Spot color tracker manual

Spot Color Tracker manual.

This tool is intended to track accuracy and repeatability of color reproduction  for some critical colors
(e.g. corporate colors, key colors in graphic layout etc.

Example:

Customer is asking for paying special attention on 5 colors used in corporate logo:

Spot Color Tracker can be used to evaluate how selected colors are printed in everyday production.
To track colors e dedicated control strip has to be defined. 

Important colors names:
1. ChromaChecker™ Fuchsia 
2. ChromaChecker™ Green
3. ChromaChecker™ Blue
4. ChromaChecker™ Orange
5. ChromaChecker™ Grey

En example of custom control strip ca look like this:

 

Additionally we recommend to add substrate to the list - this is not mandatory but can help to recognize
substrate influence on potential color deviation.

 
1. ChromaChecker™ Fuchsia 
2. ChromaChecker™ Green
3. ChromaChecker™ Blue
4. ChromaChecker™ Orange
5. substrate
5. ChromaChecker™ Grey

Patches on control strip can be both spot or process. In CGATS file it can look like this:

CGATS.17
ORIGINATOR“ChromaChecker”
LGOROWLENGTH2
CREATED"2015-02-19"  # Time: 16:29:49
KEYWORD"SAMPLE_ID"
KEYWORD"SAMPLE_NAME"
NUMBER_OF_FIELDS 6
BEGIN_DATA_FORMAT
SAMPLE_ID SAMPLE_NAME CMYK_C CMYK_M CMYK_Y CMYK_K
END_DATA_FORMAT
NUMBER_OF_SETS 6
BEGIN_DATA
1     ChromaChecker_Fuchsia     18    87     1    0
2     ChromaChecker_Green     64     8  100    0
3     ChromaChecke_Blue     71    16   10    0
4     ChromaChecker_Orange     15    53   99    2
5     substrate      0      0     0      0
6     ChromaChecker_Grey    22    18    17    0
END_DATA

System has to recognize custom control strip, know what are aims for all patches, and tolerances for evaluation.
All important information are stored in Environment area. 

1.
Define your printing device - if you have two or more presses or printers you have to name each with unique name
- the same which already exist in your workflow. ChromaChecker should be able to recognize all your printing devices.
To define devices go to Device Tab and click on "New Device"

2.
System requires information about colorimetric aims for all patches used for evaluation.  Go to Ink Tab and define all  
custom inks  - for Spot Color Tracker - spot and spot simulation mode are dedicated.

The difference between regular spot and spot simulations is simple: spot simulation patches are printed with typical process
inks (e.g. CMYK),  when regular spot requires custom ink and separate press unit.

3.
Select from the list or build your own control stripe. For "workflow name"  field be sure to use the same name as defined
in your measurement data capturing software. Be sure that all patches used in control strip are defined in Ink section.
L a b values have to be entered at least for measurement method used in the production - but we recommend fill
all values - a CxF definition is the most relevant.

4.
Go to Tolerances and select one set from the list, or define custom settings

5.
Go to Track section and define track - separate for each combination device / control strip.




You have to select:

Device (press or printer)
Control Strip (custom set of patches dedicated to specific evaluation)
and default Tolerances set (default values are used for pass/fail test of the Easy Mode)

Optionally Ink Set name can be defined - for tracking potential differences between different sets of inks.

Creating Track will create hot folder on FTP account - all measurement data stored in this folder will be automatically
processed with selected module - Spot Color Tracker. An Easy Mode report will be created automatically.