(Image courtesy of Texintel.)
(This article originally appeared on Pixel to Parcel.)
Why should color management be a priority for your design team and print workflow? Color is the baseline of design. Once set, the color that the designer, client, or brand specifies is the color that must be achieved and delivered—first time, every time.
In a digital world, many expect this to be an exact science, a simple and automatic function of the print process; simply place your on-demand order, and voilà! your print arrives on time and just as you imagined it. Unfortunately, that’s far from true. Color management within the textile industry can often feel more like the wild west: shoot from the hip and hope for the best! The end result is broken expectations, unhappy customers, dead stock, lost revenue, spent resources, and mountains of waste.
Having democratized the print space with on-demand digital textile printing technologies, surely color is now accurate at the push of a button? Not yet, but the clock is ticking. Color science is a highly technical and scientific field. The Holy Grail for the textile industry would be to standardize color, offering a simpler way to format the workflow. This is a work in progress and most definitely a good space for AI and, as textile technology and science converge, who knows what may be achieved in the very near future.
Invest To Impress
Taking control of your color space requires investment, time, and commitment. The print, software, and color industries have a whole host of options with which you can create and control your workflow accurately at any volume—start-up or industrial—to create pixel-perfect prints that match your expectations, prepress samples, and your legacy production.
Investing your time to control and manage your own color workspace yields dividends. Print is a partnership of pattern and technology; source the right software for your workflow and take control of your color output.
With such a huge and growing marketplace to fulfil, it’s no wonder that the global color management and RIP (Raster Image Processor) software sector for digital textile printing was valued at $607.52 million in 2020 and is expected to reach $939 million by 2028, growing at an CAGR of 5.6% during the forecast period (Research and Markets).
The most important factor in the color transaction is communication. Wherever you sit in the supply chain, and whatever your product, color is critical. So how can you make sure color input matches color output?
Remember that all devices (human or synthetic) measure color differently and use different methods of color generation to create data. It’s also important to factor in the light in which a physical, colored object or digital simulation is viewed. The perceived color of a printed surface or digital screen will be dramatically affected by the ambient light source. Therefore, we have to add measured data to the color conversation to ensure that all devices are aligned and calibrated.
When printing textiles, this is where the process gets a little more complicated. Here are a couple of examples. The weave of a fabric will bounce light, not only when viewed but also when measured. Textiles may also contain optical brightening agents (OBAs) which do just that: they trick the viewer by bouncing light to make a product appear whiter. If you have ever seen a white garment glow and take on a blueish appearance in UV light, then there are OBAs present as a chemical coating on the fiber.
Once again, all of this data should be added to the color conversation. Each and every fabric must be measured and profiled to give the print machinery and software the information it needs to achieve the required color and avoid waste. As technology advances, this process is becoming increasingly automated and, as mentioned before, AI and scanning technologies will no doubt continue to simplify this often laborious process.
Get It Right—First Time, Every Time
Choosing the correct print technology and print workflow is essential. If you’re offering print online, be sure to provide thorough prepress print advice and customer support. Encourage local sourcing—support your local community and save time, shipping, and carbon.
Remember that different machines, inks, and substrates achieve different results. Be sure to choose the right technology and the right material for your project. And be aware that not all printers/inks are equal; research your print source to ensure that you are using the best sustainable print technology along with certified environmental inks and responsibly sourced materials.
Color management should be standard practice for both the design and the print community. As our workflow gets ever faster, if color isn’t controlled at the source, waste will escalate.
That’s wasted time, energy, materials, and precious resources…and it can all be avoided by investing in best practices, good color communication, and accurate color management.
We asked Oliver Luedtke of ColorGATE why color must be managed and how software can assist:
“Color is defined by the designer at the beginning of the product cycle; and yet at that point, the designer usually doesn’t know how the product will be printed or onto what material. The designer may use multiple file formats, all of which contain important information for the printer. Transforming this data into the correct language for printed output is a specialist skill.
“ColorGATE bridges the gap, managing input and output, as it controls color across the manufacturing workflow, to ensure that the printed output meets all expectations. This is a complicated process, and yet to the outside world it appears seamless. Color, technology, inks, and materials are balanced and managed utilizing intelligent software that when fine-tuned will consistently deliver high quality printed output.”
When input matches output, the circle is complete. When all stakeholders comply, color can be controlled to ensure 100% accuracy.
Let’s get it right the first time—and every time.
