ColorGATE and Durst Phototechnik AG, one of the world's leading manufacturers of future-oriented digital production technologies, are pleased to announce their exclusive distribution partnership for the ceramic industry. A perfect symbiosis of software and hardware for further development, sales and service of the first complete solution for digital tile decoration. Manufacturers of ceramic tiles can now not only benefit from the proven quality of the Durst Gamma series, but thanks to the integration of ColorGATE's Ceramic Productionserver (CPS) also from an optimized workflow, accurate color rendering and highly efficient and color-consistent reproduction of existing wall or floor tile designs. The close cooperation with Durst Phototechnik AG ensures not only the continuous further development of the CPS, but also that it meets practical requirements.

ColorGATE and Durst: A strong partnership
The first jointly achieved results of the cooperation, which has now lasted for almost two years, can be found in version 10.30 recently released by ColorGATE. Numerous functions and work processes have been optimized and specifically developed for the needs and conditions in ceramic tile production. Thus, the CPS meets the specific requirements in tile decoration even better and also allows an easy and efficient use of the professional color management tools.

Combination of automated workflows and modern technology
By providing drivers for all devices of the Durst Gamma series for direct communication between CPS and printer, all relevant settings such as resolution or line speed for each job can be automatically transmitted with the print job. This not only provides the customer with outstanding print quality, but also an optimized and secure workflow experience. Of course, the Universal Ceramic Inkjet driver can also be used with all other Non-Durst ceramic digital printers available on the market. Durst is responsible for the technical support and training, ColorGATE will concentrate on 2nd-level support.

"After we presented our range of solutions for color consistency in digital tile decoration, consisting of the RSC colour measurement solution and the Ceramic Productionserver, at the last Tecnargilla, the technical discussion with the specialists of Durst Phototechnik AG as pioneer and technology leader led to an enormous further development of this complete solution. With Durst, we are pleased to announce an exclusive distribution partner that gives customers and interested parties worldwide access to this innovative range of solutions," says Thomas Kirschner, founder and CEO of ColorGATE.

Norbert von Aufschnaiter, Head of the Ceramics Printing Division at Durst, adds:

ColorGATE's range of solutions with the innovative and patented RSC color measuring system is the first "True Ceramics" color management solution developed and optimized especially for ceramic colors and process conditions in tile production. For the first time, this enables fast, simple and precise color matching in tile production with just a few steps, rapid production repetition with greatly reduced test runs and thus ensures minimum downtimes and an efficient workflow for various printers (Durst and Non-Durst printers) and production facilities.

CPS: Advantages at a glance

Design:

• RGB or CMYK working space profiles provide a unique approach to represent multi-channel colour spaces. These can be used for separation retouching purposes in Adobe Photoshop, ensuring correct color preview
• Paper proof printing on all leading proof printers

Color Management:

• Full range of functions to convert every color design requirement to the best possible target quality of the end product in the shortest possible time
• Easy-to-use profiling assistant with automatic error correction to minimize color errors that can lead to spoilage

Production:

• Supports all Durst Gamma Series printers
• Integrated Ink Saver function to reduce ink quantities without visible effect
• Simple design-to-line conversion to reproduce previously produced designs on different lines with
  different color sets and/or glazes without color differences
• Unique method for creating color specifications of individual decors and their color reproduction without the effort of countless adjustments

Service:

• Competent installation service and training improve the efficiency of the production team in a few days
• Comprehensive know-how in the field of digital tile decoration from the technology leaders in ceramic digital printing

Additional turnkey solution for digital ceramic decoration: Fingerprint (FPRM) and Rapid Spectro Cube (RSC)

Specific color management tools include, for example, the turnkey solutions FPRM (patented Fingerprint technology) and RSC (Rapid Spectro Cube – the only and fasted Hi-Res measuring device which can read targets printed on structured and flat tile surfaces). Up to now, ICC profiling has only been used for device-specific color characterization in order to achieve the best possible reproduction of any originals on profiled devices. Fingerprint technology extends this conventional approach of the graphic arts industry and uses a new method for synchronous design specification and print process characterization in industrial surface decoration.

It creates a fingerprint production file (.fpf) which includes a colorimetric specification of the initial print run, which later provides a reliable starting point as a digital master sample. This means that future subsequent runs can be reproduced with consistent color.

First dedicated and complete solution for digital ceramic decoration

The colorimetric marking clearly defines all color values contained in the design, such as a colored fingerprint. This enables interpolation errors during color transformation into the individual output color space of any digital printing system to be minimized for future print runs. A new consistent color printing can thus be ensured on any alternative production system or production line, provided that the alternative color space covers the specific color space of the colorimetric specification.

RSC - Ultrafast color measurement and profiling for all industrial digital printing applications

The Rapid Spectro Cube represents another revolution in the digital printing process. The RSC is a colorimetric scanning and measuring system using a high-resolution CCD sensor and is connected to ColorGATE´s Ceramic Productionserver (CPS). This combination acts as an extremely fast and highly accurate color capture system, providing color profiles for printer calibration and color characterization as well as separation profiles to automatically separate individual designs or design series into the required color channels of the respective production process or a particular production line configuration.

Furthermore, the system is able to deliver high quality scans in seconds, which can be processed with standard image processing programs. Or it clones original materials such as marble, wood or existing tile surfaces accurately in colour and directly in multi-channel file format for precise reproduction on a digital ceramic printer.

More about ColorGATE's Ceramic Productionserver can be found on our website under https://www.colorgate.com/ceramic-productionserver/.