In a move that has implications for the printing industry globally, packaging workflow software provider Esko and ink specialist SunChemical have partnered X-Rite/ Pantone in the development of PantoneLIVE – a cloud-based colour management service that encompasses the entire packaging supply chain and ensures “first-time-every-time colour integrity”.
Announced by X-Rite and its wholly owned subsidiary Pantone on Friday 1 March 2012, PantoneLIVE is the first service under the Pantone Digital Business Unit, a newly created division of X-Rite, led by Dr Sonia Megert.
“PantoneLIVE represents a transformational change in colour management for brand owners across their entire supply chain,” said Tom Vacchiano, president and CEO of X-Rite.
“PantoneLIVE is a dynamic ecosystem, open to all supply chain participants, which delivers consistent colour across the entire packaging workflow – from design concept to retail store shelves,” explained Dr Megert.
“Globally consistent colour standards are essential to brand identity. With supply chains made up of hundreds of different facilities scattered around the world, corporations struggle to control and maintain colour consistency,” she said.
Under the new PantoneLIVE system, the company says brand owners will be able to predict how corporate spot colours will reproduce on a wide variety of substrates, including brown corrugated, clear film and white polypropylene.
A brand’s “colour assets” are managed and maintained in a secure cloud-based data repository to ensure accurate colour communication, to any supplier around the world.
Brand colour data, equivalent to a digital colour swatch, is stored so that brand owners and other approved members of the supply chain can manage digital rights and facilitate colour communication across all materials in the production process – promoting consistency and helping to achieve speed to market efficiencies from initial design to final production.
“Market research consistently reveals that consumers use the colour and shape of a package to recognise and select the product they want when shopping,” says Geerte De Proost, director software engines for Belgium-based Esko, whose Color Engine software has been used in the project. “That is why brand owners are so concerned about an accurate representation of package colours.
“For the same reason, we decided to implement support for PantoneLIVE in our workflow. The brand manager will see an accurate representation of on-press colour early in the design process, while converters can be assured of first-time-right colour proofing and easy-to-match colour on press.
“This sets the right expectations from the beginning of the process and has the potential to significantly reduce time to market.”
Recognised as the PantoneLIVE technology partner serving the flexible packaging industry, Windmöller & Hölscher will extend the capability of its Easy Col on-press colour matching solution to incorporate access to the PantoneLIVE ‘ecosystem’, thereby allowing converters to reduce press set-up times and in turn assure the quality of important brand colours on press.
Companies already to have benefited from PantoneLIVE include pharmaceutical consumer packaging producer Chesapeake, which says it has reduced the number of different inks it stores at its Leicester, UK plant from as many as 3,000 to 537, “without reducing colour choices”.
And Heinz director of corporate and government affairs Nigel Dickie says: “The benefits of using PantoneLIVE are clear. The digital tools gave us unprecedented control and consistency from different print processes and materials.
“Across all of our packaging formats we saw a reduction in colour variance of 50% and saved time by establishing one colour target that can be applied to all our Heinz Beanz designs.
“The results with our Beanz packaging have been so remarkable that we plan to extend PantoneLIVE to additional product lines, including Heinz soups and Spaghetti Hoops.”
With availability scheduled from June 15, access to the PantoneLIVE database starts at US$99 (£63, €76) annually for a designer; $1,150 (£730, €885) annually for preproduction; and from $2,000 (£1,275, €1,540) to $2,650 (£1,690, €2,040) annually for production. A color audit for a brand owner starts at $4,500 (£2,870, €3,460).
X-Rite stresses that while Sun Chemical is the preferred ink partner for the system, users of any manufacturer’s ink will be able to take advantage of PantoneLIVE.
PantoneLIVE
