Quantification of Color Variation Introduced During Premedia Production

Abstract

The successful implementation of color management in any digital print environment is dependent on the ability to characterize and control the critical stages of production workflow. Despite the continuous improvements in both color profiling tools and in the devices they characterize, current color management strategies often fail to address the potential for color variance based on operator-defined actions during the course of normal production operations. This variation may result in an unacceptable deviation from the expected or target outcome in print production scenarios where any level of operator intervention is considered general practice.To quantify the potential variation resulting from specific operator-defined actions, a study was conducted in which several production workflows characteristic of digital print environments were replicated. Assuming different levels of color management understanding, a series of user-defined profile decisions were applied to a standardized target and a selected set of representative test images within the context of software applications customarily used in premedia production. The resulting test files were printed and color variance was determined via ΔE and paired comparison for a set of workflow combinations representative of those common in many premedia production environments.