Best Practices
Monitors: is sRGB still standard?
Last year, I got a new monitor at work, a 4K monitor, nice! My regular job (the one that pays the bills) is not in the printing industry, so ‘color’ is not at the top […]
Strategic Insights
Should we ditch Lab colors and fall in love with LCh?
For as long as I can remember, the primary unambiguous, device-independent way to describe, define colors is in Lab (CIELAB, L*a*b*). But even after so many decades, I still struggle to ‘feel’ the a- and […]
Strategic Insights
New document setup: we need a new, different approach
Earlier this week, I posted on LinkedIn why, according to me, designers might not be familiar with color spaces and document profiles. It generated a lot of discussion… Going from “designers should not be bothered […]
Best Practices
Move over PDF/X-1a
Stop using a 20-year-old standard!
It was a surprise when I read the recent message from the GWG: ‘Stop using a 20-year-old standard’! My first reaction was: what??? The GWG promotes standards! But then I noticed the ‘20’, and it […]
Best Practices
Sharing your brand color guide publicly:
worst or best practice?
Brands are proud of their brand logo and their brand colors. They spend a lot of time and money to get that perfect logo. And a lot of time is spent on creating a brand […]
Best Practices
A crucial new job profile:
The CxC (Color eXchange Coordinator)
Initially, I had planned to write an article about two issues I spotted in Black Friday publicity folders I received last week. Two issues that could have easily been prevented with a little bit […]
Strategic Insights
Always put numbers in context!
(the next Landa Nano celebration)
Here’s an important lesson for life: always put numbers in context. E.g., the fact that I own 20 billion dollars. Unfortunately, it’s Zimbabwean dollar, which is worthless. (*) And with that in mind: what’s up […]
Strategic Insights
ECG: brand owners want it!
As I showed in the previous article, ECG printing (expanded or extended color gamut) is feasible from a technological point of view. Even more: it has lots of benefits. And guess what: most brand […]
Strategic Insights
ECG Printing: The Perfect Storm is near
When looking at packaging printing, ECG (expanded or extended gamut printing) is hot. Many people are talking about it, and the promises seem convincing: you can simulate much more brand colors with a set of […]
Strategic Insights
CSRD: the end of useless press checks and the quest for tiny tolerances?
With the vacation approaching, here’s something to think about: CSRD, the ‘corporate sustainability reporting directive’ and how this will affect print, and more specifically: press checks and tiny tolerances… Your first response might be that […]
Strategic Insights
The color deviation nobody is talking about…
Brand owners demand lower color deviations, with myths and unproven claims being their main argument. Recently I heard that 1,5 dE00 should be the norm, which is not necessary, in my opinion. A box of […]
Best Practices
How long should a visual press check take?
(a few seconds vs. as long as it takes)
Earlier this year, I published an article with studies showing how long consumers interact with a package while shopping. On average, the ‘Total Fixation Duration’ was less than a second. Coca-Cola cans? One-tenth of a […]
Strategic Insights
Not all CxF is created equal:
it comes in several flavors
When talking about brand colors, and brand color reproduction, many people are looking at CxF as the way to go. It is also one of the directions Project BBCG shows for sharing brand color specifications. […]
Strategic Insights
“Project BBCG is good, but only for tech-savvy designers” – Au contraire, my friends! Plus: opportunities for printers, prepress houses
In a recent discussion on LinkedIn, someone said that Project BBCG is a good system, but only for tech-savvy designers. While I agree with the first part, I strongly disagree with the second: it’s even […]
Strategic Insights
How broken is color?
You may have seen some posts on LinkedIn about the latest Pantone guides, about issues with those guides. Many people shared pictures of differences between old and new guides, we discovered homeopathic-level ink formulations (which […]