One year of digital colour cards: hubergroup Print Solutions takes stock
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About a year ago, ink manufacturer hubergroup Print Solutions launched the digital colour card for its offset portfolio, which is intended to enable customers to benefit from faster and more efficient production, among other things. Now the international colour specialist is taking stock: according to hubergroup, the reaction of customers to the digital solution was consistently positive and they were impressed by the high colour accuracy that is possible thanks to the integration in the company's own colour management system HDCC. As a result, the ink manufacturer has now already connected four hubergroup sites in Europe and North America to the production of digital colour cards and converted a large number of customers to the digital solution.
Heinz Aumüller, who is responsible for prepress and process standardisation at hubergroup, recounts in retrospect: "At the beginning we expected that we would have to convince our customers to test the digital colour cards - but the opposite has been the case: almost all the customers we have approached so far were immediately willing to test our digital colour card and switch to it after a short time. Some have even approached us proactively. The quality and colour accuracy of the digital colour cards combined with the more efficient and flexible production process are simply convincing in themselves."
The special feature of the hubergroup solution is the complete integration into the company's own colour management system HDCC. This means that the digital colour cards go through the same quality control processes as analogue colour cards and are also verified against their analogue reference. In addition, customers benefit from a faster and more efficient production process, which is particularly noticeable in the creation of multiple copies and multi-site productions.
One of the largest hubergroup customers in northern Germany that has already switched to digital colour cards is the H.O.Persiehl printing company, which specialises in printing high-quality packaging. Marco Erdmann and Soehnke Schildt, Manager Sheet Printing Department at H.O.Persiehl Norderstedt, explain: "With the digital colour cards we were convinced not only by the very high colour accuracy but also by the long durability without physical changes. In addition, the quick availability, even in larger quantities, and the fast response time are great advantages for us in everyday use."
To meet the demand for digital colour cards, hubergroup is setting up a global network of locations. Currently, digital colour cards are already being produced at four locations: Celle (Germany), Nottingham (UK), Arlington Heights (USA) and Mississauga (Canada).
Heinz Aumüller adds: "Our global network of production sites and their centralised access to our HDCC opens up completely new possibilities for flexibility and resource availability. Especially in global colour projects, we benefit from location independence and digital colour chart output at the destination. The next site integrations are already being planned so that our customers can benefit even more from our flexibility and efficiency."
