Ripon Printers, a leading printer of catalogs, direct mail, publications, manuals and soft-cover educational products, holds the G7™ Master certificate of qualification from the International Digital Enterprise Alliance (IDEAlliance®). The G7 principles are applied to many types of printing including commercial and publication printing, newsprint and flexography.
A key benefit of G7 is that it is device independent. The G7 neutral print density curve (NPDC), gray balance definitions and calibration methodology are the same for any imaging technology, regardless of substrate, colorants, screening technologies and other factors. The NPDC at the heart of the G7 grayscale definition was derived by analyzing the neutral tonality of typical ISO Standard commercial offset printing using computer-to-plate technology.
“We never expect our customers to compromise on quality. G7 enables us to provide high-quality, consistent color across any print platform through a streamlined process” says Andy Lyke, president of Ripon Printers. “Our participation first began in 2009.”
Typically today’s print-buys are either distributed geographically or distributed across different print types. So, for example, a marketer may want to purchase marketing collateral, packaging and signage with the same brand imagery. The substrate, gamut and other print characteristics will vary for the different print products. But if all the print products have the same gray balance and neutral tonality defined by G7, they will look remarkably alike to the human eye. Because buyers believe the similarity of the visual appearance across print products is critical, they increasingly make G7 a buying requirement.
Some additional customer benefits G7 provides include:
- Faster proofing cycle times with more accurate color from the start
- Reliable guidelines for controlling process color reproduction
- Greater color predictability and determination of what is possible on press
- Improved communications with the printer