POOR COLOUR MANAGEMENT IS THE PRIMARY REASON FOR REJECTED PRINT - MILLIONS OF METERS OF WASTED TIME AND RESOURCES
‘As we move deeper into the digitisation of the supply chain, and the use of 3D design and ecommerce, we must adopt best practice and adopt effective colour management…and in doing so reduce waste!’ - Debbie McKeegan CEO
Let’s concentrate on colour!
We all focus how much Fashion we throw away, but have you ever quantified the amount of waste that poor colour management creates in the Textile workflow?
Unfortunately most Print companies don’t measure waste effectively (we should), and collectively it would be a considerable meterage at a great cost! Rejected print runs have to be re-printed, that's double the time, labour and consumables, get my drift??...
Across the textile manufacturing landscape colour is critical…
…and yet whilst there is still no official standardisation for colour in the textile industry (…and NO Pantone isn’t a standard) colour is the primary reason for rejected print.
Colour management is Critical…
As manufacturers we have to work towards colour standardisation within the textile industry. In the interim, how do you control all the variants in your workflow and avert waste?
Unchecked Digitisation causes Drift..
Colour is light, in its simplest form, and wherever you view and measure colour, the light source must be consistent and specified. You have to begin with design, matching input to visual or printed output for accurate colour management.
How can you guarantee that the final output will match the designers expectations?
Calibration is the key to digital colour consistency, throughout the manufacturing process. All design and pre press screens must be calibrated, the textile print bases and printed output devices must be individually profiled.
All of which will ensure that the designer (and CAD system) only use colours that are within the technical gamut of the chosen print process, the inks utilised, and the fabric to be printed onto.
And finally the output device needs to be profiled, for each textile print base in the inventory.
ICC profiles characterise the colour space for a chosen device, using specialist software along with a spectrophotometer (to measure the light-emitted) and a printed target (textile), it’s entirely possible to calibrate the workflow from design to production.
Controlling Colour reduces Waste…
As lead times become shorter and shorter, colour confidence is essential. Many, many millions of pounds and hours are wasted every year due to poor colour management. But the benefits also exist pre-print. Sampling time is also greatly reduced.
