Colour management

A colour management system ensures that customers and printing works can match expectations and achieve a uniformly high print quality time and again.

Colours must not be considered based on personal taste and methods. Images look different on different media, but an effective colour management system ensures that the right colour profiles are used for the job. It provides consistent results on screen and in print – every time. Contigo’s partners work with ICC-compatible colour management, guaranteeing that they are processed according to the colour specifications: what you see is what you get.

A properly configured display combined with our colour management ensures an optimal print preview. It works so well that the difference between the image file projected on the display and the final result is hardly noticed: what you see is what you get.

Good advice on choice of colour

At Contigo, quality always comes first. We know that no printing device can reproduce the whole spectrum of colours visible to the human eye. Discrepancies and colour variations can thus occur when changing displays or programmes if you do not know exactly what to look for. We are skilled at spotting variations here at Contigo and always take every precaution to guarantee you that the colours in your print media will not change tone.

• How do colour variations occur?

  

  Each printing device and publishing system works within a given colour space, and this colour space can produce a particular scale of colours. Colour variations can thus occur when the print media is processed in different programmes, as these can define colours in different ways. It’s also worth noting that newsprint reproduces a narrower colour spectrum than magazine-quality paper, which can cause variations.

• How do you avoid colour variations?

  

  Colour variations can be avoided by using a colour management system. Such a system can define and translate colours from one programme to another so that this doesn’t occur. A colour management system compares the colour space in which a given colour has been created with the colour space responsible for producing the colour. An example could be comparing the colour space of each computer programme with the colour space of the printing device. The colour management system then makes the necessary adjustments so that the final result is produced uniformly and exactly as desired. Our colour management system has been developed, defined and maintained in cooperation with our skilled and proficient suppliers. This is your guarantee that the colours won’t change while processing the print job and that you’ll never receive print media that has changed colour.

• The value of colour management increases when the production process contains several variables.

  

  Colour management is always recommended if you expect to reuse colour graphics for print and online media, use different kinds of devices for a single medium (such as different printing machines) or if you manage multiple workstations. A colour management system is especially advantageous when you need to achieve the following:

  Predictable and consistent colours across different output devices that involve colour separations and monitors. Colour management is especially suitable for adjusting colours on devices with a relatively limited colour scale, such as a printing press for four-colour process printing.

  Accurate proofreading of a colour document, in that the display simulates a particular output device.

  Uniform colour graphics from many different sources when they also use colour management.

  Colour documents that can be sent to different output devices and media without the need to adjust the document colours, guaranteeing the correct output – offline as well as online.

  Colours that print correctly to unknown colour output devices. This means that you can save a document online and print it wherever you happen to be, for example.

   

• Display settings

  

  It’s important that your display and the environment around it are set correctly. Remember to set the screen brightness and colour correctly in relation to the lighting in your workplace. The display’s colour temperature and brightness should be kept at a constant level, so you always have the same starting point for your work. 

  Brightness: 90 – 120 cd/m2. 

  Colour temperature: 5,000 Kelvin (D50) * Gamma value: 2.2

  The quality of our colour management and its tools is constantly being updated and improved. Our graphic output must always be of the highest possible quality and this requires constant quality control and optimisation of the colour management technology. Only by working in this manner can we achieve the best possible results.

   

• ISO 12647

  

  Contigo’s customers and print suppliers have a common interest in the fact that all original material is reproduced in the best possible manner. ISO 12647 production standards help ensure this.