By Digital Output Staff
Maintaining a color standard is expected for any print application. Digitally printed wallcoverings are color specific—whether requested by a retailer, brand owner, or interior designer. Often multiple panels of material must match across the entire project.
Tools from spectrophotometers, color profiling software, and light viewing boxes keep printers at their peak performance, helping to achieve consistent color.
Above: Techkon offers the all-in-one SpectroDens 4 spectrodensitometer to help control process, spot, Pantone, or other critical brand colors by measuring solid ink density, percentage of dot area, CIE Lab, and deltaE.
Focus on Color
Color management is critical for any application. When you have a campaign that involves multiple applications, substrates, and placement of said applications, it becomes even more important.
“Color management is a key factor in all digital printing applications. Bringing out the widest gamut from the combination of printer, media, ink set, and ink type is the goal of all RIPs in the market,” stresses Luigi Ostani, application specialist EMEA, Caldera. RIP manufacturers like Caldera strive to offer ease of color management through their solutions.
Effective color management “forms the bedrock for achieving consistent desired outcomes. Poorly managed color and printing processes introduce unpredictability, making it challenging, if not impossible, to get predictable results that match between applications and print runs over time,” shares Max Derhak, principal scientist, Onyx Graphics, Inc.
“Achieving consistent and accurate color across various materials is essential for maintaining brand identity, repeatability, and visual appeal,” attests Karl Norman, application specialist, textile and large format digital printing, PrintFactory.
Wallcoverings necessitate attention to color. “Intricate patterns, fine details, or vibrant colors are often the most color critical. Additionally, factors such as the type of media used and whether the application is intended for interior or exterior placement can impact color accuracy,” continues Norman.
Certain wallcoverings pose more significant color management challenges than others. “Those with intricate designs or subtle color gradients demand meticulous attention to color accuracy. Additionally, high-visibility areas, such as commercial interiors or exterior installations, require precise color reproduction to ensure vibrant and long-lasting colors,” explains Lou Prestia, product manager, X-Rite Inc.
According to Steve Rankin, director of product management, Techkon USA, the most color critical wallcoverings are any with less saturated colors and pastels. “This is because deviations in near neutral colors are very perceptible to the human eye, more so than saturated colors. Even slight differences between rolls would immediately stand out.”
Wallcovering projects generally involve panels of media—and each must match up according to the original design. “Color must be consistent from one panel to the next,” suggests Bobby Cagle, North America sales director, SAi. “You do not want one panel to be red and the next one to be pinkish or orangeish.”
“You cannot have the start of your wallpaper roll look any different from the end. When you put one layer of paper down, the next one beside it needs to look the same. It is also desirable to buy a match to the original maybe a year later, so the color management needs to be able to reproduce historic jobs with significant accuracy,” says Paul Edwards, VP of the digital division, INX International Ink Co.
Prestia agrees. “Customers typically acquiring multiple rolls or packages for their initial application and potentially purchasing additional material of the same design for future expansions or replacements look for consistency in color. Any deviation between packages or rolls becomes glaringly apparent once the wallcovering is installed. This requirement for color uniformity holds true whether it’s the initial purchase or subsequent acquisitions for the same location.”
As this application generally involves a large volume of media, avoiding waste is high on the list of priorities. “When it comes to wallcoverings, scale matters significantly. Large-scale projects can result in substantial waste if reprinting becomes necessary, especially considering the expense of wallcovering material,” admits Matt Crawford, CEO, Onyx Graphics, Inc.
Preventing a Match
It’s good to be aware of what pitfalls may prevent a desired color match, especially when it comes to wallcoverings.
“Substrate variations, environmental conditions, and differences in printing technologies can contribute to color discrepancies. Understanding and addressing these factors is crucial for successful color management,” lists Norman.
Substrates and ink go hand in hand. “Consider substrate variation in ink spread or absorbency, or even white point. The ink color variance could be too high from batch to batch. The printer may come out of calibration over time and put down different amounts of ink. Temperature variations in the work environment can occur or within the printer, leading to different amounts of ink being put down during a print run,” shares Edwards.
Other challenges to note, according to Derhak, “are printing on different printers with varying ink sets, resulting in color matches under specific lighting conditions but not others due to non-spectral matching or fluorescence of media or inks. Another is the variability in the printing process, especially for long prints, which may result in mismatches between adjacent strips or panels of the wallpaper.”
Environmental factors like lighting conditions “can significantly alter the perception of color. Accounting for these variables ensures consistency in color appearance across different environments,” says Crawford.
“Colors can look different in light types such as sunlight, LED lamps, and fluorescent bulbs. Ink types can look different in the same lighting,” adds Edwards.
Products that Get Results
Color profiling software, spectrophotometers, and light boxes are used to achieve accurate and consistent color in wallcoverings. As are well-cared for printers, ink sets, and quality media.
“Products should be viewed in controlled lighting and measurement conditions. The printer should be measured daily using control targets to ensure proper calibration within specific tolerances. Depending on the variety of images, a standard target could be used or custom targets can be designed to focus on critical colors,” suggests Javier Robles, director of technical service, INX International.
Color calibration modules found in RIP solutions can offer “guided and very easy-to-use procedures for creating ICC profiles optimized for the type of media, ink, and printing mode used. Sometimes this also incorporates several color libraries for automatic and optimized reproduction of spot colors. It is also possible to leverage this to create custom color libraries to ensure perfect replicability over time,” shares Ostani.
“Calibration plays a role in maintaining consistency over time. Regular calibration of printing devices is essential for achieving predictable, accurate, and reproducible results,” notes Crawford.
Creating profiles is necessary for success. “Profiling for purpose is crucial in wallcovering applications to ensure the most economical printing. They not only address color but also encompass mode settings, resolution, speed, and other parameters essential for optimized output,” suggests Crawford.
“To further enhance color consistency, creating ICC profiles tailored to the substrate, print system, consumables, and printer configuration is critical. Custom ICC output profiles are essential to match color over time based on the specific mechanical characteristics and the environmental operating conditions of each printing machine,” agrees Prestia.
“Regular calibration and profiling help maintain accurate color reproduction, even in changing production environments, leading to satisfied customers and reduced waste,” continues Norman.
Additionally, “once in production, handheld spectrophotometers and color quality software solutions will provide feedback to operators that is actionable at runtime and ensures that the color stays on track throughout production,” says Rankin.
Light boxes and other lighting tools are advantageous. “The impact of lighting on color cannot be overlooked. While daylight or D50 lighting is standard in traditional graphic arts workflows, considering alternative lighting conditions such as LED sources may be necessary, particularly for wallcoverings used in commercial or retail settings,” advises Prestia.
Other tools noted for their advantage in relation to wallcoverings involve ink savings and color checks. “Typically, those who produce in the digital wallcoverings arena also need to keep production costs down because of the high volumes,” shares Ostani. Ink savings tools are helpful here as they work without comprising the quality of the final result.
And since wallcoverings might be longer runs, “it is also useful to check color consistency from the beginning to end of the printing production process. Solutions like Caldera allow for printing out a color strip and checking the result with a connected spectrophotometer,” adds Ostani.
Also nothing helps more than a good printer, one that has properly undergone specific and expected maintenance. “Having a printer that is in excellent condition as far a printheads and quality ink, making sure your ink is not out of date and all nozzles are firing correctly is a big step in assuring color consistency,” notes Cagle.
Working with any or all of these tools “allow printers to customize profiles for their substrates and their print conditions. Someone printing in FL will need a very different profile than someone in UT for example because of humidity and temperature variations,” admits Cagle.
In the End
Color management is critical for applications like wallcoverings.
“Ultimately, the bottom line in wallcovering color management is achieving predictability, accuracy, economy, and reproducibility in output. These elements are fundamental to meeting customer expectations and optimizing efficiency in wallcovering production,” explains Crawford.
While each application has its own intricacies, wallcoverings present unique challenges in their large volumes of media and panels that must be matched instantaneously, or even months/years down the road when a replacement piece needs to be installed.
Print providers need to ensure that predictability happens each and every time a print is run, or their reputation is on the line. To achieve this, tools like color profiling software, spectrophotometers, and light boxes are used.
May2024, Digital Output
