Monthly Archives: May 2011

Colour management: an overview

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This latest segment of colour confidence blog posts will link to information from our Learning Centre, and hopefully give you an insight into a range of topics you may find a bit puzzling!

First stop is colour management itself; what is it exactly, and why do you need it?

“Have you ever wondered why your digital camera pictures don’t look the same when displayed on your monitor? Or why they look different again when printed out? The answer is that no two devices display colour in the same way. Every device has its own colour range or gamut. Every camera and scanner captures colour differently. Even two
monitors of the same model and type will display slightly different results.

“To keep your colour consistent from device to device, you need colour management. At the heart of colour management is the process of profiling (also known as ICC profiling). By profiling a device, you can ensure it is displaying colour correctly within its capabilities, based on industry standards. Once the profiles are in place, you can make sure colour is reproduced in the same way by all devices – to put it simply, you can get your printer to create a print that looks as close as possible to the picture on your monitor.

“While this may sound complicated, most colour management products are designed to make the process as simple as possible, using automation and easy to use, wizard-based software. In as little as ten minutes, you could profile your entire system.”

So, colour management is the process to help you keep colour accurate and consistent throughout your workflow. But what ways are there to introduce or commence the colour management process?

There are 3 primary ways to help you get accurate colour:

  1. Profiling your monitor
  2. Profiling your printer
  3. Profiling your camera

All three have their own solutions, and all three have their own processes to help you achieve accurate colour. Crucially though; when these methods are combined – you start getting incredible results.

Want to know more about the why and the how to start profiling – download our colour management pdf which explains the processes a little further.

You can then check back to colorconfidence.com to see which solutions might be best for you.

Happy profiling!

Adam Borriello
Social media & marketing

Noritsu and Neolt – who are they??

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Color Confidence have recently announced that they have taken on distribution of two new brands, Noritsu and Neolt.

If you’re thinking that these might be two new pieces of software or a colour management devices that you might be interested in but haven’t heard of yet, then you’re a bit off the mark!

First lets start with Noritsu.

Noritsu are a Japanese manufacturer of the worlds best mini labs. In basic terms, Noritsu are the people behind the printing of your photos!

If you go into high street labs, and pro-labs across the country then there is a good chance your photos, or photo books are being printed on a Noritsu machine.

Noritsu are renowned for producing the highest quality mini labs – both wet and dry.

Color Confidence is now the distributor for these machines and consumables, meaning we are building closer ties with labs to help them get a more colour accurate workflow. This should mean that the images you get back from your local lab will be better quality.

So if your not happy with the colour of your prints – tell your local lab to choose a Noritsu, or choose a lab who uses Noritsu.


And what about Neolt?

Ever wondered how signmakers produce banners that cover huge billboards, and how shops produce Point of Sale banners of eye-popping quality?

The world of wide-format printing is an astonishing place – we attended Sign and Digital UK this year, and there are printing machines that make the downstairs of my house look very small!

Neolt are an Italian manufacturer of wide-format printers, who, bucking the trend, manufacture their equipment in Italy (rather than the far east), and additionally use all European components.

This approach delivers the highest quality printers, and allows users to print outstanding quality wide-format output on a whole range of different media, be it standard ink on paper, or even Perspex.

Neolt is a new brand in the UK, despite being manufactured In Italy since 1941.

Once again, Color Confidence as distributor are looking to show the UK market the quality of these machines, and then bring our own added value of outstanding colour reproduction, to ensure that Neolt users are renowned for producing the most accurate and impressive images in the market.

For more information, check out:

www.noritsu.co.uk
www.neoltdigital.com

Javan Bramhall
Marketing manager