Test Targets 7.0: A Collaborative effort exploring the use of scientific methods for color imaging and process control

Test Targets is a culmination of teaching and learning that reflects quality and analytic aspects of printing systems and their optimization. The creation of the Test Targets publication is a total experience that reflects the innovation, problem solving, and teamwork of the diverse team of faculty, staff, students, and professionals responsible for its contents and production

Test targets 5.0: A Collaborative effort exploring the use of scientific methods for color imaging and process control

Test Targets is about scholarship that intimately involves faculty and students in the process of writing and publishing. It is a collection if research papers that require collaborative effort over a time span of three academic quarters. Initially, students learned metrology, color management system, and the use of test targets for device optimization and process control. As time goes by, students are encouraged to identify research topics, formulate methodologies, and carry out experiments and data analyses in order to have specific findings. - p.

A Study of High-Chroma Inks for Expanding CMYK Color Gamut

The number of possible reproducible colors in a printing method is called the color gamut. The need to satisfy the growing quality demands and produce color match has given rise to the use of expanded color gamuts. There are many ways to achieve an expanded color gamut, including printing with Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (CMYK) plus additional inks, printing with higher ink film thickness (IFT), and printing with high-chroma inks. The purpose of this research is to study the relationship between color gamut volume, metric chroma (C*), IFT, and solid ink density (SID) for regular and high-chroma inks in offset printing process. This is done by performing ink drawdowns to understand the behavior of high-chroma and regular inks in order to determine IFT and corresponding ink saturation densities using the Tollenaar and Ernst equation. Subsequently, the research compares color gamut volume between regular and high-chroma inks using Presstek 52DI offset printing process. The measurement is carried out with i1 Pro 2 spectrophotometer and X-Rite i1 Isis2

Test Targets 4.0: A Collaborative effort exploring the use of scientific methods for color imaging and process control

Test Target 4.0 (TT4.0) is the result of student teamwork to publish a technical journal for a graduate-level course titled: Advance Color Management (Course no. 2081-735-03). Offered by the School of Print Media (SPM) at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), the course is a platform to experiment and to realize a new digital imaging paradigm and the dynamics of teamwork.... Team members learn scientific methodology in process control for repeatable color as well as apply ICC-based color management practices in digital workflows. They plan and conduct press run analyses reported in TT4.0, which is printed using facilities available at RIT. In producing this publication, the team learns to integrate design, content creation, digital media, and print production in a seamless workflow.... -p. 4

Test Targets 8.0: A Collaborative effort exploring the use of scientific methods for color imaging and process control

Publishing is both a journey and a destination. In the case of Test Targets, the act of creating and editing content, paginating and managing digital assets, represents the journey. The hard copy is the result or destination that readers can see and touch. Like the space exploration program, everyone saw the spacecraft that landed on the moon. It was the rocket booster that made the journey from the earth to the moon possible. This article portrays the process of capturing ideas in the form of digital data. It also describes the process of managing digital assets that produces the Test Targets publication

Test Targets 10: A Collaborative effort exploring the use of scientific methods for color imaging and process control

Th ere are six papers that were written, peer reviewed, and published in Test Targets 10. Two papers focus on printing standardization and conformity assessment. Chung describes aims and tolerances specified in ISO 12647-2 and the use of color measurement and data analysis for conformity assessment. Urbain and Khoury describe data reception requirements in ISO 12647-2 and ISO 15930 and the use of a test pdf file to assess conformity of any pdf workflow. Test Targets 10 will likely be remembered as the publication that covers OBA (optical brightening agents). Two papers focus on OBA. Tian and Chung report the effect of paper containing OBA on printed colors and how such effect can be corrected using different mathematics. Sigg and Millward report the stability of OBA as a function of exposure to light over time. In addition, Gallery of Visual Interest shows side-by-side the visual effect of pictorial and synthetic color images printed on paper with and without OBA. Printing conformity is result-oriented and does not dictate the press calibration method used. The fifth paper, authored by Wang, compares the compatibility of two press calibration methods, TVI and G7, by means of gradation compensation and press run simulation. Printing conformity requires that correct inks and paper be used. Verifying that correct inks are used is outside the capability of a printer. Th e sixth paper, authored by Zhang, explores an alternative ink drawdown and ink verification method that could be implemented by printers. Test Forms is a regular feature of Test Targets. We are pleased to showcase pictorial color reference images, Roman 16 Reference Images, courtesy of Bundesverband Druck und Medien e.V. (bvdm), and many possible uses of these images for printing process control and for color management studies. For example, we can compare the appearance of an image printed from the supplied CMYK file with the image from a supplied RGB file that was converted to CMYK by a color management application

Test Targets 6.0: A Collaborative effort exploring the use of scientific methods for color imaging and process control

Test Targets is a collection of scholarly papers contributed by faculty, students, and alumni of Rochester Institute of Technology. We realize the importance of having faculty set examples as authors for students to follow. We have a three-course sequence over a time span of a year to prepare students to publish their first articles when completing Tone and Color Analysis, Printing Process Control, and Advanced Color Management. In this instance, Test Targets 6.0 is a part of the course content in the Advanced Color Management course

N-colour separation methods for accurate reproduction of spot colours

In packaging, spot colours are used to print key information like brand logos and elements for which the colour accuracy is critical. The present study investigates methods to aid the accurate reproduction of these spot colours with the n-colour printing process. Typical n-colour printing systems consist of supplementary inks in addition to the usual CMYK inks. Adding these inks to the traditional CMYK set increases the attainable colour gamut, but the added complexity creates several challenges in generating suitable colour separations for rendering colour images. In this project, the n-colour separation is achieved by the use of additional sectors for intermediate inks. Each sector contains four inks with the achromatic ink (black) common to all sectors. This allows the extension of the principles of the CMYK printing process to these additional sectors. The methods developed in this study can be generalised to any number of inks. The project explores various aspects of the n-colour printing process including the forward characterisation methods, gamut prediction of the n-colour process and the inverse characterisation to calculate the n-colour separation for target spot colours. The scope of the study covers different printing technologies including lithographic offset, flexographic, thermal sublimation and inkjet printing. A new method is proposed to characterise the printing devices. This method, the spot colour overprint (SCOP) model, was evaluated for the n-colour printing process with different printing technologies. In addition, a set of real-world spot colours were converted to n-colour separations and printed with the 7-colour printing process to evaluate against the original spot colours. The results show that the proposed methods can be effectively used to replace the spot coloured inks with the n-colour printing process. This can save significant material, time and costs in the packaging industry

An Analysis of the art image interchange cycle within fine art museums

The art image interchange cycle is the procedure carried out by fine art museums in reproducing fine artwork --starting with the imaging of the original work, then digital processing, and lastly, repurposing for output to achieve a high-quality replica in a range of possible media. There are many areas of importance within this process, such as digital image processing, standardization, test targets use, and color management. This research has sought to analyze the fine art image interchange through understanding the background areas and how they apply, as well as benchmarking what museums are already doing with the intention of improving and standardizing the process. Upon completion of an adequate background study of the literature (concentrated on color management theory, test targets use, and fine art reproduction) this research focused on four main areas. First, a review of international standards was established and how they can be used to benefit museums. Second, a review of test targets was conducted and how best they can be implemented in fine art reproduction. Third, a number of museum workflows were benchmarked and documented - a workflow experiment was created and implemented for documentation purposes (and future image quality analysis). Lastly, a case study was conducted of a local fine art museum\u27s process of creating a fine art catalog, to better understand an average museum\u27s fine art image interchange. The research concluded that the practice of standardization could be improved within museums. As far as test targets, there was a large range of understanding and use. The benchmarking of three museums was completed, and it was determined that the process of documenting workflow was a difficult task to have implemented. Lastly, in x the case study, much was gained through the interviews, placing a great importance on communication, planning, and standardization

Navigating the roadblocks to spectral color reproduction: data-efficient multi-channel imaging and spectral color management

Commercialization of spectral imaging for color reproduction will require the identification and traversal of roadblocks to its success. Among the drawbacks associated with spectral reproduction is a tremendous increase in data capture bandwidth and processing throughput. Methods are proposed for attenuating these increases with data-efficient methods based on adaptive multi-channel visible-spectrum capture and with low-dimensional approaches to spectral color management. First, concepts of adaptive spectral capture are explored. Current spectral imaging approaches require tens of camera channels although previous research has shown that five to nine channels can be sufficient for scenes limited to pre-characterized spectra. New camera systems are proposed and evaluated that incorporate adaptive features reducing capture demands to a similar few channels with the advantage that a priori information about expected scenes is not needed at the time of system design. Second, proposals are made to address problems arising from the significant increase in dimensionality within the image processing stage of a spectral image workflow. An Interim Connection Space (ICS) is proposed as a reduced dimensionality bottleneck in the processing workflow allowing support of spectral color management. In combination these investigations into data-efficient approaches improve two critical points in the spectral reproduction workflow: capture and processing. The progress reported here should help the color reproduction community appreciate that the route to data-efficient multi-channel visible spectrum imaging is passable and can be considered for many imaging modalities