of process inks, those inks and all associated print attributes need to be “spot on.” The best way to control critical press factors like density, dot gain, print contract, etc. is to measure as many color bar patches as possible. See how simple the answer to these complex questions can be?

So, ranked in order of importance, here are the patches we suggest a press color bar.

1. Unprinted substrate patch (to zero out substrate when necessary)
2. Solid patch for each process (and spot) color (needed for solid ink density (SID))
3. 3/Color Grey patches at multiple tone values
4. Mid-tone patch for each process color (to gather dot gain (TVI) values)
5. Process color over prints (needed to measure trapping efficiency of inks)
6. Additional highlight and shadow tone patches of each process color (for a 75% patch to calculate print contrast)
7. GATF Star targets or microline targets (used to visually evaluate for press slur and doubling issues)

The items listed above are important and truly necessary, but if space is an issue, start with No. 7 and work backwards removing items until the bar fits. Also, items 3 and 4 could be easily reversed, but having one without the other makes diagnosis of grey balance issues difficult at best. If you do not have room for items 1-3 and quality print is important to you, maybe you should consider redesigning the piece.

Note: This post has been re-purposed for ColorMetrix.com. It was originally posted by ColorMetrix CEO Jim Raffel on his personal blog on Sept. 12, 2011. We’ve condensed it down for the purpose of this blog, but if you’d like to read the original, click here.

We at ColorMetrix are obviously fans of color and color technology. Therefore, you’d think we’d be huge fans of USA Today, the first newspaper to really take advantage of color in the printing industry, right? Wrong. On a recent business trip, ColorMetrix CEO Jim Raffel and project manager Shelby Sapusek picked up a copy of USA Today and critiqued it for content, advertising and, of course, color. Below is a roundup of their discussion and findings.

Starting at the beginning

A quarter century ago, USA Today hired dozens of graduates a year from Jim’s alma mater, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), to manage the quality of their color printing across the country. They helped engineer one of the best high-quality and distributed color printing system in the history of printing, much less the newspaper industry. They were also part of the first uniform daily news delivery system across 50 states. Remember, this is well before the internet, so being able to read the same paper everywhere each day was unique.

However, the problem was at the beginning

In hindsight, the problem is that Gannett, publisher of USA Today, decided to make a big deal about the color and not necessarily the content and uniform delivery. They promoted and sold the newness of color in every section. They didn’t just sell that excitement to the consumers. If they had, things might have turned out okay. No, they had to sell the newness of color throughout the paper to advertisers. That was the fatal mistake.

They went to Madison Avenue ad agencies and promised the kind of color quality that at the time you could only find in weekly and monthly magazines. Eventually, they got close at USA Today. This was back when they used good paper and actually had a color quality representative at each print site every night when the paper printed. Now, they print on paper with lesser quality and it seems no one pays attention to the color anymore. How could they? The color bars that used to be part of the design are long gone with the reduced size of the paper.

When the advertising doesn’t come…

As we flipped through the paper, we counted up the ads. Ads? What ads? Back in the day, a paper needed somewhere between one-third and half the page space to be ads to be profitable. This particular paper had less than a fourth of the page space devoted to ads. So what happened? Where did the advertisers go?

Imagine this: Madison Avenue print ad dollars start shifting to USA Today and you own a big local daily paper. What do you do? Well, you go out and buy a press and all the prepress equipment necessary to produce a color newspaper of course! If the customer wants color, we’ll give them color. Of course, most newspapers didn’t hire RIT grads to run a color department, if they even had one.

The problem gets further compounded because newspapers were charging more for those ads and having to run make good ads or not get paid. It became a big mess. The lease on the new press wasn’t going away either. Newspaper press prices were measured starting around $10 million. They had a press capable of printing color so they decided color graphics and photos needed to be focal points of our paper. While that sounded great on the surface, that’s how we got to where we are. What they should have been concentrating on was reporting the news. When it comes to newspapers, content should be key.

It probably all works until Craigslist and eBay

As bad as this all is, the industry probably wouldn’t have fallen apart as quickly as it did if not for the likes of Craigslist’s free classified ads and eBay to sell your old stuff to the highest bidder. However had newspapers stayed out of color, they’d have had huge war chests of cash when this latest threat hit. They’d still have the greatest reporters in the world under their roof.

Instead, most newspaper businesses were gutted shells of their former selves by the early part of this century. They had decided two decades earlier that color would be their last great battle ground. When the internet rolled around, instead of embracing it, they ignored it at first. Then they posted identical content on the web as in the paper but for free.

The aftermath

In the end, the widespread rapid adoption of color across the newspaper industry that followed in USA Today’s footsteps is what caused the virtual overnight demise of the newspaper industry. USA Today was not going to kill local newspapers. It just wasn’t going to happen. While it’s arguable their reporting of national stories was better, there is no way they could cover the local beat; not in every city across the country. Besides there are wire services to provide coverage of the big national and international stories.

So what was the perceived threat? It was color. In the newspaper industry at the time, color was new technology. Think about some of the greatest photographers of all time. Ansel Adams made a career and a great deal of money with black and white photography. What if newspapers had embraced new fonts and graphical capabilities instead of embracing color? That’s what companies like Aldus and Adobe were bringing to market at unheard of low prices. Yes, this occurred at the same time.

There was one paper that did do that and became a national powerhouse. The Wall Street Journal relied upon great reporting and cool monochrome graphics until they had a clear understanding of how to utilize color in a profitable way. Being first or even an early adopter of new technology will not always mean you have an advantage. Some of the people and brands that have waited until recently to enter the social media pond are just crushing it.

So watch for new technology. Understand new technology and then build a case for the new technology in your business. Listen to yourself and your gut; not the so called experts. Don’t follow the crowd, follow the path that is best for your unique business.

Photo credit

ColorVerify, a product co-developed by ColorMetrix and Mutoh America Inc., launched at Graph Expo Chicago in mid-September. We are pleased to announce the continuation of the launch of this exciting color process control system at SGIA Expo 2011 in New Orleans Oct. 19-21!

ColorVerify is a two-part system that includes ColorVerify, an on-printer color checking function, and ColorVerify Pro, an Internet system built on the successful ColorMetrix ProofPass technology. Both are designed to enhance images and reduce costs. In our partnership with Mutoh, the software comes standard on their ValueJet 1608HS Hybrid printer, and can be equipped to the new ValueJet 1324 and 1624 printers. Mutoh’s on-board spectrophotometer SpetroVue VM-10 sends measurements based off a control strip to cloud-based ColorVerify to ensure consistent color.

During Graph Expo Chicago, ColorMetrix CEO Jim Raffel gave daily demonstrations of ColorVerify and why process control is important. At SGIA later this month, the ColorMetrix team will again be giving demonstrations in the Mutoh America booth #2133.

We invite you to stop by the Mutoh America booth during SGIA. We’d be glad to give you a personal demonstration of ColorVerify. You can view a floor plan of the expo here.

If you can’t make the show in New Orleans, contact us and we’ll arrange for a Mutoh representative to contact you and discuss ColorVerify’s unique solution to process control management.

Watch out Windy City! The ColorMetrix team is invading for four days during Graph Expo.

We are happy to announce that ColorMetrix will be at Graph Expo Chicago Sept. 11-14, 2011. Printers, packaging companies and pre-press operators from around the world will be displaying their products and services during this four-day event. You’ll be able to find us at the colorHQ booth (and maybe a few other surprise locations yet to be named).

Traditionally, Graph Expo is an event where top executives in the printing industry gather to learn and network. With its large live demonstration format, this exhibition is designed to help industry leaders make an informed decision about purchasing equipment, technology, products and services.

Embrace Technology? We’ll fit right in.

The official tagline for Graph Expo is “Embrace Technology” and that makes ColorMetrix is a good fit for this event. If you haven’t witnessed ColorMetrix’s unique technology in the color verification process, this is your chance to get a live demonstration. The ColorMetrix team will be on hand to show you how our products can help you achieve consistent color in your day-to-day printing operation.

Join us at Graph Expo

We’d be thrilled if you can join us at Graph Expo in Chicago Sept. 11-14. Here is some information to help you out:

• Check out the lineup of exhibitors.
• View the interactive map of the exhibition floor.
• Take advantage of the special advanced pricing if you sign up before Aug. 12.

Watch for updates

Be sure to keep updated on our plans for our trip to Graph Expo. We just might have some surprises up our sleeves! If you want to be the first to get announcements, try one or more of the following:

Sign up for our email newsletter. The subscription is free and you also receive the ebook “Verified Color Handbook” by ColorMetrix CEO Jim Raffel. We don’t spam and our newsletter usually comes out only twice a month.

Sign up for an RSS feed of this blog. You’ll receive updates whenever we have something to share.

You can also follow us on our social media networks:

Follow us on Twitter with our handle @ColorMetrix. We share print industry news and discuss all things print, color and related technology.

Become a fan of our Facebook page. Here, you’ll not only get updates but you’ll be able to see our photo galleries and view videos from our presentations and events.

Join our users’ discussion group on LinkedIn. If you currently use ColorMetrix products or are just curious about learning more about them, this is a good way to interact with people who have first-hand experience with our color verification technology.

Photo Credit

We’ve been busy at ColorMetrix so I wanted to take a few minutes to update you on the highlights of 2011 so far. Products have been updated, new products are being released, partnerships have been forged and we’ve revived our always popular user group meeting as Color Conversations Live. So, let’s get on with the details!

New ProofPass.com Release

On June 1, the new ProofPass.com was released. It has been almost two years since the site was updated and those who have previewed the new user interface are saying it was well worth the wait. Dozens of new features have been added including:

• Setup Wizard (To get new users up and running fast!)
• Basic Enterprise Functionality
• Enhanced Trending (Down to the individual swatch level)
• Gray Balance Analysis
• Delta E Sorting (Worst to best for quick identification of problem swatches)
• Updated Client Application (Rewritten database code for improved speed and reliability)
• Self-Service Renewal (Now, you can renew from within the ProofPass interface.)

There are too many feature to review here so, if you are a current user, make sure to log in and take a look around the site. For those who have never used ProofPass, we now have a 14-day free trial you can request right on the front page of ProofPass.com. Please give ProofPass a try and let us know what you think!

Color Conversations Live Event

In April, we returned to Las Vegas for our Color Conversations Live event. It had been almost six years since we held our last users group meeting in Las Vegas so it seemed an appropriate venue to kick off the new Color Conversations Live. Our hope is to conduct this new style live event once a year in different locations that make sense. We’ve shortened the event to a single content-packed day followed by an evening social event. You can learn more about the inaugural event on our Live11 page. There is some consideration to have a second event this fall in Chicago. If a September 12 event in Chicago would interest you, please let us know so we can push ahead with our planning!

ColorVerify by Mutoh Powered by ColorMetrix

We weren’t just in Las Vegas for Color Conversations Live. Mutoh announced their ColorVerify product, which is powered by ColorMetrix technology. As part of the announcement Mutoh asked myself and Ron Dahl of Digital Color Source (who has been instrumental in the ColorVerify project) to do some short presentations on color theory and process control. For those that didn’t get to catch the presentations live, we’ve captured some of the highlights in the following video.

If you can’t see the video please click here.

Invitations Being Extended to Preview ColorMAP Technology

Those who attended Color Conversations Live, had the opportunity to review our new ColorMAP technology. This technology allows for the creation and categorization of a color database utilizing cloud-based computing. The result is an easily accessible workflow tool for creating new colors. Best of all, these colors are based on actual production inks and substrate combinations. For packaging companies managing hundreds or even thousands of colors, this is must-see technology. Please let us know if you’d like to request an invitation to review ColorMAP.

As you can see, it’s been a busy year for all of us here at ColorMetrix. We are, however, never too busy to help our customers and friends. If there is anything we can do to help you better understand or utilize verified color technology, please just let us know!

Colorfully Yours,

Jim Raffel