Established over twenty years ago, a leader in B2B online printing, Digital Room Inc has offered customized printing and marketing collateral to small and medium-sized businesses. Operating through a network of four manufacturing plants, the company prints and delivers over one million orders each year. They earned the trust of thousands of design and marketing professionals, with two-thirds of their business from repeat customers. 

Why did you choose ChromaChecker for your organization?

We have multiple sheetfed offset facilities in the US that print identical jobs and it's critical that the presses match to one another regardless of the location or type of press used. Our ability to assess the color conformance of our processes was hindered by the fact that our data was not centralized, and our reporting tools were limited to single sheets and jobs and were manually collected. ChromaChecker addressed all of these challenges directly by connecting to all presses in real-time using a G7 calibrated color bar which immediately allowed us to see how all the presses were printing compared to GRACoL and more importantly, to one another. ChromaChecker helped us replace our outdated, color bar which had only solids and tints with a color bar that had the necessary solids and tints but added G7 gray finders which allow us to assess G7 compliance on every job, and iterate plate curves when necessary and never doing another dedicated press run. 

What problems did you solve using ChromaChecker?

Data Collection was a huge problem. Before ChromaChecker we would have a press operator save okay sheets and notate which press they came from. Then we would cut the control strips from the sheets and mail them to a facility designated for measuring. Our next step was to sort them into meaningful groups and scan them into a press console, while at the same time using the console for production. From there we would sort the measurements and import them into desktop PCs to evaluate if we needed to update curves.

With ChromaChecker we can accomplish the same thing with no extra effort, the press operators measure their sheets during the production run as always, and ChromacChecker does the rest.

Remote fingerprints are much easier and more credible than before. Before ChromaChecker, setting targets and tolerances at the press consoles for G7 targeted metrics was tedious and incomplete, and inconsistently implemented. Also, our G7 curves were built on one dedicated press run for each press and paper stock which is very costly and not very credible to how the press always prints. Today, press operators follow the ChromaChecker reports showing the optimum densities and TVI to run on a daily basis (LJ> Today, press operators use the ChromaChecker Operator Interface displaying the optimum densities and TVI, to use as a guide for adjusting the press. ChromaChecker can use measurements from multiple jobs over multiple days to create G7 curves that are precise for the given press and paper combinations. Our color expert doesn’t have to be on-site (LJ> on-site) to guide the operator, ChromaChecker does it for them, while the color expert is watching from anywhere in the world. Air travel and all associated expenses are eliminated resulting in thousands of dollars of savings related to (LJ> by) eliminating dedicated press runs, and paying time and expenses for an expert to be on-site (LJ> on-site). This alone has saved approximately $3000 per press condition. Figuring we have 25 presses and 2 conditions per press, the savings are very impressive at $150,000. 

What in your opinion is the best feature of our software and why?

My favorite things about ChromaChecker are:

• Having E-Factor visuals to help other people in the company understand the difference between good and bad printing. 
• Providing press operators with reports detailing what their density AND dot gain should be in order to get the press to a G7 condition without having to understand the details of G7. 
• Press managers can see at a high level how their printing teams are doing without needing to be at the press consoles. 
• Facility managers can see at a higher level how their teams are doing relative to other facilitates. 
• Customer-facing resolution specialists can see if we printed within process capabilities.

What results did you achieve by using our product?

• $150,000 first-year savings due to eliminating dedicated press runs to keep presses in G7 compliance.
• Color matching has improved.
• Waste is greatly reduced.
• Travel expenses are down.
• Operators are easier to manage because we can see what they are doing, and remotely guide them when necessary and provide training for the ones that need help.

Would you recommend us to others and why?

Yes, Anyone still doing dedicated press runs is throwing money out the window. With ChromaChecker we can qualify that our presses are within G7 alignment on every job, and if the mechanics of the press change, we can instantly iterate a plate curve to bring the press back into alignment, all with no extra work, paper, or ink and far superior results. Spending our time collecting and mining data is not an efficient use of our employee's time and costs a lot of money. Now we have more time to evaluate press results and take action to ensure our printing meets customer expectations. Especially with Covid 19, this allows all financial stakeholders to see how our presses are effectively manufacturing print for our customers that meet their expectations. Using the G7 color bar iteration capabilities, are presses are always printing G7 and we know it and can prove it. No need to wait for a dedicated press run when we change plates, or substrates, it is all instantaneous and done at the plant level within hours, saving a lot of time and money and delivering a higher quality product.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

ChromaChecker has great support. Support is responsive and available to discuss your challenges to help you use ChromaChecker to overcome them.

Matt Louis