There are professional tools available to create internationally standardized PDF files. You may be creating PDF/X standard files right out of Indesign or Acrobat Distiller, but is your colour standardized? Can you rely on your separated CMYK PDF files to reproduce correctly?
Crossroads Automation lists several partners in colour optimization and standardization. Elpical, Alwan, Apago, Callas and Perfect Proof all appear on the community website. With many choices available, there is a solution for every workflow and every budget.
Elpical Claro offers automated enhancement for images embedded inside PDF files. ICC colour conversions are also setup and automated. Claro performs detailed analysis of images to ensure the quality of sharpness, brightness, contrast, colour balance, natural greens and skin tones.
Alwan has several optimization products built around its ColorHub server software. PDF Standardizer and CMYK Optimizer in such flavors as prepress, press, eco and photo. These tools are all-in-one preflight, optimize and standardize using international colour standards. Higher-end versions supply tools for UCR, GCR and profiling. Alwan software is designed to create reproducible PDF files and problem-free images for printers.
Apago PDF Enhancer not only provides ICC profile support for colour conversion, but also manages fonts and file compression to create manageable PDF files. There are controls to allow precise conversions from one CMYK profile to another CMYK profile.
Callas PDF Toolbox Server, now at version 4 is another all-in-one product. With the ability to perform preflight, automatic correction and even imposition, this automation tool also has a Device-Link tool for repurposing files. Callas preflight technology is the same technology available in Adobe Acrobat Professional preflight.
ProofMaster from Perfect Proof creates out-of-the-box contract proofs in line with the ISO 12647 and other industry colour standards. It is a flexible, all-purpose proof management system using Enfocus certified PDF technology. The PDF and the proof are linked by an embedded code in the PDF file, which appears on the proof. This system can be used by all printing industries. It contains a calibration module, editing module and RIP module. A 1-bit module can also be added as well as a profiling module.
The products listed above provide enough choice in technology to advance any workflow by standardizing colour and removing the uncertainty that exists in PDF print production. What is even more outstanding is that they all plug into workflow automation tools.
There is an Enfocus Switch configurator for each of these products to integrate directly into a fully automated workflow.
Switch configurators basically link to the actual software on your system. Some will direct files into queues, launch the software with chosen settings or just perform tasks on the way to the press or platemaker. Add them to the full line of Adobe Creative Suites configurators, the power of scripting and metadata, and you can see why the automation revolution is getting larger and larger.
Many tools required to standardize colour are available now to all our industries, from content creators to packaging to digital printing. International standards are built into our software and our workflow packages. There is nothing stopping the industry from achieving reliable standardized colour.
