Welcome to my blogging duel with TEAM UK’s Matthew Parker. If you have been following along you can skip right to the post… and if you are just joining us, here is some background…
Matthew and I haven’t always seen eye to eye when it comes to Print Buying. He comes from the UK procurement world, and I come from the USA agency world. We used to argue about process, but over the years it has turned into a mutual respect. However, that doesn’t mean we now agree, or see things the same way! As a matter of fact, most of the time we don’t. So we decided to turn that into Print Buying: #UKvUSA and share information about our experiences from both sides of the pond!
At the end of my post is a link to Matthew’s post on the same subject. We don’t know each other’s response before writing our own. Maybe we will agree, maybe we wont, maybe we don’t even see the question in the same way – who knows… that’s the fun part! We have also set a 500 words or less format to keep things moving along.
Please do leave comments and if you happen to support one side over the other let us know on either blog! I am proudly representing TEAM USA, and we are using #UKvUSA on Twitter. LET THE DUEL COMMENCE!
#UKvUSA: Who Really Cares About Color
I would hope the answer to this is everyone, because on some level we all care about the quality of print we pay for or produce. However, I did say “hope” on purpose because I don’t believe everyone is doing their best when it comes to mastering CMYK and beyond.
It starts with the press, and the people who make it. They certainly do their testing and create color profiles that get passed along to their customers. Are they tested and adjusted after that, and put through any local quality control – well only the printers know that. But lets say they are – is that info clearly being communicated to the buyers and designers upfront to help them get the best color? Personally, I have always had to ask as a responsive measure to a color issue, and the issue could have been prevented if the information was proactively shared.
And you can‘t really discuss color without discussing paper. Many paper companies do an excellent job working with press manufacturers to get “certified” as paper partners. That is great news. Now see up there and apply to paper. If buyers and designers don’t know which papers work best on what presses for what amount of color coverage, and the ranges for gradients and screens on the specific press you are printing on, how relevant is that first step between the paper companies and the manufacturers to the end user?
And none of the above matters if the buyers and designers have no clue that any of this is controllable prior to being on press. If color matters to you then so does pre-press and proofing… and I mean a line item in every relevant estimate for image retouching/color correction, and another for at least two rounds of hard proofs… that means no PDF’s for color!
Last group in this “who really cares” matrix is ultimately the most important, at least to my fellow advertising and in-house marketing buyers. That would be the client, aka the one paying us. There are some clients out there who will take every piece you print and put them next to each other and compare. They don’t care that some are offset using PMS, and some are digital using approved CMYK values. They don’t care that they agreed to use a different paper, or a different printing process to save on costs. All they care about is that their color is their color, and the rest is our problem.
I didn’t even touch upon printing in multiple locations or in other/multiple countries… all of which can be disastrous, trust me! So again – I still “hope” that we all think color matters and are doing our best to create the best print we can, but odds are there is vast room for improvement, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on how to make it happen!
Click here to see how Matthew tackled this month’s topic!
Next month: Who Really Chooses Paper?
Until then… keep your color popping and join in the lively (sometimes riotous) conversations about the #UKvUSA duel topics in the Print Production Professionals Group on LinkedIn. Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on ours!
Deborah Corn is the Intergalactic Ambassador to The Printerverse at PrintMediaCentr, a Print Buyerologist™, Integrated Marketer, Industry Speaker and Blogger, Cultivator of the Print Production Professionals Group, the #1 Print Group on LinkedIn, and host of the weekly industry #PrintChat on Twitter. She has more than 25 years experience working in advertising and marketing, and currently works behind the scenes with printers, suppliers and industry organizations helping with their cross media and social media marketing endeavors.
9 Responses
Is the print buyer the brand owner? If not, I pity the print buyer who does not care about color. But it’s always a level of perceived value. We print business forms and labels. Over the years, we’ve seen the color in business forms erode to black ink, then make a slight come back to what some would consider “pleasing color”. On the labels side, color can be everything even when it black. We do a large business in barcoded labels for high volume distribution centers. Why? Because our inline inkjet unit lays down high quality codes that can be scanned at high speeds.
Color is relevant to the value of the application.
A high end restaurant wants great color for their menu’s and direct mail pieces. The personal property tax valuation I just received from the State of Mo is in black and blue ink. Which is more important? To whom?
Tell the brand owners of all the cereal boxes on the grocers shelf that color is not important when a mother and her two kids (both under 10) walk up to make a purchase. In the same light, try telling the State of MO that their personal property tax valuations would be better received by home owners, if they arrived in four color process. (I’d love to hear that sales pitch)
Another great topic from two outstanding fighters for print. I’m taking refuge in Deborah’s corner.
Roger Buck
Yeah it’s all relevant, but even in what is not color critical there is caring, and not caring. I welcome you into my corner… we will have plenty of company 🙂
Love Deborah’s view. As an agency print person, color and getting the best color was/is all important – especially as our clients were all in the food industry! Matthew’s view is more about what I also feel is the current norm – color is not critical, unless something is not right. And one is still dependent upon getting quality digital photo files to start.
I agree entirely with Deborah’s stress on the value of Origination, in file preparation and proofing. Therein lies the difference between what some might call ‘Print Buying’ and what I would call Print Production. I would say that of course (!)
I am frequently amazed at how little designers and others know about colour management. They can sometimes even be contemptuous of it, as if its only an issue for the printer. Today’s monitors give such a hyper rendition of colour and contrast they can’t credibly be used as a guide for print outcome, and I wouldn’t be surprised if its the same people who don’t appreciate that who think its ok to use their own PDFs for colour reference.
The cost of using a specialist Repro House (as you always would for Art or Photography or other colour-sensitive content) will be off-putting in some circumstances I am sure, but there is much in the realm of monitor calibration and image file prep which can be done inexpensively and will make the printed outcome far more predictable.
I also take Matthew’s point about the product being relevant. As long as all those grey boxes look neutral and not cast in blue or purple then there is a limit to how much you need to worry. It’s my feeling that if you follow sound principles for every type of product you’ll get more than you expect from the stuff which isn’t so colour-sensitive and in the process create a higher benchmark from which to fine-tune your higher value stuff, to really make it sing.
There are a series of responsibilities here. The printer should be maintaining their equipment so they can follow rigorous industry standards. Designers, Repro people and Buyers need to be aware of those and to fall in step with them. Printers can sometimes do great things on press, but it’s bad practice to delegate all that responsibility to them.
It’s about good Production ultimately, about working things so you get the best from your images, your paper and your printer. Everyone should care about colour, and accept it as part of their role to manage it.
I think I am somewhere in the mid-Atlantic on this one.
Great points, David! It was the responsibility of the agency production folks to guide designers, account people and the client as to the nuances of color. As those positions go away, it devolves to the designers and printers, often with no guidance. Good production practices and caring about color should never go out of fashion.
Best print means different things to different people. Somewhere along the way the importance of colour consistency and colour impact seem to have slipped. When work is auctioned off by a print buyer and a campaigns are produced by multiple printers, standards are crucial but rarely upheld. The brand managers carefully selected PMS colours becomes a CMYK mess in multiple different hues. The beautifully executed photography looks flat and lacks impact in store. But the price is right. I shiver when I see campaigns loosing their impact once colour engagement has become diluted. I also understand that other people care less. Personally I think consistency and great execution will win in the end as long as it can be sourced for a fair price.
To my perspective best print mean 1.match the color to given proof in it’s best & 2.keeping the consistency 3.keeping the consistency among all print machine.These 3 bucket will be depending on the site requirement.The item can be a one time production or it can be branded item which is unique to the specific region ,country or globally.To fulfill all the color requirement, it is important to standardize & base lining the machine according to CIE 1976 & OEM standards first.After base lining the machine we can run the tests to verify that the machines are align with OEM & Standard settings.Same way we have to standardize the Pre press software & Equipment also.
To maintain such type of consistency in color ,there are many companies set globally such as Mellow Color,GMI ,G7 etc.They help to prepare the sites according to the standards & maintain it.And they do frequent Auditing & certifications also.Now This is a trend of all suppliers & some of the famous brand like M&S,Target, already there.Their main target is to maintain the all most all the print characteristics(grey balance,Density,white,linear curve,trapping,DPI) which gives the proper out put according to the art work/Proof.
If I summarize above
1.Equipment maintenance (Prepress,press)
2.Set global standards in all equipment.
3.Periodical calibration of equipment.
4.maintain grey balance,linear curve,trapping,DPI,Plate details,Density etc. for every job.
5.Standardise prepress work flow.(Art work generation to plate making)
I will be appreciate, if someone could be able to give any thoughts in this regards.
At LCP color is a critical part of the manufacturing process. Since the beginning of time not only have we measured color but also dot percentages, press characteristics as well as raw materials. Color managemnt closes the loop and increases our ability to consistently represent the brands we work for. Ingnoring color because some don’t understand only serves to lesson the craft/art/science of print.
I am a print broker with a design agency background – in fact we still do design work for a number of clients. And as we position ourselves as European print management specialists our marketing is aimed, principally, at North America. As a result we straddle the Atlantic and, perhaps, have an unusual perspective on this.
Whilst it may read as what is referred to in the UK as a “cop out” and I guess in the US would be considered a lack of “gumption” my honest answer would be – It Depends….
Some design shops provide us with colour corrected artwork, others do not. Some provide hard proofs, others do not. Some clients care about getting the colours right, others less so – there are no clients that would accept unacceptable work – but then we would not present them with unacceptable in the first place.
It is a question of pride and it is a question of work ethic. I have worked with a few companies where the corporate identity manual came in volumes, and others where it came in an Illustrator file (or Power Point, Corel Draw – even Paint on one occasion!)
My job in many cases is managing the expectations. We cannot perfectly match colour across a range of media – the same colour on different paper stocks, the lightbox posters (oh, yes, and they will look different during the day when the lights are off to the night when they are on…) – but we can make sure that we get things damn close.
A little like art… I don’t understand art, but I know what I like – print looks great when it’s great and not so good when it’s not.
Our job is to ensure we get the very best out of the artwork we are given and, if necessary, reject the artwork if we are not confident that the client will be happy with the end result.
It is not good enough to simply print what we are given. I the same way that we will go back to the client or agency if we spot a typo, so we will if we see colour inconsistency.
I am proud of the work we manage – and everything we print for clients is flight-checked carefully by us prior to being sent to print. But equally we work with printers that we trust to take the same pride in their work as we take in ours.
I’m not sure there is a US/UK split over this. There are people who take pride in their work on both sides of the pond – and there are those that do not. No country has a monopoly on those!