New color measurement system from Heidelberg

Boost automation and harness artificial intelligence

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Heidelberg
The new-generation Prinect Image Control 4 for optimum quality assurance in label and packaging printing.

The Power of Color is the slogan with which Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) has chosen to mark the start of its new financial year as it introduces extensive additions for its color measurement and control systems and for the prinect color workflow. The move is a response to the growing demands for efficient and dependable quality control in commercial, packaging, and label printing. In prinect easy control, prinect axis control, prinect image control, and prinect inpress control, Heidelberg offers the market four spectral measurement systems for print shops of all sizes and sheetfed offset presses of all performance classes.

End-to-end spectral measurement, patented color control, and a further enhanced prinect color workflow facilitate rapid, low-waste job changes, as well as quality monitoring and logging for production, runs on all Speedmaster presses. Color control based on measured spectral values is the most promising method for achieving the desired colors as quickly as possible in a commercial, label, and packaging printing. That is precisely why Heidelberg has continuously developed spectral color measurement technology.

Heidelberg
The new Prinect Easy Control offers a flexible entry-level solution for spectral color measurement technology.

“The consistent development of the entire Heidelberg spectral color measurement portfolio gives commercial and packaging print shops of all sizes the opportunity to optimize their color workflow, moving it closer to the smart print shop model – even as far as autonomous printing,” explains Jürgen Mittmann, senior manager Product Management Sheetfed at Heidelberg.

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

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