- The Doctor is in - David Crowther
- The Doctor is in - David Crowther
Printers now have new standards to meet when it comes to colour, after the latest revision to the ISO 12647-2 hit presses late last year. David Crowther, the self-styled 'Colour Doctor', is on hand at Colour Graphic Services to help printers bring their systems up to scratch, win business and get serious about colour.
The latest benchmark digs deeper into print substrates and provides the sharpest standard for colour quality in the market, almost ten years since the certification's last major overhaul. According to Crowther, as the industry takes up the new standard it will become essential for serious sheetfed and web offset printers to become compliant with the new updates.
Crowther goes on to add that, “Although it’s an offset standard, this has broad implications across our whole industry and can also work in digital press workflows, including wide-format.”
The International Standards Organisation released this most recent update - ISO 12647-2:2013 (Third Edition) - on 15th December last year. Since the standard was established in 1996, there have only been two prior revisions, in 2004, with an amendment in 2007. The new ISO has been updated to better reflect current paper types in the market, with eight print substrates clearly defined.
Crowther continues: "Importantly, optical brightening agents (OBAs) added to proofing and offset printing paper have long been an issue when it comes to accurate measurement and D50 or D65 viewing. OBAs tend to fluoresce. ISO 12647-2:2013 draws on the lighting standard ISO 3664:2009 and ISO 13655:2009 for spectral measurement, taking into account OBAs much more than the previous standards. This in turn will affect ICC profiles and characterisation data. The result will be a much more reliable proof-to-print match with OBA-enhanced papers and even some inks that exhibit fluorescence.
"It's very technical, but put simply, OBAs are added by paper manufacturers to achieve 'whiter-than-white' backgrounds and brighter colours - just like some washing powders! Because they reflect a lot of UV, they fluoresce and can fool spectral measurement devices which is why we sometime use UV-cut filters. However, there has never been a universally accepted standard reference for UV cut (and polarisation) filtration on spectrophotometers."
Colour Graphic Services was set up by Crowther in 2011 to supply tools for colour management including X-Rite measuring instruments and software, JUST Normlicht standardised lighting systems, Pantone products and Eizo colour-accurate monitors. Crowther also holds CHROMAtrain courses for small groups, teaching colour management techniques.