On 13 June 2017, GMG announced OpenColor 2.1—a new release of its award-winning multichannel profiling software especially useful for packaging proofing. OpenColor 2.1 now offers a measurement capability for custom patches. Whereas previously customers would require a specific test chart to create a color profile, GMG OpenColor 2.1 enables the measurement of full-tone patches from a print control strip, or even solid patches and tint patches on the running printed sheet and to create a profile from the captured spectral data, something it claims that no other profiling tool can achieve.
Automatic detection of optical brighteners
The second key development in GMG’s OpenColor 2.1 is the inclusion of a detection tool for optical brighteners, which overcomes the issue customers face when they want to create a profile for a substrate and find that the proof doesn’t match the print as it hasn’t taken account of the optical brighteners in the substrate. However, when a customer measures a test chart, mini-strip or patches using GMG OpenColor 2.1, the software identifies optical brighteners in the substrate and recommends the correct measuring mode settings and the use of a proofing paper that also contains optical brighteners (e.g., GMG ProofMedia OBA series).
Peter Schoeffler, product manager at GMG, comments, “GMG OpenColor has become the indispensable profiling solution for any package printer or company printing spot colors on materials such as ceramics, tissue or beverage cans. For color-accurate proofing of spot color overprints, GMG OpenColor is the only available solution. Customers are now able to precisely predict spot colors and the interaction between them. It even allows them to create a profile from any measurement captured from a running print job.”
According to Schoeffler, customers can now expect turnaround times reduced by up to 50%, set-up times decreased by up to 30%, characterization runs reduced or even eliminated, and fewer plates required, meaning less waste and increased profits.”
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
– Naresh Khanna
Subscribe Now 
