Bettering Color,
Workflow Too
At Trisoft Graphics, It Means Proofing What it Prints
Bettering Color,
Off-the-shelf software and proprietary, self-engineered solutions — melding the two successfully can ease numerous burdens long associated with color management for flexography.
FTA member Trisoft Graphics, located in Costa Mesa, CA speaks from experience in supporting the statement.
This premedia services specialist has cultivated and nurtured connectivity by linking workflow and color control systems from multiple sources with born-andbred-in-house prepress capabilities. Since establishing such a series of vast connections, it’s earned a number of FTA Excellence in Flexography Awards with a current count of 10 Best of Show titles.
Here, color has, and always will, play an important part in package printing. And given growing adoption rates on multi-color printing and a resulting decrease in reliance on special inks, color management takes on increasing weight. What’s been learned?
Tristan Zafra, president of Trisoft Graphics, proudly stands at the awards wall. Inset–some of the honors bestowed, including 10 recent FTA Excellence in Flexography Awards competition Best of Shows.
Company President Tristan Zafra insists on saving customers money on press for flexible packaging and labels — from graphic design and brand management to prepress, and plate making for the packaging market. To him and his team, it’s the inspiration behind quality craftmanship.
“The goal should be quality and savings on the press,” maintains Zafra, “Sometimes it takes us longer to handle a job in a special way to get a better result. We’re all about quality, so we don’t take shortcuts. We might charge an extra hour of prepress time, but that could save the printer an hour on press setup. One of prepress time costs somewhere around $100. One hour on press could be $1,500 to $2,500 – 10-fold difference!”
DEAD-ON PROOFS
“If you study FTA Excellence in Flexography Awards entries, part of the judgment process is based on comparing the print to match print. Our match prints are almost 100 percent dead-on to the printed work,” notes Zafra.
Dating back to 1993, Trioft Graphics used both a contone digital proofing system — and a traditional proofing system, because it could do dot proofing. “The challenge with contone proofs was that, when we’d go to press and pulled the job up, it didn’t show the minimum dot gain properly. For example, it was really awkward to get control of drop shadows. The traditional proof would not match at all,” says Sonny Ombrog, IT and color manager.
“Many RIP spot color libraries are L*a*b*-based. Our system is spectral-based, so it is much more accurate. When that proof sits on the table and the film drops next to it, they look the same.”
“It put our customer in a bind, because their customers would be standing at the press and saying, “Well, look at my proof. It has this beautiful highlight, but your press has got a 10 percent gain there. We couldn’t proof it,” he explained. What drove Trisoft Graphics to a new digital proofing system a few years ago was that the new RIP could do dot proofing and render spot color accurately.
Today, nearly all the firm’s proofs are dot proofs because it uses a lot of special screening that’s part of its FlextremePLUS+ technology. “The only way to show it is with a dot proof. It relieves a lot of frustration on press. Using GMG DotProof, the screen angles, screen ruling, and dot shape, as well as the color of a proof, can be simulated accurately. We can proof what we actually print. THat’s what proofing is all about,” says Ombrog.
Sunshine FPC, working side-side-by-side with Trisoft Graphics, printed these Eton Mess with Chargrilled Dates and Apricots wrappers that won Best of Show in the wide web category of FTA’s 2021 Excellence in Flexography Awards.
ART OF INTEGRATION
Trisoft Graphics looked at different color management systems in 2016 because of its increasing production of expanded gamut (EG) work. The team found that GMG OpenColor made sense as a color engine because it clearly dovetailed into their workflow and further enhanced the capabilities of their dot proof system.
“Initially, we were using something different, that utilized larger test charts,” states Ombrong. “But with subsequent color management software upgrades from our vendors, we were able to integrate the Esko system into our GMG OpenColor data set. In fact, we still use ColorPilot to clean up the data when there are damaged patches, and use Esko’s Photoshop plug-ins for editing EG images. However, for a color engine itself for proofing, we use GMG OpenColor
“Basically, we really needed our dot proofing system to be capable of EG and then some. we were even experimenting with the ability to do multi-channel work up to 10 colors,” he adds. “The solution we put in place allows us to render spot color overprints more accurately, which is very hard to do. Many RIP spot color libraries are L*a*b*-based. Our system is spectral-based, so it is much more accurate. When that proof sits on the table and the film drops next to it, they look the same.
“We are not using a traditional color management system per se,” confesses Ombrog. “We’ve developed our own mesh of systems, from different vendors, which is quite innovative… it takes a couple of days to learn how each software function works. We want to know everything about each one, since we’re constantly thinking of ways to maximize the software to benefit us, and how to integrate it better into our proprietary workflow.”
COLOR REMAPPING
COLOR REMAPPING
Trisoft Graphics first uses color charts on clients’ presses to get a fingerprint. The results are returned to home offices, scanned and imported into the color system, and ultimately sent to the RIP. From there, the RIP references the color mapping system to understand how to proof a job.
“We also have various proprietary techniques that we developed ourselves, from building colors referencing everything we receive from fingerprinting and profiling the press, to custom spot overprints to avoid traps that the job specifies, and optimized separations and screenings that end up on our plates,” explains Ombrog.
Sunshine FPC, working side-side-by-side with Trisoft Graphics, printed these Eton Mess with Chargrilled Dates and Apricots wrappers that won Best of Show in the wide web category of FTA’s 2021 Excellence in Flexography Awards.
“For EG, we use GMG OpenColor for rendering color for proofing, but we utilize a different color management system for normal process work that integrates well with the plates. It allows us to modify a profile’s tonality, and then make a new profile from that modification. Our system is not a siloed system. With others, you have to redo a pressrun. We don’t need to do that. We still use the Esko plug-in to maximize the gamut for EG, but for 4-color process work, we use our other system.”
“Our proofing system really smooths out and produces an accurate vignette,” reports Terry Clark, VP, business development. “On a regular contone proof, you’re not going to be able to see that. It’s another level of security to know that everything is much more accurate, and we can be certain that the vignette is going to have a nice and smooth transition, with no hard lining or banding. That’s just one more thing that makes our press checks so quick and secure.”
When it converts colors from RGB to CMYK, the color remapping does help save time in prepress to fix something. For example, when the job has some vignettes, the conversion is smooth. Screen angles can also be adjusted if the team sees some interference patterns. They can rotate them slightly.
“Printing is subtractive,” mentions Clark. “We’re basically printing all of the colors you don’t want. When you think of it that way, overprints or ink trapping is really the name of the game. We are able to lay down a phenomenally thin ink film that becomes nearly transparent, and we get very high ink trapping numbers — much higher than most people do. That gives print so much vibrance because we get these wonderful RGB image colors that considerably open up the gamut. It’s what makes our print so dynamic. It’s a really sharp print with really rich, clean color –photographic quality.”
SELF-BUILT SOFTWARE
Trisoft Graphics collects all the specifications of the press, anilin and everything that any effective prepress department takes into consideration. It also comes down to control of the ink.
“We use a combination of production and color management tools. For example, we use our workflow and all its other pieces — but we also have to give a lot of credit to our own proprietary FleXtremePLUS+ and UltraHD technology,” reminds Zafra. “We use our own special screening which makes a huge difference. Our prints come out so well. We have sample after sample to show before-and-after results.
“We know each individual facility’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) are unique. For the most part, our technology ensures that continuity and consistency will continue, because we have experience with customers who have multiple plants,” says Todd Cort, VP, business development, Midwest. “Even though they utilize some internal buying or job sharing, we know that we can go to Texas, send the work to Kansas City, and we’re still going to see the same results. At the end of the day, it is the technology that differentiates us.
“Once we go to press, it’s on color immediately,” adds Cort. “There are always some gremlins in flexo — a couple of tweaks here and there, For the most part, though, if you extrapolate every single run that some of hese large printers produce, there is a massive amount of cost savings.”
A COMMON GOAL
One good example of Trisoft FleXtremePLUS+ and the UltraHD system at work is the Eton mess with Chargrilled Dates and Apricots Wrappers printed by Sunshine FPC — Best of Show from the wide web category of the 2021 FTA Excellence in Flexography Awards.
The judges commented that, “The printer pulled out all the stops: High line screen, the latest screening technology, micro text and EG. It was hard to find any flaws.”
The customer didn’t believe flexography could compete with gravure printing, so it was an uphill battle even before the project began. The customer emphasized the importance of keeping the vibrant colors strong and the fine screen work clean. It’s a challenge to accomplish both.
Trisoft Graphics’ Terry Clark (left) and Chester Chin evaluate a proof.
Running two items across with persuasive Minot transitions that drop to zero in multiple directions was a challenge. The product images contain highly controlled valued from dark to light features with fine pallid colors. The details were close to the dot proof, while holding a wide and open tonal range.”
The printer added that, “Much like an orchestra, it takes a team of committed professionals that is devoted to working together for a common goal. With parallels to great performances in music, the effort and passion came through the visual and technical achievements of the piece.”
TIME IS MONEY
Trisoft Graphics knows that coming up to color quickly saves on the cost of in, as well as press time. Printers don’t have time to experiment with color matching and getting colors consistencies. They want to get on press. With a good system the plates are in and they are running. Time is money.
Clients often notice an economic difference. “One of Terry’s customer’s press checks used to take five hours,” mentions Ombrog. “When we started working with them, the customer was out of the pressroom in less than 30 minutes.”
“Before I came to Trisoft, I was a prepress production manager at a wide web flex printer that was working with Tristan for prepress and plates,” recalls Roy Sabraw, operations manager. “We were working on an entire line of frozen fruit bags, surface printing on white poly. We had a press check scheduled for three days and I felt uneasy. We’re all at the press and, within 45 minutes, we already had the first job up and running.”
He further recalls, “We got them all off, one by one. Because the proofs matched the bags, we completed them all in one day, and the customer didn’t know what to do with all its free time because the team flew in from the East!”
“A few years ago, we worked on some dog vitamin packets,” summarizes Sabraw. “I received an email message from the print manager, saying. ‘We got this stuff to color before it was even in register.’ I took his email and framed it, and hung in on our appreciation board up in the lunchroom for all the employees to see.”
Clark cites similar experience. “I had a series of 8- and 9-color hamburger packaging — somewhere around 17 SKUs that came in from a meat company. The customer decided to remap the work to CMYK plus white. We converted all the spot colors to process inks. The customer loved it and talked about saving money. Instead of mixing all these spot colors, they just went from one job to another. It was a phenomenal savings and the trap lines and vibrant colors were great!”
Given those many odes to progress, when looking to the future, Zafra promise that Trisoft Graphics won’t sit still. “You just can’t go to sleep and think that what you’re doing will always be top of the line. We’re always looking for new technology.”
About the Author: Eric Dalton is GMG Americas director of sales – west region, based in Irvine, CA
