Mimaki adds value to the print production process with three new software solutions for advanced printer profiling. All are designed to help printers deliver accurate, repeatable colour across multiple devices and locations.
DTP: Coming of age
In the textile industry, digital production for textile and apparel manufacturers aims at achieving a faster time-to-market, reducing inventories and increasing flexibility to address rapidly evolving trends. Yet colour matching remains a significant issue due to the lack of a standardised colour chart that enables colour consistency from design through production. Mimaki is filling that gap with its software, Artista Textile Color Collection, making it faster and easier for textile and apparel manufacturers to achieve the desired colour without wasteful trial and error.
“This collection will be expanded over time,” says Mike Horsten, general manager marketing (Europe, Middle East, Asia) for Mimaki. “But in its initial form, it includes 520 colours for sublimation transfer printing, including eye-catching fluorescents, which are ideal for sports apparel and interior fabrics. The process is integrated into the workflow, beginning with design, and enables the production of consistent colour, even across multiple locations.”
Colour-accurate images
The initial collection is designed for use with the Mimaki TS300P-1800 textile printer with dye sublimation inks. The process starts with a designer specifying colours based on new swatches made available for Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW. An image file based on the selected colour palette is then printed on a Mimaki printer using either the RasterLink6 or TxLink3 RIP software for advanced printer profiling. In addition to colour-accurate images, the resulting standard includes detailed information about profiles and settings that can be used to reduce the time required for colour matching. This enables colours to be represented accurately across printers and locations.
MPM3 colour management software
Media affects colour appearance, making it difficult to match colour across different media types and using different printers. Mimaki is simplifying this process with the new Mimaki Profile Master 3 (MPM3) colour management software. It enables users to reproduce equivalent colours when printing on different types of media with the same printer or when printing with different printer models and inks. The flexibility of a production platform is vastly increased, even when it consists of printers from multiple vendors. It’s easy to use, requiring no special colour knowledge and speeds the integration of new printers into the mix, ensuring excellent colour matching across the entire platform. This makes it easier to split up larger jobs across multiple printers or produce projects that include pieces printed on a variety of printer. This not only reduces cycle time, but also increases quality and consistency. Print colour is consistently maintained over time by measuring colour with a colorimeter during the printer calibration process.
Pantone Color Collection
In addition to the Adobe Illustrator-compatible DIC colour collection and Mimaki’s original colour collections, including metallic, the new printer RIP software from Mimaki, RasterLink6, now includes the PANTONE Color Collection. Pantone colours, widely used around the globe for colour matching, are automatically detected in print files and converted to equivalents for faster colour matching on RasterLink6-driven printers. This saves time, reduces waste, and is easy to use with no professional expertise required.
Version 5.0 of this software also makes it possible to set a measured colour as a replacement colour, saving steps in the process. Frequently used colours can be stored in a customised colour collection for fast retrieval. In addition, it enables the creation of cut marks for Fotoba cutters. Marks can simply be placed on the RasterLink6 operation window without the need to use any other design software. “We are excited about these developments,” Horsten concludes. “As always, our objective is to bring market solutions that not only make production easier for our customers, but improve profitability as well. These three new software solutions do just that.”
