5 Reasons You Should Use a Spectrophotometer

Are you leveraging benchmark processes and technologies to reduce costs and streamline color measurement and management for minimum waste and rework? Here are 5 reasons a spectrophotometer can bring your color measurement and management to benchmark levels.

1. When you measure color with a spectrophotometer, the spectral data you get is like the DNA of that color.

Anything that can be done with a densitometer can be done with a spectrophotometer; but the reverse is not true. Densitometers are good at checking density on process colors but they actually don’t see colors at all. Spectral data is extremely valuable for anyone in the printing trades because it gives great guidance on things like whether it is possible to hit a color with the current ink mix, or predicting how the color will look under different lighting.

Spectrophotometer data is the DNA of color and can capturing the target color DNA at the point of approval. For example, if a printing company measures a standard when the operator knows that it is right, the company will no longer have to worry about standards fading, working out data prints, or finding the signed off copy in that overstuffed filing cabinet!!

2. Spectrophotometers are now more affordable and deliver a fast ROI.

Warren Werbitt, Founder and Chief Fisherman at Montreal’s Pazazz Printing, put it best when he said, “While we tend to think in terms of cash flow and ROI when making business purchases, from my perspective, having the best possible instrumentation is non-negotiable. It is a tool, not a capital investment, and I find it more valuable to think of the spend in terms of the cost per job. For example, if I spend $8,000 on an instrument and process 3,000 jobs per year, the cost translates to about $3 per job in the first year you own the instrument. Clearly, the ability to reduce waste on each and every job by using proper instrumentation to measure and manage color will save much more than $3 per job in paper alone, to say nothing of labor and other related costs.”

3. Relying on visual evaluation of color is risky. Spectrophotometers see color drift long before the human eye can.

With today’s spectrophotometers, not only can more accurate spectral values be measured, but companion software can inform the press operator of exactly what needs to be done with ink key settings in order to ensure appropriate ink densities and/or to bring color back into tolerance, often before shifts are even visible to the human eye.

The human eye is not an effective evaluator of color. The way that we perceive color depends on many factors that are changeable – time of day, how tired we are, what our blood sugar level is, genetic factors, age and much more. By contrast, a spectrophotometer is extremely consistent. This device can simulate the way humans see color without the confusion of color vision anomalies. Spectrophotometers don’t have bad days. They don’t get tired or emotional. Background colors don’t influence their perception. As long as it’s properly maintained and used correctly, a spectrophotometer will give you accurate color data, time after time.

4. You don’t need a data mining expert to interpret and act on spectral data.

Printing companies and packaging converters that use spectrophotometers to monitor and control their printing operations can find gold in those numbers if they do a little data mining. This is not to say that a data mining expert is needed to accomplish this. Today’s instruments and software make data analytics and comparisons easy through the use of clear graphics and enterprise-wide consistency in collection and communication methods.

Print managers and shop personnel don’t need to pore over rows and columns of numbers to unravel a measured color’s DNA or try to understand the exact color that a customer wants. The whole number-crunching process has been standardized and automated so print shop personnel can access the spectral data of a color specified by the customer through the Internet, then compare that data with the measured color that is being printed on the shop floor. New software programs make those comparisons easy through the use of clear graphics. “One nice thing about today’s software for spectral data is that instead of looking at rows and columns of numbers that represent the wavelengths of reflected light that make up a color, you’re getting a graph that gives practical, understandable information — information that clearly shows what changes an operator may need to make on the sheet to produce a consistent color,” says Brian Ashe, ESKO color expert.

Using spectral data is just the next evolution in the pressroom.

5. Think Ink.

A spectrophotometer is also useful in the ink kitchen to check the quality of incoming inks and to validate ink formulations. Let’s face it: If the ink color is wrong, it doesn’t really matter what you do on press, the color will still be wrong.

Many ink kitchens are managing thousands of colors. And it is not the norm to evaluate the accuracy of new colors as ink is received, nor to assess whether a new customer-specific color can be met by existing ink inventories.

Using a spectrophotometer in conjunction with ink formulation software enables printers to provide ink suppliers with very specific guidance and to check incoming supplies for compliance. This combination can also make it easier to use leftover inks, reducing overall ink inventory.

By taking spectral measurements of both wet and dry ink samples, ink technicians can build a baseline against which to measure performance, from job to job and within the same job.

Isn’t It Time?

In a recent color management survey conducted by X-Rite, one respondent summed it up by saying, “Color accuracy is everything—you can’t produce a good job without it being accurate. We do a lot of high-end work and often have to match printed images to physical objects like bed sheets or shoes. We have to make sure that what’s on the piece of paper matches.”

By introducing a spectrophotometer into the production workflow, prepress and pressroom operators can quickly and easily ensure that color matches customer expectations – using the DNA of the color and taking emotion and opinion out of the process. Whether you are matching digital standards, or physical standards, or producing a customer’s colors across a variety of jobs and over a span of time, you can count on your spectrophotometer to ensure that you are producing color right the first time, right every time. You’ll have happier customers, faster review cycles, less need for press checks and a significant reduction in waste and rework.

Isn’t it time you added a spectrophotometer to the mix?