Comparison study of proofing systems

The following study was an attempt to compare two methods of proofing, namely, a toner based method and a film based method, in terms of colorimetric variation. The study was limited to AE readings taken from five color patches off a standard test target, the colors being Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Flesh-Tone, and Red. AE is a measure of the color difference of a sample from a known standard. Thirty proofs were made by each method using the same set of separation films and colorimetric readings taken from each proof for each of the colors mentioned above. A statistical comparison was done to test if there was any difference in terms of color variation between the two systems for each of the colors mentioned. It was found that the two systems were consistent with each other in case of the Magenta, Yellow and Red colors, but were not consistent in case of the Cyan and Flesh patches. In terms of overall performance for this experiment, it was found that the film based system performed better in terms of consistency as compared to the toner based system. However, it should be kept in mind that only five color patches were tested and in order to come to a more concrete conclusion, various other tests using a wider spectrum of colors would have to be conducted