Solution provides corporate print centres and service bureaus with the flexibility to achieve colour consistency across devices
 
Pitney Bowes, a provider of hardware and software solutions for print and mail operations, announce a partnership with colour management specialist CMI to drive accurate and flexible colour output through its Pitney Bowes VIP output management server.
 
At a time when colour is being used more freely across all types of documents – from marketing messages to statements, bills, policies and invoices – many businesses are finding the transition to consistent and accurate colour output complex and confusing.
 
Several composition systems provide colour management and enable colour management at the point of creating the output. However, this output print file then becomes very specific for a particular printer. With colour management in Pitney Bowes VIP the customer has independence between the print-job and the end device. This is more desirable for service bureaus and customers with multiple printer lines as they have the flexibility to direct colour print work to any device, secure in the knowledge that the colour output will be accurate.
 
In the main, colour management is achieved through utilising the industry standard International Colour Consortium (ICC) methodology with profiles that describes how a device reproduces colour.  Pitney Bowes Emtex Software, in partnership with CMI, has developed comprehensive support for ICC Profiles within its VIP server, a high-performance output management solution. VIP now supports colour management for all RGB and CMYK data, and for named spot colours through the application of ICC profiles created by CMI's colour management suite, enabling users to make precise colour matches for personalized direct mail, transactional and transpromo applications.
 
Tim Moylan, President, Pitney Bowes Emtex Software, comments: "Today's businesses understand the power of digital colour as a means to increase revenue, eliminate pre-printed forms and improve customer service. However, successful colour management is proving challenging to personnel across both corporate print centres and service bureaus.
 
"Together with CMI we have developed a solution that addresses this challenge and that delivers true process flexibility and accuracy to high-volume print centres."
 
Colour management provides the accurate rendering of a particular colour in print or online, colour matching and consistency between devices, and the ability to move colour to black-and-white printers for disaster recovery or multi-site operations.  In addition, correct colour management of spot colour for company brand logos is required to maintain brand integrity.
 
Through referencing input ICC profiles, describing the colour spaces of images used within the printstream and a printer device ICC profile, VIP ensures accurate and consistent rendition of colour in real time to maximise performance. VIP can also reference spot colour libraries, generated by the CMI workflow, to map named spot colors (from PostScript or PDF data) directly to the target colour device.
 
This functionality enables organisations to colour manage input printstreams (including AFP, Postscript, VPS, PDF and PCL) to any specific colour devices controllers supporting IPDS, Postscript, VPS, PPML/VDX and IJPDS printstreams.
 
Chris Trimbach, General Manager, CMI, comments: "The high-volume print environment is challenging and competitive and businesses are looking for suppliers to provide solutions that maximise productivity and output quality.
 
"We are delighted to be working closely with Pitney Bowes to bring true colour management expertise and flexibility to the market."