IN-CONVERSATION

The psychology of color in marketing and branding is a much-discussed topic. Since color plays such an important role in advertising products and services, it is extremely important that color management is spot on. Color management is an important consideration with any printing or media project. The colors displayed can be crucial for the best possible project or campaign outcomes. If there is a lack of consistency or your colors do not appear the same shade in all of the printed materials as they do on your computer screen then this can be a big problem at times. Satish Nayak, CTO Bodhi Professional Solutions and an expert in the field of colour talks about why Colour Management Solutions are important in our print process.V

Digital Impressions: What is the importance of CMS in Graphic Arts?

Satish Nayak: CMS plays a very important role in managing colour in print, irrespective of technology used for reproduction. CMS ensures that we get consistent colour reproduction irrespective of machine’s age or brand.

The notion of my machine is new and prints good color is not true. Predictability the system helps us save a lot of wastage and uncomfortable situations with clients. CMS will go a long way to be efficient and effective business practices.


D.I.: Usual questions people ask – “Why is my print not matching my display?’’ Your take on this.

S.N. : Very simple. If you are working with standards - then this becomes easy and when all standards are followed in print and calibration process THE PRINT WILL MATCH THE MONITOR WITHOUT A DOUBT.

Also, important is to have a good Hardware calibrated monitor and EVEN MORE IMPORTANT is to have this setup done by a professional and understand the parameters of these setups and then VALIDATE this. Often these steps are just ignored.

D.I.: Digital Print and CMS, what has changed over the years?

S.N. : The reason is simple: a jobber market does not look at color and quality as they are working on volumes and only a few are looking at color and quality.

These few and offset printers who invest in digital, now look at Color and Quality as one of the main points. This Leads to the point how do we automate these as without this talking about Quality and Color is not be a reality and this is where they invest in CMS solutions for this level of predictability.

Now doing this in today’s date and time is easier and automated and this makes it simple and effective to implement these in customers workflow.

Many customers are doing custom profiles - so that all of them maintain color consistency across their laser digital and offset and inkjet digital.

Here I would like to mention many outdoor signage printers abroad, certify and run to standards and now this is slowly penetrating into the process in India too. Quality is a long term solution and not short term. So one needs to think clearly where one needs to be today and in next 5 years.


D.I.: How many printers/designers in India really understand CMS and how many put it in practice?

S.N. : Very few. We hope to change this, and printers in the next generation are changing this. Like I mentioned there are 2-3 distinct segments and when we talk about digital, this means all and here many of these growing to offer more than digital are now seriously looking at CMS (Color Management Solutions). Many international companies need digital signage and prints all based on color management policies that they know and understand. So slowly but surely you will shift from the low cost just a print service to a complete color managed services and this also brings into effect customer satisfaction, reducing wastage and bringing up productivity.

So when a customer looks at bringing up productivity and reducing wastage and KEY customer satisfaction instead of giving reasons, this makes a big difference in their customer preview. Instead of reasons technically one is able to prove their quality and process.

Putting in practice is a big issue in India and similar markets where the operator is not a print technologist or been trained and this training is now the key to operators educating the process and tolerance so productivity and quality will improve.

D.I.: Do you think there is an urgent need of spreading awareness and training?

S.N. : Earlier we did this and we ourselves felt that it was too early for our markets. Looks like the market is now working towards this BUT there is a catch to this. Yes, the problem in India is not to educate but to copy and this brings in unnecessary issues as investing in training and software is not taken seriously and even some big offset printers do not want to invest and most of the calculation in ROI takes a beating as one is only looking at cost competition and not quality and process consistency. Bringing awareness is a requirement but this NEED to learn and reinvent, needs to come from the printers and they have to look at training and software for long term benefits and work out a system which works for them in the long run.

Like I also mentioned key is also to look at a consultant who knows his subject and be able to practically do this instead of just theory and talk. Many sellers of software just would like to sell hardware and software and hardly understand the way forward and the best way is to look at how it is done by customers who already have successfully implemented and be reasonable. Many feel that this needs to be setup and done as demo which is not practical as process, quality and consistency is a journey and not the end point. So my view is to study about this online and understand the finer points and then plan this well. Software can be setup in multiple ways and a good consultant looks for what one has and what one needs to complete the task and time lines. This is also a key factor.

D.I.: Where does Bodhi Professional fit into this need? The role of the company and yourself as an expert in this field?

S.N. : We at Bodhi are working in educating customers who are buying our product solutions and our engineers are able to set these by practically hands on and guide and help these customers. As an expert I help guide my team and also educate the customers in issues they face taking this journey as this is a start point of high efficiency production practices.

D.I.: CMS for commercial digital printing and photo segment – what should one know in today’s date of hardware and facilities available?

S.N. : Today is the time of Google but one can reach so far only. I suggest you find the RIGHT technical person who can assist in this journey. Investing in machinery is not a big deal and many people have that capability today in the market BUT what sets the company apart is the ability to deliver quality, time and again, each time and be able to make this work predictable and error free.

D.I.: Your message to small printers who do not have the resources for expensive solutions yet they want to use colour management for their jobs?

S.N. : I am not sure if the solutions are expensive. This is relative as the printers have invested large sums and taking small steps in color management is not too expensive or difficult. This in our view and the need of the hour.

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