Earlier this year, Fujifilm rebranded its powerful solution, which offers commercial printers two complementary products that streamline and improve operations: ColorPath® Sync™, which allows output devices to match a specified color range consistently, and ColorPath® Verified™, which confirms that production devices are conforming to specified standards. The system flags problems as they occur, so they can be addressed right away.

Matching color with confidence

ColorPath Sync is the most advanced gray balance calibration tool on the market. It starts by recording the color range the printer designates. Then it linearizes that range, reads the target, and creates profiles.

Julie Krueger, Fujifilm’s Technology Center manager, offers this illustration: “For example, I run a print shop equipped with an inkjet proofer, a wide-format inkjet press, and an offset press. I want each of my machines to produce the same color results for a given job. But that doesn’t happen on its own. I need to put a lot of time, effort, and experimentation into correcting unacceptable variances. And that’s frustrating and expensive.”

She uses a baseball analogy to describe the beauty of Sync. “ColorPath Sync equips output devices to produce color within specific tolerances. It’s akin to finding a pitcher who can hit the strike zone every time.”

Put another way, Sync ensures that the output of various machines conforms to specific color parameters, again and again. It can recreate that “strike zone” as often as needed.

“Users really appreciate this offering,” Krueger says. “For commercial printers of all sizes, it’s an elegant solution that reduces hassles and saves a bundle of time and money.”

Monitoring output equipment and correcting it fast

If ColorPath Sync can be likened to a pitcher who consistently throws strikes, ColorPath

Verified can be viewed as the catcher … in the sense that it catches problems when an output device exceeds tolerances or needs repair.

“If you can output it, ColorPath Verified can track it,” says Krueger. That tracking is performed real time by Fujifilm’s print performance team, and it’s accessible to print owners, managers, and machine operators as well.

That means that commercial printers and Fujifilm experts can address errors as they happen. Whether users or Fujifilm technicians initiate a request, users can get instant online support.

One of Verified’s many pluses is data trending, which shows when the deviation started and what the deviation was. Instead of reporting that the reds and burgundies are too blue, Verified identifies the when, what and where … which helps answer why those colors are too blue.

Is it worth it to have this kind of support for your printing operation? That question is best answered with more questions, including these: How much is it worth to reduce or avoid down time due to ill-informed assumptions? How much time is wasted trying to track down reliable information from many sources? What price do you attach to meeting your customers’ standards of quality? And, what is the value of ColorPath Verified when it prevents even one job from having to be run again?