Digital Inkjet Proofing Simulates Press Output

The Paris (France) office of international advertising agency Ogilvy has installed GMG's Colorproof software in its in-house pre-press service to drive its proofing systems.

The Paris (France) office of international advertising agency Ogilvy has installed GMG's Colorproof software in its in-house pre-press service to drive its proofing systems.

O2i, the distributor of GMG France's products, deployed the digital inkjet proofing calibration software, which enables simulation of press output.

Having looked at other systems, the agency installed GMG Colorproof on two Epson Stylus Pro 4000 and 9600 printers, replacing two Irises.

Pedro Lopes, pre-press manager at Ogilvy, said that the company has gained a great deal in terms of quantity, but also in terms of quality.

He explained: "The software has been very well received and our clients are extremely pleased that halftone proofs are available.

They are close to what will be printed and clients find that reassuring." Colorproof o4.1 drives the latest Epson inkjet printers and adds a 1Bit file creation function for halftone proofing.

This function enables users, such as advertising agencies, to create and print 1Bit halftone data proofs from their files to obtain a true representation of the final print, said GMG.

The display of the screen structure means that printing problems such as moire and trapping can be detected before printing takes place.

All requests for printed communications (posters, magazine press) from any of Ogilvy's clients are sent to the in-house pre-press studio.

The closeness of the printed end product is, therefore, crucial at this stage in the process.

Colour rendering must be flattering without being misleading and accurately reflect flesh (such as beauty products, cosmetics, for instance), metal, jewellery and other tones.

The agency manages international clients worldwide (inlcuding Nestle, Kraft), across Europe (IBM, Mattel) and in France (including Caisse d'Epargne, Bonduelle and the AFII).

Pedro Lopes added: "We work with several printers and sometimes printing is carried out by a third party.

We therefore need to have the most universal system possible.

We no longer use conventional proofing, such as cromalins and Approval, unless expressly requested by a client, in which case we subcontract.

Otherwise, our initial challenge is to obtain the same output as the reference graphic arts standards.

We are now very close to optimum press output.

Pedro Lopes has customised the Colorproof to obtain reference colour rendering and found a colourimetrics expert to fine-tune the menu functions.

As the advertising agency uses the full flexibility of the software, the specialist created curves meet its specific needs." GMG Colorproof is a magnificent piece of calibration software that enables us to achieve the desired result very quickly," added Lopes.

He said he finds the software simple and specialised, in the sense that once it is deployed to the company's specifications, it is very simple to use.

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