Alexandria, VA, March 14, 2006. The International Digital Enterprise Alliance (IDEAlliance) today announced that a training program hosted by AMP Printing, Dublin, CA, has prepared a new group of leading color management and on-press consultants to bring new GRACoL 7 (G7) tools and techniques to the industry. Background Throughout 2004 and 2005, the GRACoL (General Requirements and Applications for Commercial Offset Lithography) Committee of IDEAlliance developed an unambiguous description of how good commercial printing "appears" to the eye on a Number 1 sheet and developed new calibration and process control methods that make use of spectrophotometry and CTP to enable printers quickly and accurately replicate visual appearance on any press or proofing system. The G7 methodology is revolutionary because it is the first specification designed to reliably and efficiently match the visual appearance of multiple devices by defining gray balance and NPDC (neutral print density curves) instead of the traditional method of measuring TVI for each color. According to Don Hutcheson, Chair of the GRACoL Committee and President of Hutcheson Consulting, "GRACoL 7 is not an attempt to create new standards but a way of utilizing existing ISO (International Standards Organization) Standards in a more efficient and effective way. GRACoL7 is an implementation of the ISO 12647-2 printing standard, with metrics, methods and characterization data developed during seventeen research press runs at nine US printing sites over eighteen months. Input was also provided by other industry groups like ECI and FOGRA in Europe, and by countless individuals worldwide on the Printing Across Borders (PAB) users list (www.printingacrossborders.org). All these sources helped finalize a definition of gray balance and Neutral Print Density Curves that GRACoL believes to reflect the average typical appearance of good ISO-compliant commercial printing in the USA and overseas. Jeff Main, President of AMP Printing commented, "We at AMP are very excited about this new approach to proofing and printing. We strive to reliably provide the best color reproduction to our clients in the shortest time and at the lowest cost. The new G7 methodology that was taught at our facility represents the state-of-the-art for printers and we have every intention of basing our printing workflows on G7 from this time forward." Steve Smiley, Chair of the IDEAlliance Print Properties Committee (PPC) and Director of Engineering at Vertis, Inc. added, "The good news is that recent experimental press tests conducted by PPC indicate that G7 can be applied to any type of printing. G7 is not just for commercial printing but for publication printing, news printing, flexographic printing and more. This means that separations or files generated for one printing method will have a similar visual appearance if printed by another method. The G7 process has generated a great deal of excitement among print buyers because by following this methodology, we can print on virtually any type of press and on any substrate while maintaining a common visual appearance. Dianne Kennedy, VP of Publishing Technologies and GRACoL Program Manager for IDEAlliance stated, "Certification of GRACoL Experts is an important way we can advance adoption of GRACoL across the printing industry. Following this session we will have trained Experts from the United States, Latin America, China and Hong Kong. We are honored that such respected industry professionals participated in this training program and look forward to working closely with these consultants in the future." Ms. Kennedy continued, "We advise printers to visit www.gracol.org/experts/ to locate an Expert who can assist them with press calibration and printing to G7. The Experts will also work as our agents to qualify printers who are routinely using G7 to be identified as IDEAlliance Master Printers."