ColorBook

A swatch book printed on your digital press, with your ink configuration, and with the print mode and on the substrate actually used in print production, illustrates the range of colors the machine can produce better than anything else.

GMG ColorBook offers you just that: use it to easily create ColorBooks from your non-PANTONE spot color libraries. Each ColorBook uses the color definitions that have been made specifically for the target printing condition.

Show a true and reliable reference to your customers
Decide which press and which substrate are best suited for a job
Use the ColorBook for process control in the press room
Optimize the print quality in line with the capabilities of each machine

Chargeable license

The required license for generating a ColorBook is: GMG OpenColor ColorBook option

Generate the ColorBook

On the Resources tabbed page, select the GMG SmartProfiler document for which you want to print the ColorBook and click the ColorBook button on the toolbar.

The ColorBook options will be shown on a new tabbed page. When you click the Generate ColorBook PDF button, GMG SmartProfiler will create a ColorBook in PDF format from the colors defined in the Separation Rules from the GMG OpenColor project defined as Input Color Space.

Additional separation rules you might have added manually to the input project in GMG OpenColor will be ignored. If you want to generate a ColorBook from one of those separation rules, you will need to generate the ColorBook in GMG OpenColor.

GMG SmartProfiler drops the PDF right into the hotfolder. Except for the printer calibration, the color management defined in the hotfolder will be ignored. You can then simply put the ColorBook PDF in your printer's RIP and print it. Make sure that no further color management is applied in the RIP. The ColorBook has already undergone color management for the target printing condition as defined in the output project.

Available options

Custom ColorBook

A separate ColorBook PDF with all non-PANTONE spot colors will be generated. The ColorBook will include CMYK and all spot colors, including color variants, without "PANTONE" in the name used in the separation rules.

Use Grid Layout (Imposition)

If you have no access to imposition software, you can use this option to define the dimensions and spacing of the ColorBook according to the paper width of your press. You can set the page size and margins, as well as gutter for the swatches. This function is not intended to replace an imposition software, which you will need to print and cut a ColorBook in a real book format. It helps you to print the ColorBook pages on a large sheet of cardboard, for example.

Generate the ColorBook from GMG OpenColor

Search for the project created by GMG SmartProfiler in GMG OpenColor. This project defines the output color space, that is, how the input colors will be separated into the printer color space. Go to the separation tab and expand the Separation Rules group. Click the Edit button. Here the Generate ColorBook button is available.

Reprint a ColorBook

You can reprint an existing ColorBook at a later point in time. Print the ColorBook only using the same target printing condition you used when creating the characterization in the output project. Printing on another machine or another substrate will lead to wrong colors. Do not apply any color management.

If the ColorBook was generated in GMG ColorServer, the hotfolder applied the printer calibration. This means a ColorBook PDF is valid only as long as the printer is in a calibrated state. After recalibration, you will need to generate a new ColorBook PDF.

If the ColorBook was generated in GMG OpenColor: If you applied the printer calibration file by using a hotfolder in GMG ColorServer, the final ColorBook PDF is valid only as long as the printer is in a calibrated state. After recalibration, you will need to apply the new version of the printer calibration to the PDF by putting the original ColorBook PDF into the hotfolder again. You will then get exactly the same colors as when you printed the ColorBook for the first time.