X-Rite

Colour management for print and packaging

From pre-press to production, X-Rite integrated solutions deliver excellence for colour management, formulation, quality control and automation.

According to an article in Printing Impressions, the movement of commercial printers into the packaging space is accelerating. Not all printers are destined to become package printers, but the attraction of packaging is difficult to resist. In fact, nearly three-quarters – 72% – of printers who responded to a NAPCO Research report have reported double-digit sales growth and a moderate to high demand for packaging.

With additional market drivers such as new technologies, lean manufacturing, sustainability, targeted marketing, and variable data printing, the industry needs to shift to meet demands. Packaging printers and ink manufacturers need fully integrated solutions that help manage workflow and improve productivity from conception to formulation to production to final product.

X-Rite Pantone end-to-end customisable solutions:

• Bring process control and visibility to each job to assess performance, minimise on-site press checks and reduce time spent evaluating colour.
• Achieve accurate colour, remove subjectivity, and meet rigorous standards with cloud-based software and scorecard quality control systems.
• Improve print processes and cut make ready time and waste by 40% with automated closed loop solutions.

As a trusted partner, X-Rite analyses workflows to identify areas of sophistication and recommends scaled solutions that cater to specific needs and growth opportunities to help commercial printers achieve timely and consistent colour – across every substrate and every job – every time.

Colour management for packaging converters

Customisable solutions from X-Rite Pantone provide packaging converters and film converters the capabilities and best experience to:

• Align production and brand expectations and produce colour against measured and achievable colour standards
• Reproduce accurate colour on a wide range of substrates, including liners, plastic film, adhesives, flexible packaging, laminates, digital labels, flexible plastic pouch, carton, kraft paper, paperboard, recyclable packaging, reflective and metallic substrates, and more.
• Verify and report on production quality
• Receive higher throughput on press
• Minimise the need for on-press approvals
• Decrease make ready time by more than 40%
• Reduce ink, paper, and labor waste by 50%

X-Rite Pantone's comprehensive solutions address your immediate challenges as a packaging converter. We can help you lower quality control costs, reduce time to market, remove guesswork, and unify colour communications across your entire colour workflow and the packaging manufacturer facilities and supply chain.

Colour management for commercial print

As the cost of materials continues to increase and the demand for shorter runs further impacts profitability, last minute changes, difficulty achieving customer requirements, and adhering to print specifications can feel overwhelming. Managing your process and achieving the very best colour – during specification and design, throughout formulation, on press, and in every finished product – is key. X-Rite Pantone can help you get there.

When your clients are producing marketing and promotional materials, colour has the power to break through the clutter and establish brand identity. At X-Rite Pantone, we partner with our customers to identify areas of workflow sophistication and deliver scalable solutions that cater to specific needs and growth opportunities. Our range of tools includes colour standards, software, and instrumentation to streamline workflows and produce timely and consistent colour across each substrate and every job.

Colour management for ink

Increasingly, printers and packaging converters are focused on standardising operations to reduce costs, improve quality and increase productivity. But often the ink room is overlooked in these standardisation efforts. Managing ink and ensuring both quality of incoming materials and accuracy of ink formulations are key elements of delivering good colour quality. If ink doesn't meet specifications, then all of the other standardisation work can be for naught.

Uniting the entire workflow via digital colour management and with industry leading devices is the only way to stay ahead of a growing demand for faster, more precise and accurate colour. Through dependent colour standards and best practices, you can reduce approval cycles, achieve better quality compliance, accurately formulate ink, reduce the number of on-press corrections, and increase financial savings by managing leftover inks.

Colour management for pre-media

Using X-Rite Pantone's colour measurement, management and control solutions, pre-media professionals can:

• Establish accurate spot colour proofs and create ICC profiles for every device.
• Eliminate variability to physical standards or inappropriate colour data references.
• Optimise device reproduction to achieve a more accurate colour on a variety of substrates.
• Calibrate and profile the proofer to match paper, ink, and printing conditions.