Color Printing Outreach:
RIT’s New Training Initiative

Education, Research, and Industry Training
Every industry needs an educated workforce to stay competitive in the marketplace. This is especially true for the printing industry because of the vast technological changes experienced in recent years. An educated workforce comes from college graduates as well as from skill updates of existing employees. As a vital ingredient in keeping the workforce current, curriculum and training materials must reflect technology and industry advances.

Rochester Institute of Technology has a long history of offering printing degrees and industry training programs. Faculty in the School of Print Media and professional staff in the Printing Applications Laboratory (PAL) work diligently to stay ahead of the curve so that degree program students and industry seminar participants who successfully complete their programs can help their employers get ahead.

In 2005, RIT completed a three-year project for ExxonMobil Corporation to develop an engineered approach to achieving repeatable and predictable color for the package printing industry. The strategy for achieving color faster, better, and cheaper is to rely on science instead of crafts. One of the key ingredients is the use of color measurement tools for press-side color control instead of visual based color adjustment that is subjective, dependent on viewing conditions, and difficult to document.

RIT showcased the repeatable and predictable color methodology at a daylong symposium in November 2006. A number of case studies described how RIT extended the methodology from press laboratories to commercial settings with success.

Based on the documented success of this research, RIT has developed three new industry education programs to enable the printing industry to optimize, standardize, and control their print production workflows. Ultimately, the industry as a whole can achieve a more agile process that better serves their client’s needs.

Program Overview
Each of the three seminars offered on the RIT campus are structured in sequence and are designed with different learning outcomes in mind.

• Color Printing Fundamentals, the Seminar for Beginners
  This basic-level seminar assumes no prior knowledge of color and color measurement. The program is designed to bring awareness to those who are new to the graphic arts industry or are in need of basic working knowledge and skills regarding color as applied to color specifications and assessment of printed color reproduction. More information on this program.

• Color Printing Process Control, the Seminar for Pressroom and Quality Assurance Personnel
  This intermediate-level seminar introduces an engineered approach to achieving consistent color printing in both conventional (i.e., offset, flexo, gravure) and digital printing environments. Participants should have a basic understanding of color perception and color measurement as applied to the graphic arts industry before taking this program. More information on this program.

• Predictable Color Proofing and Printing, the Seminar for Color Savvy Professionals
  This seminar focuses on various techniques in achieving color agreement between different workflows and printing devices— design-to-print, proof-to-press, and press-to-press. Designed as an advanced-level short course, participants should have working knowledge of color measurement and process control as applied to print production before enrolling. More information on this program.

Getting the New Training Initiative Ready
The following individuals worked together and completed the repeatable and predictable color project as a team:

• Bob Chung, on overall methodology and gravure repeatable color implementation
• Bill Pope, on flexo and offset repeatable color implementation
• Franz Sigg, on custom target design
• Fred Hsu, on color measurement tool and Excel template development.

The same group of people will serve as instructors in the new color printing programs.

The state-of-the-art color measurement and color management laboratory and the digital press lab will be used for these hands-on workshops. The lab is equipped with digital presses from Kodak and HP. Excel templates will be used to learn key concepts during the seminar. Participants will be able to adopt the seminar tools to enable printing processes to be more repeatable in their own work environment.

The Path Forward
Is color an important strategy to your company’s competitiveness? Is making color repeatable and predictable a very important task that is required in your job? If your answers are “yes” and “yes,” take the screening tests on the seminar web site— http://www.seminars.cias.rit.edu. The answers to these short quizzes will help you determine the right starting point. Program dates and further seminar details are listed on line as well.

For further information on: RIT’s new color printing outreach initiative and the seminar courses offered, offering the series as a custom program for your organization, or consulting on color issues, please contact Ken Posman, Printing Applications Laboratory Training Manager, at (585) 475-7429 or email at krptpd@rit.edu.

http://www.seminars.cias.rit.edu

Research publications of the Center are available at:
http://print.rit.edu/research/