Digital Proofing of Spot Color Printing

(RIP), ink jet printer In commercial, product or packaging printing, specific color inks are often used to meet specific requirements of customers. Recent developments in digital printing made this technique attractive for possible implementation in commercial, product or packaging printing. While digital printing is not expected to completely replace the conventional printing techniques, digital printing can be used for product proofing, replacing conventional procedures for product verification. To use digital printing for proofing and short run production, proper reproduction of spot colors with digital printers is essential. Digital color reproduction is closely related to color management, since a properly managed digital workflow is essential for accurate digital color reproduction. The overall objective of this investigation is to establish a digital proofing system for spot color printing. Color management with ICC profiles is used to investigate the reproduction of specific spot colors. Selected digital printers combined with its print driver and a commercially available RIP are tested and characterized by generating ICC profiles. These profiles are used to compare the device gamut and to investigate reproduction of specific spot colors. The reproduction of the spot colors on optimal (manufacture recommended Epson Premium Semimatte Photo Paper) and actual production substrates are compared. The quality of reproduction is evaluated in terms of the usual ΔE in L*a*b * color space