DRUPA 2008 DÜSSELDORF (Hall 5, Stand DO2) – May 29, 2008 – X-Rite, Incorporated, the world leader in color management, measurement and communication technologies, today announced the industry's first complete optical brightener correction solution (OBC). Designed for use in conjunction with X-Rite's i1iSis family of automatic spectral chart readers, and ProfileMaker or MonacoPROFILER profiling software, X-Rite's new OBC solution allows users in color-critical proofing and printing environments to effectively and precisely compensate for color shifts in custom ICC output profiles caused by Optical Brightening Agents (OBAs) in papers and other printing substrates. X-Rite's new OBC module for i1iSis will be showcased at drupa 2008 on the X-Rite stand (Hall 5, Stand DO2).

Optical Brightening Agents (OBAs) are increasingly used by paper mills and premium inkjet paper manufacturers to make a yellowish paper appear whiter and brighter. However, available color measurement and management technologies have been unable to effectively deal with the color variations caused by OBAs. With X-Rite's optical brightener correction solution, users will be able to achieve visual equivalence between color measurement results from instruments and from the visual appearance of a sample in a viewing booth.

X-Rite's optical brightener correction solution is available immediately and will from now on be included with every i1iSis device. The new attractively priced bundle includes the new OBC module, i1iSis or i1iSis XL (incl. UV LED), the new Optical Brightener Compensation module and the choice of ProfileMaker5, Publish or MonacoPROFILER Gold profiling software. OBC upgrade kits are available for existing i1iSis and ProfileMaker5 users.

This new bundle offers a complete solution for high-end applications requiring consistent color measurements and visualization of printed output in the prepress (proofing), printing and photo (studio printing and fine art) markets.

"Our OBC module solves the last challenge in proofing. The combination of the new OBC module with i1iSis' unique spectral measurement technology and additional UV LED illumination features allows users to capture the full spectral data of the charts they measure. Thanks to our patent-pending detection and correction technology, users will be able to effectively and precisely compensate for color shifts caused by brightening agents, while taking full advantage of the higher whiteness levels and sharper image contrasts offered by substrates containing OBAs," explains Tobias Rausch, X-Rite's product manager for prepress and pressroom solutions.

With the new i1iSis OBC bundle, printing professionals will be able to solve their OBA-related proofing challenges in just a few steps: A test chart is printed and measured with the i1iSis in dual mode (UVonly and UVcut measurement in one test chart measurement cycle) and analyzed with the OBC solution software; a UV Checker Greypatch Chart is then printed and visually compared with the Optical Brightener Compensation Reference Standard in the viewing booth, and the best matching patches are marked in the OBC software to calculate a new set of optical brightener compensated measurements; finally, the new data is exported to ProfileMaker5 or MonacoPROFILER software to generate an accurate ICC profile.