How G7+ Experts Give Commercial Printers a Competitive Edge

We caught up with Jordan Gorski, executive director of Idealliance, about G7+, which helps commercial printers optimize workflows, ensuring consistent, high-quality color across devices, substrates, and production locations. We found out what's new with G7+, how it can improve efficiency, and how it helps commercial printers gain a competitive advantage.

Printing Impressions: Why should commercial printers, in particular, have certified G7+ Experts on their staff? What are some of the biggest benefits?

Jordan Gorski: Commercial printers who have G7+ Experts on staff can drive optimized workflows that leverage these standards and specifications. With those efficiencies, printers can maintain their production schedules and maintain their own internal and external deadlines. We know that these printers also win more work and keep their customers who see optimal color job after job and know they can rely on these leading manufacturers for the best color possible.

Different from other approaches driven by dot gain/TVI, visual appearance is optimized with G7+. TVI driven calibration only optimizes each single curve, while G7-based print calibration covers not only those single ink channels, but also multi color overprints, and how they are effectively creating grays. Stabilizing process print combinations then allows print output to maintain remarkable visual consistency then from print run to print run, device to device, and location to location.

G7 also drives flexibility. Since all of our devices are outputting more consistently, you can move jobs around in production to different devices, and build in efficiencies that way if you run into other roadblocks in production such as sourcing, maintenance, or other bottlenecks.

PI: How do G7+ Experts improve print quality and consistency within print production across different devices and substrates?

Gorski: G7+ is designed to align print, regardless of how its printed, and what its printed on. So, regardless of print technology, — whether commercial applications with offset, digital to packaging and flexo, and signage and graphics like wide-format, DTG, and screen — these standards aim to produce near neutral print that leverages the gray balance and tonality which produces more consistent appearance from print. This allows printers to hit consistent color, regardless of what kind or how many presses they have in-house, and also for print buyers to expect consistent color from all of their print suppliers, no matter how its produced, or even where its produced.

PI: In what ways can G7+ Experts help commercial printers reduce waste and increase efficiency?

Gorski: These standards and specifications allow print production to get up to color quicker. This allows these printers to save on consumables, labor, rework, and also manage their inflow of work, across prepress, and production as well. At the same time, when color strays, G7+ Experts are trained to manage these workflows with the including process control that is built into G7 standards. This allows these production workflows, when managed properly, to get back on track quickly, making sure that color and output again is right the first time.

PI: Can G7+ Experts give commercial printers a competitive advantage in the marketplace?

Gorski: Absolutely. Having this expertise in-house allows these organizations to become leaders in the marketplace. The most demanding printers and brands around the world rely on G7 based production from their print supply chain. Being able to manage these workflows inhouse gives printers a leg up against their competition, while at the same time optimizing their own workflows and production.

For those interested in becoming G7+ certified, or for more information, click here.