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.
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.
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.
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:
ColorCert Desktop Tools Include:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 is a fast, accurate, consistent ink formulation, formula creation, storage, approval and retrieval solution for offset, flexo, gravure and screen-printing inks.
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.
NetProfiler is a cloud-based blend of software and color standards for verifying and optimizing performance of color measurement devices, reducing variance among instruments.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
PantoneLIVE ColorBook
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.
Pantone Tolerance Guides
Physical color standard custom printed to provide a visual LAB reference of tolerance for any given brand color.
Pantone Simulator Prints
Pantone Physical Color Guides
The best-selling color standards in the world, used for design inspiration, color specification, and printing accuracy.
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.
Pantone Simulator Prints