ColorGATE announces Production server 21, launches the LED version of the Rapid Spectro Cube and simplifies color matching in textile printing with ColorEqualizer
ColorGATE, a leading provider of high-performance software and hardware solutions for colour-critical digital printing applications, has announced the release of three new solutions:
• Production server 21 is the latest version of the company’s proven RIP and color management package
• Rapid Spectro Cube LED is a hardware and software solution for ultra-fast color measurement and profiling of industrial print objects
• ColorEqualizer is a lean software for better color communication between textile designers and printers
All three products will be available from mid-April.
Production server 21
ColorGATE Production server is a leading RIP and color management solution for industrial digital printing and the graphic arts industry. The company offers special versions of the product for packaging, ceramics, décor and textile printing, where it often forms the backbone of complex printing and production processes. It has been installed more than 16,000 times and supports over 1,800 different printing systems from well-known manufacturers.
Version 21 now features the latest Adobe PDF Print Engine 5.6, which keeps Production server compatible with the latest creative applications and PDF standards used in the printing industry. Depending on the file type and the hardware used, the processing speed has again been increased by up to 20%.
Unicode support has been completed, so that file names, spot color names and other designations can now also include international fonts and special characters. For users who do not use ColorGATE’s Media Device Synchronization (MDS), a new “full gamut” function has been introduced to make even better use of the printing system’s color gamut.
There are special enhancements for décor and ceramic printers in the Retouch Module and the Color Correction Loop Module. In addition, many practical improvements have been implemented in the user interface, which make working with Productionserver more practical. Also, Version 21 includes support for many new digital printing systems; a constantly updated list can be found at www.colorgate.com. The ColorGATE products Proofgate and Filmgate have also been updated to Version 21.
All users with a Value Pack valid on the release date will receive the new version free of charge. New customers can purchase Productionserver – depending on the product version – directly from ColorGATE, through one of ColorGATE’s OEM partners or through a global network of authorized resellers.
ColorEqualizer
ColorEqualizer is a new, lean software solution that simplifies color communication between textile designers and textile printers. It comes in two versions, “Design” and “Production”. The starting point for color matching is a printout of the design, produced on the creative designer’s home or departmental printer.
ColorEqualizer extracts the key colors from the design and generates a “Color ID”, which is passed on to the production partner or the production department together with the design. The printer uses the counterpart ColorEqualizer Production in order to capture the printed Color ID colourimetrically. Then the Color ID is printed together with the design on the production printing system. The result is also measured.
If the print result differs from the original design, ColorEqualizer calculates new print data. After three iterations at the latest, often sooner, a print result is achieved that matches the color of the design. Because ColorEqualizer iteratively optimizes the print data, the solution works with existing RIP and color management workflows, regardless of their brand. Both ColorEqualizer Design and ColorEqualizer Production are available as a subscription or as purchase licenses. ColorGATE also offers license bundles that allow textile printers to provide affiliated designers with ColorEqualizer versions.
Rapid Spectro Cube LED
The Rapid Spectro Cube LED is a unique ICC profiling solution from ColorGATE, consisting of hardware and software. It creates high-quality color profiles from industrial print products where normal color measuring devices fail. The Rapid Spectro Cube LED also captures particularly small, unusually shaped, structured or glossy surfaces, and it does so extremely quickly.
Even complex color targets with thousands of patches can be captured in less than a minute. The high-quality internal LED illumination ensures an exceptionally high color rendering index (CRI). The RSC LED’s unique architecture matches the colour vision of the human eye.
The Rapid Spectro Cube LED is particularly suitable for the color characterization of demanding industrial print objects. Color targets can be created flexibly with the supplied software, whereby the minimum size of the individual fields can be 1×1 millimetre. In this way, even the smallest objects such as bottle caps can be color characterized and digitally printed in the best possible quality. The drawer for the measuring object can hold a maximum size of 30 x 40 x 15 cm, or 11.8 x 13.7 x 4 in.
This means that a wide range of digitally printed products can be accommodated, from bricks to smartphone covers. If a flat print object is too large for this, the Rapid Spectro Cube LED can also be placed over the object without a drawer.
In this way, any substrate size can be handled. The recommended target size is 18 x 18 cm or 7 x 7 in The Rapid Spectro Cube LED also provides extremely consistent data, both in terms of the long-term stability of the individual instrument and the agreement of different instruments with each other.
A color profiling solution is also included which supports linearization, profiling (CMYK, RGB, aNyColor) and the Media Device Synchronization (MDS) of the Production server. The color profiles created with the Rapid Spectro Cube LED can be used in all ICC-based color workflows, including those from other manufacturers.
About ColorGATE
For more than 20 years, ColorGATEs software, color and service competence has been driving the digitalization of the printing industry. The company offers a broad range of proofing and color management solutions for graphic arts and large format printing, but it is also growing strongly in the growing industrial printing market.
ColorGATE offers digital expertise and solutions for printing system manufacturers, as well as print service providers and technology users in décor, ceramics, textile, and packaging printing.
ColorGATE delivers an innovative, tailor-made, and modular portfolio of software and hardware solutions for industrial printing and decoration applications along the entire process chain. ColorGATE puts a special focus on accurate and consistent color reproduction, combined with highest performance.
ColorGATE Digital Output Solutions GmbH is managed by co-founder Thomas Kirschner as CEO since 1997 and is an independent subsidiary of Ricoh Company Ltd. since 2018.
