Tones Under Test
NAA's Color Reproduction Quality Task Force Interim Report, presented at NEXPO, described movement on the pre-press, press and post-press steps newspapers must take to improve color work. It also noted, "To deliver on our promise, we must pool our resources, consolidate our knowledge and direct our efforts as an industry toward delivering consistent, high-quality color reproduction."
The task force's Color Management Work Group tested a variety of software and other technologies designed to "maintain color fidelity across multiple reproduction processes," with notable success. Four Knight-Ridder dailies used color profiling and Apple ColorSync 2.1 to calibrate their press systems for a test ad for BMW cars published in December 1996. "The ad was printed on presses as different as offset and flexographic, with promising results: Color was consistently good in each," according to the interim report.
More than 40 Florida newspapers participated in a similar test of a Publix grocery ad. Five of those papers had undergone color profiling with ColorBlind and LinoPrint color-management software and received separations for one photo tailored for their profiles. That photo printed consistently in the profiled papers, while the rest of the ad, which was not individually tailored, did not, reported Ed Lehr, new technology manager for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and chair of the Color Management Work Group.
However, he added, newspapers cannot expect advertisers to produce individual separations for every newspaper they use. "A new but proven color-management process will create predictable, consistent printing at various newspaper sites," he said.
The report explained, "Newspapers will need to make an initial investment along with an ongoing commitment of time and resources. Each color operation must be in a managed environment, from the scanners and ad-makeup stations to the proofing/imaging devices and the press."
Elise Burroughs, Presstime executive editor. E-mail, burre@naa.org; phone, (703) 902-1678; fax, (703) 902-1690.