Automated Workflow's RGB Handling On Show

GMG, developers and marketers of colour management and proofing systems will demonstrate how digital photography and media neutral production has influenced the growth and colour management.

GMG, developers and marketers of colour management and proofing systems will demonstrate how digital photography and media neutral production has influenced the growth and colour management of RGB workflows at Photokina.

On it stand (Hall 14.1, Stand B034), in Cologne (Germany) from September 28 -October 3, 2004, GMG will focus on its Camflow automated workflow handling RGB data from various systems in different colour spaces.

It is claimed to automatically neutralise, optimise, sharpen and separate image files into the desired target colour space.

GMG will also demonstrate Colorproof 04, the most recent version of the company's award-winning colour management software system.

The company believes it provides the most accurate way of calibrating digital inkjet proofing engines to produce digital contract colour proofs matched to the printing press, whilst it enables the user to verify and document the conformity of each proof by checking a colour bar.

Because of the increased use of digital cameras, cross-media data processing, and the desire to ensure that the production process is 'media-neutral', RGB workflows are becoming ever more important said GMG.

However, with digital photography, standardisation is less attainable because digital cameras are a major variable in the process.

So, on the GMG stand, a professional photographer will be operating two different professional cameras, taking live photographs of the same content.

The images will look different because each camera behaves differently with light and colour.

GMG's Camflow will be demonstrated, neutralising the images and conducting a transformation into a standard RGB colour space so that both photographs will be visually identical.

From there, the images will be transformed into the final target colour space (such as ISO standard and gravure) with dynamic sharpening depending upon the final output size.

Camflow is said to optimise and standardise digital image data and previews an image in its final colour space to help restore consistency to all-digital RGB workflows, using individual camera profiles to optimise the RGB data.

It is claimed to allow users to preview and proof raw RGB data, as it will appear in the final colour output based on clearly defined standards.

It first corrects any colour-related errors by neutralising the specific properties of the camera.

It then converts the data to a standardised, device-neutral colour space, such as Adobe RGB (1998) or ECI RGB.

That is said to ensure standardised reproduction so that all images in catalogues, for example, display consistent colour.

Camflow is claimed to deliver the optimised and neutralised RGB data to a media-neutral image database, where it can be output from any GMG calibrated printer, independent of location.

Introduced at Drupa 2004, it has been successfully installed at a number of sites, including major publishing houses.

One such installation, Motorpress-Iberica, the largest magazine and review publisher in Spain, uses GMG Camflow to process colour and image treatment in its digital images, required when they changed from analogue to digital photography.

Tomas Garcia Rodriguez, head of the colour management department at Motorpress-Iberica, said: "Right now it is being used for 80 per cent to 90 per cent of our published material.

Our main objective was to present printers with high-quality colour proofs to enable them to print our material without any problems.

This new working procedure has successfully eliminated the previous uncertainty of not knowing how the finished product would turn out until we actually saw a printed copy in front of us.".

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