Prepress

Esko and GMG agree on technology partnership and release ArtPro+ GMG OpenColor Connector

Wednesday 21. September 2022 - The partnership brings together two market leaders: Esko-Graphics BV. (Esko) and GMG GmbH & Co. KG (GMG), who fulfil the wishes of many users with their automated, globally networkable colour management solution.

Thus, GMG OpenColor – the solution for profile creation and colour prediction – will be connected to Esko’s prepress editor ArtPro+. The new connector will be available from November 2022.
The ArtPro+ GMG OpenColor Connector is aimed specifically at label and packaging printers. Due to the optimised data handling between the two leading solutions on the market, users will not only benefit from significantly smoother but also more efficient colour conversion processes. The newly created connection avoids interruptions that would be critical during processing. In addition, relevant metadata is preserved. The result: both solutions can realise their full potential with the new connector.
Geert de Proost, Director of Product Management at Esko, is very pleased to announce the new technology partnership and explains: “Colour management is a complex process and of enormous importance – especially where there is no single valid quality standard. Therefore, I am very happy that we were able to realise this project in cooperation with GMG. Now we can offer our customers a stable data connection between the leading solutions.”
De Proost adds, “When it comes to meeting the tight colour specifications of major brand owners, manual post-processing of image and layout data is a tricky business. This is not only very time-consuming, but also error-prone. By automating reseparation with GMG OpenColor and smoothly connecting to Esko ArtPro+, prepress professionals can now accurately visualise colour in before-and-after mode, and colour deviations can be assessed directly on screen using precise Delta-E values.”
Rainer Schmitt, Head of Product Development at GMG, emphasises: “Esko and GMG have one and the same goal – we want to offer fully integrated digital workflow and colour management solutions. And for good reason: better integration of GMG technology with Esko solutions is the wish most often expressed by our mutual customers. With the combination of Esko ArtPro+ and GMG OpenColor, we meet exactly this demand.
This allows us to offer our users a seamless user experience – something that is of central importance to GMG. I am confident that GMG and Esko will discuss further opportunities for cooperation in the future. After all, both companies want to simplify customers’ processes quite a bit more.”
The new Connector offers numerous benefits to customers using ArtPro+ and GMG Open Color:
– Standardised and automated process for the correct colour representation and reseparation of multicolour image and vector data – manual work is eliminated, the risk of errors is reduced and up to 60 minutes of working time are saved per job
– Relevant metadata can be retained – for a seamless and highly efficient prepress workflow
– More flexibility, less time pressure and less use of resources through fast and accurate prepress workflows
“At Esko, we know that printers and their brand customers would prefer to have a 100 per cent colour guarantee,” adds Geert de Proost. “Because we have always had an open system, we will continue to invest in technology partnerships. In research and development, too, of course. We do this because we want to achieve the customers’ wishes in terms of colour consistency and quality. Especially working with partners like GMG shows how committed we are to bringing new innovations to the market.”