Hingham, MA, USA -- GMG proofing entries again delivered excellent results during the 2009 IPA Proofing RoundUP, overseen by Dr. Martin Habekost, Dr. Abhay Sharma, Larry Warter and Mike DiCosola. The event was conducted during the IPA Technical Conference, held from June 8-10 in Rosemont, IL. GMG results reflected previous outstanding performance at previous IPA events and at similar events worldwide.

Since its inception in 2004, the IPA Proofing RoundUP has led to substantial improvements in the quality of proofing technologies and techniques, and GMG has scored exceptionally well at each event. In 2006, IPA Proofing RoundUP results demonstrated for the first time that vendors were able to produce proofs within industry tolerances for visual match, using only color management numerical techniques. In 2007, vendors and users had little difficulty achieving a very close match to the reference file in a laboratory setting. But in 2009, anecdotal reports from users had indicated that the actual practice of proofing was still far from these potential results. Therefore, the IPA Proofing RoundUP returned as part of the 2009 IPA Technical Conference to explore the actual state of proofing in everyday, real-world, production environments.

The 2009 Proofing RoundUP tests examined hard and soft copy proofing solutions intended to verify and confirm 2007 Proofing RoundUP results. Additional tests determined whether a proof matched the printing condition of GRACoL #1 and the tolerances of the IDEAlliance ISO

12647-7 control strip.

GMG provided two proofing entries with GMG ColorProof o5 in this year's testing: one driving an Epson Stylus Pro 7900 printer, and another driving an HP Designjet Z3200 printer. In specific tests it participated in, GMG ColorProof registered exceptional scores in:

- IT8.7/4 test chart against GRACoL standards. Both scores, the best in the group, were well below 1?E.

- IT8.7/4 vs. IDEAlliance proof strip (two best ?E)

- Evaluation on the P2P25x target based on G7 terminology (lowest curve changes)

- The second and third best proofs among a group of nine systems, measuring a Pantone spot color match. This was done without any iterations or custom profiling for this; basically 'out of the box' color.

GMG ColorProof also performed better than average on extended gamut coverage. "While we are certainly pleased with the extended gamut results GMG ColorProof is able to achieve, we are even more satisfied that GMG ColorProof accuracy to reproduce Pantone colors is exceptional," notes Jim Summers, GMG Americas president. "GMG's unique 4D process, where printers are calibrated to standardized printer profiles for each product model is much easier to assure great results. Our out of the box results demonstrate how easily GMG ColorProof o5 can deliver contract proofing."