My past seven and a half years at IWCO Direct, a leading direct marketing organization, have been an amazing journey - and luckily one that will continue into the future. Through that time, our Color Technical Support (CTS) team has partnered with exceptional vendors on a wide range of projects and have seen many of the technology advancements in the inkjet industry firsthand. The following reflects our journey through some of the inkjet equipment we have used over the last seven years and the changes we have seen in the industry. So, settle in as we review nearly a decade of inkjet profiling.

Note: While I will be talking about specific machines, I am in no way be trying to judge one against the other or imply that any printer or vendor is superior. CTS and IWCO Direct have had great relationships with our vendors, and every inkjet press we have worked with brings its own strengths and weaknesses. This article focuses more about the growth of the inkjet industry. Any gamut comparisons presented are on the same stock.

Opening Day – June 15, 2015

My first week with IWCO Direct coincided with a major event with Canon at our facility. They had just installed the first Canon ImageStream 3500 in the U.S. to complement our large fleet of ColorStream 3900s and i300. The available color gamut on the 3500 was a big upgrade from the 3900s as shown below:

[caption id="attachment_5965" align="aligncenter" width="320"] Figure 1 70lb VividJet 3500 (in color) vs. 3900 (in red)[/caption]

This led us to one of our first challenges. Because of the way we were initially configured, we were getting a big color difference between the 3500 and the 3900 on the same stock, not to mention our Xerox iGens and CiPress. Our CTS team solved the problem by creating separate standards for coated and uncoated stock, which gave us a much greater shared appearance with the large amount of conventional printing we were doing as well.

Lesson learned: It’s important to take all inputs (devices, stocks, inks) into account to achieve consistent color output for clients.

2018 – The Addition of the Screen Presses

2018 brought more exciting changes with the addition of two Screen Truepress Jet520HD presses. With a gamut that rivaled the Canon ImageStream 3500 and the ability to print on both inkjet treated and non-treated stock, this opened many possibilities for our team and clients.

[caption id="attachment_5964" align="aligncenter" width="359"] Figure 2 70lb VividJet 3500 (in color) vs. Screen (in green)[/caption]

However, new challenges arose. By this time, our CTS team had come up with a new calibration method for the 3900s that allowed for G7 at the calibration level. This reduced our average delta E among the 3900s from 1.4 dE to 0.4 dE. Problem was, the Screen did not allow for anything like that. CTS worked on several techniques and was able to get the Screens to tightly align with the other printers.

Lesson learned: Be flexible and apply insights gained on one platform across all inkjet presses.

2021 – The Dawn of Our HP Adventure

In 2021, as part of our $40 million investment to expand our already industry-leading production platform, IWCO Direct made a significant investment in HP PageWide technology, purchasing multiple HP PageWide T250s and T490s. This provided a big enhancement both in color gamut (see below) and speed. Add to that, the HPs can also run both inkjet treated and non-treated stocks. We now have an amazing, well-rounded, inkjet platform to deliver consistent, repeatable color across our clients’ range of printing needs.

[caption id="attachment_5963" align="aligncenter" width="378"] Figure 3 70lb VividJet - 3900 (in Red), Screen (in Green), and HP (in Blue)[/caption]

Of course, the usual issues that come from the need to align different printers with different ink sets and different configurations were still present. With the HPs’ ability to accept G7 curves, our CTS team was able to tightly align the HPs not only to each other (under a 0.5 dE among all machines), but to all our other inkjet and litho technologies as well.

Lesson learned: Applying consistent standards like G7 across all presses drives repeatable color output and better brand color fidelity, no matter the press.

Summary

It’s been exciting to witness firsthand the consistent forward momentum of the production inkjet market. IWCO Direct has had an opportunity to partner with great vendors and products, and we’ve learned some important lessons along the way, including:

The biggest key to success is to establish press standard targets early and be consistent. All the different presses and technologies will play well together if you are the one defining the playing field.

Happy Inkjetting, and here’s to another great year for our industry!