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The exploratory study presented here has as its object of investigation the current color management practices in the Portuguese printing industry. Color management processes, when applied to the printing industry, provide tools aimed at ensuring the ability to reproduce a color in a consistent and predictable way (Sanches, 2016, p. 135). Technological tools exist and are available; however, knowing how they are implemented and used has been the great challenge of recent years (Gray, 2006, p. 19). Color management works as a standard procedure for the industry and is planned to provide a correct translation of a color value ​​between the different color spaces of the devices involved in the creation and production process. Homann (2009, p. 59) states that color management exists “... in order to ensure the correct reproduction of color throughout the workflow, from the first draft to the final product.” Accordingly, it is important to know which color management tools are used by the national printing industry and how they are used by the different actors in the workflow, namely designers and producers.

With this study it is intended, first, to establish the current panorama with regard to the use of color management tools when applied in the context of the Portuguese printing industry, and to seek to identify its best practices. With the data collected, it will also be possible to analyze, compare, and eventually improve the current contents and methodologies applied in the context of teaching color management in the curricula of higher education institutions where researchers are teachers, thus adjusting the skills profile of the students as they are entering the labor market.

An initial search for international studies that address the problems related to the use of these tools is being carried out, in order to allow us to confirm that it is not completely known how the printing industry adopts color management processes. Some sector technical reports are published from time to time, such as those that InfoTrends regularly carries out for the North American market, which, in the results released at the end of 2014 (US Production Software Investment Outlook 2014), show that color management tools are one of the main concerns for about 34% of respondents, when in 2013 this number was only 9%. The same source also reveals that, when asked about the intentions of investing in software, color management tools come first, followed by cross-media marketing tools and creative/layout software. The main reasons given for this high interest in purchasing color management solutions are related to the possibility of achieving a more consistent, repeatable and accurate color reproduction, as well as the perception of the growing demand for the production of highly demanding color reproduction works. Thus, it is possible to guarantee a reduction in the repetition of work due to failure to meet the customer’s expectations regarding color, as well as the possibility of repeating work in a more consistent manner. It will also be important to analyze some of the Rochester Institute of Technology’s monographs, namely the studies carried out by the Printing Industry Center, which may also contribute to a more global view of the way in which the communication of technical color data is carried out between designers and producers. Whether through the research “Design to Production: The Critical Interface” (Cost, 2002) or “Variation in Premedia Color and the Potential Automation of Imaging Tasks” (Riordan, 2005), it is possible to perceive the degree of use of color management tools by designers and producers, and to analyze some of the solutions aimed at solving the main problems identified.

In parallel, the main studies and investigations that address the issue of teaching matters related to color management are also being collected. Here too, information does not exist in large numbers, which leads us to question what content is usually taught to higher education students and which teaching methodologies are employed, and, above all, to understand whether these contents and methodologies are contributing to a real knowledge and application of these tools in the practice of this industry. Examples of this are the research “An investigation into color accuracy and color management issues in digitally printed textiles for higher education” (Kelly, 2014) and the master’s thesis “Color Fields: What Designers Need to Know About Color” (Witcher, 2016), where the most relevant questions about the teaching of color management are raised in detail. Here, too, it will be possible to see whether the conclusions may or may not point the way to the creation of stable solutions in teaching and practice.

In addition to the literature review, we intend to conduct interviews with specialists in the field of color management in order to comment on the relevance of the topic under study and its practical suitability. With the collection of experts’ contributions, efforts will be made to improve the quality and interest of the quantitative research to be carried out through questionnaire surveys among companies in the national sector of the printing industry.

With this exploratory study we intend to analyze the degree of use of color management tools by the national printing industry, and use this knowledge to analyze, in a more profound and systematic way, the contents taught in the two institutions represented here. We believe that this is a fundamental step in trying to ensure that any changes in the curricula of courses with a strong component of graphic production, specifically with regard to the contents related to color management, can meet the expectations and needs of the labor market. These subjects are taught in several curricular units (such as pre-press, digital artwork and digital printing) and it is vital to understand whether the skills acquired by students are fundamental for their integration in the printing industry and whether, at the same time, they can contribute to the clarification of the processes and the improvement of the procedures that use color management tools as a guarantee of quality and predictability in graphic production.

 

References

Cost, F. J. (2002). Design to Production : The Critical Interface. In A Research Monograph of the Printing Industry Center at RIT. Rochester.

Grey, T. (2006). Color Confidence: The Digital Photographer’s Guide to Color Management. (2nd Edition). Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing.

Homann, J.-P. (2009). NDigital Color Management Principles and Strategies for the Standardized Print Production Title. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.

InfoTrends. (2014). U.S. Production Software Investment Outlook 2014. Weymouth, MA.

Riordan, M. (2005). Variation in Premedia Color and the Potential Automation of Imaging Tasks. Rochester.

Sanches, M. (2016). Previsibilidade na reprodução da cor – Perfis de cor no fluxo de trabalho do designer gráfico. Universidade de Lisboa.

Witcher, D. (2016). Color Fields: What Designers Need to Know About Color. University of Texas.