HP Indigo Labels and Packaging Color Kit powered by EskoArtwork User Guide
HP Indigo Labels and Packaging powered by EskoArtwork Color Kit User Guide
Introduction Copyright © 2008 Copyright Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Reproduction, adaptation, or translation without prior written permission is prohibited, except as allowed under the copyright laws. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty.
Contents Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 4 About this manual ............................................................................................................................ 4 What is Color Kit? ............................................................................................................................ 4 Solution for special colors ..............................................
Introduction Introduction HP Indigo Labels and Packaging Color Kit powered by Esko includes: • software to measure color charts. • software to generate profiles (both native and ICC). • a ‘Color management Module’. • a database with charts, profiles and inks. About this manual This manual explains all the tools in Color Kit. It explains all features in detail You may want to proceed straightaway to how-to section in section 9, which guides you through a step-by-step calibration.
Introduction the profile and what kind of profile it is: a proofer, press, monitor or scanner profile. It will also tell you if the profile is referenced in a device link profile. Additionally, when using 'Color Strategies' the database keeps track of conversion tables. It will tell you what kind of colormatch was used. In other words, the CMS database provides an enormous amount of quality control. A database is built over time.
Prerequisites Before Esko Color Kit can be of any use to you, the following prerequisites need to be fulfilled: • A spectrophotometer is essential. (See: Supported spectrophotometers (page 7). To measure multi-color profiles, a high-speed measuring device (e.g I1IO or DTP70) is recommended. • You need a stable press. You need to understand perfectly how the press can be calibrated. Consistent colour output can only be obtained through optimal calibration of the Indigo press.
Spectrophotometer Supported spectrophotometers The following spectrophotometers are supported for USB: • Gretag SpectroEye • Gretag Eye-One • Gretag ICColor • Xrite DTP70 • Gretag Eye-One IO Connecting a spectrophotometer Please hook up your spectrophotometer to a serial port of your system. Esko Color Kit will detect the meter automatically.
Spectrophotometer 8
Spectrophotometer 2. Choose to install the driver yourself. 3. Select Eye-One and click 'Have Disk'.
Spectrophotometer 4. Click 'Browse'. 5. Browse to the Documentation DVD under Extra corresponding driver and click 'Open'.
Spectrophotometer 11
Spectrophotometer 6. Click 'OK'. 7.
Spectrophotometer 8. 9. The Eye-One is now ready to be used in Color Kit Calibration of the spectrophotometer 1. Your spectrophotometer can be calibrated by double-clicking the spectrophotometer icon First, Color Kit will automatically detect the type of spectrophotometer that is connected. Warning If no spectrophotometer is connected to your system the following error will come up.
Spectrophotometer 2. Click 'Calibrate'. Note: For hand-held spectrophotometers, you will be asked to put the meter on the absolute white reference first.
Spectrophotometer 3. If the calibration was successful, the following message will appear: 4. Click 'OK' to close the spectrophotometers settings window. Note: With the ICColor, there is no need to perform a calibration since the device calibrates itself. Working with filters Different filters can be used on a spectrophotometer: • a Polarization filter, which can be used to take away the disturbing effect of measuring on a glossy substrate.
Spectrophotometer Caution! If you have decided to use a filter, please use this filter to measure all profiles. Mixing profiles measured with and without profiles might cause unwanted effects.
Deciding on a testchart First of all you have to decide which test chart to use. A couple of parameters will decide which parameters will decide which chart is best for you: • The type of spectrophotometer you will be using to measure the testchart. • The number of patches you want to measure (normal or high quality). The choice between normal or high quality is not available for all spectrophotometers. • Whether you want to make a multi-color press profile or just CMYK.
Digital Proofing: Step by step As you can see from the overview, different charts will be used for press profiles covering different color regions. The naming convention for the color regions is as follows: CMYK = CMYK Orange, Red area = R Green = G Blue, Violet area = B So if you are profiling a press with CMYK, Orange, and Violet, please pick the CMYKRB chart that corresponds with your spectrophotometer. Note! The list above explains all the possible combinations.
Digital Proofing: Step by step Choose your FlexRip configuration in the ‘proofer’ window. This can be CMYK, CMYKOV or CMYKOGV. Remember that you can make configurations with the FlexRip Coinfigurator. The configurations mentioned above are pre-installed though, for your convenience. In the example below, we decide to measure a profile for CMYKOV.
Digital Proofing: Step by step You will see some extra information displayed about the configuration. Now you need to save the file, with ‘File’, ‘Save as”. Make sure the configuration and the substrate is reflected in the name that you give. We also suggest to include press parameters, when you work with different LUTs Proceed to the ‘Overprints’ tab.
Digital Proofing: Step by step You see the name that you have given in the upper-left corner. All you need to do to get the files printed on the press is to click the proof button. You will see a progress bar at the bottom of your screen. The charts can now be printed on the press. The screenshot above shows you an example of a 7 color profile, with an i1 spectrophotometer attached. IMPORTANT REMARK: It is when you actually print the charts on the press, that all the parameters are applied.
Digital Proofing: Step by step Go to the 'Overprints' tab. Color Kit will now check which spectrophotometer is connected to your system. Only the layouts available for this meter will be shown. If the meter is not connected the following message will appear: Please connect the meter, restart Color Kit and start again. Click the measurement icon that corresponds with your meter.
Digital Proofing: Step by step 5. Slide the meter along the ruler at a constant pace (still holding the button pressed). 6. Release the button. 7. Wait until all measurements have been transferred. 8. Repeat this action until all strips have been measured and click 'OK' to finish the measurement. Note: Only when there is a measurement error (e.g. bad reading), you will have to click the measurement button again (to restart the session). Gretag Eye One (manual mode) 1.
Digital Proofing: Step by step 4. Wait until all the measurements have been passed to Color Kit. ; Note The CMYK combination shown in Color Kit corresponds with the next row that needs to be measured. If a row was not measured correctly, it should be measured again. 5. Continue to feed all other rows through the meter. 6. When all rows have been fed through, click 'OK' to finish the measurement. Gretag ICColor 1. Have the first page ready (the page number is mentioned on the chart). 2.
Digital Proofing: Step by step Note: The chart can be inserted both ways: arrow first or arrow last. Xrite DTP70 1. Have the first page ready (the page number is mentioned on the chart). 2. Click the automatic measurement button. 3. Feed the first page through the DTP70. 4. Feed all other page through the meter. 5. When all pages have been measured, click 'OK' to finish. Gretag Eye-One IO 1. Adjust the height of the meter if necessary. Slide the substrate under the white reference to test the height.
Digital Proofing: Step by step Visualizing the measurements of a multi-color profile looks like this: (mind the device coordinates window, where you see the ink precentages when moving the cursor) Check for white, black or double patches. When the profile is OK, it is ready to be used. If there are mistakes in the profile, you can correct them by re-measuring. Color Kit can re-measure only the patches that are wrong.
Digital Proofing: Step by step To find the bad patch on the chart, select the patch by clicking it, and then select the Chart View tab. The patches will now be shown as they are arranged on the chart, and the bad patch will be selected. For the Eye-One and the X-Rite DTP41 spectrophotometers, row numbers will be indicated. This way you will know where to place the meter when remeasuring. Note: For some profiles, the name of the used chart is not stored in the profile.
Digital Proofing: Step by step Recover a profile If you have found mistakes in the measurement (see Verifying a profile (page 25)), you can correct the mistakes by re-measuring the patches that were wrong. Please make sure the flaws are not in the chart itself. When you have a fast spectrophotometer, sometimes remeasuring the complete charts(s) is the easiest solution) 1. Open the printer/proofer process that you want to correct. 2. Go to the 'Overprints' tab. 3.
Digital Proofing: Step by step Note: If you have to re-measure several non-subsequent patches, you do not have to re-measure all the patches in-between. Once you have re-measured the patches that were wrong you can stop the measurements by clicking the measurement button. Export a profile You can export a reference profile so it can be used at a remote site. 1. Open the profile. 2. Go to 'File' > 'Export'. 3. Browse to the directory in which you want to save the exported profile. 4. Click 'OK'.
Digital Proofing: Step by step and other operators just pick one. This makes life easier for operators and makes a color workflow less error prone. Color Strategies are only used in FlexProof and can be selected in BackStage, in the Dispatcher and in the Image Downloader (task).
Digital Proofing: Step by step • Simulate a different dot gain for special colors and process colors (page Error! Bookmark not defined.). Convert special inks Here you can decide how special inks are converted. The general rule how inks should be converted, is set under 'conversion values’: Depending on the number of output inks (3,4, 6 or 7) the list of conversion methods will change. For CMYK output there are several ways to convert Pantone colors: 1.
Digital Proofing: Step by step conversion method in an HP Indigo workflow, as the ink characteristics of the Indigo press are different than the characteristics of the Pantone® HexaChrome inks. • HP IndiChrome: (only if an IndiChrome profile is selected) with this option Pantones will be converted to CMYKOV according to the HP IndiChrome table. Remember that using this option causes the Pantone® or spot inks not to be converted anymore with the profile, but a fixed table is used.
Digital Proofing: Step by step 1. Open an ink book by double-clicking an empty patch or by clicking the ink book symbol in the ink toolbar. 2. Drag and drop the ink(s) that you want to assign exceptions to choose the kind of exception. ; Note You can skip step 1 and 2 by simply clicking the name field of an empty row and entering the name or abbreviation of an ink .
Digital Proofing: Step by step Choose the conversion method ‘Custom values’ for the ink PANTONE® 106. You now manually adapt the percentage. In this example we replace the 1.1.% by 0. • Smallest CIELAB Delta E: This option will further refine the values obtained through the Destination profile in order get a lower CIELAB DeltaE between target and proof. 4.
Digital Proofing: Step by step • Pantone CMYK Euro (Has been overruled by Color Bridge but we still provide it for compatibility with the past) • Pantone Color Bridge Swop (As released in June 2006 by Pantone) • Pantone Color Bridge Swop • Pantone Hexachrome • HP Indigo CMYK 1.0 • HP IndiChrome • HP IndiChrome Plus 1.0 In the example below, all Pantone inks are converted to CMYK using the proofer profile, except for all Cool Grey inks.
Digital Proofing: Step by step Refining the values obtained through the destination profile When opening the refine tool for an ink that is using Destination Profile, the dialog will look like to this: There are only three buttons: the OK button, which is disabled in the beginning, the cancel button, and the measure button. If you click the measure button, a single measurement will be made.
Digital Proofing: Step by step Profile, the option Refined Destination Profile is selected for the refined ink, while the selected values will be the new refined values. Remark that in the example above, we provoked distinctively different values, just to show you how the interface behaves. Some explanation may be needed here about the difference between Destination Profile and Proofed Color. This is best illustrated by a description of a possible workflow.
Digital Proofing: Step by step When making a measurement, the measured Lab values will appear in the Proofed Color column. Comparing those to the Lab values in the Destination Profile column, CMS will estimate how ‘wrong’ the profile is (due to drift of the proofer, or inaccuracy due to limited resolution), and shift the profile a little bit to match the measurement , just for this ink. With this ‘shifted profile’ a new match will be calculated.
Digital Proofing: Step by step • The central value: by default the new custom value selected in the Refine Custom Values dialog box. • The difference in ink percentage for each variation. • The number of upward and downward variations. A preview function is also available. Custom Values and double strike The HP indigo press can print more then 100% of an ink, e.g.. For these proofers Color Kit allows to specify custom values higher then 100% in the color strategy.
Digital Proofing: Step by step We recommend that you use this option in your color strategies for HP Indigo. Note Match inks is the default behavior and is compatible with previous versions of Color Kit/FlexRip Gamut Mapping Out of gamut colors can be rendered in different ways. Closest color (classic) will map the out-of-gamut color to the closest color within the color gamut. This might introduce a hue shift.
Digital Proofing: Step by step Extra Output inks 'Extra output inks' allows you to specify extra output inks for printers that have more than CMYK inks. If you proof to this device with a strategy that contains extra output inks, these separations will not be color managed but passed on directly to a separate output file. To add extra output inks, proceed as follows: 1. Open the 'Extra output inks' window by double-clicking on 'Extra Output inks'. 2. Open an ink book by double-clicking the ink book icon.
Digital Proofing: Step by step Also, when mixing custom inks for HP Indigo, they will need to be defined as extra output ink. Export a color strategy Color strategies can be exported to one single file to be used on a remote site. All elements (inks, profiles, process links, dot gain simulation curves) will be included in one File Packer (.FP) file. 1. Open the color strategy. 2. Go to 'File' > 'Export'. 3. Browse to the directory where you want to store the exported file and click 'OK'.
Digital Proofing: Step by step Note If you are trying to import an .
ICC profiles • Definition of ICC profiles (page 44) • Notes on importing an ICC profile (page 44) • Exporting to ICC profiles (page 45) • Notes on exporting to an ICC profile (page 46) • Importing ICC profiles (page 47) • Viewing ICC profiles (page 47) Definition of ICC profiles An ICC Profile is a piece of data that defines the color and reproduction characteristics of a device. ICC Profiles are written in a standard data format that is OS independent.
ICC profiles • Stability of the devices. If you downloaded a profile of a particular monitor, it does not necessarily mean that your monitor produces the same colors, even though it concerns exactly the same model. Every device can be different and should be profiled separately for optimal results. • Stability in time of the device. The colors of the device might have drifted since the profile was made.
ICC profiles ; Note It is not possible to influence the settings for black generation at this moment. The ICC profiles that Color Kit generates, alwayswill use minimal black. • Using Dot gain simulation curves (page 46) • Using Refinement curves (page 46) • Using Black Generation (page 46) Using Dot gain simulation curves When exporting to an ICC profile, it is possible to use 'dot gain simulation' curves. These curves will only have an effect if the profile is used as a reference profile.
ICC profiles Importing ICC profiles • Import an ICC profile (page 47) • Use the ICC profile in any Esko application (page 47) • Build process links and color strategies with ICC profiles (page 47) Import an ICC profile To import an ICC profile (.ICC or .ICM file) into the Color Kit database, proceed as follows: 1. Go to 'Icc Profiles'. 2. Go to the 'File' menu and choose 'Register'. 3. Browse to the directory in which the profile is located, select the profile(s) and click 'OK'.
Dealing with Special colors Color Kit features tools that enable you to characterize inks. The standard library of Pantone inks was also characterized in this way (Cromalin based). With Color Kit, you can also create your inks (and ink database). We strongly advise to use the Designer Ink Book for Profiled inks since only 3 books are recognized throughout the system: Process, Pantone Colors Coated and Designer. In all your jobs, you should ONLY use inks that are in those three inkbooks.
Dealing with Special colors ; Note If you are working with a Gretag SpectroScan, you will have to align the crosshair on the patch that you want to measure. 4. Click the 'one measurement' button: 5. Give an appropriate name to the ink. 6. Go to the 'File' menu and click 'Save' to save the changes you made to the ink book. Creating an ink by entering an LAB value A third way to add an ink to the database is by entering an LAB value: 1. Open the ink book you want to add the ink to. 2.
Dealing with Special colors Info on inks Inks from the standard Esko ink books: Inks based on an LAB value: Export an ink book 1. Open the ink book you want to export. 2. Go to the 'File' menu > 'Export'. 3. Browse to a location, enter an appropriate file name and click 'OK'. This will result in a .FP (File Packer) file, which can be sent to a remote site. ; Note Profiles, device links and color strategies can also be exported and will also result into an .FP file.
Dealing with Special colors Import an ink book 1. Go to 'Ink books' in the main dialog box. 2. Go to the 'File' menu > 'Import'. 3. Browse to the location where the packed ink book (an .FP file) is located and click 'OK'. 4. Go to the 'File' menu and save the ink book with an appropriate name. ; Note Only 3 books are recognized throughout the system: Process, Pantone Colors Coated and Designer.
Dealing with Special colors and substrate. You can also limit the page dimensions (by default, the full page width will always be used) and specify a page range. ; Note For the PANTONE book, the page numbers of the ink book in the database do not match those on the official printed books, because additional pages with numbers like e.g. 10.5 are inserted. So when specifying a page range, make sure that you specify numbers from the book in the CMS database.
Dealing with Special colors ; Note Pages and columns that are completely empty will be skipped automatically.
Tools • Links (page 54) • Gamut View (page 56) • Compare Inks (page 58) • Gamut Check (page 59) • Average Profiles (page 60) • Preferences (page 62) Links 'Links' allows you to quickly find out if a certain element (an ink, a profile, …) is referenced somewhere else in the CMS database. Example To find out if a profile is used in a device link, you can use Links. The main objective is not only to find out but also to delete elements from the database.
Tools The red arrows tells you that the selected profile 'proofer_8x8_black' is referenced 5 times in device links and as many color strategies. ; Note Other Links can be found from the first window. Just double-click an element or select an element and click 'Links for Selected'. The links for the selected profile 'HP5000', are shown in a new window. In this example, the profile is not linked anywhere and could be deleted.
Tools ; Note Read-only elements cannot be deleted from “Links”. Gamut View With gamut view, you can evaluate the color gamut of a device and compare different color gamuts with each other. The color gamut(s) can be viewed along the L axis or along the a-b axis. A 2-D section will be shown. Example You can see the differnce between the gamut of press output on a glossy paper with press output on matte paper. 1. Go to the 'Tools' menu and choose 'Gamut View'. 2.
Tools To delete a profile from the list, press the 'Delete' button on your keyboard or select the icon from the toolbar next to ‘Profiles:’ You can change the color of the visualization by first selecting a profile and then select the refine icon in the toolbar next to ‘Profiles:’ An RGB slider pops up, which allows you to change the color. Click 'Show plane again' to work with the new color.
Tools In the example above, a press profile (blue) and a proofer profile (red) are compared. You can see that the press profile is virtually completely covered by the proofer profile. Compare Inks This tool allows you to compare colors. Colors can be dragged and dropped from an inkbook (e.g Pantone book) and compared with a sample color that is measured or also dragged from an ink book. Both the LAB of the individual color and the Delta E between the 2 colors are displayed.
Tools A list of comparions can be made and exported to a text file by clicking the 'Save As...' button in the bottom-right corner. Gamut Check A Gamut check allows you to verify if colors are in or outside gamut of a given profile (which can be 3,4,5,6,7 color profiles). The example above shows how Pantone colors will be simulated on an Indigo using 7 colours.
Tools For every Pantone, the Gamut check window tells you: • How it will be separated. • If it is inside gamut or not (a tick means it is inside). • The last column tells something about how far the color is out of gamut. • The last column also indicates the accuracy of the profile. If the tick is on and the Delta E is high, it means the profile is not accurate in this area (typically with ICC profiles). • At the bottom of the window an overview is given with a total amount of inks inside gamut.
Tools You will find the Average Profiles tool in the Tools menu. First, you will need to select your base profile. This profile will determine what chart type you are going to use. This profile will also be the first in the list of profiles to use for averaging. ; Note To use a profile for averaging, it must be completely measured. ICC profiles and calculated press profiles cannot be used.
Tools To generate and save the new profile, click 'Save Averaged Profile…'. Preferences You can specify a number of preferences in Esko Color Kit so that these settings are kept between different Color Kit sessions. Go to the 'File' menu and click 'Preferences'. • Modules (page 62) • Spectrophotometer (page 63) • Color Settings (page 63) • Chart Settings (page 64) Modules In the modules tab you can choose which icons you want to see in the icon bar.
Tools Spectrophotometer By default, Color Kit automatically detects the connected spectrophotometer. If you always connect your spectrophotometer to the same port, you could specify the port name in the spectrophotometer tab of the preferences dialog box in order to speed up the automatic detection. Color Settings Color Kit offers a number of dialog boxes where you can specify the illuminant under which the color match is done, e.g. the Compare tool, Gamut View, device links and color strategies.
Tools (1:1) and CMC (2:1). The selection that you make in the Color Settings tab will be used as default in the dialog boxes of the Compare Tool, Gamut Check, and Color Strategies. Chart Settings A number of dialog boxes shows the dimensions of charts. The Chart Settings option allows you to specify in which units the dimensions need to be expressed.
Example of a workflow We explain how to proceed if you want to output jobs on your HPIndigo. 1. Make sure your press is in perfect condition. (We advise to do a LUT generation before outputting the color charts). You need to be aware for which substrate you are going to make a profile, which LUT you are going to use to output it, which substrate settings you are going to apply on the press etc. Connect your spectrophotometer to your system and switch it on if applicable.
Extra information In this example we make a profile for IndiChrome output (CMYKOV), choose this inkset from the drop down list. The chosen inks are also reflected when you open the ‘Inks’ tab. In the example below, your profile is not saved yet, all buttons are still disabled. You need to save the profile, before you can: • output the charts with the simple push of a button • measure the charts with your spectrophotometer.
Extra information After you save the file, carefully considering an appropriate name, the buttons are active, send the files by pushing the button. Print bthe files on the press and measure them after having pressed the measure button. When finishing measuring, do check the measurements. ‘File’, ‘Show Measurements’.
Extra information When there are no mistakes in the measurements, proceed by making a new color strategy.
Extra information Right-click on ‘Color Strategy’ and choose ‘New’ 69
Extra information We choose the same profile for source and destination. Leaving the Destination profile on has the same effect. Save the color straegy through the ‘File’ menu. No colour management will take place for incoming CMYK values. Settings in the ‘Convert Special Inks’ menu will define how incoming designer inks or Pantone® inks are dealt with. Click on ‘Convert Special Inks.
Extra information Choose ‘Match Solids. Pantone® inks will be converted by means of the Destination Profile. Set Gamut Mapping to Closest Color. Save the strategy again. You can close it for now. At this stage you can already predict how your Pantone® inks will be separated, by using on of Color Kit’s powerful tools: Gamut Check. You find it under the Tools menu.
Extra information Choose inkbook Pantone® and choose your finished strategy. Click the Check Button.
Extra information On the basis of the output percentages that you get now, you may wish to already change some values manually. This is done by adding individual inks to the exception list in ‘Convert Special Inks’.
Extra information In Pantone® 494, we remove the 1,5% black. As a next step, proof your inkbook by opening the Pantone® book and print it on your HP Indigo Press with your color strategy, using the proof icon.
Extra information • manually editing values • refining values by measuring the printed result • proofing grid charts. The result will be a strategy that optimally fits your needs. The strategy can now be applied to your proof tickets. Remember that the list of strategies in the ticket will depend on the configuration you have chosen! Logically, you will see all CMYKOV strategies in the drop down list if the chosen configuration is a CMYKOV configuration.
Extra information Appendix, a closer look at the standard Color Strategies Color Kit comes with a set of standard color strategies: Here is how they look like: name: HPI-CMYKW: What is it used for? for CMYK, so in combination with a HP Indigo FlexRip configuration CMYK. Is white set as extra output ink? Yes, white inks is set as extra output ink. The name of the white ink must be ‘HPI-White’. When a job contains no white ink with that name, no white separation will be generated on the press.
Extra information name: HPI-CMYKOVG What is it used for? for CMYKOVG (IndiChrome Plus), so in combination with a HP Indigo FlexRip configuration CMYKOVG. Is white set as extra output ink? No, as green will be used as 7th ink. The maximum of 7 inks on Press is now used. Which method is used for converting Pantone® inks? HP IndiChrome Plus 1.0 name: HPI-7COLORS What is it used for? It is conceived to output preseparated jobs, it should be used in combination with a HP Indigo FlexRip configuration CMYK.
Extra information HPI1, 2 or 3, Violet is called HPI1, 2 or 3. There can be either a green or a white ink called HPI1,2 or 3. In this case the name of the white ink CANNOT be HPI-White like in the other strategies. You can also use this strategy for specially mixed inks, perhaps you want to use it for a job that is preseparated to be printed with CMYK+Orange+Blue071 Which method is used for converting Pantone® inks? HP Indigo CMYK 1.
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Copyright © 2008 Hewlett-Packard Company This is an HP Indigo digital print. Printed in Israel. www.hp.
