80% of people use generic ICC profiles, which means they only get about 15% of the potential of having a machine-specific profile, said Best director of sales and marketing, Wilfried Kampe. Ink-jet characterisation at the moment needs expert knowledge, when in fact it should be a no-brainer.

Colormanager guides the user through the steps needed to make each profile using wizards.

Kampe claimed that the new Colormanager could create better proofer profiles than other colour profiling software.

If you create a profile with a third-party product it doesnt have the same amount of data it doesnt know the ink-limits and other details, he said. Ours is not a profiling tool, its a tool for quality management and qualification.

Best has developed a 44-patch test chart that is small enough to run on all jobs on press, easier to measure than the 900-plus patches on an IT8 and, it claims, produces better results.

Colormanager is included as part of Bests Premium bundles for ColorProof and its dot proofing product Screenproof. Premium Suite bundle adds Remoteproof, Bests tool for verifying proof accuracy and for sending files for remote proofing and a spectrophotometer.

Best has also launched Screenproof 4-up, a lower-cost version of its halftone proofing RIP that is limited to printers up to 24in wide.

Contact: www.bestcolor.com.

Story by Barney Cox