X-Rite Releases Latest Cloud-Based ColorCert Solution for Printers, Converters
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.—September 28, 2015—X-Rite Inc., a global leader in color science and technology, and its subsidiary Pantone LLC, today announced the availability of a new version of ColorCert: X-Rite Edition, a cloud-based specifications management solution for easy exchange of color data in real time among brand owners, printers and packaging converters. Designed to improve productivity and quality, ColorCert is a modular job-based color workflow solution for creating color specifications and measuring performance against those specifications using a simple scoring method. It provides real-time statistical process control for defining, monitoring, and communicating color quality—across the plant or around the globe.
User Feedback
“ColorCert gives us visibility into problems we were not aware we had, including with our ICC profiles, ink formulation and proofs,” said Vincent Whatley, the X-Rite coordinator responsible for the implementation of the project at UK-based Ultimate Packaging, that includes Asda, a Wal-Mart company, in its customer base. “With the data we gather using ColorCert, we have learned a great deal about repeatability, as well as hitting the scores and ICC targets through matching conditions of fingerprinting. It has also helped us work out how variables such as heat, viscosity and temperature were affecting our outcomes.” Since implementing ColorCert, Ultimate Packaging has seen a 200 percent improvement in its ColorCert scores.
ColorCert 2.6: The Details
“ColorCert 2.6 includes a range of new features that give printers and packaging converters more flexibility,” noted Christopher Winczewski, vice president of product marketing for X-Rite. “It now incorporates a simple wizard-driven job setup that minimizes job creation time and allows operators to make last-minute changes at any point in the print process based on standard templates within the ColorCert Pressroom. Users get the benefit of a faster process without sacrificing the end-to-end color quality they depend on with ColorCert.”
To help printers optimize job set-up even further, ColorCert 2.6 has now provides two ways for users to populate job information; an interface to MIS systems or using PDF fields from supplied artwork. Either option supports a more efficient print operation, speeding jobs through production with less opportunity for error.
ColorCert 2.6 also now lets users define multiple combinations of settings within a job. For example, operators can use different substrate and tolerance settings for make-ready versus the controlled settings for "sellable" production. This gives them the flexibility to optimize all variables linked to print production for greater efficiency.
Support for X-Rite eXact
ColorCert 2.6 extends Mac support to include the scanning option for the X-Rite eXact spectrophotometer, a next generation handheld color measurement solution. All stakeholders in the supply chain can now rely on X-Rite eXact as the common instrument of choice for measuring color in any mode across the entire workflow, including design and premedia where Mac is the de facto standard. Leveraging ColorCert with X-Rite eXact spectrophotometer provides customers with a power statistical process control solution that improves productivity and consistency in measurements throughout the complete color workflow.
Winczewski continued, “At X-Rite Pantone, we are committed to meeting the color management needs of our customers around the world. These ColorCert enhancements reflect that commitment, and give customers the most flexible yet powerful statistical process control solution in the market.” Its improved user interface and ease of use make ColorCert 2.6 attractive to printers and packaging converters of all sizes who wish to ensure the ultimate in production quality and efficiency.”
Immediately Available
Version 2.6 of ColorCert: X-Rite Edition is immediately available and is provided to all existing customer as part of their subscription agreement.
About X-Rite
Founded in 1958, X-Rite Inc. is a global leader in color science and technology. With its wholly-owned subsidiary Pantone, X-Rite employs more than 800 people in 11 countries. The company’s corporate headquarters are located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with regional headquarters in Europe and Asia and service centers across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas. X-Rite Pantone offers a full range of color management solutions used by manufacturers, retailers, printers, photographers and graphic design houses to achieve precise management and communication of color throughout their processes. X-Rite Pantone products and services are recognized standards in the printing, packaging, photography, graphic design, video, automotive, paints, plastics, textiles and medical industries.
About Pantone
Pantone LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of X-Rite Inc., has been the world’s color authority for nearly 50 years, providing design professionals with products and services for the colorful exploration and expression of creativity. Always a source for color inspiration, Pantone also offers paint and designer-inspired products and services for consumers.
Source: X-Rite.