French Magazine Printer Opts For GMG Colour System

Following a year-long analysis of various systems, Pierre-Emmanuel Chareyron, assistant production director at Prisma Presse, decided on GMG's Colorproof o4 proofing.

Following a year-long analysis of various systems, Pierre-Emmanuel Chareyron, assistant production director at Prisma Presse, decided on GMG's Colorproof o4 proofing.

The system was implemented during the first quarter of 2005, at Prisma Presse, which is the French subsidiary of the leading press magazine group in Europe, Gruner and Jahr.

The company publishes 20 titles that are centred on six editorial areas: discovery, women, business, people, television and news.

Its publications include GEO, Femme Actuelle, Tele-Loisirs, Capital, Gala and Tele 2, amongst others.

"At approximately the same time as we were making our decision, our main suppliers in the printing and pre-press sectors were also switching to a GMG colour system," explained Chareyron.

Following a technical meeting with a German-based gravure printer in autumn 2004, which had already been using the GMG Colorproof solution for several years, Chareyron returned full of enthusiasm about the level of quality it offered.

He said: "I was able to observe first-hand the high-precision calibration available in gravure printing.

I soon recognised that the GMG Colorproof solution suited our requirements.

In addition, both I and my colleagues were aware that our suppliers were also considering the same system." Initial contact was made with GMG France at a meeting organised by GMG France at the premises of printer manufacturer Epson.

"Last year we organised a presentation day for GMG at the Epson site in Levallois," explained Jean-Michel Vinay, marketing managerat GMG France.

"The feedback from the 20 or so companies and customers we invited was very positive," he added.

Prisma Presse was impressed with the speed and cost savings offered by the system.

Although the company was persuaded that the product was right for its gravure printed magazines, it still remained doubtful regarding offset printing.

The replies to questions posed by other printing professionals present at the event convinced Prisma Presse.

"When we realised just exactly where GMG solutions could take us, particularly in terms of calibration and colour rendition, we decided to opt for GMG colour.

Nowadays, it is the printers who provide the calibration profiles.

Today, the proofing of 80 per cent of our magazines is done on an Epson Stylus Pro 4000 printer with GMG Colorproof o4.

All of our pages are proofed using this system, as our pre-press suppliers have also replaced, or supplemented their previously unwieldy systems with this speedy and cost-efficient system," recalled Chareyron.

He continued: "GMG Colorproof has become the benchmark at Prisma Presse and may become an even wider standard throughout the industry." He remarked that even though the proofing of editorial content no longer poses a problem and is perfectly matched to the printer's needs, the advertising received from agencies still presents difficulties.

"These agencies all use different types of proofs and on some occasions they even supply colour photocopies.

If GMG colour were to become an industry standard, we would be able to communicate the printer's calibration settings directly to the advertisers and ensure perfect compatibility for all pages," added Chareyron.

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