Color Standardization

No doubt we are living in a rapidly changing world. Each day, a new technology hit the screen to make our lives better. Before some centuries, printing press was considered just like a typewriter to print only some limited characters, but nowadays situation has been changed. Now they are used to print a wide range of documents including newspapers, books, advertisements, magazines, high quality pictures and much more. International Standard Organization has set standard colors to standardize the printing process all over the globe. Standardized color is the color that is output under the conditions stipulated in the international standard ISO 12647-2. Amongst other subjects, compliance is required for solid density and dot-gain. A printing company achieves correct results with standardized color when it follows the standard. The ISO one standard color specification includes:

1. SWOP (Specifications for Web Offset Publications) for USA

2. Euro standard Color for Europe

3. 3DAP for Australia. Later version now based on ISO 12647-2

4. Japan Color for Japan

International Standards:

·         ISO 3664 Graphic technology and Photography

·         ISO 12646 Graphic Technology- Display for color proofing- Characteristics and viewing conditions.

·         ISO12642-1 Input data for characterization of 4-color process printing - - Part 1: Initial data set

·         ISO 12647-2 Process control for the manufacture of half-tone color separation, proof and production prints – Part 2: Offset lithographic process

·         ISO15930-4 Prepress digital data exchange using PDF – Part 4:Completed exchange of CMYK and spot color printing data using PDF 1.4(PDF/X-1a)

·         ISO 15930-6 Prepress digital data exchange using PDF –Part 6: Complete exchange of printing data suitable for color-managed workflows using PDF 1.4 (PDF/X-3)

National Standards:

National standards are set by each participating country. Sometimes there are more than one standard in a country. Typically these standards are set for coated stock, uncoated stock, newspapers, magazines, web- fed printing and sheet-fed printing etc.