Multi colour conversion application impresses international panel of judges

London (England), September 1st, 2011 – MaxColor, the latest development in the MaxPro suite of Prepress applications, has been shortlisted in the Prepress innovation category for the Flexotech awards 2011.

The award ceremony, which to be held at the London Hilton on 17th October is one of the most prestigious international events and is sponsored by leading companies in the industry.

MaxColor is an option within the MaxPro suite of appications. It has been developed to help reduce the amount of inks/print stations used on press by changing/replacing existing colours. The overall benefits include increased image colour vibrancy, lower ink usage and better registration (due to reduced print stations).

MaxColor offers the following features:

1) Internal colour conversion via MaxColor Profile – MaxColor profiles are generated from industry standard colour libraries (e.g. Pantone) or custom spot colours, using the LAB values as reference. The resultant MaxColor profile is used to convert a) RGB/CMYK Tiff images or b) MaxPro files which can include text as well as images. In the case of MaxPro files, the user has the choice of whether to convert image only, text only or both.

2) Post conversion editing – Once the file has been converted, MaxColor provides tools for image enhancement via individual separation curves and individual or colour combination selective editing. A colour meter tool allows the user to monitor changes made and a comparison image feature provides a before/after view.

3) Monitor Calibration, Display profile and Display Dot Gain Curve – MaxColor provides an integral monitor calibration process which has been designed to more accurately reproduce both CMYK and Spot colour rendition when compared to standard ICC profiles. It enables different press/material/ink characteristics to be shown on-screen in the form of a Dot Gain Curve library which can be changed on-the-fly, without the need to re-calibrate. This feature also accepts Star Proof calibration chart readings allowing users to import Star Proof calibration curves with ink hue and dot gain information.

4) Color Library – MaxPro/MaxColor allows users to import multiple color libraries for use in color conversion and on-screen viewing. Custom Spot colors such as those created from ink draw-downs on different materials can also be imported to assist in accurate on-screen color rendition.

A Silver Metallic Pro option was also shortlisted in the Prepress innovtion category. Silver Metallic Pro is an option to MaxPro, developed to automatically produce either White Ink separations for printing UV Offset/Flexo or Gravure on Metallic foil, or for producing Silver ink separations. Once images are converted, a Metallic View feature enables the user to check the result while adjusting the light reflection intensity and angle to simulate the print ink and material combinations.