Prepress

Clicks Digital Solutions looks to GMG to ensure consistent colour-calibrated results across multiple printers

Wednesday 25. September 2013 - Large format printing specialist Clicks Digital Solutions has been able to increase both print consistency and overall business productivity significantly as a direct result of its recent investment in GMG ColorServer, SmartProfiler and EcoSave applications.

From its 10,000 sq.ft. location in Clerkenwell, central London, Clicks Digital Solutions has over 20 years’ experience as a specialist digital print services provider.
Working with a range of Blue Chip advertising and retail clients, its 40 employees operate a 24 hour shift roster producing exterior hoardings, retail POS, exhibition graphics and display materials. Equipment ranges from large format machines from Inca Digital, HP and Fujifilm, as well as HP Indigo digital presses for general commercial print work.
“With such a diversity of output equipment, our previous colour management workflow was fragmented,” says Dave Spaul, Clicks Digital Solutions’ Managing Director. “We were relying on each machine’s RIP to handle both output and colour management, and found we were wasting time tweaking output to ensure consistency across devices. We realised that we needed a single, centralised colour management system that could control and co-ordinate colour output across all of our printers, as well as something that was more robust in terms of ripping jobs.”
Dave was already familiar with GMG, and their colour management reputation. “I know several companies that use GMG solutions and are very happy with both the results as well as the positive impact that it has brought to their business.”
GMG ColorServer standardises and simplifies colour management to deliver accurate and consistent results across disparate output devices; while GMG SmartProfiler is an easy-to-use, intelligent “wizard” application that enables even inexperienced users to create extremely accurate device colour profiles.
“We have just completed the creation of profiles for all our devices, and the business benefits are already becoming apparent,” continues Dave. “Depending on the particular job – or how busy we are – we can allocate elements of the same job across any of our devices and have the utmost confidence that the colour will match. We can load-balance and speed-up production to meet tight deadlines without the potential danger of compromising on quality.”
As well as ColorServer and SmartProfiler, Clicks has deployed GMG’s EcoSave option that allows a reduction in ink usage of up to 20%, depending on the job and device, while maintaining consistent and accurate colour output.
“Previously I had suspicions about the benefits of colour management,” continues Dave, “but hearing the strong positive feedback from companies that have implemented GMG solutions, together with our own initial experiences with the system, clearly show that GMG ColorServer, together with SmartProfiler and EcoSave, will have a significant impact on our business.”
Toby Burnett, GMG UK MD, says: “In common with many of today’s print services providers, Clicks needed fast, accurate, worry-free output across its wide variety of devices. Removing output inconsistencies and streamlining their production workflow brings significant colour management and productivity gains.”