Locarno, Switzerland, April 2023
Customers across various countries and regions are increasingly demanding quality reports for their print runs. As part of the ongoing development of its INSTRUMENT FLIGHT® color management solution, System Brunner has implemented the request from end customers and agencies for a production report that more effectively covers visual perception of color variations in printed output. Another objective was for the overall rating to be based not only on compliance with a specified print standard, but also, independently of that, on a separate assessment of color consistency throughout a print run.
Scoring algorithm now open source
System Brunner is now making this rating algorithm available to the printing industry as an open source solution. All interested solution providers can integrate the “Target Match” (i.e. target print standard) and “Color Consistency” evaluations in their products under the open source license CC BY-ND 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/). To receive a detailed description and demo of the evaluation method, just send a short mail to: info@systembrunner.com
Why a different rating method?
The reports provided today by various manufacturers commonly use ISO parameters as targets and check whether or not the measured values fall within the corresponding tolerance limits. This information is then used to calculate a total value in percent.
Experience has shown that such evaluations are generally inconsistent with visual perception of the printed results. What is more, particularly in packaging printing, it often is impossible to print in compliance with an ‘official’ standard for a variety of reasons. For example, the substrates used may not be included in any of the standards, or different requirements need to be met. In such cases, it is more important for end customers that the visually perceived color consistency remains within narrow tolerances throughout a print run, meaning that this parameter should be included in the evaluation.
Drawing on its long-term experience analyzing process parameters and their visual impact on printed output, System Brunner in recent years developed a new quality evaluation method and tested it under production conditions. All the know-how derived from its Picture Contrast Theory has also been incorporated in this algorithm.
Why System Brunner's Open Source Quality Reporting is superior to other Options
- Evaluates production output in print processes using perception-based criteria—rather than just technical parameters
- Separately evaluates both compliance with a specified print standard and stability over the print run
- Transparent and easy-to-implement open-source solution
- Scientifically based and professionally developed
- Proven by Print Buyers
Reports integrated in the latest Instrument Flight® product solutions
The new scoring method is already integrated in reports generated by the Instrument Flight color management and control solutions used on Koenig-Bauer sheetfed presses as well as in the Instrument Flight Standalone applications.
Spectral data is collected during each measurement from all color patches on the control strip and used to calculate colorimetric and process-related parameters. These in turn are statistically summarized and weighted according to their influence on the visual perception of color variations in the printed image. Immediately after a job is completed, a report is generated automatically in PDF format.
The first page shows the overall rating based on compliance with the specified print standard (Target Match) and color consistency (Consistency) throughout the print run.
The subsequent pages show the measured results in increasing detail to help printing businesses analyze quality and, if necessary, optimize their processes.