Press sheets that can help printing companies, prepress service providers, photographers and creative studios visually evaluate whether their proofing systems are reasonable predictors of final printed products for commercial offset lithography are now available from the IPA, the Association of Graphic Solutions Providers.
The measured GRACoL Press Sheets represent a reasonable approximation of the IDEAlliance GRACoL TR 004 guidelines. The press sheets are designed for visual comparison to proofs that emulate the proposed GRACoL Grade #1 characterization, soon be published as a Technical Reports, ANSI/CGATS TR004 by NPES (www.npes.org).
The press sheets are described as “pre-release” versions, pending approval of the TR004 standard by the Committee for Graphic Arts Technologies Standards (CGATS).
“Because these press sheets are so close to TR 004 guidelines, we felt it would be supportive to the industry to make them available now,” explained David Hultin, director, Print Initiatives of IDEAlliance (International Digital Enterprise Alliance). “Since we will be reprinting the final press sheets upon CGATS approval of TR 004, we will credit the full purchase price of these pre-release sheets toward the purchase price of the approved sheets.”
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The cost per pre-release press sheet is $200 for the first sheet, $30 for each additional sheet. Members of the IPA and IDEAlliance pay $125 for the first sheet; $25 for each additional sheet.
The press sheets include two files from the Altona Test Suite as prepared for the proposed GRACol Grade #1 characterization. The Altona Test Suite is a set of PDF files designed to test digital output devices, such as those used in proofing. The Altona-Visual page can identify the correct processing of such elements as fonts, overprints, spot colors, RGB-CMYK conversion, and shading. In color-managed proofing systems, the press sheet can be used as a target for creating ICC profiles.
GRACoL stands for the General Requirements and Applications for Commercial Offset Lithography and is a registered trademark of the IDEAlliance, a not-for-profit membership organization that develops standards and identifies best practices for publishing and content-related processes. (IDEAlliance: www.idealliance.org; IPA: www.ipa.org/gracol)