X-Rite Formulation & QC Software

X-Rite formulation and quality assurance software helps you formulate and control color at all stages of the workflow. Whether you’re developing the master standard, or matching a color that your customer has specified, X-Rite software assures you accuracy, consistency, and the ability to analyze, store, and communicate results with your partners.

ColorCert Suite

The ColorCert Suite provides real-time color and print quality process control and reporting with 3 modules: process control, cloud-based color asset management, and ScoreCard Server.

ColorCert Introduction

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ColorCert Desktop Tools

ColorCert Repository Server

ColorCert ScoreCard Server

Today’s packaging workflows are complex, often involving multiple brand owners, design agencies, premedia professionals, and plating and ink companies, all providing input into the production workflow. This can make managing accurate color and print consistency a challenge. The ColorCert Suite simplifies color communication across all internal and external stakeholders. From prepress and the inkroom to production process control, it helps you manage precise color and print specifications, uniting traditional silos of information into one common workflow.

ColorCert for Print & Packaging Converters

The ColorCert Suite was developed from the ground up to enable the packaging industry to better manage the complexities of CMYK, Expanded Gamut, and Spot Color workflows, regardless of the printing process, substrate, or industry standard. Its modular set of tools streamline communications, provide actionable data and enable better utilization of existing people, processes and technologies.

ColorCert for Brand Owners

For brand owners, ensuring accurate, consistent color and print consistency across a regional or global supply chain can be challenging. Many brands rely on on-site press approvals to ensure this consistency…. But what happens on a rerun? The traditional “mail in samples” approach can be complex to manage, and in most cases samples are not viewed until a problem occurs and the product is already on shelf.

The ColorCert Suite enables digital communication of exact color and print requirements, producing near-real-time data for each and every press run in an easy-to-understand dashboard. This “running to the numbers” concept allows print suppliers to better understand expectations, monitor print quality on press, and report the data instantly. This proactive reporting process means everyone in the supply chain, down to the press operator, is accountable and an active participant in ensuring the ultimate in print quality.

Brands and converters are increasingly leveraging ColorCert’s ScoreCard approach for a more strategic approach to color management, viewing color performance holistically rather than based on a single press sheet.

Process Control for Packaging Workflows

Todays’ complex packaging workflows require specialized tools to ensure accurate, repeatable color, from job to job across the plant or around the globe. As the range of inks, printing technologies and substrates has expanded, so has the complexity of maintaining color and print quality across various shifts and sites. Printers and packaging converters must ensure color is right the first time, right every time, in order to gain and retain customers in an increasingly competitive environment.

ColorCert Desktop Tools are software modules that help printers and converters meet this challenge. Each is focused on specific elements of the workflow, from prepress and proofing, to the ink room and on press process control. ColorCert Desktop Tools allow:

  • Creation of print specifications.
  • Measurement and certification of proofs.
  • Print process control on-press, in real-time.
  • Ink room quality assurance and direct connectivity with InkFormulation Software, sending measurements taken on press to the ink room for evaluation and reformulation.

Benefits:

    • The ColorCert Suite was purpose built for the packaging industry to enable definition of specifications to fit the needs of the packaging workflow, from spot color and CMYK to CMYK/OGV. It utilizes specialty packaging metrics such as ink strength, white ink opacity, and colorimetric dot gain to align metrics with common packaging practices.
    • ColorCert Desktop Tools make it easy for both prepress and the pressroom to use the same ICC and CGATS profiles, align their efforts to the same expectation. They also connect process control with the ink room, sending press measurements directly to InkFormulation Software for reformulation as needed.
    • ColorCert Desktop Tools can also integrate with inline/near line measurement systems such as ITX and BST IPQ Spectral, providing for greater flexibility within your workflow.
    • ColorCert Desktop Tools can retrieve information directly from MIS and other systems, as well as parse PDF metadata, for a streamlined, efficient job set-up and monitoring process.

ColorCert Desktop Tools Include:

      • ColorCert Inkroom: Used to evaluate color quality of inks based on jobs created in ColorCert Manager or self-created color standard definitions. Supports file formats such as ColorCert Libraries, CxF and MIF, ICC Profiles, CGATS, and PantoneLIVE. Available in Basic and Advanced.
      • ColorCert Pressroom: Used at press-side for process control. Load ColorCert Jobs or quickly set up new jobs based on templates created in ColorCert Manager using the Job Setup wizard. Includes Inkroom Tools Basic to load ColorCert jobs, make quick checks and generate reports on individual ink colors. Its easy-to-use interface highlights areas that require attention, while providing guidance as to necessary corrective actions. This allows press operators to spend less time troubleshooting and more time maintaining and monitoring the press run.
      • ColorCert Manager: The complete set of ColorCert Desktop Tools. ColorCert Manager is primarily used to develop ColorCert Jobs and maintain ColorCert Assets. Software modules include PressRoom Tools, Proofing Tools, Inkroom Tools Advanced, and ColorCert Editors.

Seamlessly Manage All ColorCert Assets

Managing assets using traditional folder structures or email can be error prone and cumbersome. By utilizing the ColorCert Repository Server, you can be assured you are always using the most up-to-date information. Our unique approach to asset management is purpose built for packaging converter and brand owner workflows to clearly communicate color and print requirements and ensure consistency when reproducing a job, regardless of the production location.

With the ColorCert Repository Server, brand owners, ink manufacturers, premedia professionals and packaging converters can quickly and easily organize and store all color assets, artwork, SOPs and other job-related materials in a single location for secure distribution across the workflow. Authorized stakeholders can access data globally via the web portal or directly from ColorCert Desktop Tools.

Benefits:

      • Secure, centralized access to assets that can be shared across one or multiple locations, ensuring the most up-to-date assets are always being used and workflow is optimized.
      • Improved quality assurance for customers where these assets play a key role in the provision and quality of printed products.
      • Each asset can be tagged for its specific use, including, brand, sub-brand, print process, substrate and other customer- or print-specific data, reducing risk of misuse.

Whether a business is single site or multi-site, growing or consolidating, ColorCert Repository and a workflow optimized with the ColorCert Suite ensure that color quality processes are performing to expectations.

Real-Time Quality Reporting at Your Fingertips

ColorCert ScoreCard Server offers a convenient dashboard that brings brands, packaging converters and premedia professionals together to evaluate and monitor the health of the packaging workflow. By combining scorecard reporting and statistical process control, it closes the color communication loop by allowing real-time access to performance on press regardless of geographic location. View a summary of overall quality levels using customizable filters based on plant, machine, customer, work type, or other job parameters. Then dig deeper into problem areas for efficient exception management.

With the ColorCert ScoreCard server, simply create an agreed-upon specification including color standards, dot gain, and tolerances. It returns one number that reflects the level of compliance with that specification. The ColorCert dynamic scoring algorithm is directly based on individual targets and tolerances, and reports how well they were achieved rather than artificial weighting used by other solutions that can distract operators, inadvertently placing focus on less important metrics.

Benefits:

      • Provides a platform that enables converters and brand owners to share and analyze color and print quality consistency from actual production data, proactively and in real time.
      • Delivers transparency in reporting with all stakeholders working toward a specific target throughout the entire workflow.
      • Ensures traceability color across a complex global supply chain, ensuring that products will accurately reflect brand identify when they reach the shelf.
      • Allows organizations to leverage Big Data to support lean business practices and improve overall color and print quality and consistency.
      • Provides insight into areas of opportunity to identify, evaluate and correct.

Color iQC

Quality Assurance Software

Color iQC is a unique, job-oriented upgradeable color quality control solution designed to meet evolving color measurement and management requirements in all industrial market segments.

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Benefits

Color quality control for industrial, print and packaging applications

Ensuring accurate, consistent color across a global supply chain can be challenging. With Color iQC as an integral part of the color workflow, specifiers and suppliers alike can be assured that color quality is consistent in the laboratory, pre-production and production. Whether you are approving production samples or finished goods, Color iQC adapts to your workflow to make controlling color fast, easy and accurate. Color iQC is easily configurable to meet specific industry and quality control requirements.

Color iQC is available in a variety of configurations to meet most, if not all, industrial, print and packaging color quality control needs, including:

  • Color iQC Professional, a high-end, job-oriented, template-drive quality control solution containing the industry’s most complete set of quality control features, streamlining color measurement, reporting and recording to maintain a centralized, cost-efficient process.
  • Color iQC Management, a management and analysis configuration that has all of the functionality of Color iQC Professional but does not connect to a spectrophotometer.
  • Color iQC Print, a job-oriented process control solution designed to meet evolving color measurement and management requirements in the print and packaging industries, incorporating the latest digital workflow technologies and standards for a complete color quality control solution.
  • Color iQC Basic, an upgradeable entry-level color quality control solution ideal for color quality control and management in less complex environments.
  • Color iQC Online Edition, a server-based solution that allows any number of locations to easily communicate and share color data over time. The Online configuration ensures centralized control and management yet provides easy access for all authorized users within the color network.

  • Job-based solution leveraging portable jobs that contain color data and all criteria necessary for color management decisions, enabling all stakeholders to see data consistently across the color workflow.
  • Define templates to establish common processes or materials, including pre-defined standards, tolerances, settings and displays to ensure operational consistency.
  • Ability to define instrument calibration and measurement modes to ensure data integrity and accurate, correct measurement practices.
  • Use the remote output feature to tailor and format any color data in order to seamlessly share consistent information with color partners.
  • Centralized control and management of functionality and data with the ability to move from quality control to quality assurance, analyzing performance, identifying leading indicators and adjusting processes as necessary.

Color iQC is PantoneLIVE enabled. This means that users can retrieve the most up-to-date digital color standards from the cloud-based PantoneLIVE library in addition to or instead of using physical reference standards, which can be damaged, deteriorate over time, or be measured differently by operators in various locations using a variety of instruments.

InkFormulation Software

Formulation Software

InkFormulation Software is a fast, accurate, consistent ink formulation, formula creation, storage, approval and retrieval solution for offset, flexo, gravure and screen-printing inks.

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Benefits

Fast, Accurate, Consistent Ink Formulation

Color quality and consistency are table stakes for printers and packaging converters in today’s highly competitive marketplace. And most companies have put in place operating procedures designed to deliver just that. But what about the ink room? If there are problems with the ink – incoming materials are faulty or accurate formulations are not achieved – the rest of the downstream process suffers. Too often, this aspect of quality control is overlooked, and/or ink formulation processes are complex and time-consuming, requiring special colorist talent and a lot of luck.

X-Rite InkFormulation Software addresses these issues for ink manufacturers, printers and packaging converters alike. InkFormulation Software is part of an end-to-end color workflow that gives ink suppliers, printers and packaging converters flexibility and control over recipes and assortments, improves basic material handling, simplifies definition of the right ink film thickness and helps reduce hazardous waste. It also makes it easier to use leftover inks and press returns, reducing overall ink inventories. InkFormulation is available in four configurations including an online version, Basic and Professional for printers, and a version for Ink Manufacturers.

  • Formulate inks for accurate color taking the substrate color into account, right the first time, right every time.
  • Save significant time in reformulation of existing inks by using existing assortments and recipes.
  • More accurately quote ink costs on jobs with InkFormulation’s MIS/ERP integration, and benefit from better tracking of actual ink usage.
  • Improve overall quality and efficiency by linking InkFormulation Software with quality control/statistical process control solutions such as Color iQC and ColorCert.
  • Use spectral data from leftover inks to create a recipe of a new target color, using waste inks and new inks to achieve the desired color.

NetProfiler

Quality Assurance Software

NetProfiler is a cloud-based blend of software and color standards for verifying and optimizing performance of color measurement devices, reducing variance among instruments.

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Benefits

Ensure color consistency across the supply chain

Complex supply chains that encompass multiple departments and geographies can result in color inconsistencies. NetProfiler, a cloud-based blend of software and color standards from X-Rite, reduces variances among measurement devices. It allows users to verify and optimize performance of color measurement instruments, correcting issues caused by age, wear or environmental conditions. It includes NetProfiler software, NetProfiler Calibrated Tile Set (ceramic plaque and set of Munsell color standards) and the NetProfiler software license valid for one year.

When NetProfiler is consistently used across the supply chain, it enables the accurate exchange of spectral color data for formulation of ink and other colorants, quality control and reproduction of Pantone or other special colors where color tolerances are tight and there is little room for error. It is an easy-to-use solution that is a critical element of an effective end-to-end color workflow.

  • Enables standardization of color acceptance criteria and quality across locations.
  • Profile a wide range of instruments with or without an Internet connection to ensure accurate performance.
  • Sophisticated monitoring tools can be configured to run on a regular basis for preventative maintenance to detect uncertainties, potential problems and instruments that need servicing to minimize waste and rework due to color issues.
  • Benefit from automatic reminders when an instrument needs profiling, with a centrally controlled enterprise-wide instrument management process that ensures all instruments are performing at peak levels.
  • Improved ceramic calibration media and new configurations optimized for handheld devices.

Errors in measurements can be the result of many different factors, and most can be corrected by profiling. This easy-to-use-solution helps to reduce costs due to measurement drift, identifies instruments in need of service, and helps to avoid inaccurate color in the production of products.

PantoneLIVE Family

Discover a new world where colors are digitally defined, making the struggle to make color consistent across multiple surfaces, production processes, technologies, skill sets, and geographies a thing of the past.

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PantoneLIVE Design

PantoneLIVE Production

PantoneLIVE is a cloud-based architecture that enables digital specification and communication of Pantone standards to all stakeholders in the global supply chain. With centralized digital color standards and spectral values, everyone accesses and utilizes the same Pantone color libraries creating unsurpassed color consistency and a new way to manage, and communicate color.

Digital Color Standards and Communication

PantoneLIVE Design enables designers to define, create and communicate color palettes based on specific substrates, print processes, inks and application methods. These colors can be shared with the production supply chain utilizing a cloud-based repository. Brand integrity and design intent are assured across a variety of print surfaces, production processes, departments and geographies delivering expected results.

Benefits:

  • Select colors that are achievable across all desired substrates
  • Eliminate ambiguity in communicating color
  • Improve visibility to performance across an increasingly complex supply chain
  • Get to final approved color faster

Product Features

PantoneLIVE ColorBook

  • Access to 4,518 up-to-date Pantone colors.
  • Assess spot color appearance when applied to different packaging materials and printing processes.
  • Substitute spot colors in design file to improve production outcomes.

Compare Design with Realistic Color Appearance with PantoneLIVE Viewer
Create a side-by-side comparison of your design file as it would appear upon output when printed as a PMS spot color or a PMS color on 28 common packaging materials.

Complementary Tools

Pantone Tolerance Guides
Physical color standard custom printed to provide a visual LAB reference of tolerance for any given brand color.

Pantone Simulator Prints

    • Save time, money, and rework by showing how colors will appear on the most common packaging materials before artwork goes into production.
    • Communicate color intent internally or share with production partners to eliminate color risk earlier in the workflow.

Pantone Physical Color Guides
The best-selling color standards in the world, used for design inspiration, color specification, and printing accuracy.

Designed for Print and Packaging

The PantoneLIVE Production – Print and Packaging license allows packaging converters and commercial printers to access a secure, cloud-based repository of common Pantone color libraries and the corresponding dependent color standards based on 28 common printing substrates. The Print and Packaging license syncs with X-Rite’s InkFormulation Software, Color iQC and ColorCert Suite, giving your pressroom a closed-loop experience.

Benefits:

      • Reduce makeready effort by targeting realistic packaging colors before going on press
      • Decrease waste in the inkroom
      • Shorten time to market
      • Deliver consistent and repeatable color
      • Improve visibility to performance across an increasingly complex supply chain

Complementary Tools
Pantone Tolerance Guide
Physical color standard custom printed to provide a visual L*a*b reference of tolerance for any given brand color.

Pantone Simulator Prints

  • Save time, money, and rework by showing how colors will appear on the most common packaging materials before artwork goes into production.
  • Communicate color intent internally or share with production partners to eliminate color risk earlier in the workflow.