Using a Multipurpose Control Strip That Includes All G7 Gray-Finder Patches

By Bill Owen – Alder Color Solutions – Senior Color Technician Are you still using an Idealliance Control Strip for color verification? Maybe an old one from 2009 or 2013? Did you know that there’s a newer/better control strip you can use? Let’s review….. The ChromaChecker CC84 control strip and…

How To Revise An Existing Plate/Press Curve WITHOUT A Dedicated Press Run.

By Bill Owen – Alder Color Solutions – Senior Color Technician Have you ever needed to quickly adjust your press curves but don’t have time to do a time consuming and costly “dedicated press run”? There is a way to do just that! Let me show you. I’d like to…

Match Spot Colors as Easy as 1, 2, 3!

The New Color Match Functionality in ChromaChecker Capture – by Dan Gillespie This new Color Match functionality in ChromaChecker Capture software works so well, it’s crazy how accurate, quick and easy it is. In this blog, I’ll walk you through the steps. Launch Capture v3 and choose QuickChecker across the…

Never Wonder If You Can Match A Color Again!

Using Virtual Spot Print in ChromaChecker – by Dan Gillespie This question is asked all the time… Can you match X-color? Most people simply can’t answer correctly, although they might automatically say yes, because they just don’t know. But that’s only because they don’t know how quick and easy they…

Will AI Play A Role In Color Management In The Near Future?

by Bill Owen – Senior Color Technician – Alder Color Solutions As a color expert who’s been in the printing business for over 40 years, I often ponder this possibility. Could my job be taken over by AI? Probably not before I retire, but at the pace it’s advancing, maybe…

Upgrading an Existing Offset Press – A Success Story

Benefits of the Alder Press Control bundle It’s Tuesday, January 2nd, and I’m diving into 2024 with my first blog post of the year. I thought I’d share a success story from an installation we did last month with our Alder Press Control package. Custom Printing in Oxnard, CA has…

A New/Better Spot Color Matching System

There is so much talk these days about spot colors, namely the PANTONE libraries. This “matching system” has been the defacto used by many industries, specifically printing. Recently PANTONE made the decision to remove the libraries from Adobe Creative Cloud applications and charge loyal customers a fee to access them….

The Power of Wide Gamut Profiles!

How to use Wide Gamut CMYK profiles to achieve maximum color output. The source profile is an ICC color management term/setting. Every RIP/DFE has a source profile and an output profile specified for color conversions. The default source profile in most cases is smaller than the gamut of the printing…

Can You Match Pantone Viva Magenta?

I can answer that question. First you need to find the color definition before you can determine whether you can match it. So, where can you find it? I found it by logging into the connect.pantone.com website and searched by name. Turns out there are 2 Viva Magentas – 18-1750…

BIG Spot Color News – Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE) v6

BIG Spot Color News – Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE) v6

In June of 2022 Adobe announced the release of the next generation Adobe PDF Print Engine (APPE). This print engine technology is the industry standard for interpreting PDF artwork files and is licensed to many printer and software (DFE/RIP) companies like Epson, HP, EFI, ONYX, Caldera, etc. The licensed APPE…