Attendees at the Sonoco Institute at Clemson learn how and why a printer should implement extended gamut color management

Miamisburg, OH (USA), – Esko, with the help of The Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics at Clemson University, conducted its first extended gamut color seminar for Spanish-speaking participants, from November 12-16, 2012. A total of 18 attendees from Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico and the US attended the 5-day event, which was held to explain why and how a printer should implement an extended color gamut system.

"We created the extended gamut seminar to allow press operators, no matter the print technology, to learn about the benefits of printing with as many as seven colors, and experiment with the process – with extensive hands-on activities. It's why we limited the seminar to less than twenty participants," explains Julian Fernandez, Esko Solution Architect for Color & Flexo. "And, while we naturally have a bias for Esko products, we showed how specialized tools from other vendors could be applied. While we believe we offer all the best products for color management, we wanted people to feel at ease using whatever they felt most comfortable with."

The seminar began with an overview of the facility from Charles (Chip) Tonkin, Director of the Sonoco Institute. He explained Clemson's role in the seminar, walked guests through the institute, showed them research being conducted, and talked about training that is conducted there.

The seminar, in general, taught participants how to profile a flexo press based on a customer standard. Involved was an overview of the printing process, and making a fingerprint to verify the compensation curves based on the G7 procedure. Finally, everyone printed a job. To assure that an advanced learning level would be attained throughout the seminar, attendees were required to attend webinars prior to the event, covering basic color management theory and industry standards.

A team of five Esko instructors included Julian Fernandez – who also coordinated the event – Larry Moore, Mark Samworth, Suzy Coblentz and Oscar Buenrostro. Sessions that were presented in English were translated into Spanish.

"I would like to thank and congratulate all the staff of Esko for organizing the seminar. It was certainly very helpful and we intend to use all that we learned," comments Sandro Ribeiro, responsible for Production Technology at CCL Label.

"Congratulations to a very well-run seminar. Both of us who participated from our company were very pleased with the level of instruction," remarks Alvin Flores, The Intermarket Group.

Many of the attendees have expressed interest in attending seminars of similar, or different content in the future. While other topics are being developed, Esko will be conducting a similar seminar at The Sonoco Institute during the early spring of 2013. Those who are interested can contact Julian Fernandez directly, at [email protected].