But Wait, There’s More!

No, it’s not a typo, hence the [sic]. It’s just a fortunate coincidence that the concept has a nice pair of homonyms to play around with.

Cleansing your color palate

In fine dining there’s a concept called the palate cleanser, which is typically a somewhat neutral food or drink designed to clear the taste of one distinctive food before sampling the next one. The theory is that your senses need something of a “restart” before moving on, otherwise distinctive tastes are missed, confused, or even amplified.

Today, I discovered a similar trick on the world of color “matching.” I had eleven custom spot colors to create on a printer, comparing each of them to swatches and previously printed artwork. It can take quite a few trips from the printer controller, to the stacker, to the light table, and back before everything is just right.

Some colors were easy, and I got them on the first or second shot, but most took a lot of fine tuning. What makes it worse is that once it’s close to perfect, you have a page full of beige (in one case) patches of color that look virtually the same. …but they’re not.

Several times, I’d spiraled in on my final choice. The perfect choice, only to come back to that color later and think it looked… off. So, I went through it all again, and again. After a big sigh, of course.

Here are some problems:

• The power of suggestion is strong. You want to be done, and under those stressful conditions, it might look closer than it is.
• When you do quite a few colors, your senses can get overwhelmed, and you stop seeing the nuances of each color.
• Other colors can distract you, so having eleven colors in your peripheral vision makes for a long day.

Palette Cleansers

• Buddy up. As we know, color is subjective, so make sure it’s “the same color” for each of you when you’re done.
• Take turns looking at the color first, then make your choices silently, then tell each other. Don’t suggest the one you think is closest to your partner, because then he might think so
• Take a break, at least from that color, then circle back on it later. You might think it takes longer, but it might take three passes to get it right vs five passes when you’re blinded by the same red for 10 minutes. After a few minutes, the reds that close all look like… red.
• Take a lunch. Make your color palate, go eat, and come back and look again, with fresh and cleansed eyes.
• Combine these tips for best results

This just happened today, so my tips come from just what happened to help, today. I reserve the right to add and subtract!

Do you have any good tips for me; I have 10+ more to do next week!

 Roland

If you’re local to OC, then don’t miss out on tomrrow’s event!

If you are a Xerox and Fiery user, you are invited to attend a great event, tomorrow, September 15th! You will get to meet and learn from real life EFI Fiery experts! Except no substitutes!

Please register by following this link, or for more info, check out last week’s post, here.

Many of you are local to Southern California, so you’re in luck!

If you are a Xerox and Fiery user, you are invited to attend a great event on September 15th, where you will get to meet and learn from real life EFI Fiery experts! Um, try not to make prolonged direct eye contact with them, okay?

Please register by following this link!

Download the pdf invite, here: September 15th Xerox & EFI Fiery Features and Functionality Workshop

Also, please shoot me an email (My address is roland.denzel@xerox.com) if you plan to attend so I can be sure to say “hi!”

I stumbled across these today, and thought I’d give you a quick “heads up!”

Second Ounce Free! – this is a bumped up limit to the USPS’s “Reply Rides Free” sale, where you get to include that reply card (and its weight) for free, assuming it meets the weight, of course. Apparently, it WAS a free .2oz, but that was pretty hard to deal with. So, they bumped it from a free .2 to a free extra ounce. So now, it’s 2oz for the price of 1oz. Pretty good deal!

From the USPS page on the sale:

Here’s how it works…

• The credit applies to First-Class Mail automation letters weighing more than 1 oz up to 2 oz effective September 1^st 2011¹. As of May 1, 2011, all of these mail pieces must have a basic or a full-service Intelligent Mail barcode.
• Letters must include a reply card or envelope, either Courtesy Reply Mail™ or Business Reply Mail^®. The reply piece may be in the format of a reusable envelope.Permit reply mail is not eligible for this program.
• At the time of mailing, customers will pay the applicable 2-oz price for these mailed pieces. The postage credit will be for the amount paid for the second ounce and will be provided for those pieces mailed during the 2011 calendar year when the mailer’s volume of commercial presorted automation letter-size First-Class Mail meets a pre-determined volume threshold. All First-Class Mail presorted and automation letter-size volume counts towards meeting volume threshold; however, only First-Class automation letters mailed under basic or full-service Intelligent Mail will be eligible for postage credit.

*The program will run from January 2, 2011 through December 31, 2011.

Note that it appears you have to get your application in to them by September 15th to participate. Hurry!

QR Codes — love ‘em or hate ‘em or just think they are gimmicky, if you use them the right way in your qualifying mailing, you can get a postal discount. Hurry, this one is ending on the 31st of August, 2011 (that’s only 11 days  left as of this writing).

2011 Mobile Barcode Promotion 2011 FAQ

Looks like there’s no application on this one…

5. Do I have to apply/register to participate in the Mobile Barcode Promotion?
A: The Mobile Barcode Promotion does not require an application or advance registration.

…so read up and get started!

Mobile Barcode Promotion

I found this simple little guide in a journal and took a picture of it with my phone camera.

simple submission guidelines

It’s a good example to show that you don’t have to be painfully thorough and detailed in order to supply some basic direction to your customers (or in this case, advertisers) in how they submit jobs to you.

• How do they get the files to you? The options.
• The desired state of the submitted files.
• Somewhere to go for more info. It can be a link, a url, an email address, or even a phone number. Someday it will be nice to have the perfect document behind that link, but don’t wait for that to happen and fail to supply a way for them to get more info (and the conversation started).

Don’t hold off on supplying guidelines until you have the perfect document. Put something together today, put it out there, and start the conversation. Educate them in making documents that print more consistently, according to their expectations, and you have a happier customer that uses you more often.

Having something published sets the stage for a better relationship between you and your client, with fewer misteps and a better understanding of how each of you works and likes to work together.

Should you profile your paper?

If color is particularly critical to you or your own customer, then yes.

If a paper is dramatically different from most of your other stocks, then yes.

If you have colored paper, then yes.

If you have paper with wide variety of white points, then yes.

Etc, etc, etc.

Remember, if you do choose to profile your paper(s), then you also have to remember to apply these profiles to the jobs using these stocks AND calibrate using the same paper that you’ve profiled AND apply the resulting calibration to the job, as well!

Critical color can be time consuming, but customers that require consistent and accurate output stay with printers who provide consistent and accurate output.

Whatever level of profiling and calibrating you choose to use, keep consistant, stay in the habit, keep your customers happy, and keep your customers!

Although most of you are far beyond using Microsoft Mail Merge to drive your print, I continue to get requests for tips and tricks on this handy tool (that almost everyone owns).

I wrote a post about my Direct Mail Starter Kit, but back then there was no way to upload a file for you to download. But it’s a new day, and here it is: Direct Mail Primer

Why use Microsoft Word, anyway?

• Free — if you own it, and who doesn’t?
• Easy — easy enough for an intern or high school age employee, as they’ve been using Word for years
• Customers bring you Word docs that are ready to go — why rework them?
• To tide you over — things like XMPie are far more powerful, but you do need to learn how to use them. In the meantime, print using Word and make some money!

I also learned just this last week that Microsoft Publisher ALSO has a mail merge capability. I’ve heard it uses many of the same core features of Word, but don’t hold me to that; I use Publisher here and there, but I haven’t even cracked it open to try a merge. Let me know if it’s working for you!

When you get a new printer, it’s highly unlikely that it, specifically, has been profiled. More likely, a good, representative profile was created in manufacturing, using a good baselined printer with good quality stocks in a few media categories. You have a decent profile that gives you a pretty good idea of what your printer can do for you.

On most, you may notice that the profiles reference stock/media types; typically things like “uncoated 90gsm,” “uncoated 210gsm,” “coated 140gsm,” “coated 280gsm,” etc. These generic profiles are good, but are not going to give you the absolute best idea of what your printer can really do for you (or for your customers). It’s a good start.

As to what profiling is, at it’s simplest, it’s a file that applications and/or your printer’s DFE (Digital Front End) or RIP (Raster Image Processor) use to produce accurate color. Simply, it tells the application and DFE just what your printer can really do. For a quick reference on profiling v calibrating, check this out.

“But I have a lot of different stocks, do I have to profile them all?”

Start with this guideline. Pick the stock(s) that you use the most and profile them. It might be just one, say a 140gsm pearl coat that you use for 50% of all printing. Profile it, and apply this as your default profile and keep it up to date.

Did you get a new customer with a particularly demanding application using 220gsm gloss coat? Profile that one and apply it to those jobs.

Add more  stocks as it becomes necessary, but you may also find that you can lump these stocks into categories. Jobs with 90gsm-210gsm pearls and silks might seem to work just fine with that first profile, while jobs with heavy weights and a good gloss look better with the latter profile. Someday you may find it necessary to add a third, specific stock or stock category. There’s always a trade off between accuracy and time and energy spent maintaining that accuracy.

“How often should I profile my printer and all those stocks?”

If you’re going to do it, do it. Don’t let these things go longer than about a month without reprofiling.  Paper manufacturers change paper recipes and white points, so regularly reprofiing can make the adjustment that your eye might not see at first. Also, when you have a major service on your printer, consider reprofiling. Things like new drums and fusers can subtley change how your printer prints. Profiling is the software side of that tune up.

Custom profiles, specific to your printer and your media, can bring greater accuracy, range, and depth to your printing. If you or your customers are looking for even greater looking and consistent print, consider profiling your printer and keeping those profiles up to date.

Over the years, digital printing has gone from gloss to less gloss, less gloss to matte, all the while a semblance of gloss remained on my company’s flagship iGen digital press line. Since our Docucolor 7002 & 8002 recently went matte and never looked back, I was keeping my fingers crossed that the iGen4 was next! Now, there’s a choice…

Here’s a youtube video from Infotrends on the new matte look for iGen4 EXP.

Youtube – Xerox Announces New Matte Look as an Option for the iGen4 EXP 

Recently, I was reading a blog post over at Paper Specs about how important it is to catch the eye of the direct mail recipient as they go through their mailbox. Down near the bottom of their article, there was a Hot•Note envelope with a built in sticky note. It’s a pretty cool piece, and I’m sure most people getting that in the mail will take the important 2nd look.

The sticky note reminded me of a mail piece that I once received that had a “hand written” sticky note inside (from a nice ficticous woman named Annie, by the way). Being the digital printing industry for many years, I’d seen that stuff before, but my wife had not! It was new to her, so I, of course, heard “who is this Annie?” when I got home.

I tried to explain the technology to her, and I think she bought it. Mostly. She was, however, finally convinced when she received a similar note from “Chuck,” just the next day.

Keep in mind that many of us in the industry see things so often that we might not be wowed or surprised by them, but if someone hasn’t seen it before or don’t get the technology, it can really work.