January is a popular time for “Top” lists. The Top 100 Songs. The Top 20 News Stories. The Top 50 Travel Destinations.
We’re looking back too, and blog readership is one area we find very interesting. Today we’ll share the Top 5 Posts of 2015, what we think they say about you – our blog readers – and how we plan to continue these popular conversations in 2016.
New in 2015: The X-Rite Pantone Customer Center at our corporate headquarters in Grand Rapids, Michigan is a great place to see our products in action.
#5 – Tolerancing in Flexo and Offset Printing
In simplest terms, a tolerance is a color difference that an owner of a job will consider good enough to approve. Manufacturers evaluate whether they are within tolerance by measuring the color they are expected to achieve and the color they produced, then comparing the color difference. To pass, the color difference must be within the acceptable tolerance.
It’s no secret why this was a popular topic. If you can’t produce color within tolerance, you won’t be in business long. We also know how complicated tolerancing can be, and we have lots of tools to help. In 2016, look for more articles on this subject.
#4 – Color Perception Part 1: The Effect of Light
This was a fun one. It started with “The Dress” (was it blue and black or white and gold?) and ended with an introduction to the role light and color memory play in how we perceive color.
When producing color, lighting is a VERY important consideration. For example, if you’re making plastic balls that appear to be the perfect color orange under the factory’s fluorescent lighting, then ship them off to the client without evaluating them under a daylight source, there’s a good chance that shipment will come right back to you because those balls will probably look much redder when they are outside.
Light booths can be an inexpensive and easy way to judge, evaluate and control color under multiple light sources. In 2016 we’ll continue sharing ways you can implement controlled lighting into your workflow.
New in 2015: The Judge QC light booth allows you to duplicate almost any lighting environment and determine how your color will look.
#3 – Establishing Flexo Process Control
Since flexographic printers can print on almost any type of substrate, from plastic to cardboard to paper, it’s a very popular reproduction method for the print and packaging industry. But with so many substrate and ink choices, and so many places where things can go wrong, establishing process control can be quite a challenge.
We love our loyal flexo printer readers, and we understand your pain. We promise to continue posting valuable information to help make your lives easier.
#2 – Color Perception Part 3: The Tricks the Environment Plays on our Eyes
Whether or not you’re in the color industry, this post was just fun! It combined a bit of elementary school science class with a few adult activities to help you prove those theories you learned long ago.
Being aware of how your eyes perceive color – and how they can be tricked – is especially important for people who are responsible for evaluating and controlling color. How long can you stare at a color before it starts to change before your eyes? Isn’t the best place to judge color next to a window so you have the most light? Funny enough, the only way to overcome visual color anomalies is to not use your eyes at all.
In 2016 we will continue talking about why spectrophotometers are the best tool for accurate color evaluation (because they are immune to our human complexities) and which is best for you.
#1 – Additive vs. Subtractive Color Models
Color Science wins! The most read and shared post of 2015 talked about additive and subtractive color models. RGB. CMYK. What do they mean? Why are they important? How do they work together, and why do they cause problems in color reproduction?
We’re so glad to know there are others who find color science as interesting as we do! We’ll keep blogging about color, what it is, where it came from, and why it’s so important.
Don’t worry about the math. We’re here to interpret.
Thanks for being a loyal reader!
Our resolution for 2016 is to continue providing the color information you need to stay competitive in your market. Stay tuned!
