Print Color Management (PCM) is the new multi-stage offering from Heidelberg. The aim of PCM is to perfectly coordinate prepress and press settings. The result is true-color, cost-effective production which saves the customer time and cuts down on waste. Print Color Management covers the following five areas: Advice, standardization, optimization of prepress and press, and generating and implementing ICC color profiles. The target group includes full-service general commercial printshops from the "industrial printers" market segment who mainly print four-color jobs with process colors. Typical end products from this sector include advertising material such as booklets and brochures, business stationery, posters and magazines. A PCM team works with the customer to draw up an action plan by advising them and assisting with standardization. When this is implemented in practice it optimizes the color workflow and thus increases the productivity of the printshop. The Heidelberg experts start in the prepress where they calibrate the relevant output devices. The imagesetters are also set to the required dot gain in print by means of a process calibration. Then the press is optimized under real production conditions with the help of cleverly devised printing tests to adapt it to the customer's particular needs. In the final stage, the color spaces of the printing press and the upstream output systems are measured and integrated into the workflow via ICC profiles. This ensures maximum color fidelity throughout – from the screen and the proofer to the press itself. "Print Color Management has made printing of decorative objects miles better than it was. The color fidelity is reliable and our customers are very pleased with the results," states Günter Widmann, Managing Director of Digitaldruck Karlsruhe GmbH and Druckerei Widmann GmbH. The many benefits of Print Color Management Print Color Management increases the productivity of printshops. Binding proofs are generated in the prepress and standardized printing ensures reproducible print results. PCM also shortens setup times. "With Print Color Management we achieved very consistent colors between proof and print. By these optimizations we are saving between 1 and 2 pulls per job," says Peter Sommer of Sommer Corporate Media AG in Waiblingen. Dick Kouwenhoven of Hemlock Printers in Canada adds: "After using Print Color Management we benefited from improved ink preset information and better waste management. In the final analysis, we reduced makeready impressions by 25%." Print Media Academy trains PCM specialists Following a one-year test phase in Germany, the USA, Canada and Belgium, the product is now being launched onto the markets. To accompany the launch, the Print Media Academy (PMA) is training teams of print and prepress instructors from Heidelberg's sales offices.