Prepress
MATTHEWS BRAND SOLUTIONS TAKES THE WHITE TRACK WITH EPSON AND GMG
Thursday 04. March 2010 - The first UK installation of the Epson Stylus Pro WT7900 with GMG ColorProof and FlexoProof goes to the high-end packaging specialist
Matthews Brand Solutions (www.matthewsbrandsolutions.co.uk) the global family of world-class specialists in packaging design, artwork and reprographics, has installed the UK’s first Epson Stylus Pro WT7900 inkjet printer and is running it with GMG FlexoProof software to create accurate halftone proofs for flexo and packaging applications. The Leeds company handles brand management for a wide portfolio of blue chip clients and requires top quality colour management and proofing.
By providing a total packaging graphics solution, Matthews Brand Solutions concentrates on making sure that its clients’ products appearance on the shelf is consistent, regardless of where in the world the packaging was printed, or by what process. “We constantly strive to improve our colour management offer for our customers and our current system enables us to do this,” says Andy Wilson, Colour Manager at Matthews Brand Solutions. “We have carried out extensive trials and there is nothing on the market as powerful and easy to use as GMG. We love the automation possible within ColorProof.”
The company spent 12 months investigating inkjet that can print white and chose the Stylus Pro WT7900 because of the quality feel of the proofs. “We haven’t found anything else of the same quality,” says Wilson. “We were interested in UV, but the look and feel of the proofs weren’t acceptable in our opinion. The Epson fits in with our current strategy for proofing and colour management. It is perfect for flexible packaging, either foil or clear film, that requires patterned whites.”
Once the Stylus Pro WT7900 has been thoroughly tested, the company will probably purchase another in order to run different media at the same time. Also it is considering installing them at customer sites. “We are confident that it will deliver the speed and colour management we require,” says Wilson. “We are pleased that we can use GMG software to drive this new device. ColorProof has allowed us to do things that we have been trying to do for years and it also helps us to move towards the future.”
Matthews Brand Solutions handles artwork up until print-ready files, flexo plates or gravure cylinders. “We deliver the best quality colour-managed files to the printer in the most appropriate format,” says Wilson. “This is our biggest selling point. We also have our own ink lab where we formulate the inks to achieve the closest match across various substrates such as metallic, transparent, corrugated board etc. We then supply the ink recipes to the printer and advise on how to obtain the best result.”
There are plans to install a Stylus Pro WT7900 at a client’s site in central Europe to cut down the speed of transfer and also courier costs. This would open up avenues for remote proofing. “Our clients are much more amenable to installing a proofer of this size rather than ageing systems with large footprints,” says Wilson. “It takes up very little space, yet it can output larger proofs.”